Does Anybody Else Have Clear Body Experiences? [Archive] - Page 3

shaberon

22nd November 2020, 09:43

I get the feeling that these specific progressions are only there as a best version of how to get from one place to another, which, as is said, once there one sees that there was no method.

Last night, I was taught about emotions, something I did not know about them, that they can be ignored -- that doesn't seem like much but it is a huge revelation when one cannot get out of a specific emotional state. But once ignored, there doesn't seem to be a place where the emotion had come from.

Yes, that is about right, if one is in the state of Vajradhara, there is no Path to get there. The "progressions", I think, are like energy levels and qualities--there are a considerable amount of Sadhanamala Manjushris and Avalokiteshvaras that seem redundant to each other, they are pretty close to the same thing, both deities have a Simhanada form for example.

And so yes, it may be superfluous to attempt to define Vairocani to someone who "bypassed her stage" already, but there are far more who will have trouble with the concept, let alone the practice or realization.

Some of the other things may open us up a little bit, and largely we also want to have something to pass along to others. We have a type of structure, which, compared to say the 140 categories in Dharma Samgraha--well, I am not really here to dissertate on all 140. There are redundancies and so forth. The actual practices are bent towards certain groupings that are found here, and in that case, those particular categories are helpful/useful.

We also found in Hindusim, the refutation of a school which taught Nirguna Brahman *only*. I would say it is real, but, only half of the fact it should be conjoined to Sadguna. From my experience, the Nirguna is...completely real, in the sense of without image, without ego, without any evident changes. So for me, it stems from the awareness that I was able to sever emotions, or ego, or the entire personality from a fairly early age. It is similar to the martial arts tenet that I am as good as dead/am already dead/have nothing to lose. I have never flinched from giving any training partner the full "I kill you now without blinking" glare. With none of that having been taught as a tantric deity, it was all still psychologically transformative. Some people are very afraid of that.

The most vivid emotions were called "baseless" and "without root".

And so it may seem a little peculiar to turn around and say there are Moods and so forth.

There are Pure ones. All the ones we know are from the activities of Skandhas. And in Yogacara, we are trying to stop projecting false imagination onto the other-dependent pattern. That does not mean we cannot project the Tri-kaya or the Three Vajras onto it. If something is Ksara, we can use it. If that has an emotional content, it is Pure.

When projecting something that depends on nothing into the other-dependent, what happens? The other-dependent can no longer function, and the Twelve Chains or Niddanas go away.

I understand how it works, but, that does not make me very good at it, and it does not improve my karma. And sometimes I really need something like White Vajra Tara which has the ability to rapidly annihilate my current state of being and cash it in for something else. It will take me a long time to really "seal" her mantra, at which point it can be ported into another Tara. If someone were to ask, well, what is White Tara, I would say this, which is similar to Mrtyuvacana and Amaravajra. Most of the other White Taras are considered Longevity deities of Lotus Family--again, except for the ones that actually have the names, Sita and Sukla.

With Red Ganapati, it says you can meditate him, and he mostly is Subjugation or Vasikaran. So the White is for something else. What was it?

There indeed appears to be a transition or progression. Tibetan Deities 339 is "the Servant Kundhali" or Khol-po Kundha-li.

You draw a White Elephant and self-generate as a Wrathful. Then you generate White Ganapati which means Atisha Ganapati 335. In front of him is the White Yaksha Kundhali who holds a Hook and leads an Elephant by the trunk. Each evening he can encircle the three-thousand-fold world system, i. e. Chiliocosm. His mantra calls him a Pisaci, you offer him torma, and he offers gems and grain to Ganapati, and then he does the encircling. You Mutter him. He is called "one who propitiates the deities as sacrificer" and he "procures for one a living without difficulty". This is Kadam, and any kind of transmission is good for it.

Now if we look at this, the interpretation of Kundali as "circle" making Amritakundalin "Circle of Nectar" is quite clear. The intended circle is the entire massive thing of interpenetrating world-systems. This would correspond to being the male Method or Upaya of the Sun in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. I guess this is how you "trample Ganesh".

I just happened to notice the name because it is split from Ganapati by an Atisha Naga King and the Three Pisaci Sisters.

The main Wrathful self-generation that seems to be there is Vajrapani. The Red Ganapati calls for...I think it says Sambara or Vajrapani,,,and the Naga is just by Vajrapani.

Authority-averting, Atisha, and Red Ganapatis:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/1/40112.jpg

Naga King Apalala, Pisacis, and Servant Kundhali:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/1/40113.jpg

I am not sure if anyone needs Vasikaran, I do, and so I am stuck with this Red thing willingly or otherwise. The Servant, on the other hand, seems to put together everything I was asking. I can't use it, I can't do that, it is just a segue' of Jewel Family Sun and Vajramrita Tantra using a clandestine Ganesh. It happens to have an extremely powerful meaning, if one was to take this in terms of Atma Vidya or personal experience, it might take a long time to get there.

Manjushri is Tathagata Family, which is an Ignorance to Realization axis, and yet he personally is the Voice.

Avalokiteshvara is part of Universe Lotus and is Karuna and Concentration on Unstruck Sound and Ganapati; and their co-equal Bodhisattva is Vajrapani, who, I am not sure is ever given the common and shared traits of the other two. He is a freak! I think he has a White Heruka probably in the Citta Chakra only. Almost everything about him is Wrathful since the wrathful deities are the brain's reflex to the citta. The more falsely-imaginary they are, then, they become terrifying out of control, and one's future rebirth goes off in some disastrous way. We would want the stable or Ksara kind that Vajrapani is talking about. Then they repose into flames of primordial wisdom. Extremely Wrathful Vajrapani Chanda Maha Roshana Tantra is usually considered the most explicitly sexual writing in the corpus. He is also able to consort with Mamaki, and, I believe, Locana, which should be illegitimate, since they outrank Bodhisattvas. Probably has a Yakshi, and others. Completely related to Kama Loka.

Anyway there we have the one instance of an Ancus or Elephant Goad being used as an...Elephant Goad and...that cannot be too far off from Indra Tattva, the Yaksha in the first Cemetery, and the other Elephant things such as the Ears and Trunk and so forth. I am pretty satisfied by seeing this. It makes the Amritakundalin--Vajrakundalin settle into place. It makes sense to me at least and is probably the only available explanation which in its own terms expresses the related subjects and nothing else. There is nothing else in it besides the brief description.

Atisha's White form is Radish Ganapati with a Mongoose. Red has for its abode the summit of Mt. Meru. The first or one with a consort is stated by the editors to be drawn incorrectly because the text does not say she is a monkey, it says she has a monkey's face; she is white with a reddish tint. Her attendants are monkeys. This Ganesh has a Radish and Liquor and also Cat and Monkey Faces. The Red one has a Radish, and, I think, it is the word for Sweets. He has a Heart Wheel with Gam and eight self-emanations.

The Red and White are suggested to use the same praise verse, except where they are perfectly-colored, one is like a snowy mountain, the other, coral.

As to whether that makes the consort a female Hanuman, well, that would only make more sense, if Hanuman is defined as the properly-composed pranic body, and there is not a Hanuman or Vayu practice but there is Ganesh and the Marutgana.

The purpose of the Dharani is that Ganapati Hridaya seems more to be Vinayaki as at Ladakh.

He can have Monkey and Elephant consorts and Matangi and Siddhi.

Our Vasudhara is Vasumati Mahalakshmi and then Ila with corn and so on. It "is" Lakshmi except it is Buddhist Lakshmi which may have as much to do with the public Lakshmi as this Ganapati does to the Temple Ganesh. It does have to do with a famous song, in the same way that Namasangiti is ordinary and public, but my best guess is most benefit from the purifying atmosphere and may not pursue doctrine or practice in the Yoga sense that much.

shaberon

22nd November 2020, 19:43

With Merkaba's Mask comment, yes, that is what I thought when I saw the movie. The greenish-ness was an astral color and its power opens the Kama Loka in its fifth plane. "Anything you can think of, happens"--which is what it did.

I am not that perceptive or powerful and I move in very slow phases where something like an Elephant deity is like a cartoon episode of a sledgehammer to the head, which makes a dent nine feet deep and a circle of tweety birds.

Ganesh (https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=6531&sid=f7a5728c8c8fcdc943ef8030db1f84e4&start=100) is not a Yidam, he is a Lokapala bound by Avalokiteshvara.

If he is "worked up" by the Circle of Nectar or Amritakundalin, then I think we could say deities of Vajramrita Tantra are Yidams. I suppose that is the significance of the name change, or why I keep calling them clandestine Ganesh. It is a bit like when we call the Vajra Family, Hatred. That is their skandha or worldly sin, whereas they, themselves, are really the transmutation of it. Or, the transcendent deities are, and it would be found to have worldly beings as well; and similarly, since there is a thing as Raga Ganapati, then he is quite close to calling the Lotus Family, Lust, or Attachment. Pandara is full of it.

Red Ganapati is said to be from Go Lotsawa, the author of the Blue Annals of Tibetan history, and who is still being published, for example Mahamudra Interpretation of RGV (https://www.amazon.com/Direct-Path-Buddha-Within-Ratnagotravibhaga/dp/0861715284). Oddly, the recorded lineage (https://mandalas.life/2020/depicting-ganapati-thangka/) is Vajradhara, Varahi, Saraha, Nagarjuna, Sabari, up through Mal Lotsawa. The Vajravarman (https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=31493) mentioned previously in Go's lineage is in Tibet, Siddha Dorje Tsoncha or Pandita Dorje Tsoncha or Dorje Kocha.

Ganapati is part of Mipham's Wind Horse (https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/daily-lungta-recitation); the actual mantra of the Lungta itself is:

oṃ sarva graha nākṣatra dhyami karaṇi svāhā

Dhyamiikarana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/dhyamikarana) is "making dark/eclipsing" as also found near the end of Sadhanamala.

And as soon as you look, practices are really replete with worldly beings, so this is not unusual at all. Mipham's fuller Wind Horse Invocation uses a style with "optional" verses, so for instance since I have no connection to King Gesar whatsoever, I take it out, since I have no equivalent; and elsewhere, it is possible to make personal substitutions.

The Red Ganapati image appears correct, because, although he is mounted on a blue rat, his feet are on a treasure vase. This is slightly unusual, and, in his mantra, he is Ratna Ganapati. There is nothing in his sadhana other than a visualization and mantra recitation.

He is in Wind Horse which is somewhat "flexible", he is a bit flexible, so are the Hindu Ganesh and Matangi especially as Ucchistas. And so I think he is a bit like a "trigger" to get Matangi started. That is how it seems to me. Handled properly, Ganapati--Marutgana is the Method which operates a power or experience which, itself, can transcend the worldly class, and bolster Janguli, or, other Hrih Deities and Lotus Family as a whole. Although they are ministers of the power of mantra overall, there is nothing that says that is the final destination, and so we see a parallel opportunity to run it through Vajra Family Janguli, or Vajramrita, just based in Ganapati. Or, he just becomes Amritakundali and remains only the beginning of most sadhanas.

The sadhana from Go Lotsawa is as follows:

You should start something with a wrathful deity, and then use Purity mantra and return to Emptiness.

From Bhrum, there is a Palace and an Eight-spoked Wheel seat, at its hub the syllable Gam. From the syllable arises Red Ganapati with Radish, Axe, Sweets (or a single one), and Rosary. At his heart is Gam. On the eight spokes are replicas of himself (which perhaps means the spokes of the seat, since this does not actually say he has a heart wheel).

The Palace abides at the peak of Mt. Meru. But it says nothing about the mandala objects or anything like that. So this perhaps can be started from scratch. It is definitely other things such as Dhanada Krama that deal with building mandala components.

Recite:

Om Ratna Ratna Ratno Ratno Ganapati Gaga-Gaga Gaga-Gaga Ganapati Curu Curu Manu Patra Ruru Ruru Gagataya Ganapatiye Svaha

Praise is:

King of gods, subduing asuras, ruling over all hindering demons, perfectly red, the color of coral, Ganesha splendidly shining, I praise you.

Make the strong request: Act as a Yajamana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/yajamana) and achieve good conditions for me.

That's all it says. If I take it esoterically, it would say I want a cohesive Marutgana to sacrifice my skandhas, in a way that is a fire offering to Agni. That is why it is like Vasikaran on myself, in the same move as affecting the world. I had a hard time understanding why asking for things like Longevity or Enchantment were not selfish, which is because it is supposed to be for the purposes of Bodhi, which currently is the case.

Even though it is "for others" and one sacrifices "self", there is still supposed to be love within one's "organism". It is supposed to be there so we have something to share, and so part of Ganapati's role is in making the sharing happen, by removing obstacles and emplacing the spontaneity of a Poet, being clever enough to come up with something that makes the purpose work. He is able to deal with Insults to achieve this, which is extremely unusual for anyone to say.

Old Student

23rd November 2020, 05:38

The most vivid emotions were called "baseless" and "without root".

And so it may seem a little peculiar to turn around and say there are Moods and so forth.

There are Pure ones. All the ones we know are from the activities of Skandhas. And in Yogacara, we are trying to stop projecting false imagination onto the other-dependent pattern. That does not mean we cannot project the Tri-kaya or the Three Vajras onto it. If something is Ksara, we can use it. If that has an emotional content, it is Pure.

When projecting something that depends on nothing into the other-dependent, what happens? The other-dependent can no longer function, and the Twelve Chains or Niddanas go away.

Where I am right now in reading the Avatamsaka Sutra is the chapter on the ten abodes. Not "the" chapter on the ten abodes or grounds, the one which is separately copied as a sutra, that one is chapter 26, this is earlier. But same subject different take.

Anyway, it says at one point that the entire enterprise of bringing sentient beings to the Dharma is moving them from turning the wheel of samsara to turning the wheel of dharma. Just that. Going from wheel turning in one way to wheel turning in another way.

This was (the other night) a most vivid emotion, it was hatred. I would have thought it would need to be expunged, but instead it just needed to be "ignored" in the same sense that one ignores one's self when, say, dissolving.

Now if we look at this, the interpretation of Kundali as "circle" making Amritakundalin "Circle of Nectar" is quite clear. The intended circle is the entire massive thing of interpenetrating world-systems. This would correspond to being the male Method or Upaya of the Sun in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. I guess this is how you "trample Ganesh".

Doesn't Kundalin mean "coil" as opposed to Mandala which is "circle"?

Our Vasudhara is Vasumati Mahalakshmi and then Ila with corn and so on. It "is" Lakshmi except it is Buddhist Lakshmi which may have as much to do with the public Lakshmi as this Ganapati does to the Temple Ganesh. It does have to do with a famous song, in the same way that Namasangiti is ordinary and public, but my best guess is most benefit from the purifying atmosphere and may not pursue doctrine or practice in the Yoga sense that much.

This sounds very much like Davidson finding that all the monks had memorized Majushri's Namasangiti but none had ever studied it. I would guess this happens a lot, especially for those who are monks to pursue future employment as minor priests.

Old Student

23rd November 2020, 05:52

With Merkaba's Mask comment, yes, that is what I thought when I saw the movie. The greenish-ness was an astral color and its power opens the Kama Loka in its fifth plane. "Anything you can think of, happens"--which is what it did.
During the night and the mask is on the pillow in the morning. It takes him so long to realize the things are really happening, hard to change minds about what reality is.

Ganapati is part of Mipham's Wind Horse; the actual mantra of the Lungta itself is:

oṃ sarva graha nākṣatra dhyami karaṇi svāhā

Dhyamiikarana is "making dark/eclipsing" as also found near the end of Sadhanamala.

Doesn't this mean darkening all the planets in the cosmos?

That's all it says. If I take it esoterically, it would say I want a cohesive Marutgana to sacrifice my skandhas, in a way that is a fire offering to Agni. That is why it is like Vasikaran on myself, in the same move as affecting the world. I had a hard time understanding why asking for things like Longevity or Enchantment were not selfish, which is because it is supposed to be for the purposes of Bodhi, which currently is the case.

Even though it is "for others" and one sacrifices "self", there is still supposed to be love within one's "organism". It is supposed to be there so we have something to share, and so part of Ganapati's role is in making the sharing happen, by removing obstacles and emplacing the spontaneity of a Poet, being clever enough to come up with something that makes the purpose work. He is able to deal with Insults to achieve this, which is extremely unusual for anyone to say.

I flitted into a hospital room last night. I said, "I honor your life," and was gone. The person was dying.

shaberon

23rd November 2020, 19:25

Doesn't Kundalin mean "coil" as opposed to Mandala which is "circle"?

Usually so. It also means "having earrings", since the earrings are usually circular. Round or circle is usually Varttula.

Servant Kundhali sadhana of course does not provide the original language, but, upon seeing his task is to Encircle the Chiliocosm, then, the relatively rare or minor meaning of kundali as "circle" makes sense, or, explains to me satisfactorily why Amritakundalin means "Circle of Nectar".

kuṇḍalī (कुंडली).—f (S) pop. kuṇḍaḷī f A figure divided into square, triangular, or circular spaces, drawn to exhibit the position of the sun, planets, and constellations. The twelve graha of kuṇḍalī are tanu, dhana, sahaja, suhṛta, suta, ripu, jāyā, mṛtyu, dharma, karma, āya, vyaya. 2 Semicircular or other lines drawn to include parentheses &c., brackets. 3 m S A snake; a circle or ring; a coil; and numerous things of like form.

Kuṇḍalin (कुण्डलिन्).—(-nī f.)

1) Decorated with ear-rings.

2) Circular, spiral.

3) Winding, coiling (as a serpent). -m.

As Speech, Ganapati is said to arise in the base of the spine, so the association with traditional Kundalini is evident. Nothing about the Servant refers to this---he is like the Big Circle. It sounds inverted, right? The servant of a non-wisdom deity arises to gain his abilities and go on to penetrate the Dharma.

Yes, I thought it was odd that Wind Horse says it darkens/eclipses planets, but, in the normal concept of Grahas, they are always evil influences to be averted. However, it is still like "one wheel, changing the way it works".

After all, the first Buddhist wheel of Dharma said you have to be born male and become a monk to get Buddha's wisdom.

The counter-point to this and to "literary evolution" is that "there was no one to understand it". Even if Kalachakra Mandala could be seen in 500 B. C., it took over a millenium for it to be worth writing down and teaching. And so now, there just aren't any worries about...offending my Hindu traditions, being illiterate and fairly dumb, being too quick for easy answers and so forth. In Buddhism, we generally hold that the Close Disciples were given more advanced teachings that were only orally transmitted, which slowly migrated to public consciousness or the Nalanda system.

I spend a good deal of time in Sanskrit immersion because it gets me to that place described as "the mind before language" and having an observation of the formation of letters into ideas.

I am trying not to impose my "foreigner's" views into it, I am trying to dig it really hard in order for it to give me what it says.

As HPB told the Theosophists, you should "stick to the original". And for me it was the Lightning Deity that was a funeral for my attempts at stitching Buddhism into Hinduism into Taoism into Aasatru into Enoch into Egypt and so forth, and the whole prospect of "making my own craft", it suddenly seemed like a horrible idea, and the fact that original Theosophy looped me back into Kagyu Buddhism as being the only thing overall I practiced in a community enough to take a minor vow and be serious about it, was what I was left with.

One of the major points, frequently refuted, is the application of System of Seven in Buddhism, and I personally think it is much more useful than other presentations. If I have to get technical, it will directly call up Dakarnava Tantra, the biggest thing in the Chakrasamvara style of literature. I believe if you have this little gem, it works a lot better than calling Kalachakra the most sublime form or giving public initiations to it. The public can't do that. You can however take a tiny piece of crystal such as ice and touch it to the right medium and grow an instant array of crystals. I can take seven elements and say, well, it takes the whole Dakarnava to really explain it, but the lowest hem of this garment is what we would call Kama Loka. It is like a Celestial version of what was taught to the individual on earth. It would directly draw from all of the other things we are covering, is a progression of Chakrasamvara, whereas Kalachakra is not. The inner meaning is pretty much the same, but the Chakrasamvara will ground me for example in what a Vach mandala is, which gets expanded in a related way in Dakarnava.

Kalachakra is epic for the commentary.

Dakarnava is more or less the ultimate yogini tantra, although its title means an ocean of male dakas, the entire retinue is written with dakini first and her consort is just a male copy of her name. Vajramrita is considered one of the first and most important yogini tantras. It is, of course, possible, that his consort is named Vajramrita, but in our version, no name is given.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana refers to Vajramrita in the male sense of Daka as if he were the same male in Vajramrita Tantra.

NSP says the mandala splits the sun into the couple Vajrakundali and Vajramrita. And we can find a section where Vajrakundali's form is given as a red wrathful deity related to or even holding a whole Mena (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/mena) mandala. Before an obvious form of the next Krodha, Vajraprabha, was given, there was the nebulous statement:

vajrāmṛtā
vajrakuṇḍalikrodhavad eva|

This is the only possible reference to the solar shakti, no form is given, and it appears she is using a combined form like when we name a philosophy or school:

Vijnana Vada

It looks like a combined form of Vad (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vad), like in Bhagavad, which means to speak of, to cause to sound, or to play a musical instrument.

And so although it is almost negligible in terms of text, it is like saying she is the School of the Secret Sun. That is what I get from it. What is even more telling is that this seems to be from the section explaining Sarvadurgati Parishodana Mandala. For whatever reason, I can often get a faster comprehension by going backwards. And so if I look at the "destination" or purpose or output of this mandala, we get something about Four Hums and a Sevenfold Vairocana related to Ghanta:

caturhuṃkāram udāharan vajravairocanasaptapradakṣiṇaṃ ca śaṃkhavajraghaṇṭāṃ
vādayan kurvāt|

The mandala itself seems to be composed of Mothers of Rudra and Varuna natures, who are something like the worldly powers of Vairocana:

mātṛṇāṃ rudrādīnāṃ ca varuṇaparyantānāṃ yad dakṣiṇakareṣu vajram uktaṃ tat
trisūcikaṃ jñeyam iti| sarvalaukikaīokottarāś ca devatā vairocanasaṃmukhaīekhyā
iti|

Considering that the Sun Deities were dropped in the middle of what looks to be the retinue assembly, see who the final member is:

durgā
śyāmavarṇā siṃhārūḍhā dakṣiṇabhujābhyāṃ vajracakradharā vāmābhyāṃ paṭṭiśāśaṃkhadharā|

and if we keep going backwards, we go through several described as vajradhara, or, holding a vajra:

sarasvatī
vīṇāhastā vāmena dakṣiṇena vajradharā|

She used the "hasta" phrase like Ganapati, and, this would be significant in Matangi symbolism whereby if she holds the lute in one hand, it is because she is drunk. The next ones are:

śrī
gauravarṇā dakṣiṇena vajradharā vāmena padmadharā|

bhīmā [Ekajati]
śyāmavarṇā dakṣiṇena vajradhāriṇī vāmena khaḍgapheṭakadhāriṇi|

vajramakarā
ceṭī makarārūḍhā sitavarṇā| aṣṭaphaṇā|
dakṣiṇena vajradharā vāmena vajrāṃkitamakaradharā|

a Serpent Noose appears:

nāgavajraceṭako
makarārūḍho'ṣṭaphaṇaḥ sitavarṇo dakṣiṇena vajradharo vāmena nāgapāśadharaḥ|

vajravināyakaceṭaka
undurārūḍhaḥ sitavarṇo gajamukho

vajrakalī
ceṭī vetālavāhanā [corpse vehicle]

The description of Vajravarahi on a human vehicle by her first Conversion Name:

vajramukhī
ceṭī puruṣavāhanā nīlā varāhamukhī

there is a section of others, and then:

vijayavajro
gaṇapatir maṇḍukārūḍhaḥ sitavarṇo dakṣiṇakareṇa vajradharo vāmena khaḍgadharaḥ|

vajraśauṇḍo
gaṇapatir gajavāhano dakṣiṇakareṇa vajraṃ dhārayed vāmena lāṃgalaṃ dhārayed
avasthitaḥ| sitavarṇaḥ|

vajraviṇayā
vajraśauṇḍavad ayan tu viśeṣo yad uta vāmakareṇa khaṭvāṃgadhāriṇīti|

vajramālo
gaṇapatiḥ śyāmavarṇaḥ kaukilarathārūḍho [Cuckoo Chariot] dakṣiṇakareṇa

vajradharo
vāmena kusumamāīādharaḥ|

vajrāsanā
vajramālāvad ayan tu viśeṣo yad uta vāmakareṇa śaktidhāriṇīti|

vajravaśī
śukarathārūḍho [Boar Chariot] gauravarṇo dakṣiṇakareṇa vajradharo vāmena makaradhvajadhārī|

vajravaśā
vajravaśīvad ayan tu tasyā viśeṣo yad uta raktavarṇeti|

Before this was the section with Vajramrita. What appears to be the beginning of this liturgy is:

oṃ
paśupati nīlakaṇṭha umāpriya svāhā|

athāsya
mudrā bhavati| dakṣiṇahastena vāmasmuṣṭiṃ kṛtvā kanīyasīm aṃguṣṭheṇākramya śeṣāṃgulavajralakṣaṇāḥ
kṛtvānāmikāṃ

tarjanīṃ
ca vajrākareṇa kañcin nāmayet| iyaṃ paśupater mudrā|

viṣnur
garuḍārūḍhaḥkṛṣṇ avarṇaś caturbhujaḥ| dakṣiṇabhujābhyāṃ

gadāvajradharaḥ|
vāmābhyāṃ śaṃkhacakradharaḥ|

vajrahemā
kanakavarṇā āsanabhujāyudhaviṣṇuvat|

vajraghaṇṭāmayūrārūḍho
raktavarṇaḥ ṣaḍmukho dakṣiṇabhujābhyāṃ

śaktivajradharaḥ|
vāmābhyāṃ kukkuṭaghaṇṭāvajradharaś ca|

vajrakaumārī
vajraghantāvad eva jñeyā|

Similarly, Kumari appears to be the "Vada" of Vajraghanta, who is a Six Face Red Goddess on a Peacock and the Shakti of Vajradhara. This is right after...about the most direct invocation of Shiva and Visnu one could ask for. The whole section begins with Shiva and ends with Durga. This perhaps makes the appearance of "Mena" what it seems to be.

The activity of Ghanta or Bell is Avesa, which looks to be in the section referring to Ganapati, who also seems to be re-doubled as Vinayaka.

I am not sure if this is what the translator said. Haven't checked. I am pretty sure he used a Tibetan version and in any case it was sketchy in the sense that he translated most of the mantras, except for ones that were basically seed syllables like with the Nagas. Bhattacharya's mandala roster in the NSP is from India. I would not be surprised if Pasupati as used here is local to Nepal, although we did find Pukkasi distributed multiple times in NSP.

The NSP is a bit like Vajravali, it means Nispanna Yoga Vali, which means Completion Stage Yoga, and simply catalogs twenty-six mandalas, including Kalachakra. Vajravali is a bit more elegant in displaying relationships between deities and in explaining that it all pertains to Agni Homa.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana almost seems like a Shiva text until we catch hold of Durga and go back to her ancient Suktam which expresses Vairocani as used in the Samvarodaya Tantra. This Durga is noteworthy because it is probably the only dark green Lion Durga in the world. Comparatively, there is Durgottarini Tara, and Green Lion Lakshmi. We have nothing that directly deals with Durga, unless taken as a few specific forms like Vairocani or Katyayani.

When taken as Shiva and his wife, the parallel is Amoghasiddhi and Tara.

In Buddhism, I cannot get a Durga or Lakshmi or anything that is not Tara. It is because she is Noumenal. There could be any number of so-called inherent goddesses of birth in any number of worlds, but, Tara has to be invoked, has to be asked for. When she comes, then all those previously-independent goddesses belong to her.

I was perhaps a bit rash with Lakshmi Ganesh, his two wives are usually called Rddhi and Siddhi, both of which are close to identical and refer to a group of eight powers. I probably should not have called the second one, Siddhidhatri, which is the ninth Durga, which is not a consort of Ganesh. Obviously she belongs to Shiva, but, in the way that she is really the female half of Ardhanarishvar.

It is Rddhi that is related to Buddhi and Matangi.

If you are getting an awareness of what is going on during flitting, this is pretty amazing, I do not think I have ever done anything like this. The experience I have is in or through the physical body at all times, which, at a power peak, causes a change to the nature of Light whereby I see it in a non-physical way, the whole environment or world can be discarded or changed. It totally depends on Mind and Voice as described in the teachings. Very integrated.

Old Student

24th November 2020, 05:27

kuṇḍalī (कुंडली).—f (S) pop. kuṇḍaḷī f A figure divided into square, triangular, or circular spaces, drawn to exhibit the position of the sun, planets, and constellations. The twelve graha of kuṇḍalī are tanu, dhana, sahaja, suhṛta, suta, ripu, jāyā, mṛtyu, dharma, karma, āya, vyaya. 2 Semicircular or other lines drawn to include parentheses &c., brackets. 3 m S A snake; a circle or ring; a coil; and numerous things of like form.

Kuṇḍalin (कुण्डलिन्).—(-nī f.)

1) Decorated with ear-rings.

2) Circular, spiral.

3) Winding, coiling (as a serpent). -m.

Yes, I was aware of the meaning of "earrings" and that it came from the shape. IIRC it is specifically the round earrings that pull on the earlobes that are considered among the 32 signs. The reason for mentioning it was something I had seen with respect to the "yogurt" or thick cream in one of my shakings, that struck me as being something that could be called a "coil" of nectar.

The counter-point to this and to "literary evolution" is that "there was no one to understand it". Even if Kalachakra Mandala could be seen in 500 B. C., it took over a millenium for it to be worth writing down and teaching. And so now, there just aren't any worries about...offending my Hindu traditions, being illiterate and fairly dumb, being too quick for easy answers and so forth. In Buddhism, we generally hold that the Close Disciples were given more advanced teachings that were only orally transmitted, which slowly migrated to public consciousness or the Nalanda system.

The Kalachakra and the Vimalaprabha have a transmission path to Nalanda that appears to go from Khotan-Mahabahar-Purushpur to Srivijaya and then back up to Nalanda, and there are some twists and turns in that as well, there are temples to Kala in the Srivijayan orbit, and there is the very strange set of reforms that happened after the fall of Khotan and the destruction of Purushpur and Somnath. Empires sent envoys to get new monks and texts. In Tibet, they sent to Kashmir first and then for Atisha, and in Pagan, Anawratha sent for monks and texts to Sri Lanka. The twist is that while Pagan turned Theraveradan propagating that throughout Southeast Asia, they burned the old (Vajrayana) books and got rid of the Ari Buddhist priests. But they kept four texts and refused to destroy them, and Kalachakra was first among the four.

Dakarnava is more or less the ultimate yogini tantra, although its title means an ocean of male dakas, the entire retinue is written with dakini first and her consort is just a male copy of her name. Vajramrita is considered one of the first and most important yogini tantras. It is, of course, possible, that his consort is named Vajramrita, but in our version, no name is given.

I tried a cursory search for this tantra and got very little. Does it have a translation?

In Buddhism, I cannot get a Durga or Lakshmi or anything that is not Tara. It is because she is Noumenal. There could be any number of so-called inherent goddesses of birth in any number of worlds, but, Tara has to be invoked, has to be asked for. When she comes, then all those previously-independent goddesses belong to her.

I have noticed this. I had thought it was a regional thing, but maybe not, as Tara seemed to almost start in the same places where Durga is most prominent. I am told nobody calls her Durga, except in intellectual discussions as a reference name, she's always Devi Maa. Anybody could be Devi Maa and that's what I had meant, that it seems like devotees of a particular goddess, if they are shakti, are really always worshiping Devi Maa.

If you are getting an awareness of what is going on during flitting, this is pretty amazing, I do not think I have ever done anything like this. The experience I have is in or through the physical body at all times, which, at a power peak, causes a change to the nature of Light whereby I see it in a non-physical way, the whole environment or world can be discarded or changed. It totally depends on Mind and Voice as described in the teachings. Very integrated.

I agree, but I'm not sure what kind of awareness, or why I knew the person was dying, or why what I did was what the person needed.

shaberon

24th November 2020, 09:30

To my knowledge, there is only a Sanskrit Dakarnava, and the bits on Wisdom Library. That site is excellent because most of its definitions related to Buddhism draw from Vajradaka Tantra, Vajramrita Tantra, and Dakarnava Tantra. At most I have patched in reconstructional posts by opening all the links to put together all the information about a chapter and stuff like that. They just aren't assembled as complete texts like Prajnaparamita Sutra, but, after the work, you can get the basic idea such as the magnitude of the chakras the Big Heruka in Dakarnava is made of.

Since the Dakarnava has a commentarial line which advocates Seven Kayas, then, any Buddhist would know this means there must be seven Skandhas, and Seven Buddhas and Prajnas and Families.

HPB blatantly said it was this way by adding Vajrasattva and Vajradhara, which is the way I have always understood Guru Yoga. So it has never been the slightest lump for me, personally, but to actually validate it within a Buddhist scriptural basis is difficult.

Shurungama or Sarvadurgati adds Kumari and Naga Families in one edition; and it is possible to take Namasangiti Manjushri as Seven, and a seventh family is also described as permissible by the eminent Bu-ston.

It is most tantricly focused by Seven Syllable deity and especially in its explanatory Vajradaka form with the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment.

Then, if we see how Wisdom Library is coming together, it is like placing Vajradaka as the explanatory tantra to the overall Chakrasamvara pantheon, and the preparation for Dakarnava.

What the heck is it, well, Bodhisattva Nagaraja. He has the seven serpents and the dharmodaya of Completion Stage. Almost literally like a dividing line. That is how he is in IWS or Rinjung Lhantab as well.

Before doing that, I have had a Ganapati placed in my life as a physical idol and a living definition at the same time. I have probably been thinking about it for three weeks, and so all that meaning now needs to get compressed into a bit of practice.

I probably will not go the the extent of the Red Ganapati sadhana yet, or, the Para Yoga. I would focus on the Bija Ga or Gam, perhaps the formulaic Om Ah [Name or syllable] Hum Svaha, and then likely this suggestion from the Homa:

Om Sri Mahaganapati Pranasaktyai Namah

We want to see him in large part as commander of the Marutgana, and I have no confusion in understanding Prana, so this seems straightforward. Also it would smoothly attach to Ganapati Hridaya Dharani.

We already have one mantra for Ucchista Ganapati which cleans up to:

Om Hrim Gam Hasti Pisaci Likhe Svaha

I am not sure how "likhe" is meant, it conveys the sense of letters or writing. But this appears to be the correct term from any source.

And it is possible we want to "grow" the syllables, if we look at how his Japa goes, Ganesh has a Four Arm Red Ucchista (https://mahakal.co.in/ucchishta-ganpati.php) form with the following mantras:

1. Om hasthi pishachi Likhe swaha

2. Om gam hasthi pishachi Likhe swaha

3. Om namo bhagavate ekadhamstraya hasthimukhaya lambodharaya ucchista mahathmane aam krom hreem gam ghe ghe swaha

" Om namo hastimukhaya lambodaraya uchhisth mahatmane krang kring hiring ve ve uchhisthaya thha thha "

Because I am already familiar with Hrim, I would really just be adding the Gam, so I would do the Pisaci mantra with both of those; it is just the idea of progression is evident above.

Another Ucchista (https://mantrashlokas-madhuri.blogspot.com/2011/06/ganapathy-mantra.html) mantra is:

OM NAMO BHAGWATE KDANSHTRAAYA SAPTATRINSHADA-KSHARAATMAKAM

It also has one for Lakshmi Ganesh, as simply Om Shrim Gam Saumyay. And so there, we would say yes, Shrim is a further composition of Hrim. I have not done it so obviously I would employ more Vasudharas to get it going before I approached that particular Ganapati.

Here are some with a bit of commentary (http://club.astroved.com/tag/ganesha/):

~ GUM GUM GUM – invokes the 1st Avatar of Ganesha, Vakratunda

~ OM GUM GANAPATIYE NAMAHA – invokes Ganesha as a Leader of the Ganas

~ To remove very stubborn obstacles, Dr. Pillai recommends chanting:

OM GHE GHE GHE, KROM KROM KROM, UCCHISTA GANAPATAYE, HASTI PISACHI LIKHE SWAHA

~ Also, Dr. Pillai has mentioned that Ganesha wishes to be worshiped in his primordial Human- faced form for the Golden Age. The Mantra for this form:

OM GUM ADHI GANESHAYA NAMAHA

~ Dr. Pillai advises to visualize Ganesha ascending into your Thalamus to remove Negative Karma stored in your brain.

This is one of Bhairavi’s favorite mantras for Ganesha: Avatar of Ganesha, Vakratunda

VAKRATUNDA MAHAKAYE Oh Lord of Curved Trunk & Large Body
SURYA KOTE SAMA-PRABHA with the Brilliance of 10 Million Suns,
NIRVIGNUM KURUME DEVA Make my works free of all Obstacles
SARVA KARESHU, SARVADA Always

Dr. Pillai described Ganesha as the Luminous Still Breath, bright as a million suns. He resides at the Muladhara, as well as in the Thalamus, which is the relay station and director for all incoming and outgoing sensory outputs.

So the "Leader of Ganas" and Ucchista would be most relevant from there.

The invocative order I see would be Leader of Ganas, Pranashakti, Hasti Pisaci.

Gam

Om Gam Ganapatiye Namaha

Om Sri Mahaganapatiye Pranashaktyai Svaha

Om Hrim Gam Hasti Pisaci Likhe Svaha [or alternate Ucchista mantra]

With this in mind, the Ganapati Hrdaya Dharani is a compound of several Ganapatis. Very rarely is accepted as also being a Vinayaki goddess who dances empty-handed with Abhaya and Varada mudras. So this is suitable for any Tuesday, or the Fourth of any lunar month. It obviously is bolstering the presence of Ganapati in order to thrill her.

The thing is written in dharani slang but does appear to be titled to a female:

|| 84 || om namo bhagavatyai āryyagavaṇāti hṛdayāyai ||

Although it is not directly "to" Sumukhi, the suggestion of her name is right there:

sumukhaścai vadantaśya kapirogaja karṇukaṁ likhādaṁsalaścaṇikato ghna rājovināyakaḥ || dhamake karṇaṇādhikṣā bhāracandro gajānana śrī vakratuṇḍaḥ kla varṇṇā helambaskaṁndapūrvvakaṁ || ṣoḍaśitā nimomāniḥ yaḥ pacchūnayādapi vidyārant vivohaca praveśanigame tathā | saṁgrāme sakkaṭe cai vighnatasyana vidyate ||

It butchers the regular Sutra beginning:

evammayā śrū tameka sminsamaye bhagavāna rājagṛhe viharatisma || gṛddhakuṭe parvvate mahatābhikṣū saṁgha namādharphamamardha trayodaśayi śatauḥ || saṁvalalaiśva bodhitvairma hāsattvaiḥ || tenakhalū pūnaḥ samayena bhagavānāyuṣmānanda māmanuyatesma || yaḥ kaściddānanda imānigaṇapati hṛdayā nāmadhāraṇi dhārayiṣyāṁ tivāca yiṣyanti paryyavāsyānti || tasyaca sarvve kāryyā nisiddhā nibhaviṣyati || tadyathañā ||

The Dharani to recite:

om namostute mahāgaṇapataye || om gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ || om gagaṇapataye svāhā || om gaṇādhipataye svāhā || om gaṇeśaya svāhā || om gaṇapati pūjitāya svāhā || om kaṭa 2 maṭa 2 dara 2 vidara 2 hana 2 gandha 2 dhāva 2 jambha 2 stambha 2 moha 2 dehi 2 dāpaya 2 dhanādi siddhiṁma prayacchaḥ | om namo stutemahārudravacanāya svāhā || om amṛtavindū bhikṣū cittam hāsamāgachati mahā bhayaparākramaḥ mahāha smidakṣiṇīyava bhodadāpaye svāhā || om namo mune mahāgaṇapataye || om gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ || : || om gaṁgaṇapataye svāhā || om gaṇādhipataye svahā || om gaṇeśvarāya svāhā || om gaṇapati pūjināya svāhā || om āmodāya svāhā || om pramodāyetvāya svāhā || om he lambāya svāhā || om ṛdidāya svāhā || om siddhīdāya svāhā || om piṅgarākṣāya svāhā || om dhrumokṣāya svāhā om ekadantāya svāhā || om kuru 2 svāhā || om suru 2 svāhā || om turuṭasvāhā || om muū 2 svāhā || om na monamaḥ svāhā || om namostute mahāgaṇapataye svāhā ||

One might contend there is not a Rddhi Ganesh and a Siddhi Ganesh, and it is perhaps a bit strange that we see the invocations such as "Rdidaya", which is using "-daya" or source like in Dharmodaya, Reality Source. And so that is like invoking Rddhi Source which then sounds like it means the shakti.

shaberon

25th November 2020, 00:34

Here again I find this process is "self-correcting", Noumenally. It is much like sets of switches in the subtle body, if you are being shown a type of concentration or vibration to clean/accumulate power to the switch in order to pass, it is the same thing.

It is very Bardic, like composing a songbook.

By using the Ganapati Hridaya, it is self-informative as to how it wants to go. For example, it said to move the Pisaci mantra to the inside. Keep the "Root" and the Prana at the beginning, then the Dharani, then the Pisaci.

I try to use some of the Western terms that sound to me related to what we call Wheels of Time, which are the crosses in astrology such as the Fixed Cross.

Mutable Cross is more like an outer wheel of time with "changing" directions, i. e. you can move to face north which is different from east, and so on, everything appears to change externally.

Fixed Cross is inner, since, in mandala terms, your personal East is the direction you are facing. You can't change it. You cannot move or change your location. You can only be in one place, which is at the center of the universe, because infinity extends equally in all directions. I may appear to travel by foot or by car, but, those are like illusory forces which push and pull the entire cosmos around my fixed location.

And so to describe any type of Pancha Jina mandala, the center or principal deity faces the eastern one, the direction of dawn, which is like his starting point, something he has already accomplished, and then the journey goes around the circle to the final destination in the North. Then there is a Bell Sound which seals the Wisdom gathered from the journey into a new condition of the central figure's aura.

The Eastern direction is very Elephantine. In the advanced tantras, Vairocana gets pushed into the East, which is usually the direction of Indra as its worldly power.

If the Elephant is related to Ganesh, the main journey of his forms is actually towards what is called Embrace in the tantras, in other words at first he is trying to attract a shakti and then he touches her, which is Sparsha or Contact.

It is just one big one, it is just Para Shakti, and this is what I sense as a whole or in total, but this is not the same as being aware of or holding all her full powers on her own plane. It is more like a physical feeling of One Life which is able to unveil its works slowly. A small one of these can transform what appears to me, world, or set of phenomena.

And so, at least for me, it chooses to exhibit the Red mode, although it appears correct that there is Blue Demon Subduing Bhutadamara Vinayaka--Vinayaki, as well as a white aspect, which goes to Circle of Nectar. That is Buddhism. It allows us to contemplate his other forms such as Lambodara, Dhumravarna, and Lakshmi, which are all indicated by the Dharani. Even if I never quite get to that many Ganapati personal forms, I can see the parallels, in other words the Smoky Buddhist deities are going to handle similar things as his smoky form, although in far greater depth and detail.

And so if we actually just proceed from the Homa, at first, you are going to establish Ganapati as the head of Marutganas and Gandharvas, to make them stronger and remove obstacles, and the mantras are joined with soft breathing:

Gam

Om Gam Ganapatiye Namaha

[then there could be Nyasa, Soham Hamsa, and other mantra prior to the next, the important part to visualize Ganapati of the heart entering idol, fire, etc.]

Om Sri Mahaganapatiye Pranashaktyai Namaha

Those do say to end in Namaha which is less formal, because Svaha is supposed to be along with a fire offering. So if we just got him there, the dharani is like piles of mental fire sacrifices. It really has two choruses of Mahaganapati and four pairs of Gah. In the first go round he is Rudra Vacana and Amrtia Bindu, and in the second he calls up Rddhi and Siddhi in some way. The Dharani mainly would latch onto Mahaganapati as just described from the Homa:

om namostute mahāgaṇapataye || om gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gah||

om gagaṇapataye svāhā || om gaṇādhipataye svāhā || om gaṇeśaya svāhā || om gaṇapati pūjitāya svāhā || om kaṭa 2 maṭa 2 dara 2 vidara 2 hana 2 gandha 2 dhāva 2 jambha 2 stambha 2 moha 2 dehi 2 dāpaya 2 dhanādi siddhiṁma prayacchaḥ | om namo stutemahārudravacanāya svāhā || om amṛtavindū bhikṣū cittam hāsamāgachati mahā bhayaparākramaḥ mahāha smidakṣiṇīyava bhodadāpaye svāhā ||

om namo mune mahāgaṇapataye || om gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ gaḥ ||

om gaṁgaṇapataye svāhā || om gaṇādhipataye svahā || om gaṇeśvarāya svāhā || om gaṇapati pūjināya svāhā || om āmodāya svāhā || om pramodāyetvāya svāhā || om he lambāya svāhā || om ṛdidāya svāhā || om siddhīdāya svāhā || om piṅgarākṣāya svāhā || om dhrumokṣāya svāhā om ekadantāya svāhā || om kuru 2 svāhā || om suru 2 svāhā || om turuṭasvāhā || om muū 2 svāhā || om na monamaḥ svāhā ||

om namostute mahāgaṇapataye svāhā ||

And the whole thing can be repeated, usually an odd number of times, three, seven, nine, or something like that.

If I was trying to argue as hard as possible the Dharani "is" a goddess, her powers would not be like others in countering poison or removing disease, they would be in summoning Ganapati. And since this is what is being done anyway, then, one could develop any of his forms, but for Red, there are Ucchista mantras:

Om Hrim Gam Hasti Pisaci Likhe Svaha

OM GHE GHE GHE, KROM KROM KROM, UCCHISTA GANAPATAYE, HASTI PISACHI LIKHE SWAHA

The Dharani would easily "tune" to the goddess, by using its own title or first invocation, or anything towards Vinayaki or Sumukhi.

If you are me, you have a tendency to be so enamored by Devi that you forget you are supposed to be or do something, i. e. the male force or Upaya, and so to "lean" it towards Ganapati mostly means you need to enforce Method and Skill into your mind and behavior.

The thing becomes Buddhist when I start with Refuge Vow and Vajrasattva, and Dedicate the Merit at the end. As such it is a light 20-30 minutes and less complex than Guru Yoga.

It seems to me that the preliminary mantras and the dharani would work with any Murti or any aspect of Ganapati, and that it is probably important to accumulate this before attempting a wrathful retinue.

The Elephant is not his original head, and, he also has a form in human appearance. It is a tremendous power that one learns to handle as if it were nothing, as if an angry elephant really could ride on a mouse.

Ganapati is Primordial Sound which can be heard, but he is also that sound which has concentrated in the thalmus or seonsory bundle or Vairocana or Indra or Rupa Skandha which emits extraordinary light. Ganapati there clears karma from the brain, which is close to the basic definition of a wrathful deity.

Rddhi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc225893.html) as discussed in Prajnaparamita Sutra is an abstruse subject with three levels: outer or bodily levitation, then Nirmana or the Sun, Moon, and Akanistha which is Rupa Loka and Kama Loka, and finally the Arya or Abhijna of the saints, which is Manojava or the divine eye or Buddha eye, visual consciousness or Caksur Vijnana specifically, into unlimited universes, starting from the summit of Form or Akanistha.

Abhijna is transcendent knowledge evolved from Vidya:

ṛddhividhi-jñāna or ṛddhiviṣaya-jñāna, the knowledge of magical processes.

divyaśrotra-jñāna, divine hearing.

cetaḥparyāya-jñāna, also called paracitta-jñāna, the knowledge of another’s mind.

pūrvanivāsānusmṛti-jñāna, the memory of one’s former abodes (or existences).

cyutupapāda-jñāna, the knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings, also called divyacakṣus, the divine eye.

āsravakṣaya-jñāna, the knowledge of the destruction of the impurities.

Abhijñā (superknowledges) and Vidyā (knowledges) differences are defined in Chapter IV:—1) The abhijñā knows the previous past existences, the vidyā knows the past actions that are the cause. 2) The abhijñā knows that such and such a being will die here and be reborn there, the vidyā recognizes in these deaths and rebirths the unfailing result of the actions (carita) that are its cause (hetupratyaya). 3) The abhijñā knows that such and such a being has destroyed the fetters (saṃyojana), but does not know if he will be reborn again or will never be reborn again; the vidyā knows that once the impurities (āsravakṣaya) have been destroyed, one is no longer reborn.

Old Student

25th November 2020, 06:13

Old Student

25th November 2020, 06:24

shaberon

25th November 2020, 09:12

It is just one big one, it is just Para Shakti, and this is what I sense as a whole or in total, but this is not the same as being aware of or holding all her full powers on her own plane. It is more like a physical feeling of One Life which is able to unveil its works slowly. A small one of these can transform what appears to me, world, or set of phenomena.

A One Life sense of whole or total, as in feeling that everything is whole? I can see why this would be a Shakti feeling.

Well, I guess I mean something like as a body or organism, I sense one overall Shakti "of me", which by extension is part of the same One Life everywhere, but I do not personally perceive that part. It does not personally contain the details or moods of more specific shaktis, it impels them into activity when their opportunity comes, like flying different flags in the same windstream.

But this really relates to the Nirmana sphere, only, and so she may not be exactly the same in the Akanistha or in the Formless planes.

Within the Nirmana, a specific shakti such as Parasol or Vajradakini of the head can change everything quickly from mundane chaos into her particular domain. That is by the power of mantra. That is what the Nirmana field is for.

Yes, Vidya would begin as any kind of mundane knowledge, up to the Vidyadhara or Mahavidya level. Abhi has more of a sense of "taking possession and mastery of", such as in initiation or Abhiseka. It would be redundant to call this "ceremonial sprinkling" since Seka is already the act of sprinkling, the Abhi is for powerful purposes. And so Abhi Jna is a jnana or type of experientially-acquired knowledge at a high plane, like the initiation is supposed to mark you at a higher stage.

I am not sure how any kind of "likh-" fits the mantra, even taken as "drawn a picture of" or something to that effect, and although it seems standard in a relatively well-known mantra, I haven't seen that part explained.

From a post (https://hi-in.facebook.com/TheMantraPower/posts/ucchista-ganeshathis-is-the-dancing-form-of-ganesha-and-the-meditation-etc-visua/1854889528068578/):

While the word ‘Likhe’ is quite well known to all and sundry as meaning to scratch or write, what is of less knowledge is its meaning of ‘Uniting with a female’ or its meaning of coming together of heavenly bodies. Perhaps it is a mantra to unite an elephant headed person who refuses to budge from his tapasya with a female whose anger and passion are impossible to control. In any case it is an excellent mantra to ensure conjugal bliss.

Or an Indian linguistic (https://www.manblunder.com/articlesview/ucchista-ganapati-navarna-mantra-sadhana-part-4) site:

The meaning of the mantra is “One who’s in union with hastipiśāci".

Those are the only suggestions I can find, so, that actually comes as definition eight under Likh (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/likh), and I ignored it since that doesn't seem to be the case here, "to unite sexually with a female". The sadhana definitely says he is trying to. To me, it means focus on what the "try" is. He could be accused of using candy to lure children. So we need to get it a little more mature than that. He is offering the Sweets and trunking her sweet spot in the process of using his great strengths about commanding Prana and the Word or Voice.

Again in the Buddhist sense I would interpret him as Embrace, if for no other reason, nothing ever shows him in Union. Jambhala scores bunches of times. But there would be continuity if a charged-up Ganapati clears the ground for a Jambhala or other rite that goes into it.

One could ignore hasti "in hand" and say Hasti (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/hasti) is Elephant. Then it would say "Elephant Pisaci, I am trying to unite with you". That makes a bit more sense than saying "pisaci in my hand, I am in union with you", considering this united moment only exists in an implied sense. The other argument would be how the partners are still united and in orgasmic bliss while not being in physical union.

If Ganapati gets shaktis called Rddhi and Siddhi, Buddhism will at least give Sutra-based explanations on them.

If Rddhi is Matangi, then she would only be found in the Pisaci mantra or as part of Janguli, unless one also admits Ucchista or other Ganapatis associated with her. Because she problematically appears in one of the oldest Buddhist sutras before there was such a thing as Mahavidyas, and seems to represent the Dattatreya lineage, then, like Tara or Cinnamasta, she may be less Hindu and more Buddhist, appearances notwithstanding.

In any case, I find her not only approachable, but immanent. I am pretty sure I also need the Ganapati to do what he says he does, or else, I will simply observe Matangi in great beatitude without making the right effort. I have to go slower than I would want. Due to the Mleccha customs, I am probably going to get kicked around like a leaf in the wind for several days in a debilitating manner.

If you expand his full catalog, the author of the Marutgana (https://issuu.com/goenka.parul/docs) scientific article is rather strange. He began immediately by posting an article on Black Hole--White Hole axis of creation including a Black Sun article and numerous things connecting it to Rg Veda.

After that, for some reason he continued posting forms and legal documents, but, it is a rather hefty swing at astro-occultism. He says a black hole is not destructive but just grinds energy into a generic form, which issues from the White Hole, which is Vasudhara. As well as emitting the visible cosmos, the white hole produces a Black Sun which is symbolized in the Moon, i. e., its ability to go dark, and itself is synchrotron radiation and dark energy.

The original, biggest white hole is called Mahi, and it allows limitless others.

It is interesting, I am not sure I would spend much time scrutinizing it one way or the other in terms of accuracy, but the underlying point that something like a Black Hole of Pralaya and a Black Sun of invisible energy during manifestation are both natural, normal forms of Parabrahm, is there.

Old Student

26th November 2020, 05:09

Well, I guess I mean something like as a body or organism, I sense one overall Shakti "of me", which by extension is part of the same One Life everywhere, but I do not personally perceive that part. It does not personally contain the details or moods of more specific shaktis, it impels them into activity when their opportunity comes, like flying different flags in the same windstream.

But this really relates to the Nirmana sphere, only, and so she may not be exactly the same in the Akanistha or in the Formless planes.

Within the Nirmana, a specific shakti such as Parasol or Vajradakini of the head can change everything quickly from mundane chaos into her particular domain. That is by the power of mantra. That is what the Nirmana field is for.

So it seems shakti before it becomes more specific, except that you specifically call it Nirmana, which seems to imply the most specific type of shakti.

In any case, I find her not only approachable, but immanent. I am pretty sure I also need the Ganapati to do what he says he does, or else, I will simply observe Matangi in great beatitude without making the right effort. I have to go slower than I would want. Due to the Mleccha customs, I am probably going to get kicked around like a leaf in the wind for several days in a debilitating manner.

Mleccha customs? Mleccha isn't a term for foreigners in general, it's specifically a term from way back when about Muslim invaders -- most specifically the Ghaznavids and the Qarakhanids. Unless you fit that bill, the PTB probably aren't going to kick you around for such customs.

After that, for some reason he continued posting forms and legal documents, but, it is a rather hefty swing at astro-occultism. He says a black hole is not destructive but just grinds energy into a generic form, which issues from the White Hole, which is Vasudhara. As well as emitting the visible cosmos, the white hole produces a Black Sun which is symbolized in the Moon, i. e., its ability to go dark, and itself is synchrotron radiation and dark energy.

The original, biggest white hole is called Mahi, and it allows limitless others.

Interesting theory. I suppose people are somewhat free to theorize about exactly what a black hole does when it absorbs things, given that it will leak energy because of quantum effects (Hawking) and that what it leaks presents a conundrum if it passed the event horizon with extant quantum entanglements. So far, nobody has an answer for what happens, if it doesn't destroy it's not a black hole, if it destroys then what it leaks is still attached to states so it isn't destroyed. But I don't know that it would be a good idea to tangle with one.

shaberon

26th November 2020, 09:29

So it seems shakti before it becomes more specific, except that you specifically call it Nirmana, which seems to imply the most specific type of shakti.

In a sense, yes, for Rupa Skandha or the perceptional unit which works through the whole body.

The work or purpose of the whole body is the Nirmana field.

The only terms I know express it as when the Nirmana reaches a certain level of pristine emanations from mantras, initiations occur.

In the tantras it is taught as the first chakra situated in the abdomen, and the emanations produce Activity (which at a higher level becomes Activity of Durga or Kalratri).

The Activities are extremely fundamental because it explains how to open the Gatekeepers. And so--it is allright whether you want to use the solar plexus or dantian, but for its guardian goddesses, their heads are Cuckoo, Goat, Lion, Snake. Here, the Key gave associations of Planet: Jupiter, Color: Light Blue, Principle: Auric Egg, Skandha: Samjna (perception), Sister: Katyayani. This is the Puranas and Indian astrology that happened to index here, however those Buddhist Gatekeepers are specific to the "navel origin":

The cuckoo's call is the sound of the heartbeat and is the beginning of the solar plexus wishing to purify its prana for the heart.

The goat ruminates over experience and finds the best parts to use.

The Lion is placed with Amitabha and is purified speech, distilled prana going from the solar plexus to the throat. The use of throat energy is what accesses subtle mental spheres, and allows the heart to operate the secret compartments of the brain.

Snake is kundalini and holds the Bell of Prajna, being the chakra's full operation with pure and balanced prana allowing the mysterious kundalini to proceed to the next stage.

These Activities take place mostly either due to the use of Mantra, or at Initiations. All Four Kayas are said to have stages of perfecting the Mind, Body, Voice, and Wisdom of itself (Four Seals or Mudra). If Emanations are not pristine, these Emanational Rites must occur until the condition is reached. This is the cultivation of purified prana or Perfume. Once a set of Gatekeepers is placed into order, they guard one's siddhis and samaya.

Then I would start in the Nirmana Kaya in the Body trying to use the Four Activities to get four kinds of seals. This is a type of power output so it is a Shakti. Then I would go to Voice which is already up to Pranayama, and then there is Mind which in this sense would be Citta Chakra.

And so their Hand Symbols or Weapons are Hook, Noose, Chain, and Bell. That is what the mantra is based on:

Om Vajrankusi Akarsayah Jah, Om Vajrapasi Pravesaya Hum, Om Vajrasphota Bandhaya Vam, Om Vajravese Vasikuru Hoh.

"Om, may the diamond hook attract, Jah! Om, may the diamond noose draw in, Hum! Om, may the diamond chain tie, Vam! Om, may the diamond bell subdue, Hoh!"

Jah is to invite, Hum is to make firm or remain, Vam is to mingle indivisibly, and Hoh is to enjoy.

These have slightly different fashions in Peaceful and Wrathful purposes. The Gatekeepers are Wrathful so the Snake is subjugating, moreso in the sense of Destroying. The same Bell power in a Peaceful rite is Bliss and Prajna. The negative male counterpart of Activities may be described as Four Faults of the Catuskoti. As soon as any extreme limb arises, they have to shear it off.

I know this much more than I practice it due to the adverse environment. That is part of why Ucchistas are very relevant to my own timing or life cycle, it is something they fix.

In a large Indian catalog (https://archive.org/stream/IndiaOffice_CatalogueOfSanskritBooks/Nath%20and%20Chaudhuri_Catalogue%20India%20Office%20Sanskrit%20Books%20K-R_1953_djvu.txt) there is an instance of Matta Matangi:

Matta-matangi-lilakara-dandaka [also called Amba-stava, or
Ambika-stava] by Satyanarayana Sarman.

And from an article using Amba (https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/pasha.html) presumably Matangi with Ganapati discusses Hook and Noose which it calls Tattvas:

"Amba holds a noose (pAsha) and an Ankusha (goad) in her lotus-hands, which respectively represent the gross manifestations of two Chitta-Vrttis in Jiva called rAga and dweSha."

Sumbha becomes our Nadir deity with Serpent Noose:

"Shumbha, representing ahamkara, orders eight armies of demons representing aShTa pAsha-s, to fight Amba, preventing the jIva from realizing swaswarUpA. But when jIva seeks refuge under kAtyAyanI, the great mother, she manifests as eight vidyA vrtti-s (aShTa mAtrikA-s), liberating one from pAshAShTaka. Her eight hands and the weapons held therein are meant to sever the aShTa pAsha-s."

"In worldly terms, the usage of a noose and goad are primarily in controlling an elephant. Elephant represents something which is huge, powerful and not easily controllable. These two Ayudhas are common between Amba and Mahaganapati. More so in the case of the particular form of Ganapati called Ucchishtha Mahaganapati, who sports the same Ayudha-s as Sri Lalita. These two i.e. kAma and krodha, are powerful and uncontrollable like a madagaja. Poison can be cured only through poison. She uses her pAsha to bind the mind of the upAsaka to her lotus feet. Anurakti in the external word is rAga, but the same when turned towards Amba, becomes Bhakti (parAnuraktirIshware). Through her ankusha or the force of sAtvika krodha, she creates disillusionment towards the external world by granting nityAnitya vastu viveka, and grants chitta shuddhi. Thus, using the same forces constructively, she subdues them in us. Krodhasya janako kAmaH – Desire is the father of Hatred as unfulfilled desires lead to frustration, anger and finally hatred. Thus, by pulling our minds away from external world towards herself, she destroys rAga and thus automatically subdues Krodha as well. The vice versa is also true. Amba's Krodha or anger destroys ignorance and thus both rAga and dwesha.

There are two kAma-s. One is kAma or manmatha and the other is mahAkama or MahA Kameshwara. Kamakshi is associated with both of them and they operate through her powers. But she is avidyA swarUpiNi in her former association and vidyA swarUpiNi in the latter. Thus, it is she who causes both attachment and liberation, based on one's qualification. The same is expressed in the name bhayakrid bhayanAshanaH in Sri Vishnu Sahasranama. Thus, to the non-devoted and the ignorant, the pAsha and ankusha lead to attachment and hatred. But when one surrenders the lotus feet of Sri Kamakshi, these same very forces are used to turn oneself inwards, towards HER and thus become tools for spiritual advancement. Purva ChatuHshati described pAsha and ankusha as representing rAga and dwesha, but uttara chatushati now describes the two as representing iccha and jnana shakti-s."

Shaktis are an inverse flow of malevolent forces.

It gets to the six units of Lakshmi's dual divine Gunas along with a type of Paramasva or perhaps Aswins:

"From Amba's pAsha arose a vidyA called ashwArUDhA and from ankusha, a deity named samptkarI. There are two mantras for Sampatkari, one a three lettered mantra and the other is six-lettered. The former is a part of uttarAmnAya and latter belongs to UrdhwAmnAya. What we are more interested in is the six-lettered vidyA which grants the wealth of six virtues: jnAna, shakti, bala, aishwarya, vIrya and tejaH, by destroying the six enemies (ShaDvairi - kAma krodha etc). Ashwa-s refer to the senses or Indriyas and riding on these horses in the manas whose adhiShThAtri is AshwarudhA. By upAsanA of SampatkarI and ashwarUDhA, who are Amba's anga devata-s, one is freed from rAga and dweSha, resulting in chitta shuddhi required to comprehend the swarUpa of Sri Lalita as described by the Vedanta Vakya Tattvamasi.

Thus, sporting pAsha and ankusha in her hands, this is what Amba indicates: Holding rAga and dweSha is my hands, I assure freedom from these to those who take refuge in me."

That is the nature of Bhagavati, i. e. the Vada or explanation of the enjoyment of those six virtues, Bhaga.

In their view, Dvesa is Rage which is of a momentary nature, whereas Krodha is Hatred which is deep-seeded and ongoing. Either one is a name of Vajra Family in Buddhism.

We may not use these symbols exactly the same way, but, the idea of Raga--Lotus Family related to Iccha Shakti and Dvesa--Vajra Family related to Jnana Shakti is there. It is interesting since if you look at the twenty or so main seed syllables, Buddhist ones are usually pretty much the same as the Hindu set, with certain exclusions. Noose is at least similar in its beginning with Sumbha, and then also Janguli and Aparajita. Of course, the same main Hook and Noose set is Kurukulla. Hook becomes Manohara Vasudhara and goes on to Takkiraja, is one of the main evolutions in the Sakya Three Reds.

The idea of emotional fuel and transformation is almost exactly the same thing Buddhist or not. Usually it is the same set of Sins. In the article they are trying to achieve Citta Shuddhi versus Citta Vrittis. This is like "Mind Washing" in the good way.

The title Amba or Amma could be applied to Lakshmi, Manasa, etc., although here it seems distinctly Matangi in her role as part of Kamakshi. This is perhaps more mature since it is actual bliss play versus her more southerly forms, that is, away from Kamakshi--Kamarupa, Guhawati, Assam.

It is bewildering since Sarasvati is supposed to be a chaste student, and yet seems to be an input for one of the most sexualized poses, Sukhasiddhi. It is possible it is only the influence of Manjushri that gets her going. Possibly the important thing is that she goes through the degrees of approach. Even if Janguli and Matangi are tantric, neither is shown in union, whereas Sarasvati has ribald escapades with Manjushri all over the place.

Because Janguli is enfolded into Krsna Yamari Tantra, which is a form of Manjushri, she perhaps is contributing to Sarasvati's enjoyment.

Either Manjushri or Avalokiteshvara is able to handle Manmatha.

Manjushri also appears to show degrees of approach to wrath or union. His first form is Manjuvajra; secondly:

With the name Vagisvara, Manjushri represents all five exoteric Dhyani Buddhas. It also has mantric identity to his Vadiraj (Lion) form. Manjushri--Vadiraj is accompanied by two deities, Sudhana-kumara and the ferocious Yamari. Vadiraj is Peacemaker, or mediator of disputes.

His third form continues with the Lion, but appears to be adding the Sword:

Vajratiksna is the Deity name, and it would use an Amitabha-related form such as Vadisimha, "(Invincible) Lion of Speech" or "Lion of Disputes". That form is invoked into oneself, and Devi Sarasvati (or if needed wrathful and secret Vajra Sarasvati) is conjured ahead, slightly left. The near-heart-mantra of Vajratiksna, "All natures are intrinsically pure like the abhava (not formed or produced)", agrees with the Purity of the Lotus Family.

The Mandala of Vadisimha or Manjushri as Vajratikshna (Sharp Vajra, or of the Sword he usually carries). Here the Manjushri is single-faced and two-armed. The Tibetan tradition of this Manjushri depicts him in the company of Devi Sarasvati. Sarasvati is Vach Devi or Luminous Speech.

And so there is one kind of Vadisimha where the weapon is somewhat passive:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/535px/5/2/5/52548690.jpg

Manjushri with Lion-like Speech. He is Orange, Peacefully seated on a Lion. He does Dharmachakra with both hands, utpalas arise, one with a book, the other a sword, arises from Hrih. He is behind Sapphire Sarasvati who is half crouching and both are crowned with Akshobya and have Om Ah Hum in their three places. His seed is Dhih and hers is Hrih. Their mantra will merge him with our practice Prajnaparamita:

Om hrih dhih mame tipasvara svasti, Manjushri mum hrih Prajna Vardhani hrih dhih svaha

In a prior use of his name, Vadiraj was a disciple of Hayagriva (incarnation of Vishnu).

Then he brandishes it:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/1/2/71210.jpg

This is what Namasangiti advises before the next is Yamantaka or Vajrabhairava. That would be his fourth mandala or practice, which happens to match Kama Loka as the fourth plane, as well as having that as its main subject. After this, his last three mandalas could be summarized as Tri-kaya.

Manjushri has a complete peaceful intertwining with Sarasvati--Prajnaparamita--Kubjika of the Picu or Prajnavardhani mantra and also a wrathful one with blue Sarasvati who becomes Vetali with Vajrabhairava. Again the instructions on this kind of form say to use Devi, Krodha, or Vajra, as needed. There are only a precious few sadhanas which actually refer to placing another deity in front of you conversation-style. And so then Manjushri and Sarasvati are much like Brahma Viraj and Vach Viraj, they seem to intend a lot of mileage using the Voice with at least peaceful and wrathful styles that has outer and inner meanings.

That must be something like what Matangi is doing by having these "brushes up" to Ganapati.

Manjushri--Mars and Ganapati are brothers, more or less, sort of, like two kinds of prodigals, Agni Tattva and Indra Tattva, issued from the central reality.

So perhaps mostly for those of us who are not that great at visualization, if you look at the Gatekeepers' motion, and the stages of approach of Sarasvati or Matangi, you will get a kind of pressure wave made of mind, heat, and wind. That is what will begin Tapas.

Green Lion Mahalakshmi is crowned with Yamantaka, meaning, "complete with the charnel ground requisite". Even though she is still just a simple form, she is above Vajrabhairava or other equivalent of Trailokyavijaya.

The fifth Manjushri is going to take Dhih from the previous practices, and fling it into the Arapacana dharani realm; sixth, he shows that the purpose of Vajradhatu or Six Family Wheel is Maha Vajradhatu, i. e. complete Sambhogakaya, and finally Manjughosha has all the asterisms, lunar mansions, usnisas, and so on, up to its unique Dharanis--Paramitas.

That is what Namasangiti does. Its final expression is a Yoga mandala, although it arguably includes union if fully attached to Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra and so on. That is why I pause a bit when said that Blue Sarasvati is with Ganapati. She is with Manjushri. This more or less has to be a specifically Buddhist difference to her. To me, it sounds a lot like the "body-less empty niche consort" of Vairocana or wherever Prajnaparamita went, is actually filled by Sarasvati in her new, unpleasant mode of Vetali. Manjushri enters union with a Zombie, which itself is a few degrees lower than the Pisaci, which is a Tramen or Wrathful Bodhisattva in the sense of Vajra--Object or Objects of Mundane Consciousness. The Gauris, comparatively, are the Ayatanas or Sense-Faculties of Mundane Consciousness. Therefor the Gauris are forever inseparable from the inner you, whereas Tramen appear externally and are subject to motion and change. These are the Wrathful aspect of the Offering Goddesses and the Sparsha Vajra, Dharmadhatu Vajra, etc.

You get an empty, body-less consort, then a fresh dead thing, decaying to a skeleton and so on into an ethereal vampiric devil.

Now if that is a random one, you are going to be in a lot of trouble, but if you hold on to what the teachings are saying and dominate it with Peace, then the corresponding Kamakshi or Bliss nature will rise in step with the dead or undead thing in strength.

That is why, the better you can see it, you do *not* want that dead thing to carry any of its own karmic wind.

It is the Grasped or Pranava Vajradakini or Varnani, sort of like the dark Om and alphabet.

It is never not what it is. That is why there is the Queen of Space and Pacifying the Mamos. It frequently takes only a tiny spark to set off a cascade of Vrttis leading to slaughters and wars.

The teachings do not exactly seem to grant the devotee a charming, beautiful consort to enjoy, it seems to be like Katyayani says, can only be won by a fight. She is a high standard of beauty. If we look at what Manjushri is saying, it is like the consort has to get mad, disappear, and croak, before revealing her full Sambhogakaya potential.

I have Gazed at deities a fair bit, I have never Touched or i. e. Embraced one, and Ganapati and Manjushri seem to be saying that going through the second two stages is a lot more than a simple physical change of position. There is a lot of Wrath and Kama Loka and Cemeteries to burn out. The end result is like a scintillating voice combined with mastery of Rupa Skandha. That does not encompass the whole Path, but sounds like a pretty drastic change compared to my usual experience.

Old Student

27th November 2020, 02:20

In the tantras it is taught as the first chakra situated in the abdomen, and the emanations produce Activity (which at a higher level becomes Activity of Durga or Kalratri).

The Activities are extremely fundamental because it explains how to open the Gatekeepers. And so--it is allright whether you want to use the solar plexus or dantian, but for its guardian goddesses, their heads are Cuckoo, Goat, Lion, Snake. Here, the Key gave associations of Planet: Jupiter, Color: Light Blue, Principle: Auric Egg, Skandha: Samjna (perception), Sister: Katyayani. This is the Puranas and Indian astrology that happened to index here, however those Buddhist Gatekeepers are specific to the "navel origin":

The cuckoo's call is the sound of the heartbeat and is the beginning of the solar plexus wishing to purify its prana for the heart.

Not understanding how you're using these here. For me, dantian is below the navel, solar plexus is up close to the ribcage, and the root (Muladhara) would be down at the perineum.

It is bewildering since Sarasvati is supposed to be a chaste student, and yet seems to be an input for one of the most sexualized poses, Sukhasiddhi. It is possible it is only the influence of Manjushri that gets her going. Possibly the important thing is that she goes through the degrees of approach. Even if Janguli and Matangi are tantric, neither is shown in union, whereas Sarasvati has ribald escapades with Manjushri all over the place.

Yes, this is bewildering.

Manjushri with Lion-like Speech. He is Orange, Peacefully seated on a Lion. He does Dharmachakra with both hands, utpalas arise, one with a book, the other a sword, arises from Hrih. He is behind Sapphire Sarasvati who is half crouching and both are crowned with Akshobya and have Om Ah Hum in their three places. His seed is Dhih and hers is Hrih. Their mantra will merge him with our practice Prajnaparamita:

This and the second thangka are also bewildering. I had thought we had determined that Matangi was a the blue one with the lute. Now we have Sarasvati blue with her lute in conjunction with Manjushri? This looks as tantra as one can get.

Now if that is a random one, you are going to be in a lot of trouble, but if you hold on to what the teachings are saying and dominate it with Peace, then the corresponding Kamakshi or Bliss nature will rise in step with the dead or undead thing in strength.

I don't understand how Bliss is associated with "undead", it seems like it is bound up in, and inseparable from shakti, which is life.

I went through a jeweled palace last night, which is a new one for me. The sutras/tantras are full of them, I've never experienced one before, though. It was about embodiment, and I wasn't sure how being in such a place taught embodiment, but it seemed to work.

shaberon

27th November 2020, 19:57

I don't understand how Bliss is associated with "undead", it seems like it is bound up in, and inseparable from shakti, which is life.

I went through a jeweled palace last night, which is a new one for me. The sutras/tantras are full of them, I've never experienced one before, though. It was about embodiment, and I wasn't sure how being in such a place taught embodiment, but it seemed to work.

The Gatekeepers I listed are for the Nirnamana Chakra, which isn't a "thing", since it is just the navel "area", whichever chakra one uses, Svadisthana or Manipur. And so for instance, the Cuckoo symbol, that *is* the sound of the heart, but as heard within from the core of the body, with the corresponding decision that *this* connection is superior to pouring the prana out through the autonomic system and the limbs, etc.; another reason I like the solar plexus is dues to being the "second brain", i. e. reflex message center for the lower body. And so this is similar to martial arts or other training which re-conditions reflexes, although it is more psychological.

Vetali or Rolang ma is a strange symbol, especially since it comes from monks doing Karmamudra under the argument that sex with a corpse is not with a person, so they make, according to Tson kha pa, a Golden Zombie.

And, I am not sure either why exactly this type of thing pops up in tantric symbolism.

Vetali is like a herald of the overall Gauri class, and the Pisaci are above them.

The more standards terms for a human ghost would be Preta or Bhut. Bhut or Elementary is practically the same word as Bhuta or Element. And so for instance the Four Kings are a type of Preta or Bhut, because they are ghosts.

The Kama Loka is, of course, filled with ghosts.

The Buddhist Vajra Kaya is not like a superior ghost, it is more like washing off all the lower psychological principles that animate or compose ghosts.

Maunjushri is Sarasvati, just male and female of each other. Many of Manjushri's rites specifically use Sarasvati; it is possible he may have a close relationship with some other deity, but these two are the main pair. Yamantaka and all the Yamaris and Vajrabhairavas are forms of Manjushri.

Matangi is Sarasvati, but in a particular use, application, or practice, by a different name, which is a Pisaci, is an aspect of Janguli, and is a counterpart of Ganapati or particularly of Ucchista Ganapati. She can be blue, green, or red, possibly other colors, however the Ucchista Sumukhi form is Red on Red and corresponds to Red Ganapati.

Blue Ganapati is more like Bhutadamara, and white is more like Amritakundalin.

And so there are dead things in there, which is a type of warning.

It is like the Gatekeepers place Seals, which protect one's siddhis and samaya, which makes this probably the closest definition of "power level". And so if I take the solar plexus or dantian and turn it inwards, once I become good at it, they seal it as a behavior, and I am going to keep going through more and more things or talents, until this achieves the whole Kama Loka.

Wrathful Deities are something like a question of stability.

When unstable, they are wrath, and delusion, and so forth, but we want them to act more like wheels on a reversed wind.

And so when it becomes possible to really see the by-products or the baleful influences of what these, and the Nagas, Planets, etc., can cause, it could be incredibly disturbing.

It is the negative or objective image and it is in the Talas or Underworlds.

It is constantly being made by everyone, and if you go to hell, it means your consciousness has slipped under its domain.

But it is really just a wrathful weapon, so to speak, that we want to hold in the way Amba is depicted as holding her weapons, transcendentally.

Koothoomi was forbidden from giving this doctrine until 1883.

In practice, we may emphasize a system of seven, but actually these are doubled to a total of Fourteen Worlds or Lokas, because each of the seven reflects into a Tala.

The Tala is non-different than what is perceived as earthiness towards the core of the earth, and the death and decay of charnel grounds, and so on.

Such an image is what people ignorantly attach themselves to, is Mara.

This is why it would be relatively useless to celebrate Maravijaya as an ideal, and, instead, much more relevant to hold it as a degree of seer-ship which is not grasping.

We liberate ourselves from its clutch by realizing the image is Equal to Space.

And so in the Namasangiti, Manjushri perhaps could be described as girding himself to see and deal with the actual Vetali on her own plane, which is perhaps the Tala corresponding to any plane. And then if we look at what corresponds to a few verses from Namasangiti, it would be a substantial trend of sadhanas which generate Manjushri's main attributes as operative powers. One is summoning the Lion and Sword through the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which itself is interlocked to Sarasvati, and these two have a complex interaction based around the complex syllable Dhih, in their peaceful roles.

That is what it suggests to do, while girding one's strength and adding a Wrathful practice by degrees.

So I think it is pretty much telling you to get a lot of this under your belt prior to Vajrabhairava or other Trailokya Vijaya equivalent.

To me it would be simple, since I already have a bond to normal Sarasvati, it would already work. However since Sarasvati--Manjushri begin as representing ordinary learning, and Prajnaparamita is a Sutra, I personally or currently am being forced to handle it in an unusual and more Tantric manner in Elephant caste, which is--not exactly trumpeted majestically--but sort of hidden in the ruins, it is ready to roll as Ganapati or more specifically Ucchista Ganapati and Matangi.

I cannot quite make a crisp dividing line where the original Sarasvati ends and Matangi begins, even if I claim to experience a little of them both. I can say they work differently.

Jewel Palace would usually be thought of as Deity Residence on Mt. Meru. With all of these components, it is more like we are trying to make a real operating environment, which Entering the Mandala means the deities are summoned to populate it. That is why the "symbols" are important. A mandala is like an expanded chakra. Therefor I would guess the palace you experienced is the collapsed or compressed version of the visualized thing that would be used in the rites, which are really on the Fixed Cross or so, i. e., your "personal palace" would be the central emanating point of the Celestial Palace.

I cannot be sure if that is really what is happening, but, that is how the visual symbol is supposed to work.

Old Student

28th November 2020, 03:51

...with the corresponding decision that *this* connection is superior to pouring the prana out through the autonomic system and the limbs, etc.; another reason I like the solar plexus is dues to being the "second brain", i. e. reflex message center for the lower body. And so this is similar to martial arts or other training which re-conditions reflexes, although it is more psychological.

My solar plexus is very complicated, it has been trained very hard by the Dakinis, it can start to vibrate or to pull hard in in an instant. If I can get it joined to this "mass" that comprises the nipples, the space between them, and the part below that in the center down to the edge of my ribcage (at the xyphoid process), and the "costals" (the intercostals and subcostals that flex the ribs on the sides for breathing) and then once it starts to move press to get it to connect deep inside at my dantian, then I kind of liquify inside. If I use it otherwise, it sometimes becomes like a cliff at the edge of my ribcage.

Vetali or Rolang ma is a strange symbol, especially since it comes from monks doing Karmamudra under the argument that sex with a corpse is not with a person, so they make, according to Tson kha pa, a Golden Zombie.

And, I am not sure either why exactly this type of thing pops up in tantric symbolism.

I'd be fine with the argument that sex with a corpse is not with a person, it's the sex with a corpse thing at which one might look askance ;-). In my shaking, if there is sex and a corpse, then I'm usually the corpse.

It is like the Gatekeepers place Seals, which protect one's siddhis and samaya, which makes this probably the closest definition of "power level". And so if I take the solar plexus or dantian and turn it inwards, once I become good at it, they seal it as a behavior, and I am going to keep going through more and more things or talents, until this achieves the whole Kama Loka.

This sounds very much like the teach, frustrate, test sequence that I am subject to. They show me I can do something, I spend a lot of effort making every possible mistake before learning it, I pass the test and they make it accessible with a tweak/switch (it feels like I'm tweaking a spot inside me, and the result is like flipping a switch). And they've usually moved on again.

To me it would be simple, since I already have a bond to normal Sarasvati, it would already work. However since Sarasvati--Manjushri begin as representing ordinary learning, and Prajnaparamita is a Sutra, I personally or currently am being forced to handle it in an unusual and more Tantric manner in Elephant caste, which is--not exactly trumpeted majestically--but sort of hidden in the ruins, it is ready to roll as Ganapati or more specifically Ucchista Ganapati and Matangi.

I cannot quite make a crisp dividing line where the original Sarasvati ends and Matangi begins, even if I claim to experience a little of them both. I can say they work differently.

I don't know whether I have a relationship with Sarasvati. I have a relationship with her lute. As in, one of the "power poses" that I have been taught to go to is her lute, it's a pose I can only do when shaking, otherwise it is too strenuous, but during shaking it causes a huge influx of bliss/power.

Jewel Palace would usually be thought of as Deity Residence on Mt. Meru. With all of these components, it is more like we are trying to make a real operating environment, which Entering the Mandala means the deities are summoned to populate it. That is why the "symbols" are important. A mandala is like an expanded chakra. Therefor I would guess the palace you experienced is the collapsed or compressed version of the visualized thing that would be used in the rites, which are really on the Fixed Cross or so, i. e., your "personal palace" would be the central emanating point of the Celestial Palace.

I cannot be sure if that is really what is happening, but, that is how the visual symbol is supposed to work.

So if my personal palace would be the central emanating point, would that emanate from me? It happens when I am multiple "shaman" bodies at once, they "coincide" in the part where the palace is, is warm, and I wander through. The coinciding part feels very "yab-yum" but there's no visual of that, when I am seeing the palaces, I am wandering through them, not aimlessly, but I'm not sure what it is I am trying to find.

shaberon

29th November 2020, 07:11

My solar plexus is very complicated, it has been trained very hard by the Dakinis, it can start to vibrate or to pull hard in in an instant.

It is. The Hindu Manipur--Solar plexus has sixty-four petals/yoginis, is a City with gardens and a palace with a Five Corpse Throne and so on. In Buddhism it also has a bunch of petals, but, things have Four Gatekeepers, so it does have a basic simple mode. That, of course, would probably be for those of us to whom it has the nature of a fuzzy ball, rather than knowing the intricacies of all the channels and so forth. If you go through the Exposition of the Book of the Dead, it really does have a name, deity, and specific function of all of those things. But for most of us, we need to start small and build up. And the Gatekeepers' rhythm goes on repetitively, since they are in any major mandala, and also part of the chakras. And usually the way it flows, is, navel emanation point for Tapas leads to Wrathful deities of the Head, and, it takes a certain amount of success here in order to begin relaxing and opening the petals of the Heart. That is, of course, the ultimate destiny, but, in terms of cultivation of Prana or Perfume, we are doing something extra besides just saying something like "Heart, be there for me" as a first and final practice. It is a total change in energetic viewpoint so that the thing really is not just the impeller of the whole body, but is linked in consciousness to non-body or something mental and permanent.

I'd be fine with the argument that sex with a corpse is not with a person, it's the sex with a corpse thing at which one might look askance ;-). In my shaking, if there is sex and a corpse, then I'm usually the corpse.

Haha, well...perhaps you are a self-arisen Vetala?

Manjushri may tell us or explain somewhere exactly how or why Sarasvati enters a corpse form, but, it is probably deep inside a Sanskrit Vajrabhairava Tantra or something like that.

Now the point of Golden Zombie was that the disciple had to have Karmamudra, and that was the only way he could get it. But of course the same tantras are in Ngak pa and Vajracharya lineages, so there are plenty of non-monks doing the same thing without the need for Vetali per se. So Karmamudra is one side of it, and fearlessness of death is another, and the fade to emptiness of the corpse of mundane existence is well-known, so the symbolism is understandable, but I am not sure where anything really says exactly why a Bhairava, i. e. a form of Shiva, would use its form to make love to the form of something that was not alive. But she is still alive. After all, we can say Vajrabhairava appears by himself in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, and the un-coupled Vetali is like Aquarius in Dakini Jala, and these probably are among the older and more primeval versions before the Vajrabhairava Tantra...which was revealed by Vetali anyway.

This sounds very much like the teach, frustrate, test sequence that I am subject to. They show me I can do something, I spend a lot of effort making every possible mistake before learning it, I pass the test and they make it accessible with a tweak/switch (it feels like I'm tweaking a spot inside me, and the result is like flipping a switch). And they've usually moved on again.

Yes, exactly. I usually call it Non-dualization, meaning, in this case, not so much the principle of unity, but the action of seeing pairs of opposite errors, shearing off the temptation, and gaining a bypass through their central point. In the abstract geometerical sense, this is exactly what I perceived in a tantric learning process even though it has nothing to do with manifest dakinis.

There is something else that makes sense to me scientifically and metaphysically, which I have never seen written anywhere. So, what I did started as a fascination with death and I started doing Death Effigy meditations. And then, in terms of the aura--and this may even sound silly, but it is true--the most powerful tool is a mirror.

There is a style where you use it in the dark until you see your aura.

However, since I am used to the Stare of martial arts practice, I found it was easy to use some light and stare into one's pupils. You don't blink or move. It starts.

And part of it, I wonder, if the eye interior is something like an ideal black body radiator, then for example, you get a stream of photons from the Moon and some of them bounce around in there forever, and some shoot back out through the pupils. Photons from Jupiter are doing it, from Arcturus, Regulus, Betelgeuse and so on--it makes a unique signature like a fingerprint made of starlight. No one else could have exactly the same combination and re-radiate them the way you do.

So there probably is a twinkle of starlight in your eye which is occultly powerful.

And for some reason, the aura works like photons, it will work in a mirror, or in a photograph. If a person has a powerful aura, it will radiate off a paperback fifty years after they are dead. You just can't see it with mundane sight.

I don't know whether I have a relationship with Sarasvati. I have a relationship with her lute.

That is certainly her prominent mark, and the main segue' to tantra.

When I was young I made two deity relationships. Well, you call Vajrasattva--Vajradhara "deities", but, to me it is just Guru and it is just one thing as we found in Vajra Rosary. Anyway, I did a little study and came across Green Tara in her normal mode of soothing mental and emotional problems and that became effectively my Yidam. And she took care of that. The Sarasvati which is beside me now was just an oddball thing, I was in an Indian grocery store that had a display of numerous icons which were mostly standard Shiva and Vishnu type things, but the Sarasvati really stood out as more colorful and unique. So I took her and went off and studied her and she was a Sherab, exactly how she is designated, she worked just like that too. Or, that is, she became useful as Sherab to me personally and it was not from doing sadhana but more like fusing her into the application of learning or playing music, she heightened the aptitude.

That is a bit different than a "relationship" with the Dhyanis, which are either like getting smacked in the face with a frying pan, or a puff of cloud. The Dhyani Buddhas do not really do anything. Tara and Sarasvati do.

So if my personal palace would be the central emanating point, would that emanate from me?

Yes, the Meru is the Sushumna, and so the mandala means a Magic Circle cast around the human body.

The "origin" is really the floor or ground, Vajra Bhumi, but even this is usually the result of a Spawn Sequence, such as Emptiness, a Red Pam, a Red Lotus with an Om, and so on.

I am pretty sure that if the palace you feel is part of the throat or head like that, then it would be the same Palace of the Mandala. I can not think of the right tantric source to describe it more precisely; the important part is that it is "where the deities go", i. e. over seven hundred in the case of Kalachakra.

Since "you" are the central deity, then you are actually stuck there because it is the Fixed Cross. This may sound contradictory to "wandering within the palace", but it sounds like you are talking about a compressed area of the subtle body, versus a casting radius of a mandala retinue?

Emanating things from oneself is pretty common in the tantras. Mostly it does come from the heart, for instance, the Ganapati basic mantras are to get his attention, and then the specific one for Red Ganapati says he is generated in your heart, and this energy is then beamed into the idol. I did this, and the idol radiated astral light. And so I did the Japa and that was it.

I "learned" something, or, the mantra, Gah or Gam is very unusual because you will feel it make a "jet" from the roof of the palate downwards into the throat. That's how I knew I was doing it wrong, I was doing the G too soft and nasally, and it made me turn it crisp and into a thing that feels a bit like squirting a spray bottle.

I believe it stands a chance to work as of a couple hours ago, something that presumably would have been a Dvesa or Rage or even the Mamos was nothing. That is something like a monumental change to a great historical trend. Like when politicians start a war, and nobody shows up.

I mean it definitely works at least for me personally, but, my ability to saturate the environment with Vasikaran has never been such a thing. It is personal, but, it is not really personal since it is still for Bodhi and in the spirit of Four Brahma Vihara.

It is hard to describe in English, it would come out as something like "I love myself", except it is not exactly a self that is being loved, because it means an aura or organism, not the psychological construct that may be attached to it.

The Dragon's Head is coming and this time it is going to eat South America.

Even if the display is somewhere else, the timing is the same, still a major event for those of us in the north.

The Moon will be full tomorrow, that is, Monday or Moon Day, which is auspicious for something other than Ganapati, probably Usnisa or Sarasvati or Cunda. Perhaps Parasol. Swift Steed of Garuda (https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/karma-chakme/sitatapatra) says Extremely Wrathful Parasol is Pandara. However the Dharani (https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/dukkar-chokdrupma) states she emerges from Buddha's Usnisa and is Maha Pratyangira. In other places she also of course is Vajradakini.

Like the Ucchistas, she is openly available and a bit forgiving if you can't do a picture perfect mantra. To me, she also feels fully primed and ready to roll like they are. Both of these work in a semi-formal meditation. Unlike the Ucchistas, she is a Yidam with a Cosmic Form related to the mandala skies or tantric sun.

Anyone would be justified in using Ganapati prior to Parasol or other sadhana. He can be his own thing or help anyone. Because I understand a good deal about Ganapati, he was able to issue a distinguishable presence in just a couple of weeks. I think this helps, I think it works a lot better to look into it and see what the practice is about, and then go do it, with feeling.

shaberon

29th November 2020, 19:47

In Buddhism we do not seem to incorporate the common Klim syllable, and use other things for attractive and magnetic power.

Krishna's Magnetic Klim syllable is derived from Akarsa.

The name Krishna is a close variant of the root "krs" as is Karsa:

1) Drawing, dragging, pulling; Y.2.217.

2) Attracting.

3) Ploughing

4) A furrow, a trench.

5) A scratch.

I am not sure why Akasrsa sounds like it would mean the opposite of Karsa; either way, the meaning of "K" is based in this, but for some reason we have changed the seed syllable to "J" or Jah, which gives me a hard time figuring out why, other than it can be thee seed for Janguli or Janma. And this can perhaps be solved by looking at spelling confusions related to the Four Activities.

And I am not sure yet about the technical fifferences in "attraction" and "magnetization", but, that may be why we have discarded Klim.

Why would "Akarsaya Jah" or Hook be less "Magnetic" than Chain?

The Wrathful Palace has Four Inner Gatekeepers who arise from Phat.

It has a moat and outer wall, populated by the Four Activities in a different way, which should be evident from their name. They arise differently from a seed that is sometimes scribbled as "Jo" or something like that in Tibetan writings.

Bhyoh (https://books.google.com/books?id=JWuxAAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA231&ots=1OS4h2fl2T&dq=bhyoh%20seed%20syllable&pg=PA231#v=onepage&q=bhyoh%20seed%20syllable&f=false) in the format of twenty-eight identical stacked syllables is Outer Activity or Ishvaris or Wangchukma, being in four groups of six, each having a seventh as a Gatekeeper.

Bhyoh (https://books.google.com/books?id=tAAJx3zZRSMC&lpg=PT258&ots=PZDESx32I8&dq=bhyoh%20seed%20syllable&pg=PT258#v=onepage&q=bhyoh%20seed%20syllable&f=false) Ishvari mantras

Bhyoh as a seed for Palden Lhamo:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/3000/1860/products/WP311_1024x1024.jpg?v=1571750453

Bhyah (https://ramanuja.org/sri/BhaktiListArchives/Article?p=feb2003%2F0096.html) on the other hand is "to fear" as in the name Akshobhyah, which is really Vishnu. The Hindu claim is just that Vishnu--Akshobhyah incarnated as Buddha to present undefeatable arguments. "Kshob" means Sancalane, to disturb, be agitated, so Akshobhyah is the negation or absence of disturbance, agitation, and fear. Abhaya Mudra is similarly Fearless Mudra.

Janguli is in Akshobya's Family.

Jaha (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/jaha) however has a sense of "abandonment" and so it may be saying "leave your current place and come here". Or, rather, Akarsaya Jah is a statement that says this backwards, come here, abandon your current dwelling. So Jah is not quite being used as a seed as in Janguli arises from Jah, it seems to be being used as a word with meaning.

I do not think Jah gets confused for Bhyah. What happens is that the longer mantra becomes reduced to the seeds, just Jah Hum Vam Hoh. And so it seems like the first command is "stop it, quit what you are doing and get out". That may sound a little strange for the friendly atmosphere of a spiritual practice, but, it is not arrogant, rather, because the deities are reliable, it makes them move, like turning on the water faucet, like saying water, get in the kettle.

Old Student

29th November 2020, 23:24

That, of course, would probably be for those of us to whom it has the nature of a fuzzy ball, rather than knowing the intricacies of all the channels and so forth. If you go through the Exposition of the Book of the Dead, it really does have a name, deity, and specific function of all of those things. But for most of us, we need to start small and build up. And the Gatekeepers' rhythm goes on repetitively, since they are in any major mandala, and also part of the chakras. And usually the way it flows, is, navel emanation point for Tapas leads to Wrathful deities of the Head, and, it takes a certain amount of success here in order to begin relaxing and opening the petals of the Heart. That is, of course, the ultimate destiny, but, in terms of cultivation of Prana or Perfume, we are doing something extra besides just saying something like "Heart, be there for me" as a first and final practice. It is a total change in energetic viewpoint so that the thing really is not just the impeller of the whole body, but is linked in consciousness to non-body or something mental and permanent.

Okay, once something is "developed" in my shaking, like my solar plexus, it is not fuzzy at all, it is very sharply delineated, but also quite physically strong, since they often work the muscles in some area for hours on end many nights in a row. My solar plexus I don't think quite has 64 different connections out of it, but it has a lot, to the surface of my abdomen, down deep in my abdomen, to the muscles along the edge of my ribcage, to muscles just under my ribcage, and so forth.

My heart, on the other hand, has been a subject of visions, had been the "place of work" for a lot of shakings concerning my breathing problems and how to stop them, but not for anything else yet. There have been times when, after reading you say it is important and a center and should open, I have "tried" or "willed" to see at least something at my heart, but whatever is there either isn't ready yet, or something, it just feels like the centroid of my ribcage, stuff passes through there, even collects there, but only some visions have had it as any kind of center, not for the lack of trying.

Haha, well...perhaps you are a self-arisen Vetala?

I don't identify as a corpse, there are these kriya or poses that are not Dakini identifications, that have been notated as "power poses" in my notes, and there are visions or embodiments that are similar to those but require a dissolve, that are either corpses, or rotting flesh. The power pose that I refer to as "charnel pose" is as a bug, I think I said cicada in my notes, carved out into an empty exoskeleton holding me as a corpse, flayed from neck to groin with one a kartika, the flayed part looking as much like a vulva as a flower in a Georgia O'Keefe painting. Recently (last night, e.g.) I have spent hours in that pose for various reasons.

Yes, the Meru is the Sushumna, and so the mandala means a Magic Circle cast around the human body.

The "origin" is really the floor or ground, Vajra Bhumi, but even this is usually the result of a Spawn Sequence, such as Emptiness, a Red Pam, a Red Lotus with an Om, and so on.

I will open up another reply to reply to this and the several paragraphs below it, something happened last night.

I mean it definitely works at least for me personally, but, my ability to saturate the environment with Vasikaran has never been such a thing. It is personal, but, it is not really personal since it is still for Bodhi and in the spirit of Four Brahma Vihara.

It is hard to describe in English, it would come out as something like "I love myself", except it is not exactly a self that is being loved, because it means an aura or organism, not the psychological construct that may be attached to it.

It actually makes perfect sense. But I'm not sure I'm a "usual" audience for it.

Anyone would be justified in using Ganapati prior to Parasol or other sadhana. He can be his own thing or help anyone. Because I understand a good deal about Ganapati, he was able to issue a distinguishable presence in just a couple of weeks. I think this helps, I think it works a lot better to look into it and see what the practice is about, and then go do it, with feeling.

Good luck and happy hunting then.

Old Student

29th November 2020, 23:51

Why would "Akarsaya Jah" or Hook be less "Magnetic" than Chain?

I'm getting that Akarsayati means to draw near to oneself.

Jaha however has a sense of "abandonment" and so it may be saying "leave your current place and come here". Or, rather, Akarsaya Jah is a statement that says this backwards, come here, abandon your current dwelling. So Jah is not quite being used as a seed as in Janguli arises from Jah, it seems to be being used as a word with meaning.

If you take what I got above for Akarsaya, then adding abandonment to it might end up with, "To draw close to oneself in abandonment." Which seems like something interesting.

Old Student

30th November 2020, 02:03

"So if my personal palace would be the central emanating point, would that emanate from me?
Yes, the Meru is the Sushumna, and so the mandala means a Magic Circle cast around the human body."

The "origin" is really the floor or ground, Vajra Bhumi, but even this is usually the result of a Spawn Sequence, such as Emptiness, a Red Pam, a Red Lotus with an Om, and so on.

I am pretty sure that if the palace you feel is part of the throat or head like that, then it would be the same Palace of the Mandala. I can not think of the right tantric source to describe it more precisely; the important part is that it is "where the deities go", i. e. over seven hundred in the case of Kalachakra.

Since "you" are the central deity, then you are actually stuck there because it is the Fixed Cross. This may sound contradictory to "wandering within the palace", but it sounds like you are talking about a compressed area of the subtle body, versus a casting radius of a mandala retinue?

Emanating things from oneself is pretty common in the tantras. Mostly it does come from the heart, for instance, the Ganapati basic mantras are to get his attention, and then the specific one for Red Ganapati says he is generated in your heart, and this energy is then beamed into the idol. I did this, and the idol radiated astral light. And so I did the Japa and that was it.

So it turns out this was leading up to something, and last night in one prep and three shakings, it was produced. The prep was a less than five minute shaking to basically let some things -- mostly muscle groups and blisses -- get ready, after which was several hours of sleep, and then on the first big shaking they rearranged my lower abdomen/pelvic area in layers -- there is a dynamic between my physical body (male) and clear body (female) that has played out in embodiments of "me" as shaman in which the physical body perceives as a male inside which the (female) clear body has expanded to just below the skin, and the clear body perceives it as the female clear body wearing a human skin (male). In this first shaking, they layered the male and female into three complete male-female laminations, and then put me to sleep (rather confused). Then they woke me up the second time, and expanded my perceptive body into an immense dark cavern (this is common, the body expands to seeming infinity and a whole world of vision goes on inside of it), and then "emanated" three complete worlds inside in each was a shaman, each shaman created as female clear inside male skin, each with a different familiar (animal), each in a different world or place, and all joined at the region between my root (perineum, muladhara) and my dantian. That place danced incessantly, and brought forth a great whorl that in one world was the White One (in this identified somehow as Yeshe Tsogyal), in one, Houracan the eye of heaven, and in one a sea of clouds descending directly to a waterfall (which I have seen before, it's at the top of the pillar, and where the reddish brown shaman "lives"). I was put to sleep a second time, and woken to emanate all of these while carrying on a quite normal set of thoughts and movements with the sole exception of the churning dance at my hips and waist (i.e. I did things like plan my day, etc.) with all seven bodies intact in the background while they created what will be the switches for this, and was then brought back to the usual workaday body and state by time in Sarasvati's lute and in the charnel pose.

I tried looking up whether there were things about multiple-body and so forth, but didn't find anything yet. I don't think it's all that strange except maybe artists have a hard time with drawing it. I don't usually have multiple big shakings in one night, but seeing as how I was this time ordered to sleep each time, I think it must have been part of the process, in addition to multiple times when they put my legs in a stretching position and waited which I think was because I wasn't flexible enough off the bat to do what came next. As for what the purpose is for having three complete shaman emanations in three separate worlds, I don't know. I can identify the worlds, one is Tibet/Central Asia, one is Indonesia, and the other is Meso-America pre-Columbian.

shaberon

1st December 2020, 08:16

Extraordinary, The triple shaman sounds like it is with Tri-shakti. It sounds like their natures are:

White

Eye

Clouds/Water/Pillar

What is unusual is not necessarily the "smaller" female, but that the clearish body I and most others experience is larger than the physical. And since here, the female is clear and she is "wearing" the skin, that is the opposite.

In terms of seeing things that may trigger past life recollection, for some reason Indonesia seems more familiar to me than most other places. Burma or Pagan possibly, but Indonesia likely as Bali or Java feels kind of strong. I don't really delve into it, that is just how pictures impress me.

This may be strange. I have a Manjushri Sword, not because it is a Manjushri Sword, but because it is a tri-metal item.

When I first heard about him, I did not get much from the slogan of it Cutting Ignorance. It seemed like this was nothing new, we already have this idea, so why do we need him to do it?

I have since then at least found out it also has something to do with use of the Voice in a Peacemaker role, which is great, but, the Sword itself to me is still something else.

Sword Dakini is a dual track of the Fourth Vajrayogini of Nepal who is Guhyeshvari.

In a more widely-known sense it is Red Guhyajnana Dakini, and, if you follow the symbol, to Red Ziro Bhusana. Although these seem to have Lotus Family constituency, their seed is Om, and they have no use of Hrih. Guhyajnana does replace "Svaha" with "Hriya", which sounds a bit more heart-oriented, probably because Jinasagara Avalokiteshvara is there.

The Sword is more "secretly" or at least guardedly, Blue Mahacina Krama Tara, who does have something to do with Hrim syllable. That is Maya syllable generally, whereas Hrih is either a Buddhist variant or at least for some reason considered more important to Lotus Family.

In Shakta philosophy, Sword means begins pointing from the periphery to the center of Sri Yantra, i. e. into Manipur Chakra, and it just doesn't stop through all the levels, keeps going, is like the compass of non-dualization.

I would hold that for us, the Lion and Sword is similar, also represented by Manjushri, but also in this other way.

The Nirmana Chakra Gatekeepers include a Little Red Lion Face with a Chain. There is no corresponding Red Simhamukha deity. The Hindu Pratyangira is Narasimhi Lion Face. Buddhist Red Lion Face is Ziro Bhusana. It is a bit strange that there is only this Form relationship to that Gatekeeper's face, and otherwise the Chain can hardly be found in Lotus Family at all.

The Little Gatekeeper is rather powerful if you look at Lion's Roar Samadhi and Queen Srimala Devi. It has arguably no personal rite unless that of Ziro Bhusana.

It is using the syllable Vam, which would become doubly important for Nirmana Chakra in the tantric sense.

It is doing this specifically to accumulate and push purified prana upwards through the heart, which is for the overall purposes of Mantra and tantric throat energy of Lotus Family. So it is an easy beginning point that flows into the cycle of Pranayama which matches the Ziro Bhusana sadhana.

It is never different from part of the Four Activities, which Guhyajnana puts "in order".

It is the full Magnetization after the stable presence of something is achieved, this is like locking it in. The first or Akarsa may completely referring to "their place" and A-karsa or not attracted to it. Like switching polarity. This one is Bandhaya.

The Chain itself is much more evident with Vajrashrinkala who is more related to Amoghasiddhi. The Tara consort of Amoghasiddhi is said to be different from similar Taras of the sadhanas, which, as far as I can tell, is because it means the Prajna on her own plane, whose Wrathful form is Candi or Candika and related to Smoky colors. Amoghasiddhi is usually Air deity, and both Air and Smoke take on a "new" symbolism as Prana. In the Guhyasamaja process, this appears to be the meaning of moving Air--Entire Surface--Touch to Touch--Central Space when Air is experienced as Energy Wind.

Sadhana Tara arguably is a spiral. Nyan's Six Limb Tara means the Six Stages of Yoga, and then the Sixth stage of samadhi is the domain of Prajna Tara and Amoghasiddhi and Smoke.

Her Wrathful aspect cannot be too far off of, and perhaps is more like a selective combing, of general Candi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandi) lore:

The three principal forms of Durga worshipped are Mahagauri, Chandika and Aparajita. Of these, Chandika has two forms called Chandi and Chamunda who is created by the goddess Kaushiki for killing demons Chanda and Munda.

She is known as the supreme goddess Mahishasuramardini or Durga who slayed the demon Mahishasura. She has been affiliated with and also considered as Katyayini, Kaushiki or Ambika who killed Shumbha, Nishumbha and their fellow demons. "The great Goddess was born from the energies of the male divinities when the devas became impotent in the long-drawn-out battle with the asuras. All the energies of the Gods became united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its lustre, combined into one, and became a female form."

"Parvati projected an overwhelming omnipotence. The three-eyed goddess was adorned with the crescent moon. Her multiple arms held auspicious weapons and emblems, jewels and ornaments, garments and utensils, garlands and rosaries of beads, all offered by the gods. With her golden body blazing with the splendour of a thousand suns, seated on her lion vehicle."

The combing is selective in that it retains Katyayani and Chamunda and adds Charchika. If one pursued every kind of Candi, it would probably be different in almost every single village.

It appears to me that the chief Wrathful Tara is almost indistinguishable from Durga. Concurrently, we also have Peaceful Durga in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, as well as Durgottarini Tara.

This involves most of the Green Taras which are Amoghasiddhi Taras, with certain exceptions of green ones in Lotus Family.

In terms of the Four Seals, Amoghasiddhi is Mahamudra, and the critical analysis of Namasangiti suggested his Family became Mahamudra Wisdom as the result of the intensity of Bodhi Citta Vajra in Vajrasattva.

The Family can only begin to be seen in Successful Accomplishment of Activity. The sin against it is more or less any difference of self and other, from which inequality arises, causing ignorance of power.

The Sword is also interpreted as the Crossed Vajra of Amoghasiddhi Family and is used in symbol mandalas.

Parasol is a Buddhist Pratyangira with a human face and yet she is also the elusive Vajradakini. This is a kind of tantric "stength" like Buddhadakini means a "power level" moreso than it does "dakini in Buddha Family".

Vajradakini is part of Marici, Varahi, and Nairatma, is in the Vajraraudris, is Upeksa with Vajradaka, is the Fiery Crown Center of Jnanadakini, is a class that emanates from Pranava Vajradakini.

If Ganapati and Matangi are Pranava or Primordial Om, this is like their Elephant Power cranked to Vajradakini strength.

Perhaps it transcends the Maruts and Gandharvas and effectively tramples worldly Ganesh.

shaberon

2nd December 2020, 01:21

I am trying to find the right breadcrumbs so that the rather complex pantheon reveals an underlying structure.

A lot of this seems to be loaded in Parasol and Tara as being easily-obtainable outer deities who proceed through everything I can think of. Tara, in this sense, mainly means Amoghasiddhi Taras which we might call "of various ranks". Whether in Nyan's single sadhana, or the Mahattari-based version, either shows a developing outer Tara, which is used to attract "the real thing".

Most of these forms and practices are very simple, and it is only a few such as Dhanada Tara that have much to say.

Usually, anything related to Dhana is about Treasure, which would indicate Jewel Family, and/or represents Generosity with any form of wealth, and is already "covered" by Jambhala-type deities.

Kubera is a northern or Amoghasiddhi deity.

Dhanada Krama Tara is shown in prominent gatherings of Paramita-type deities assembled under tantric deities.

And she, apparently, does mean a "gathering" in the sense of plural treasure(s). The reason for her placement shows a Buddhist definition which would mean six or seven Paramitas. Dhanada is:

The seven qualities of conviction, virtue (see sila), conscience and concern, learning, generosity (see dana), and wisdom. Source: Pali Kanon: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines.

'treasures', a term for the following 7 qualities:

faith,

morality,

moral shame,

moral dread,

learning,

liberality and

wisdom. Cf. A. VII, 5, 6.

See 'Treasures of the Noble', by Soma Thera (BODHI LEAVES B. 27, BPS).

Dhanada Krama already has built-in the same concept from Wisdom or Prajna Paramita being much like a circulation back through all the others. The first is similar to "launching" (i. e. Dhanu, a Bow), and the second of course is a transcendental state which by definition we do not hold at this moment, so they are like a "before and after" of the grouping or circle.

Dhana is right at the start as the first Paramita, has a basic meaning as Generosity followed by the idea that Wealth is Hidden Treasure which is Nidhi which is Jewel Family, and then it is like cycling back and using this as the basis for the entire group, which makes it a method of Amoghasiddhi Family. Mahasri Tara is then like the culmination of this, since she is almost mantricly identical to Dhanada, except she is the Sambhogakaya or Akanistha Tara, a self-arisen one which we can only render ourselves capable of seeing. She has Marici, Ekajati, Janguli, and Mayuri.

Mahasri is therefor suggesting one gets the "difficult" Dhanada, which appears to be an assemblage of Paramitas as well as a basic, full mandala.

The same suggested grouping of basic or Arhat Paramitas is in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, and by inference should be strong with Durga or Durgottarini Tara. It is difficult not to see the latter as the "text goddess" of this tantra, although I do not think she is directly mentioned, it would probably be impossible to find any other Green Durga.

Since the apex of a mandala is the esoteric Bhrum syllable, that is why Usnisa Vijaya is significant, and even if one overlooks her common practice in Long Life Trinity, she remains the major blessing dharani of the Sarvadurgati.

It is a substantial compound whose ending comes from Hum.

The beginning comes from Hrim and adds Bhrihaspati--Jupiter to make Bhrim, which is the syllable of Yellow Cintamani Tara Vasudhara and likely closer to Jewel Family. And so then if you make Bhrim x Hum it is like mixing Jewel and Vajra Families. In the Dharanis, Dhvajagrakeyura (https://vdocuments.site/a-dharani-for-each-day-the-saptavara-tradition-of-the-newar-buddhists.html) is occasionally Jupiter (more often Ketu, this pattern being similar to Ganapati). She is added to "seven weekly dharanis" by for instance Pandit Amritananda, Brian Hodgson's informer. It looks like you are going to get a slightly different set if you expand from seven planets to nine. It is intended to be planetary, but, you would sometimes have to use alternates since there are only seven days. This practice is a "household book" from around the 1600s, whereas the Namasangiti is an original Yoga source whose explanation or system is for instance forgotten in Forbidden City and lost from Ellora, but, is actually pretty obvious.

Namasangiti and Seven Dharanis both start with Vasudhara (sun or Sunday). Namasangiti would then also suggest incorporating Dhvajagrakeyura (Ratanolka) early. This is good because she is Victory Banner, being a mandala summit item, which is opposite the Sun or covers Varnani or the Grasped or the lunar channel of the nerves.

If you pass Hrim through Mahacina Krama Tara, it is going to enhance it with a little something other than its regular issuance related to the Mirror of Maya. She is a Sword deity, parallel to Guhyajnana Dakini, but different in a substantial way, also related to White and Blue Hum syllables and their development on "similar" figures such as Ekajati.

In Sadhanamala, the more powerful goddesses all have an Oddiyana Krama, such as Marici, Kurukulla, and Varahi. And so I think it makes sense to take into consideration what else is an underlying "feeder" Krama, such as Mahacina and Dhanada, or the Mahabala Krama of the Pancha Raksha, which turns out to be shared with Ganapati.

It all seems to gravitate towards having a full mandala or Dhanada crowned with Bhrum or Usnisa.

The Usnisa has for its chief anyway, Sitatapatra Parasol.

Now we have said Smoky Candika and Shrnkala are samadhi; I have from a note, Smoky Vajraraudri and her Activity Vajrashrnkala are samadhi.

Vajraraudri in the Seven Syllable retinue is not exactly "the Vajraraudris", it is similar to them, minus Sound and Earth. In Seven Syllable or Saptaksara, she is Hrih (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajraraudri), which may seem obscure, except that this mantra is not just its own sadhana, it is the mantra of the entire Chakrasamvara cycle. The group of Six with Vajraraudri is:

Herukī, Vajravārāhī, Ghoracaṇḍī, Vajrabhāskarī, Vajraraudrī and Vajraḍākinī. They have respectively blue, yellow, red, green, smoky and white colour. All of them have dishevelled hair, fierce appearance, three eyes and the quarters as garments. They carry the resounding ḍamaru and the ghaṇṭā in the first pair of hands, and the human skin in the other pair.

Instead of Vajra and Bell, they have the Damaru or Drum, which we have already described as a type of Dakini upgrade, which represents the Buddhadakini class or power level. Drum and Bell is perhaps noteworthy, there are no knives or blood or blood-drinking.

Again, it is a bit weird since Vajravarahi is the consort/central deity and in the retinue, but, we have found such "doubling" in places where it seems to be an indicator like an astrological Exaltation. Since the double is Yellow, we would have to inquire whether the elusive Varahi of Ratna Family, or, is it Vairocani.

These resemble Armor Deities, but, this has already been covered, and Vajradaka sadhana explains them as the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment, which is why Vajraraudri is Samadhi, Vajradakini is Upeksa, etc. According to Bhattacarya, Saptaksara is an Akshobya emanation, yet:

Like Sambara this god also tramples upon Kalaratri and holds the Visvavajra on the crown. He has also the crescent on his head, is endowed with the six suspicious symbols, and stands in the Alidha attitude on the orb of the sun.

So even if it "is" Vajra Family, it seems to be looking for something from Amoghasiddhi and Lotus in order to succeed.

Samputa (http://www.surajamrita.com/images/Vajravali/3_Samphuta_desc.pdf) has "the Vajraraudris" which continue into Weapon or Shastradhara Hevajra Tantra:

vajraraudrl (Rdorje drag polo), vajrabimba (Rdorje gzugs ma), Ragavajra (Hdod chags rdo rje ma) and
Vajrasaumya (Rdorje zhi ba ma) in ihe directions; to the corners are Vajrayaksl (Rdorje gnod sbyin ma), Vajradakini (Rdorje mkhah hgro ma), and Sabdavajra (Sgra rdor je ma), and Prthvivajra (Sa rdo rje.ma).

If we look at the inner ring, Raga is no surprise, neither would be Bimba if meaning Ekajati, we know she can scoot over there and do it. Raudri and Saumya look reversed. For example, with Vajramrita, Saumya is the first deity; and Raudri would normally have associations of "last" or Amoghasiddhi quadrant. That is why I think that makes this "the Vajraraudris", since she is in the lead. If that has anything to do with Raudra Krama, it means the Marut Gana and Ganapati.

When we look at the similar deities with Vajradaka, they are defined as Seven Jewels of Enlightenment, which can only be found or done within a certain settled and ordered refinement of the Marutgana.

Vajraraudri and Vajradakini are patently significant to both retinues.

Vajraraudris are in Citta Hevajra 15 of Mitra Mandalas (https://b-ok.cc/book/3642936/b63adf?dsource=recommend) and in other Hevajras right before "Vajrasattva", which is really Samputa, which includes this ring and adds that the Dance Goddesses are from Paramadya Tantra. But there is still just the name with no form. They say the Hahn Foundation has the corresponding scroll. We may have this image somewhere but from what I recall it is probably not good enough to see them very well. It is worth digging through this or the Hevajras so we could record the forms. I know we have found them, but I am not sure the quality is there.

Raudri (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/raudri) is the Leopard Yogini of the solar plexus in the Pacifying group, or else, she is Maheshvari, which is Ghasmari. Although Raudri is also defined as Gauri, which sounds conflicting. Raudri and Ghasmari are distinct minor yoginis in Guhyagarbha Tantra (https://longchenpa.guru/bka'.ma/klong.chen.rab.'byams/mun.sel.skor.gsum/The%20Guhyagarbha%20Tantra.pdf). Otherwise Raudri does not seem to be a Buddhist deity. Closest is Pancha Raksha wherein Mahabala Krama is Raudravesa and also uses Raudratmako. Other Indian equivalents of Raudri (http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Raudri) are Camunda, Mahamaya, and Kalaratri.

Well, there again, we have some kind of fusion, since the Buddhist sadhanas extract forms or equivalencies of these. For example, if we say Vajraraudri is Samadhi, and Candika is Samadhi, Camunda is Candika, and Camunda is Raudri, then you get a kind of round robin that is hard to do away with. Ghasmari is probably distinguishable, and Red Camunda or Charchika (possibly Ghoracandi) is perhaps a little different, but Vajraraudri seems inseparable from Smoky and Dark figures.

Something that is a common, widespread name in Hinduism has been compressed into a kind of secret passage where she has no clear identity or association. About all we can say is that she can "begin" Samputa, and eventually perform as Samadhi at Bodhisattva strength, so to speak, with Vajradaka.

Who would "begin" Samputa, as Vairocani "begins" tantra categorically?

In this display, she/they are a special ring around the Dhyanis and Prajnas. So the Samputa practice, which is part of Agni Homa, incorporates something that is not even found with other Hevajra disseminations.

One would tend to argue it is something close to Seven Syllable deity as well as Narrtesvara or Lord of the Dance and the Four Dakinis.

It is not, exactly, the Gauris, or, the Tramen--Pisacis, but something that would be closely involved with them.

All of the members of it are largely explainable, except Vajraraudri. Same in the Saptaksara retinue.

This is symbolized in the Tandava Nritya of Shiva, the dance of Shiva, after which he has been named ‘Nataraja. For every reference of shiva, there is a corresponding reference of shakti. If shiva is Shambhu, then shakti is Shambhavi; if shiva is Maheshwara, shakti is Maheshwari; if shiva is Bhairava, shakti is Bhairavi; if shiva is Rudra, shakti is Raudri. Shiva and shakti are complementary at every level.

Vama, Jyestha, and Raudri (https://www.coursehero.com/file/p7esdqlj/Footstool-is-euphemism-for-the-five-sacred-elements-in-Sahasrara-listed-above/) as the shaktis of the subtle triangle at the crown. Raudri is also part of the fourth Nitya (http://www.shivashakti.com/nitya.htm). Or they may be in the muladhara, or related to the peturburance of the Shakti (http://www.shivashakti.com/gandharv.htm) syllables. She is similar with the Vaisnavas (https://www.bhagavadgitausa.com/TANTRA.htm). Raudri as Bindu (https://www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas/sas19.htm). The same in Kubjika Tantra (http://texts.00.gs/Kubjika-mata_Tantra,_22.htm).

Maharaudri Kalaratri (https://ganga-freelight.blogspot.com/2017/09/blog-post_27.html) related to Pretas, Vina, and Trailokya.

I had forgotten there is a translated Samputa transmitted by Gayadhara (https://read.84000.co/translation/toh381.html) and re-written by Bu-ston. Unfortunately the text is all in drop-down boxes. It begins by saluting Vajradaka.

It seems to accept the Hindu Tri-murti without a second guess, and tells us things like:

Since it is not possible to touch the deity-goddess (bhagavatī),
An untouchable female musician takes on the same name, bhagavatī.

It also gives us:

bāhyapuṭe

[pūrve] raudrī śuklavarṇā |
dakṣiṇe vajrabimbā pītavarṇā |
paścime rāgavajrā raktābhā |
uttare vajrasaumyā haritābhā || 3.4.48 ||

ap3.152

aiśānyāṃ vajrayakṣī ca sitapītābhā |
āgneyyāṃ vajraḍākinī pītaraktābhā |
nairṛtyāṃ śabdavajrā tu raktanīlābhā |
vāyavyāṃ pṛthivīvajrā tu haritasitābhā || 3.4.49 ||

So now we are confronted with Raudri in Sukla or Moonlight color, and we see the intermediates are dual-colored.

This tantra specifically mixes Dakini Jala and Seven Syllable deity:

oṁ śrī•he•he•ru•ru•ka•vajra ḍākinījālasaṃvara hūṁ hūṁ hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | śmaśānapriyadvibhujasya |
oṁ śrīherukavajra sarvaduṣṭasamayamudrāprabhañjaka hūṁ phaṭ svāhā | raudrāsanadvibhujasya |
oṁ hrīḥ ha ha hūṁ hūṁ phaṭ | vidyārājasya || 8.4.27 ||
iti herukodayamantraḥ || 8.4.28 ||

He loves the cemeteries like Kurukulla, and perhaps Raudri is significant to him being in a Raudra Asana.

Old Student

3rd December 2020, 04:54

Extraordinary, The triple shaman sounds like it is with Tri-shakti. It sounds like their natures are:

White

Eye

Clouds/Water/Pillar

Is that because of the nature of the whorls? Is it associated with Tri-shakti? I don't know if it is associated with the number three anymore. I had a night's interlude during which there was a test, I sort of passed it but was not performing well on anything but the layering process that led to these three worlds. Then the night before last, I was laughed at for being worried about, or impressed by the emanation of three at once. I was then treated to an emanation of countless worlds with countless shamans. Not that I have been able to do anything more than the layering for that one at all.

What is unusual is not necessarily the "smaller" female, but that the clearish body I and most others experience is larger than the physical. And since here, the female is clear and she is "wearing" the skin, that is the opposite.

I don't think I've ever known this before. My clear body has always been smaller, I don't think I ever wondered how they were for others, but that's strange that it is usually bigger, I'm trying to imagine what that would feel like.

Sadhana Tara arguably is a spiral. Nyan's Six Limb Tara means the Six Stages of Yoga, and then the Sixth stage of samadhi is the domain of Prajna Tara and Amoghasiddhi and Smoke.

Her Wrathful aspect cannot be too far off of, and perhaps is more like a selective combing, of general Candi lore:

The three principal forms of Durga worshipped are Mahagauri, Chandika and Aparajita. Of these, Chandika has two forms called Chandi and Chamunda who is created by the goddess Kaushiki for killing demons Chanda and Munda.

She is known as the supreme goddess Mahishasuramardini or Durga who slayed the demon Mahishasura. She has been affiliated with and also considered as Katyayini, Kaushiki or Ambika who killed Shumbha, Nishumbha and their fellow demons. "The great Goddess was born from the energies of the male divinities when the devas became impotent in the long-drawn-out battle with the asuras. All the energies of the Gods became united and became supernova, throwing out flames in all directions. Then that unique light, pervading the Three Worlds with its lustre, combined into one, and became a female form."

I was going to ask you about Tara, I recall you have a relationship with her. When they were laughing about me getting hung up on three shamans, they pushed the layering to a seemingly infinite level of laminations, and then emanated me as what felt like a many limbed one, green, as many limbs as seems like a wheel, and worlds radiating into the distance. The only female deity I can remember who has that many arms and is possibly green is Tara.

Old Student

3rd December 2020, 05:06

Most of these forms and practices are very simple, and it is only a few such as Dhanada Tara that have much to say.

Usually, anything related to Dhana is about Treasure, which would indicate Jewel Family, and/or represents Generosity with any form of wealth, and is already "covered" by Jambhala-type deities.

I happened on something a couple of days ago. In an article about Kundali -- The Wikipedia article actually, it describes him as one of the Wisdom kings -- full name Kundali Vidyaraja or Amrtakundalin -- and calls him the "bringer of nectar". In that incarnation, he is described as a manifestation of Ratnasambhava.

Now we have said Smoky Candika and Shrnkala are samadhi; I have from a note, Smoky Vajraraudri and her Activity Vajrashrnkala are samadhi.

Is Candi/Candika the same one that is worshiped during Durgapuja with the Chandipath? It's read every year during that holiday. Supposed to be one of the most sophisticated mantra systems in Shakti Hinduism.

Raudri is the Leopard Yogini of the solar plexus in the Pacifying group, or else, she is Maheshvari, which is Ghasmari. Although Raudri is also defined as Gauri, which sounds conflicting. Raudri and Ghasmari are distinct minor yoginis in Guhyagarbha Tantra. Otherwise Raudri does not seem to be a Buddhist deity. Closest is Pancha Raksha wherein Mahabala Krama is Raudravesa and also uses Raudratmako. Other Indian equivalents of Raudri are Camunda, Mahamaya, and Kalaratri.

Interesting. The three familiars, associated with the three shaman forms are eagle, snake, and panther. A leopard is a kind of panther, I suppose.

shaberon

3rd December 2020, 19:47

Is that because of the nature of the whorls? Is it associated with Tri-shakti? I don't know if it is associated with the number three anymore.

I am guessing.

My sense is the subtle body is more like a geometric structure based on numbers, and that three or a trinity is a very fundamental aspect in any system.

It is not necessarily a "thing", or form, since if I visualize it with Ah or E at the navel, I will get that, if I use Vam instead, it will be that. If I train that the yoginis are the sixty-four Shiva types, I will get that, if I train they are the twenty-eight Ishvaris, I will get that. The important thing is consistency. If I do a Nyasa or Armor, it is related to *that* deity, not necessarily the others. Because the visions you have are consistent, there is not really a way we can say they are "wrong" or incorrect, they just don't come out as a copy of any of the known systems. But you do not have these through the effort of a concentrated visualization, so, there would be no reason to assume they would appear in identical forms as in some lineage.

That is why, in the root version, the Tri-Shakti are Icca, Jnana, and Kriya, because that refers to the characteristics of the underlying structure or circuit. If seen, the Icca shakti could, for example, take different appearances. That is why the feeling of "how she works" is more important than "what she looks like". When you follow a given practice, her form would hopefully resolve appropriately.

I don't think I've ever known this before. My clear body has always been smaller, I don't think I ever wondered how they were for others, but that's strange that it is usually bigger, I'm trying to imagine what that would feel like.

That is unusual. Many of the basic books, eastern or western, will tell you to do something like look at your fingers. For most people, it only takes a short concentration to see either a clearish/aerial or yellowish-green double which is about a quarter inch to less than an inch bigger than the normal body.

I have never not seen this. From the time I was able to talk, I have been trying to find ways to ask people about the double, or the saturation of atmospheric light by other light, or rays and auras, things which look completely physical, other than being "more ethereal".

The "stranger" lights I have seen "open" out of this stuff.

They have hardly ever allowed me to perceive any kind of "beings" except I think I have seen the Salamanders in a universal colony of Blue and Orange ones. Most people would probably call it Sky Full of Dragons.

In original Theosophy, the double does not feel like anything, and it is recommended not to use it as a vehicle for projection. The three lower planes only consist of the physical body, the double which is its blueprint, and the prana or jiva which is the life force, channels and chakras. And this group is, in a sense, "the physical body", since it is produced for that purpose, and disrupted at death.

The teaching of Kama Loka does not say it is a clear body. It is not a "body" unless being used. During ordinary life, one's Kama Rupa is just a glob of thoughtforms. When in use, such as a dream or projection, then it becomes a body which defaults to the owner's appearance, although you can change it.

Therefor, any kind of visualized scene such as a desert or fountain, etc., cannot be in the plane inhabited by the double, since it is just a copy of earth and therefor related to it. The more versatile Kama Rupa, when projected as Mayavi Rupa, can, so to speak, "look down" and affect the material plane, but it can experience anything.

The difference with pseudo-Theosophy is that it more or less squished the lower worlds all down into "the physical plane", and therefore made its own tinkering space to invent new higher "spiritual" planes. That is how we can see Ms. Besant in talking about Etheric Body or Etheric Plane is talking about something she made up. Then you have to take their word that there is such a thing as the Logoic Plane and that Atma is something like low-hanging fruit, only a step on the road to the former.

Buddhist Yoga is not like that, it is closer to making Atma the highest plane without attaching words or concepts to it. HPB's description of Perpetual Motion remains about all that can be said. Almost all of the Buddhist teaching concerns something similar to the Theosophical "marriage of Manas to Buddhi". It is not saying that full Buddhi is an intuitive impulse we use all the time. It at the very least is a Prajna-alike state of mind which is challenging to all dedicated spiritual seekers.

I was going to ask you about Tara, I recall you have a relationship with her. When they were laughing about me getting hung up on three shamans, they pushed the layering to a seemingly infinite level of laminations, and then emanated me as what felt like a many limbed one, green, as many limbs as seems like a wheel, and worlds radiating into the distance. The only female deity I can remember who has that many arms and is possibly green is Tara.

If an Eight Spoked Wheel, yes, this is what I call Samaya Tara, something like the root of Twenty-one Taras and the importance of Quintessence. That is her eight armed form, and I am not aware that Green ever has more. There are a very limited number of mega or universal 1,000 arm deities.

That is why it is noteworthy that Guhyeshvari is among them, in which case she is supposed to be split, Blue and Green.

The "worshippable" form of such mega deities is their Eighteen Arm form, such as Khaganana or Varuni, or Padmanarrtesvara, or limited others.

I am thinking that is since they are based on the Tri-shakti moreso than on seven, nine, or other ways of classifying the worldly shaktis, there are only a few that may arise. The main concept of them is in their Red and White aspects, which adds to the strangeness of Guhyeshvari.

I love her, but, I will never say she is not weird. Parasol is not weird. Guhyeshvari is almost incapable of normality.

In Japan, particularly, yes, Jewel Family uses the Wrathful One Amritakundalin usually in the northern sector. This is just a short form of Ten Wrathful Ones. But then you see the confusion about the Families. In my view, it is a different practice, since it is talking about a mainly male-based version of taking the Five Families and attaching them to the System of Six with Vajrasattva. What we have, is more like starting with Six and the female aspect. In the common formula of Om Manipadme Hum, we already have a Devi or Six Syllable Sadaksari goddess whose Vidya consists of attaching everything about Six Families. Vajrasattva is unquestionable and we are using him differently, in what could be called Namasangiti fashion, by making him our beginning or first basis, rather than viewing him as the sixth crowning element to be achieved by that kind of five-to-six practice, which is heavily ritualized and impractical for anyone besides monks.

The main difference between Buddhist Candi and Hindu Candi is that all the rites are in Chandipath.

Siddha Kunjika Stotram is a "must" before reciting Durga Saptashati, also called Devi Mahatmya and Chandi Path. The song may be used on its own, but the text is considered less effective without the song. It is full of seed syllables and Chamunda mantra; Devi is also called Parvati and Khecari and it ends with something like Gauri Tantra. Lyrics are on screen or in full form from the source:

qxWGATa88B8

It turns out that Kunjika is Gauri Tantra from Rudra Mala Tantra and is based on nine syllables for all nine Durgas.

I would expect this is what Buddha calls "the first Gauri", and not to the Generation Stage goddess. Kunjika means key, this means that Kunjika Stotram is a key to unlock all locked powers (Locked by Shiva) of Durga Saptashati. The song unlocks the Durga and then locks it again after the text to close.

So then if we say Candi is a Buddhist Prajna, she would not be expected to have many rites or practices, it means "her on her own plane", which is more of an "Is", since it is Bodhisattvas and Nirmanakayas who are the "does".

All of the Chandipath and Amoghasiddhi Green Taras are "under this hood".

We have Candi and Chamunda in retinues and so forth, but, I am not sure if there are many revised sadhanas for them. The only one is Carcika. Since she is singled out by name in Sadhanamala, the meaning of her name, or, Muttering, must be the intent. The next-closest thing is Dhumavati which we find attached to Palden Lhamo and the fierce Lakshmis. As to whether Dhumavati is just the Mahavidya version of Candi, possibly. It is very close to saying Mahalakshmi and Durga are the same, although it is plain that Lakshmi is the one who commands consorts to change, which means on her plane, deities may have different relationships than we are accustomed to.

I think Durga and Tara are the same. If we rake through all Candis and Chamundas, we can find several kinds in Tibet, let alone India, so it is really hard to "systematize" her. Roughly, we could say that Red Chamunda is perhaps different, but it seems to me that Peaceful Amoghasiddhi Tara combines with any Durga, and Wrathful Amoghasiddhi Tara combines with Wrathful Durga--Candi. Those Hindu versions do not really have re-iterations, they are absorbed into a more powerful Samaya Tara.

We have one Nepalese tantra which begins by using Durga--Vairocani, and then I would have to maintain a lot of Buddhism is Puranic and oriented to Durga like it is to Agni. The use of Agni is clearly stated by Abhayakaragupta and is "behind" the Vajravali method of Sadhanamala practices and also of Samputa Tantra.

I try to internalize most of this stuff, which is only partially successful, since a few months ago I was excited that there was a Samputa available to us, and I already forgot and was grousing at the format of the page.

That thing is historically pivotal, and I can't even remember it.

If we are in a position to show that Dhanada Krama must have to do with a gathering of the basic Paramitas, we can find that by definition, these include Dhyana, which is not regarded as the same as Samadhi.

Although the technical explanation of Dhyana includes everything we might call "subtle planes" and "Bodhisattva Grounds", Dhyana is only the second Yoga, whereas Samadhi is Sixth. So we are probably not going to do that great at the sixth, more tantric version, unless we are good at the second, more Sutra-based.

Dhyana is the Fifth Paramita, and what is noteworthy here is that there is both Rddhi and Janguli. We saw that Rddhi is a close equivalent of Buddhi or Matangi which we say is absorbed into Janguli. This, itself, so to speak, must be Dhyana. It is the "breeding ground" of Samadhi because:

samadhi is related to the paramita of meditative concentration (Skt. dhyānapāramitā)

Dhyana Paramita is the domain of Vajra Family. Dhyana means:

The mind that single-pointedly abides in immutable bliss is known as meditative stabilization.

These Dhyana descriptions refer to Mahamudra and/or the type of Reversal that comes from the previous Paramita, or the first Yoga, Pratyahara or Withdrawal. The Bhumi Ground is Sudurjaya which is Difficult to Accomplish, and, its discipline is Rddhi, which is Magical Powers. That is also a name for Varuna's younger wife, who may even be invoked by:

oṃ ṛddhyai namaḥ

The full Dharani for this is that of Janguli.

Dhyana we have variously translated as Dzyan, Chan, Zen, and so to us as practitioners it may seem very deep and intense and regarded as samadhi, which, provisionally it is, but eventually samadhi is determined to be a process between the ten winds and Clear Light or Prabhasvara.

The Fifth Paramita Devi forms from Namasangiti are:

Dhyana Paramita is of sky colour [gaganasyama, i. e. dark sky] and holds in her left hand the white lotus. Rddhi Vasita is green as the sky and holds in her left hand the discs of the sun and the moon on a lotus. Sudurjaya Bhumi is yellow in colour and carries an emerald on her open palm on the lap. Janguli is white in colour and holds in her left hand buds of poisonous flowers.

Generally, it is the large Yellow Janguli that carries a blue poison flower, so her Namasangiti form highly corresponds to her Mahavidya form.

After this is Prajna Paramita, which is like a revolving door with Ananta Mukhi Dharani. And so if we can see from the above that Dhyana is supposed to foster a Samadhi that overcomes all the Winds, then, if we remember Vajradhara from Vajra Rosary and the seventh principle generally which is quelled by the Abode of Vajrayogini, then, for Prajna Paramita, we see it tackles the sin of the seventh principle or skandha:

view (drsti) is related to the paramita of wisdom (Skt. prajñāpāramitā)

In the sense of a sin, it is Atta Dristi or any dualization of different selves or any view towards one's organism or apparatus as having self. It means it from the level of the merest subconscious flickering.

Vajradhara refers to the singular Non-conceptual Wind, and, Prajna is:

The wisdom that is not overcome by conceptualization and that bears the speech of the buddha, which is perfectly suitable for those to whom it is directed, is known as wisdom.

This Paramita is governed by Amoghasiddhi Family, another thing making it a cumulative cycling of "all the above".

Beyond this, Acala or Space is like a "divider" to the higher Paramitas which are the domain of the Four Dakinis.

Because I do not have a mind that constantly abides in bliss, and I cannot always say things that are perfectly suitable, I am in no position to claim to have out-performed the "human level" basic Mahayana Paramitas. At best, I am simply trying to steer in that direction.

The Namasangiti approach is unique, since there are other sources which say things like in Kalachakra, Marici "is" Sila Paramita. Here, Sila is just Sila, who is assisted by the use of a given Dharani. Prajna Paramita Dharani is not even linked to Prajna Paramita. Manjushri has, for whatever reason, said that Janguli Dharani helps increase the perfection of Dhyana Paramita, and in order to do it, you have to achieve Mastery of Rddhi, and this is Difficult, like Dhanada Krama is Difficult.

A leopard is a panther, an Eagle or Aquila is Garuda, a snake is any Naga.

In that one Naga, you should be able to expand all of the Cemetery realms, but here again it is possible to find oneself in their Peaceful equivalent. When the mental issues and karmic winds are depleted from a given aspect, you no longer have to be stuck at the level with blood and guts all over the place. The Naga cultivates the related Paramita, and causes beneficial rains to flow, presumably re-vitalizing the landscape, and then the Yaksha guardian allows one to "climb the tree" which is into the Avadhut.

It is a plunge through the unknown and the outer fringes of Kama Loka.

While this can be subdivided into a Hundred and logarithmically-increasing branches, it is not said that all of that is particularly useful. It is said that a basic grouping of six to eight can transmit what is needed for spiritual development into the Reality Realm. These are based in Vayu or Life Force having established seven planes, through which flows a seven tongued magnetic fire of consciousness. The material "creation" is something incidental.

I was able to acquire some worldly knowledge which may help change a few things. I can't say exactly what it is, but, at least it is related to communication. Could lead to a noticeable improvement. It is usually a little risky for me to speak my mind and this will circumvent a lot of it.

Because the Ganapati bombarded me in a strongly personal way, it is less fit for general purposes, which would be more like Vadiraj Manjushri. It is the rough intersection that several things I would probably say might be disturbing to others, versus the fact that as far as I can tell, they are kind of important to be done differently or done at all.

I learned many things the hard way. So I inherently lack any kind of sugar coating to pass along with the basics of life.

In other words, I know perfectly well how to make the Ganapati thing work if given a chance, whereas some of the other stuff is brand new to me since I have to deal with sensitive Sodashis. And it makes no sense to me to make these things this difficult to begin with.

Old Student

4th December 2020, 19:16

My sense is the subtle body is more like a geometric structure based on numbers, and that three or a trinity is a very fundamental aspect in any system.

Three seems more natural to me, the night before last I was tested on putting together the complicated lamination that makes the other emanation, the infinite one, happen, but last night went back to nailing down the three worlds with the three shaman bodies.

That is unusual....
[...]
The teaching of Kama Loka does not say it is a clear body. It is not a "body" unless being used. During ordinary life, one's Kama Rupa is just a glob of thoughtforms. When in use, such as a dream or projection, then it becomes a body which defaults to the owner's appearance, although you can change it.

Therefor, any kind of visualized scene such as a desert or fountain, etc., cannot be in the plane inhabited by the double, since it is just a copy of earth and therefor related to it. The more versatile Kama Rupa, when projected as Mayavi Rupa, can, so to speak, "look down" and affect the material plane, but it can experience anything.

I feel like asking, "Well then how do they do all the blisses that require moving back and forth between the sexes, and how do they host and hear from the Dakinis?" But I guess the answer is, "They don't." or they don't do it that way. I have done some visualization so I do know what that looks like, but the time I tried astral projection, my astral body was so normal looking that I had to actually turn and face the bed and see myself there to sense that anything was different. My clear body has been extant and accessible for two years now, I guess I am very used to it.

That is why it is noteworthy that Guhyeshvari is among them, in which case she is supposed to be split, Blue and Green.

The "worshippable" form of such mega deities is their Eighteen Arm form, such as Khaganana or Varuni, or Padmanarrtesvara, or limited others.

Emanating wouldn't necessarily be "worshippable", there's very little one can do in the face of that kind of display than be awed and feel joy. Guhyeshvari means "secret queen", is she a Tara? The reason I thought of Tara is because of a feeling of peace and a smile that reminded me of her.

Thanks for the Siddha Kunjika Stotram, it's very clearly enunciated.

I think Durga and Tara are the same. If we rake through all Candis and Chamundas, we can find several kinds in Tibet, let alone India, so it is really hard to "systematize" her. Roughly, we could say that Red Chamunda is perhaps different, but it seems to me that Peaceful Amoghasiddhi Tara combines with any Durga, and Wrathful Amoghasiddhi Tara combines with Wrathful Durga--Candi. Those Hindu versions do not really have re-iterations, they are absorbed into a more powerful Samaya Tara.

This makes sense, they are both "Devi Maa", both Shakti.

Dhyana is the Fifth Paramita, and what is noteworthy here is that there is both Rddhi and Janguli. We saw that Rddhi is a close equivalent of Buddhi or Matangi which we say is absorbed into Janguli. This, itself, so to speak, must be Dhyana. It is the "breeding ground" of Samadhi because:

samadhi is related to the paramita of meditative concentration (Skt. dhyānapāramitā)

Dhyana Paramita is the domain of Vajra Family. Dhyana means:

The mind that single-pointedly abides in immutable bliss is known as meditative stabilization.

Increasingly, to carry out the things I'm expected to do when repeating what I have been shown, there is a prerequisite of intense concentration and quiet. Last night, for instance, was about the third shaman world (the one with the panther and the Houracan), and I had to maintain quiet order with only about a cubic centimeter of me in the bottom of my pelvis shaking for nearly an hour before proceeding.

After this is Prajna Paramita, which is like a revolving door with Ananta Mukhi Dharani. And so if we can see from the above that Dhyana is supposed to foster a Samadhi that overcomes all the Winds, then, if we remember Vajradhara from Vajra Rosary and the seventh principle generally which is quelled by the Abode of Vajrayogini, then, for Prajna Paramita, we see it tackles the sin of the seventh principle or skandha:

view (drsti) is related to the paramita of wisdom (Skt. prajñāpāramitā)

In the sense of a sin, it is Atta Dristi or any dualization of different selves or any view towards one's organism or apparatus as having self. It means it from the level of the merest subconscious flickering.

Vajradhara refers to the singular Non-conceptual Wind, and, Prajna is:

The wisdom that is not overcome by conceptualization and that bears the speech of the buddha, which is perfectly suitable for those to whom it is directed, is known as wisdom.

This Paramita is governed by Amoghasiddhi Family, another thing making it a cumulative cycling of "all the above".

It would seem that Dhyana is the concentration and Samadhi is the result. Which in my terms makes Samadhi more like the dissolve, when self dissolves.

A leopard is a panther, an Eagle or Aquila is Garuda, a snake is any Naga.

In that one Naga, you should be able to expand all of the Cemetery realms, but here again it is possible to find oneself in their Peaceful equivalent. When the mental issues and karmic winds are depleted from a given aspect, you no longer have to be stuck at the level with blood and guts all over the place. The Naga cultivates the related Paramita, and causes beneficial rains to flow, presumably re-vitalizing the landscape, and then the Yaksha guardian allows one to "climb the tree" which is into the Avadhut.

It is a plunge through the unknown and the outer fringes of Kama Loka.

I was taught about the panther shaman body last night, so I can add some details.

The snake, the Naga, is related to the shaman body that is "Indonesian", the one at the top of the waterfall directly from the clouds, that is also, in other shakings, at my crown since it is above the top of my pillar. The snake manifests from behind, like a hood over my head, with the bottom of me becoming snakelike but really sort of vortex-like as far as the eye can see.

The panther shaman I was having trouble doing more than feeling very dark black and having a paw with claws on it. Last night I both spent hours with this clear body and with the paws, but the skin covered person shaman is tan and dressed in a turquoise with gold coins headdress, and stands at a cenote with Houracan above in the sky and arches backwards and shouts at the sky, face wet with very warm rain. I'm describing third person but it is first person, and is at the same time so dark black that I can't see my limbs. She gestures in exact coordination with the other shaman bodies, but "on the way in", I do a abhaya mudra in the left hand, and a karana mudra in the right, pointing down.

In other words, I know perfectly well how to make the Ganapati thing work if given a chance, whereas some of the other stuff is brand new to me since I have to deal with sensitive Sodashis. And it makes no sense to me to make these things this difficult to begin with.

I know about difficult things, but I also sometimes find out that what was supposed to be difficult was badly described in the texts, and wasn't supposed to be. I have a theory that as writing got easier (all the way to the present) things got easier to write, and very old texts are not brief always out of a desire for brevity, but a habit of being concise because of expensive writing materials.

shaberon

4th December 2020, 19:43

Here is the explanation of Vajraraudris in Samputa.

In this tantra, the principal is Wrathful vajrasattva--Heruka--Mahasukha--of Vajra--Hatred Family, and the Prajna--consort is Vajravarahi.

And the class of Vajraraudris continues in Weapon Hevajra tantra, which we have figured out is supposed to re-cast Hevajra in two, four, and six arm forms, ascending in the Tri-kaya so to speak. Samputa is the same.

The Gauris are Offering Goddesses. According to the text, it is a solo Heruka which is first generated, and the Gauris do a round of praises. It does not mention Dhupa and Dipa and the other Taras with incense and perfume and so on, this is a wrathful rite and they appear to be replaced. Heruka stands on a corpse. The moon and sun then emit the vowels and consonants.

Then, Heruka is re-generated in tantric regalia with a staff and flame-swept hair astride Bhairava in a charnel ground surrounded by eight goddesses, i. e., Vajraraudris.

Then, Heruka is re-generated in a four arm form and, the text has the term Embrace, with Vajravarahi. This seems to be a quick transform-via-syllable.

Then, the couple are re-generated in a six arm form. This is in a Moon Disk environment. First meditate on emptiness, then there is a lotus with a moon, and so on. Only after this is fully manifested does it say, then, they are in union. It is a mandala with lotus petals, and, the Vajraraudris as a class are Hrih-arisen goddesses who stand on skull cups, who are "just there" with no special casting of their own. This is a wrathful rite, but, we would have to contend it is in more of a moon-like peaceful cemetery since, no matter how wrathful their image may be, it turns out that they are *all* pleasing:

“Their forms, of different colors, are pleasing to the mind
And they each have one face and four arms.
First, he should draw the beautiful consort (vidyā)
Who holds an arrow and bow, {2.3.40}

2.143
“A skull cup filled with semen,
And a goad.
Second, he should draw the goddess who has in her hands a spear,
A skull cup filled with blood, {2.3.41}

2.144
“A vajra scepter, and a noose.
He should draw her on the southern petal.
Third, on the northern petal, he should draw
The goddess who has in her hands a sword, {2.3.42}

2.145
“A skull cup filled with water,
A vajra scepter, and a bell.
He should draw the fourth goddess
On the western petal. {2.3.43}

2.146
“In her left hands she is holding
A khaṭvāṅga and a skull cup,
And in her right hands
A ‘flame thrower’ and a triple banner. {2.3.44}

2.147
“The fifth goddess has a staff in her hand
And holds a skull cup with another.
She also holds a lotus and a ḍamaru.
He should draw her in the northeastern quarter. {2.3.45}

2.148
“In the northwestern corner he should draw
The sixth goddess with a lotus in her hand.
She also holds a skull cup filled with fat,
A mirror, and an axe. {2.3.46}

2.149
“The seventh goddess has a lance in her hand.
She also holds a conch shell, a discus weapon,
And a skull cup filled with blood.
He should draw her in the southwestern quarter. {2.3.47}

2.150
“The eighth goddess he should draw
In the southeastern quarter.
She is holding in her hands
A pitcher, a vajra scepter, a bell, {2.3.48}

2.151
“And a skull cup filled with substances,
Covered with human skin. [F.89.b]
He should draw these goddesses on the petals
And the lord Mahāsukha on the pericarp. {2.3.49}

2.152
“He should draw, in the secret maṇḍala,
Various musical instruments.
He should draw the gate keepers—
A goddess holding a goad, {2.3.50}

2.153
“And likewise, one with a vajra noose, a chain,
And a vajra bell.
He should visualize himself in the center of a vulva,
And later begin mantra recitation.

On their petals, the goddesses mix Hrih with other syllables in a process of the Four Seals, and it is after this that you are supposed to enter union with a consort. It is a bit hard to read because they are not introduced until the end of the section:

“There is Vajraraudrī
And also Vajrabimbā.
Vajrarāgī is the third
And Vajrasaumyā the fourth. {2.3.58}
2.161
“The fifth is Vajrayakṣī
And the sixth Vajraḍākinī.
The seventh is Śabdavajrā
And Pṛthvīvajrā is the eighth.”

There we can see the casting order is unusual, so I was wrong, and here Vajradakini is sixth which is placed in the Northwest. Although the text does not reveal this, we have just passed a section of it explaining Upeksa and Samsara as the prime operating environment--which have already been defined as Vajradakini's nature with respect to the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment and to the Skandhas (Samsara skandha, i. e. cetana or volition, will, iccha).

It is calling Vajraraudri "the consort" and she must be in the East.

The inner ring, for some reason, ends in the West, and the intermediate ring is just backwards. It ends with a Pitcher goddess which re-inforces the idea of "end" because that would be Initiation compared to the others with skullcups. So it ends in Agni corner which is paradoxically occupied by Prithvi or Earth Element, which almost implies Agni possession of the physical body.

One remains in union making offerings and muttering, and that is all, the section abruptly ends and the next part is a Tara sadhana.

The tantra at least in this part does not seem to be dead set on self-generation or taking the deity form on oneself. It sounds like it either accepts or is even intended to use a Yoga view or i. e., an external scene that more resembles a conversation.

The Heruka specifically allows a front-facing in-the-sky view, and, nothing about the major six arm form suggests anything other than such a mandala is seen.

Samputa also says that Vajradhara is One and the Tathagatas are Five Families, whereas Vajrasattva more or less "is" the practitioner or is one's principle of Gnosis. It must be a hypostasis, since the main, operative Vajrasattva is emanated in Vajra Family. This again sounds to me like the best kind of description of "Seven Families", since the additional two are not exactly primordial or are not within the bundle of senses, etc. It is more like Vajradhara is a state that Vajrasattva is the practice of.

There apparently is a beautiful white Vajraraudri Archer who has a skull of semen and a Hook. Somehow she seems to work as a "double" Vajravarahi since she is called "the consort". Of course, the original term is "Vidya", and so one could perhaps argue she is the intent or knowledge to be sought in this rite, rather than "vidya = consort" as per translation.

It has seemed to me these Vajraraudris as a "bandwidth" or "channel" are like Marutgana--Shaktis, and, here, they are an alchemy of Sound, Seals, and Sex. Elsewhere, the text says if you cannot have union that you should visualize it, almost as if the "self-generation" recommended is not really a deity form but is sex.

This is about as wrathful as it can be, the Family keeps calling itself Hatred and yet it goes to this very pleasant environment which becomes the root of the real meditation and is most closely related to Hrih. This again is a lot like the vicious Maruts or Servants of Indra being "banded" by some more powerful influence such as Ganapati, especially when thought of as the Energy Winds or Prana. It is like the Prana Shakti of:

Om Sri Maha Ganapatiye Pranashaktyai Namah

The Samputa is a bit like a tour guide, it is about Dakini Jala Samvara, and so I am going to try to re-work the circle of Vajraraudris with the Dakini Jala Gauris. What that will do is place "the original Chakrasamvara" with "a late cumulative synthesis".

It would make the layers of these wrathful deities into:

Tramen--Pisaci--Objects of Mundane Consciousness, such as Rupa Vajra up to Dharmadhatu Vajra

Gauris: Ayatanas or Indriyas or sense-faculties of consciousness, used to make Offerings

Vajraraudris: Marut Gana or Prana Shakti or the Energy-Winds as related to Agni and the Families as used with the above, which are a parallel to Vajraraudris--Seven Jewels of Enlightenment as done in Vajradaka Tantra, which itself is the main backbone of Samputa along with Dakini Jala and Vajramrita Tantra and Vasantatilaka.

So far, I see nothing that actually describes the Vajraraudris' nature that could contradict this. But as we can see, they have a really specific role in a key location.

shaberon

5th December 2020, 09:07

Three seems more natural to me, the night before last I was tested on putting together the complicated lamination that makes the other emanation, the infinite one, happen, but last night went back to nailing down the three worlds with the three shaman bodies.

Samputa says:

“When, in his pursuit of the path of mantra,
An able disciple is initiated
In the presence of all the buddhas,
In a maṇḍala, which is the abode of the bliss-gone ones, {2.1.6}
2.7
“He should be able, in addition,
To behold the goddess of infinite world spheres
If this wise disciple has reached the state of self-consecration
And is anxious not to violate his samaya. {2.1.7}

So, if I say it sounds like you are at an energetic parallel of what we call Entering the Mandala, according to Samputa, you have this ability, since you are able to perceive such a goddess. Also, when it says "self-concentration", that is Svadisthana, which has a few synonyms, I personally like Water Moon.

I feel like asking, "Well then how do they do all the blisses that require moving back and forth between the sexes, and how do they host and hear from the Dakinis?" But I guess the answer is, "They don't." or they don't do it that way. I have done some visualization so I do know what that looks like, but the time I tried astral projection, my astral body was so normal looking that I had to actually turn and face the bed and see myself there to sense that anything was different. My clear body has been extant and accessible for two years now, I guess I am very used to it.

I think it is all in the plane of Prana, i. e. the third world or Svar Loka, equivalent to Manipura Chakra in the Sri Yantra system.

Dakinis in the plainest sense are called the flows of energy in the channels.

As for some of the other points, I am not sure. In Buddhist tantra, visualizing oneself as the opposite sex is certainly described as an exercise in the release of identity, but I am not sure that it is said that you actually have to do this to pursue Suksma Yoga.

In the western sense when we say "astral" we may get confused. In original Theosophy, the astral plane is second plane of the Linga Sharira which is *limited* to a copy of the earth world, and, this particular body cannot do very much.

In general use, "astral" as in projection often would mean the Kama Loka or Kama Rupa, which is *able* to copy and affect the earth, but, it can do a gazillion other stuffs.

HPB said her seven planes system was superior to the Fourfold Advaita Taraka Raja Yoga classification of Subba Row, because it explained more things then "only" meditation. Especially with ghosts, which are of different kinds, depending on whether or not they have a Linga Sharira.

You should not normally retain it after the expiration of a physical body. However it "sticks" in the case of premature deaths such as accidents and suicides, and is bound to haunt the terrestrial plane for the remainder of what would normally have been possible for the Jiva or life force energy. These are of course very terrible since they are insatiable and unable to satisfy anything unless via a parasitical relationship. This class is called Earthwalker and it is one of these that I believe I have helped.

Death at a later age generally means the double will slip off and just hover around the gravesite, with no owner.

Most ghosts are the shells or kliffoth, meaning, the discarded remains of a Kama Rupa.

HPB said most untrained psychics would have a hard time telling the difference between a ghost and an astrally-projected adept.

A lot of necromancy was being done those days particularly in the U. S. and Theosophy sought to make the point that the spiritual soul was something else entirely which had gone away from the terrestrial plane whatsoever, and that ghosts were just the "remains of memory and personality" in the same way that corpses, pieces, and parts in the charnel grounds are no longer considered in use by their former owner.

Guhyeshvari means "secret queen", is she a Tara? The reason I thought of Tara is because of a feeling of peace and a smile that reminded me of her.

Manjushri is remembered as the one who set up the town, Pattan, now called Lalitpur. If we know him as the Virgil of Avatamsaka Sutra and a whole bunch of other things, his initiator was Guhyeshvari. By name, she is an extension of Khaganana, Vajravarahi and Nairatma. She is Mamaki, who is a Prajna. So she is a female correspondence to Vajra Family being a hypostasis of Vajrasattva and Vajradhara.

I am not sure Guhyeshvari "comes quickly" and I am not sure if she is "taking us across" since her nature is more of the Prajna, who is the "across".

It is almost more accurate to call her "a Varuni". Varuni is Vairocani, Varnani, Vajravarahi, Nairatma, Khandaroha, and Mamaki.

And so when you crunch that in the Nepalese sense in which it originated, firstly, you have the full explanation of Khandaroha, who is used as an All-Purpose Banisher in many of the Tibetan practices without mentioning this. Then, you find Guhyeshvari has her personal thing which is also not expounded in the Tibetan tantras, Khaganana.

It is so self-secret, I am not sure exactly what to say about her.

Her Thousand Arm form holds Males and Females.

She is Adi Prajna, assisted by Vasudhara and Parasol.

She is Sati's vagina and cervix Pitha.

Mamaki is a slippery rascal who is also like a grace of her stepping down in that she may be known through Bodhisattva Vajrapani.

And at a certain point I have to concede there is something in the tantras which surpasses my knowledge of the physiological aspect of part of Suksma Yoga. It seems, strongly, to me, there is a significant meaning in the "variable" Family of Vajradhatvishvari, along with the fact that Mamaki can be found in Jewel and Vajra Families, and this probably has a lot to do with Vajramrita Tantra, which was requested by Mamaki.

It would seem that Dhyana is the concentration and Samadhi is the result. Which in my terms makes Samadhi more like the dissolve, when self dissolves.

Something like that, yes. Dhyanas can be done on any subjects such as a Kasina Disk or Yantra. Samadhis, in the Buddhist sense, are specific visualizations. Samadhi, as a category or possible event, was something practiced long before. So we are doing something like an evolution of the experience of Samadhi.

I know about difficult things, but I also sometimes find out that what was supposed to be difficult was badly described in the texts, and wasn't supposed to be. I have a theory that as writing got easier (all the way to the present) things got easier to write, and very old texts are not brief always out of a desire for brevity, but a habit of being concise because of expensive writing materials.

On that one I was not being esoteric but actual, i. e. Sodashi = sixteen year old, and so forth. It is a domestic situation which is fraught with its own perils. Because Ucchista Ganapati recycles messes, that is why it is so timely.

It should go on into the next phase next week. In other words, I have to employ its operative powers and get them to work, with, or without, any explanation about what I am doing.

Old Student

6th December 2020, 06:36

Then, Heruka is re-generated in tantric regalia with a staff and flame-swept hair astride Bhairava in a charnel ground surrounded by eight goddesses, i. e., Vajraraudris.

Then, Heruka is re-generated in a four arm form and, the text has the term Embrace, with Vajravarahi. This seems to be a quick transform-via-syllable.

I believe I have read that there are many Herukas? The only one I'm all that familiar with is Chakrasamvara, and only in a 12 armed version, in which he embraces Vajrayogini.

Then, the couple are re-generated in a six arm form. This is in a Moon Disk environment. First meditate on emptiness, then there is a lotus with a moon, and so on. Only after this is fully manifested does it say, then, they are in union. It is a mandala with lotus petals, and, the Vajraraudris as a class are Hrih-arisen goddesses who stand on skull cups, who are "just there" with no special casting of their own. This is a wrathful rite, but, we would have to contend it is in more of a moon-like peaceful cemetery since, no matter how wrathful their image may be, it turns out that they are *all* pleasing:
[...]
On their petals, the goddesses mix Hrih with other syllables in a process of the Four Seals, and it is after this that you are supposed to enter union with a consort.

So this would be a Mahamudra method? There is a lot of mixing of cemetery and charnel grounds themes with themes of bliss and conjoining in my shaking at times, but decay there is almost always not an endpoint but a proto-beginning.

It has seemed to me these Vajraraudris as a "bandwidth" or "channel" are like Marutgana--Shaktis, and, here, they are an alchemy of Sound, Seals, and Sex. Elsewhere, the text says if you cannot have union that you should visualize it, almost as if the "self-generation" recommended is not really a deity form but is sex.

It wouldn't seem like differentiating between deity and sex was "necessary" if the deity was Shakti.

Old Student

6th December 2020, 07:04

So, if I say it sounds like you are at an energetic parallel of what we call Entering the Mandala, according to Samputa, you have this ability, since you are able to perceive such a goddess. Also, when it says "self-concentration", that is Svadisthana, which has a few synonyms, I personally like Water Moon.

Entering the Mandala? I cannot perceive such a goddess on my own, I was shoved there, and it is seemingly very complicated to get up to and pass that particular test. Svadisthana in its version as the name of a chakra, would be the right area where the visions of many bodies get put together, which may be coincidental, or maybe not. Water Moon is also the right area but not part of these particular experiences.

As for some of the other points, I am not sure. In Buddhist tantra, visualizing oneself as the opposite sex is certainly described as an exercise in the release of identity, but I am not sure that it is said that you actually have to do this to pursue Suksma Yoga.

It is probably more related to the shaman aspects, but I can't help thinking that it is distinctly shakti/tantra.

It is so self-secret, I am not sure exactly what to say about her.

Her Thousand Arm form holds Males and Females.

She is Adi Prajna, assisted by Vasudhara and Parasol.

She is Sati's vagina and cervix Pitha.

That sounds like a good fit, except that I don't get the feeling she would have a visage of complete peace. This one did, I'm sure of it, since she was emanated in first person -- i.e. I experienced being her, not looking at her.

I did laminations for probably about an hour and a half last night, in the "from scratch" and not the tweak/switch form. The from scratch is like being a conjoined yab-yum like action, with the female stretching out bliss in a sheetlike form and the male folding and stretching it in the other direction, then the female folding and stretching it out again, etc. The lamination is layers of female and male folded and stretched again and again, this happens between the perineum and roughly dantian or maybe a little higher. When it builds up enough through this lamination, the completely unstoppable dancing starts at the waist which generates the worlds. I only generated the three plus the surrounding void again, but I built more than that many laminations (male-female pairs).

shaberon

6th December 2020, 09:57

I have to keep ruminating through some of this to focus the detail and get out the mistakes.

We are looking at something like the fact that Dakini Jala is the "first" Chakrasamvara or "Yogini tantra", Samputa is heavily based on Dakini Jala, but, it has added a generally-unknown retinue, and so we want to compare the two. All the other tantras consist of a modification to Dakini Jala's Gauris, and so this is a bit like looking at Tara's song in the context of the Taras that were in use when it was composed. We can easily find four or five systems of Gauris, just like there are several Tara systems.

When looking at the original Gauris as in Dakini Jala, one finds two changes corresponding to the two transmissions to Tibet. During the first or Padmasambhava transmission, there was the entrance of Sabari, and later in the second or Sarma transmission, there was the addition of Dombi. That makes the currently-practiced Hevajra format.

By looking at the original, we get a view of the "absorption" of Hindu deities and the subjugation of Maheshvara, which is the major theme in any tantra, Hindu or Buddhist.

I am not sure about the first "use" of the name "Heruka"; however, Heruka's first appearance in the Buddhist mantras is in the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha [STTS], where his name appears in a Mantra for the drawing of all the [Saiva] Mother-goddesses into Buddhism, and it is that, with the insertion of a single seed syllable, that is adopted as the Mantra of Heruka in the Sarvabuddha Samayoga Dakini Jala Samvara.

Heruka as Dakini Jala Samvara is four faced, eight armed, having for its seed a Blue Hrih.

In STTS, there appears to be a distinction between Candi and Maheshvari:

Pramoha, who, as we have seen, has the boar face of Visnu's Adivaraha incarnation, is invoked as Vajranarayani, Cauri as Vajracandesvari, and Ghasmari as Vajramahesvari.

The titles are, of course, their "consort" roles in Paramadya Tantra, which is the major basis of Dakini Jala:

Visnu, Rudra, and Brahma (Narayan, Candesvara, Padmodbhava) and their consorts Vajrasri, Vajragauri, and Vajratara, join
Akasagarbha and Khavajrini to form the retinue of Vajrasattva in the central section of the abridged Mandala of the Yogatantra Paramadya.

In this sense, Vajra Tara must be about the same as Vajramaheshvari, related tp Brahma and Lotus. The Paramadya has less Families than Dakini Jala, and so the clear emergence of Amoghasiddhi Family perhaps starts there, and so it is not possible for this source to have considered whether Candi is really Amoghasiddhi Tara who is also Sri. This also suggests that Dharma Samgraha is *not* from original or Sutra Nagarjuna, since it clearly has a sixth family with Candi, it must be from the era of Dakini Jala. Nevertheless, one might surmise "this" Candi begets "that" Candi, since the Paramadya is like a Krama or Method that makes the advanced version work.

Either Gauri or Cauri is Candesvari or the consort of Rudra--Canda. The deity that "will be" Vajravarahi is currently Pramoha, who is thought of as Narayan--Vishnu's consort for the Boar avatar.

Ghasmari is perhaps *the* most important player in the tantras. She is "ravenous" and related to Food Offering, and yet also related to Rasa--Taste, quite similar to Vetali. Since she may, perhaps, "gobble the remainder" of food, that would be like Ucchista Ganapati; and even if she does not take "scraps", she is, nevertheless, his mantric "sister". She is one of the extremely few who carries the Agni Kunda or the main tantric fire, as well as a Sword.

Ghasmari has another role when a minor retinue figure:

Ghasmari begins in Panchadaka as a green Bell goddess, and she becomes the South Gatekeeper of Heruka's Jnana Chakra, having characteristics of the southern dakini. Ghasmari is power of food, or taste, similar to Rasa, and the enjoyment of soma or amrita or nectar. She is defined by Drakpa Gyaltsen as the Samputa Tantra itself. Samputa and Hevajra are slightly different systems of similar ingredients; Samputa having more to do with making a Bliss Chakra of Four Dakinis, whereas Hevajra takes this for granted and applies it to higher stages of the Path. Almost any picture of her is going to be the green kind which is how Hevajra does it.

Luminous Wisdom gives Hevajra's Ghasmari as the purified sixth principle, manas of self-grasping, or sakkaya-ditthi or what we have called Sixth Skandha and Gnosis Element. Nairatma "is" this principle, Ghasmari is its purified state. In Sadhanamala, Ghasmari is in the northern quadrant of Nairatma's retinue as Rame, right after Vetali is "Scent Object" and the like, but this name indicates little other than seed syllable Ram, feminine of Rama, and to delight or enjoy, like Ramate.

Like Ganapati, she uses an ordinary seed syllable of her initial, which is only minorly different:

In Vairocana Abhisambodhi, Gha is in the throat, stands for ghana "agglomeration". The basic syllable Gha has alternate meanings of bell (Ghanta) or destruction, and has to become Ghas, to do with food or eating, or Ghan for nose and scent. If she actually "has" a syllable, though, it is Hrim. Maheshvari is also an epithet of Annapurna.

The translation of Dakini Jala says Ghasmari is "eating a corpse", but if we challenge this against the original, it actually says:

mrta-carvanamukhi bhaksanadrstih

and it may have to do more with catharsis:

Mrta is death, but the expression carvana is obscure, does not seem to mean "eating"; according to Rasa, or, the expression of emotion in theater:

"Bhattauta, another scholar from Kashmir, in his treatise called Kavya Kautuka, also says that a dramatic presentation is not a mere physical occurrence. In witnessing a play we forget the actual perpetual experience of the individuals on the stage. The past impressions, memories, associations etc. become connected with the present experience. As a result, a new experience is created and this provides new types of pleasure and pains. This is technically known as rasvadana, camatkara, carvana."

The next phrase, Bhaksana, is a deity's consumption of sacrificed food. Drsti has to do with eyes, view, wrong view, look, divine eye, or in theater, "has the look in her eye". Ghasmari's hands are busy, so, she does not seem to be eating a corpse the way some deities do. It sounds like she has a dramatic expression of eating the meditator's death. Mrta is not a noun, unless it means food obtained by begging, it is the adjective, dead, and the closest noun is mrtam, death, neither one of which is a body. If taken almost literally, it would say face of begging for food of catharsis, and satisfied look of receiving food offering. The closest term for "corpse" is Mrtaka; all other forms of "corpse use" abandon this word and use a form of Zava, or, occasionally, Kravya. Black corpse-eater seems to be a hasty translation, especially in context, they sound more like actresses, with expressions, gestures, and moods.

Dakini Jala Gauris are a little different than most retinues, they are not a ring of eight; there is an inner ring of four, and then the second ring would be filled with more deities in the intermediate directions. They are listed in a standard casting order.

According to Anandagarbha,

Gauri (E) is fair in colour and tranquil-faced. Eight-armed, she cuts off each of the four heads of Brahma by simultaneously firing arrows from four bows.

Cauri (S) is red and fierce-faced. Wearing a chaplet of skulls she holds a goad-hook (ankusah) in her left hand at her heart with a skull-staff in the crook of her left arm resting on her left shoulder, and holds aloft an eight-spoked discuss with the middle finger of her right, pressing down on the three worlds with her left foot.

Pramoha (W) is black and four-armed, with the face of Visnu's boar-incarnation (adivarahamukha, or, according to Humkaravajra, boar above and a red head below. Moreover, he has her raise with her two lower hands a wheel ('khor lo) rather than the earth). In her first left hand she holds a skull -bowl full of wine and in her first right a Vajra. With her other two hands she imitates the boar-incarnation by raising up the earth.

Vetali (N) is white and joyful-faced. With her right hand she pours a stream of the nectar of immortality from a transparent skull-cup and with her left shows the Vajra banner gesture.

Pukkasi [E] is multi-coloured (visvavarna) and dancing in a smoky cremation -ground full of strings of skulls and the like. In her right fist she clasps a five-pronged Vajra and in her left a wind-buffeted tendril from the wish-granting tree of paradise (kalpavrksalata).

Candali (S) is dark blue and riding on a whirlwind (vatamandalika). In her right fist she clenches a Vajra-topped trident and with her left releases a whirlwind against her victims.

Ghasmari (W) is black [?] and eating a corpse [?]. In her left hand she holds a blazing sacrificial fire-vessel (agnikunda-) and with her right grasps a sword. She also represents Samputa Tantra, or, i. e., this later synthesis must be derived from her influence, Secret of Food.

Herukasamnibha (N), black like Heruka, holds a skull-cup [to her heart] in her left hand, with a skull-staff resting on her left shoulder, and a five-pronged Vajra in her right.

What happens in the later editions of Gauri practice is that Pukkasi's multi-colored nature is swiped by Dombi, who goes in the final slot and offers her body to the principal deity. The final deity in this version is guilty of being "just like" Heruka, who is the principal deity, so her intentions may be similar to Dombi's.

If Gauri had been designated as a consort of Brahma's, something happened to that.

Pramoha is either the full Arthasiddhi Boar Face, or, at minimum, having a Ghona; whereas many forms of Vajravarahi are not either. If Pramoha is the name contemplated, it does not infringe on any Vajravarahi rites.

Dakini Jala places Mamaki in Jewel Family; its Dhyani Buddhas and Prajnas are:

Heruka + Isvari, Vairocana + Locana, Vajrasurya + Mamaki, Padmanartesvara + Pandaravasini, Paramasva + Tara, and Vajradhara + Samvari

"Vajrarudra appears already in the Sarvabuddhasamayoga in a passage
that associates the nine dramatic sentiments (rasah) with Vajrasattva, Tathagata,
Vajradhara, Lokesvara, Vajrasurya, Vajrarudra, Sakyamuni, Arali (or perhaps
Aralli), and Sasvata (Vairocana) respectively. Vajrarudra's is the sentiment of ter-
ror (bhayanakarasah) and it is probable therefore that we should understand Vajra-
rudra to be Heruka."

This Heruka would mean Vajra Family, and so, part of the purpose may be to transfer the Raudra and Chandika nature into the "new-ish" Amoghasiddhi Family. Here, Amoghasiddhi is called Paramasva, and only Sadhanamala has anything to say about that. This retinue still uses the name Tara instead of Candi like in Dharma Samgraha. It is a bit like the Shiva practices related to smoke, etc., are inhaled into Akshobya which is our Visnu, and later, exhaled through Amoghasiddhi, when his Family is further developed, since he is our Shiva. In Dakini Jala, Paramasva's mandala receives a unique set of four sub-courts, so it is obvious he is up to something, when it is centered on Vajrasattva as Heruka in Vajra Family.

There is a "related to original Varahi" Blazing Flames or Anala-pramohani-dharani, which is for Vajra Family Mother (Jitana or Curtains).

Dakini Jala is slightly incomplete, as it does not have features such as reversed casting, moving Mamaki, or explicitly teach Eight Dissolutions. It does almost everything except the maestro finishing touches of Completion Stage. We could say, for some reason, the addition of the ring of Vajraraudris is going to be the major upgrade to it, the main difference to being in the state of Hevajra Tantra.

Gauris are fundamental and the intent is something like "harnessing" them, so that Sound is no longer spewing out an eruption of bad memories, and instead has to arise as a pretty Gandharva-type sound to be offered to the deity, and so on with the other things. I am not quite sure they ever do anything besides change character from the "ultimate nightmare" mode as shown in Book of the Dead, etc., into something that smoothly operates to provide its best. Doing so provides a liberation derived from whichever particular goddess.

Vajraraudris are in some other state beyond this, which, much like Sukla Tara, seems to be the replacing of the cemetery environment with Moonlight. Almost as if they could be said to emanate from Sukla Tara. Both things pertain to Six Arm deities. Although they are wrathful, they are still of pleasing appearance. Like the conflux of two opposites.

Gauri or Cauri has been called "consort of Rudra" and "Candesvari"; similarly, Vajraraudri follows as possibly a form of "the consort" or at least the Vidya or knowledge of the rite.

Even though Gauri may be in Tibetan kye rim or kyeurim or Generation Stage, it appears she is still intended to be the same Gauri who is Raudri or Raudrani or Candesvari, likely meaning in Completion Stage. As if calling the two retinue rings "the Gauris" and "the Vajraraudris" is naming them for the same goddess at two different times and again like a hypostasis just as Varuni-->Vairocani-->Varahi (Pramoha).

As a general expression, the Three Times are Pleasant, Unpleasant, and Mystery.

The Gauris are part of Dakini Jala, which means fully-operational Six Family Wheel. Vajraraudris perhaps were first in Weapon Hevajra Tantra and then ported into Samputa, which we are fortunate to have currently available. And it is they who support the incredible esoteric transformation of the deity.

Nothing says that Vajraraudris are Marutgana, until we ask what Raudra Krama is, then we get back either Ganapati, or Pancha Raksa 206. The latter is an esoteric change which has affected Sitabani, which is the name of the main forest near Kashi that had the Peaceful Cemetery where these tantras were originally disseminated, at least to pilgrims, or something like that. The original tantric trinity used the name Rudra, not Shiva, so it is already like the whole thing is about this. It has specifically trampled Bhairava Shiva.

If it probably is Marutgana, and I cross that with what I get from Ganapati, it makes sense, it is like they are celebrating the result of whatever he is trying to do. He is not there. Sound, however, is.

Dakini Jala is adaptable to two, four, or six arm states, and so this is the same as Samputa or Hevajra, where they are definitely a progression.

That Heruki is offering her body, or trying to go to the middle, which is defined as a Raudra nature, but then in the next tantra or Samputa, Raudri has been kicked out to do some work, but was for some reason called "consort" or vidya was interpreted as consort. This retinue nominally is centered on Vajravarahi, who is the consort as usual.

If the Samputa is a motion towards Completion Stage off of what Dakini Jala has to offer, then any kind of feminine Raudri experience gained from the first, would make sense, as the eastern or "starting" Raudri goddess in the new practice. If there is any question as to whether they are supposed to be related, Ghasmari says yes. Is there a Raudra Krama, Ganapati says yes, there is.

Ghasmari has Agni Kunda which is the Triangle of Inverted Stupa. In that way, it makes perfect sense "the Gauris" are Generation Stage, and the one who appears to be the most powerful by having vanquished Isana Mahesvara is equal to the Samputa Tantra itself.

Samputa gave us the surprising White Vajraraudri, and when we examine the colors and directions, we have to break the standard order to follow the weird casting pattern:

raudrī śuklavarṇā |
dakṣiṇe vajrabimbā pītavarṇā |
paścime rāgavajrā raktābhā |
uttare vajrasaumyā haritābhā || 3.4.48 ||
aiśānyāṃ vajrayakṣī ca sitapītābhā |
āgneyyāṃ vajraḍākinī pītaraktābhā |
nairṛtyāṃ śabdavajrā tu raktanīlābhā |
vāyavyāṃ pṛthivīvajrā tu haritasitābhā

East: White (Sukla) Vajraraudri

First, he should draw the beautiful consort (vidyā)
Who holds an arrow and bow,
A skull cup filled with semen,
And a goad.

South: Yellow Vajrabimba

Second, he should draw the goddess who has in her hands a spear,
A skull cup filled with blood,
A vajra scepter, and a noose.
He should draw her on the southern petal.

North: Green Vajrasaumya

Third, on the northern petal, he should draw
The goddess who has in her hands a sword,
“A skull cup filled with water,
A vajra scepter, and a bell.

West: Red Ragavajra

He should draw the fourth goddess
On the western petal.
“In her left hands she is holding
A khaṭvāṅga and a skull cup,
And in her right hands
A ‘flame thrower’ and a triple banner.

Northeast: White and Yellow Vajrayakshi

“The fifth goddess has a staff in her hand
And holds a skull cup with another.
She also holds a lotus and a ḍamaru.
He should draw her in the northeastern quarter.

Northwest: Green and White Prithvi Vajra

“In the northwestern corner he should draw
The sixth goddess with a lotus in her hand.
She also holds a skull cup filled with fat,
A mirror, and an axe.

Southwest: Red and Blue Sabda Vajra

“The seventh goddess has a lance in her hand.
She also holds a conch shell, a discus weapon,
And a skull cup filled with blood.
He should draw her in the southwestern quarter.

Southeast: Yellow and Red Vajradakini

“The eighth goddess he should draw
In the southeastern quarter.
She is holding in her hands
A pitcher, a vajra scepter, a bell,
“And a skull cup filled with substances,
Covered with human skin.

As a class, "Vajradakinis" form the entire retinue including Musicians and Gatekeepers.

Again I am full of mistakes if I think "eighth" means Prithvi is in the southeast. Vajradakini is definitely in the southeast, she just is not eighth in the standard format.

It is still unusual that Sound and Earth are injected here, because Senses and Elements are defined as being in different rings.

Due to the strange order, we might say, hmm...Earth is obviously related to Yakshi. So is it trying to place Sound in an allied role to Vajradakini?

Vajradakini appears to be the final, initiatory Pitcher goddess, having also a Bell, and "substances".

It seems Vajradakinis are well assigned as a class, having a named leader who has fairly precise roles, up to a point, here, which looks like the Accomplishment of Samputa, or, maybe, is like the real title, Emergence of Samputa.

We found everything else pertaining to Raudri as Smoke, and this has given her back as a sexy, ensemenated White Archer, unleashing some horde that benefits Union in the Moonlight, culminating in Agni Vajradakini.

It seems to me, "that" kind of Vajradakini is the same as her being the Fiery Crown center of Jnanadakini.

It is difficult for me to come up with anything other than Vajraraudri--Marutgana is spinning up through the Brahmarandra into a "sikhi" or fire or mist or colors. That is what the ring is doing and if we are not sure of much else, we know it is Pleasant. By character name, this is closest to Vajrasaumya, who occupies, what would normally be, the Prajna position. This is a refined Gana or Assembly that takes some weird turns.

Vajradakini mysteriously also rules Samsara Skandha, which is weird, since Samsara conditions the opposite or lowest chakra. I suppose that is how she becomes known as Upeksa. Ability to manifest the Crown notwithstanding any phenomena of Samsara.

In the outer sense it is Parasol, and in the inner sense, samaya to Vajravarahi, Nairatma, and Marici. And if you reasonably question that, samaya means Time. And so it is still a bond of dignity, but now also as in Time for "the appearance of", which is why those deities are manifest or immanent accomplishments.

I see a Chain in that, it is like different Rings of Time, according to the aspect of the Samaya.

If I think of the first, Vajravarahi, it is still the same Varuni-->Vairocani-->Khandaroha-->Vajravarahi. Nairatma's predecessor would easily be Vajra Tara. Marici is somewhat of her own antecedent, except she is a bit limited until, at a certain point, she requires Varahi.

Most of the minor manifestations do not matter if you can visualize much of anything, but, the Samayas as used in Sadhanamala refer to a full presence.

Vajradakini threads most of the whole series, but, she is not a dakini in Vajra Family, or something you can just call up by name. She is a tantric aspect of Parasol, that you can. If Parasol is accepted as having been usnisa-emanated by Buddha, everything seems fine.

shaberon

6th December 2020, 18:41

From the conversation:

"Entering the Mandala? I cannot perceive such a goddess on my own, I was shoved there, and it is seemingly very complicated to get up to and pass that particular test. Svadisthana in its version as the name of a chakra, would be the right area where the visions of many bodies get put together, which may be coincidental, or maybe not. Water Moon is also the right area but not part of these particular experiences."

Yes, those are all sort of parallels, in perhaps the way that layers of different boiling fluids are parallel.

And accordingly, "Entering the Mandala" as a Gnostic state is far different than a strong education in its components. The closest metaphor is Vajra Netra or Eyes, in which you basically remove dirty, earthly blinders and see the real thing. This is why I think that emphasizing the Yoga approach is most valuable, since it is about experiencing all the concepts or components as inner meaning. A very strict Highest Yoga Tantra approach, if we were to go around transmitting complex Chakrasamvara mandalas and so forth, would be almost an exercise in futility, since we lack grounding in its topics. For most purposes, getting the inner meaning of the teachings is Vajrasattva, which does not require you to start by fully comprehending a complex manifestation.

This stage is of course going to purify and non-dualize the Svadisthana Chakra, whether that is what one means by "navel" or not.

With a bit of aptitude, we can get the hang of the STTS and Paramadya Vajrasattvas, and then it is here in the Samputa where he requires all the intricacies relevant to Emerge in Reverse Order from the Voids, which is a major aspect of Buddhahood making it different from other types of liberation.

The mandala that we enter and emerge in, is something like the "perfect world" for direct perception of the voids and/or Prabhasvara or Absolute Object or Paramartha.

So it sounds like you are somewhat physiologically "forced" into this stage, which, I would say, is the Sambhogakaya equivalent of me having been something like physiologically forced into a Nirakara or Dharmakaya equivalent, much more formless and deathly. Most of what you talk about, and most everything about the use of Six Families Equally, is defined in Vajra Rosary as more or less like the missing half of my mystical experiences. That is why this is all complementary, similar, and yet bizarrely about two things which seem almost total opposites, death and bliss.

Samputa steps in as a major mandala that would take in just about everything we can throw at it, and pose itself as a barrier, whether thought of in theological terms, energetic states, or anything else, between us and Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi or the goal of complete manifest Buddha.

The beginning of Samputa is rather interesting, because, in many ways, it flows like most of the other tantras, but when it delves into the practice of its topic, it actually explains how "you" take any woman and make her into a vidya--consort. It says it is great if you can find the self-arisen yoginis, but, if not, you take anyone and experience her into mantra and tantra.

The purpose of this is highly similar to Maha Vajradhatu, i. e. it pertains to Sambhogakaya. After describing the terms and intentions of tantra, at the end of Ch. 2 part one:

“He who has obtained the initiation becomes the most excellent Vajradhara,
Possessed of the unparalleled state, difficult to gain.
Having truly attained the splendor of the sambhogakāya field,
He has been conferred the great bodhicitta initiation. {2.1.62}

So, it specifically states it is about Samboghakaya, and does not mention Vajra Kaya or anything like that.

Next, in part two, there is a mass outbreak of Catuskoti-type phrasing, such as "neither Desire nor the Absence of Desire" and so on, Mahamudra descriptions of the Four Joys, the identification of the central figure as Vajrasattva, Dakini Jala Samvara, etc., until:

“This wisdom is self-reflexive awareness (svasaṃvedya);
It is impossible to describe this otherwise.
While perceiving all manner of forms,
While listening to sounds, {2.2.19}

The One of the Nirguna state has no reflection or is not self-aware, and so what is being conveyed in Samputa is the One of the Sadguna state, able to manifest a Perfect Image or Reflection.

It is then equivalent to Upeksa--Vajradakini:

“This is said to be equanimity,
The foremost meditation of all buddhas. (or: as an object of reflection) [F.86.b]
From within this very state everything arises—
The world’s animate and inanimate objects, {2.2.23}

So the core subject of Samputa is that of Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine:

Svasam Vedanâ (Sk.). Lit., “the reflection which analyses itself ”; a synonym of Paramârtha.

She approaches, in the best terms she has, the difficulty of Paramartha (https://theosophy.wiki/en/Paramartha) in the "known" schools of Yogachara and Madhyamika. Nicholas Weeks and David Reigle (http://nexus.universaltheosophy.com/archive/forum_nicholas-weeks_blavatsky-writings-notes-corrections--sd3-part-1_bare-html.html) rake over the "historical discrepancy or conflict" she depicts.

However, she really nails its role in perhaps one of her best lines:

The condition of Paranishpanna, without Paramârtha, the Self-analysing consciousness (Svasamvedana), is no bliss, but simply extinction (for Seven Eternities). . . .

That is how important this is considered.

The Pralaya, or, Nirguna state, has the option to eliminate you, or, to fill "seven eternities" with blissful repose. Only it is not the one making the choice. You do, on an either/or basis explained by Samputa.

"Meditation" in this book has been expanded to involve sexual meditation, whether with someone who is better at it than you are, or, a complete novice. It does not quite say "you must be initiated into Vajravilasini and do her practice". It is saying to do it at all possible costs with the best of whatever you have.

It is correct that it is training to carry the state achieved by such meditation into all other activities. Only in that way could it be described as detached from or beyond sex. Then, it seems to say Svasamvedana is more important than self-generation as a deity:

“In this way, the practitioner of the true state (tattvayogin), resolved upon the practice, authorized by his master, and abiding by his samaya, should practice meditation. If he does, what would be the use of committing to practice hand mudrās, mantras, making deity statues, or cultivating himself as deity, all of which can only produce common siddhis? Intent on buddhahood, he should clearly set up his goal and do the practice of the chosen deity. [F.87.a] In this way, when the goal has been reached, the threefold universe will become for him like the sky. Consequently, the skilled practitioner, having renounced everything, applies himself to the practice of meditation in the state he has attained, cultivating day and night self-reflexive awareness (saṃvedana) exclusively. {2.2.33}

Because this tantra uses some, if not all, front-generated deities, and, as far as I can tell, Transference as explained by Jnana Dakini also means she is an external form, it seems to me that self-generation is less important as a training technique, and the important thing is to simply become self-arisen White Heruka, which "you" do not do, "it" happens.

Svasamvedana is more or less the practice of Mahasukha:

viṣayāṇāṃ śuddhatvāt svasaṃvedyaṃ paraṃ sukham |
rūpaviṣayādi ye ´py anye pratibhāṣanti hi yoginām1629 || 5.2.47 ||

It is a difficult word, since, we would usually think, human personality, oh, that's a "self reflection", but, as soon as we get into the subject, it certainly is not talking about normal personality. It is the same as how Inverted Stupa makes a Reflection of the Divine, which, in most senses, is the opposite of saying the personality and material body is a "direct copy" of the divine. The only such "copy" is Vajradhara which is only perceivable in the, to us, highest samadhi, whereas Samputa Vajrasattva is an ever-deepening Samaya to this state.

Again, it would be incorrect to think of it as a "conceptual self" which is "mentally analyzing" "informational constructs". It refers to a state where all of that has been scrubbed away by Prana, and just is unable to find words that cannot be erroneously interpreted. Same with Atma, it does not mean any kind of "self" that can be expressed at all, but, we have no other word for what one "is".

It is in Sadhanamala one time with Vajra Ananga Manjushri 60, who is a Hrih-related Manjughosha:

svasaṃvedyam ātmānurāgaṃ kārayet

Anuraga is a type of Redness:

“Although one regularly meets with the beloved and is well-acquainted with the beloved, the ever-fresh sentiment of intense attachment causes the beloved to be newly experienced at every moment as if one has never before had any experience of such a person. The attachment which inspires such a feeling is known as anurāga.”.

"When anurāga reaches the state where it becomes the object of its own experience it is known as sva-saṃvedya."

(cf. Bhajana Rahasya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/bhajana-rahasya))

The Secret Doctrine is certainly a preparatory groundwork for Samputa, even though the title actually means Vajrayogini's explanation (Rahasya = Secret Doctrine) of Dakini Jala. So it is both. Even if we are still making minor errors, Svasamvedana is the spine of the whole thing.

Old Student

7th December 2020, 05:35

Again I am full of mistakes if I think "eighth" means Prithvi is in the southeast. Vajradakini is definitely in the southeast, she just is not eighth in the standard format.

It is still unusual that Sound and Earth are injected here, because Senses and Elements are defined as being in different rings.

Due to the strange order, we might say, hmm...Earth is obviously related to Yakshi. So is it trying to place Sound in an allied role to Vajradakini?

Vajradakini appears to be the final, initiatory Pitcher goddess, having also a Bell, and "substances".

Does re-ordering these come from another text? I'm not getting how you did this.

Vajradakini mysteriously also rules Samsara Skandha, which is weird, since Samsara conditions the opposite or lowest chakra. I suppose that is how she becomes known as Upeksa. Ability to manifest the Crown notwithstanding any phenomena of Samsara.

Is it mutually exclusive that she rule Samsara Skandha and manifest the Crown?

Old Student

7th December 2020, 05:55

And accordingly, "Entering the Mandala" as a Gnostic state is far different than a strong education in its components. The closest metaphor is Vajra Netra or Eyes, in which you basically remove dirty, earthly blinders and see the real thing.

That would make sense, in that one might be able to get a glimpse of what was to be seen before being able to see it at will. I was being shown that because I had thought that emanating as multiple (small multiple, 3) forms and worlds was quite something, and was being told it was not.

So it sounds like you are somewhat physiologically "forced" into this stage, which, I would say, is the Sambhogakaya equivalent of me having been something like physiologically forced into a Nirakara or Dharmakaya equivalent, much more formless and deathly. Most of what you talk about, and most everything about the use of Six Families Equally, is defined in Vajra Rosary as more or less like the missing half of my mystical experiences. That is why this is all complementary, similar, and yet bizarrely about two things which seem almost total opposites, death and bliss.

That's interesting. Nothing in my shaking can occur without bliss. But death is often there, it just is usually decay and produces a creation thing. I don't think I usually have death all by itself.

"Meditation" in this book has been expanded to involve sexual meditation, whether with someone who is better at it than you are, or, a complete novice. It does not quite say "you must be initiated into Vajravilasini and do her practice". It is saying to do it at all possible costs with the best of whatever you have.

It is correct that it is training to carry the state achieved by such meditation into all other activities. Only in that way could it be described as detached from or beyond sex. Then, it seems to say Svasamvedana is more important than self-generation as a deity:

“In this way, the practitioner of the true state (tattvayogin), resolved upon the practice, authorized by his master, and abiding by his samaya, should practice meditation. If he does, what would be the use of committing to practice hand mudrās, mantras, making deity statues, or cultivating himself as deity, all of which can only produce common siddhis? Intent on buddhahood, he should clearly set up his goal and do the practice of the chosen deity. [F.87.a] In this way, when the goal has been reached, the threefold universe will become for him like the sky. Consequently, the skilled practitioner, having renounced everything, applies himself to the practice of meditation in the state he has attained, cultivating day and night self-reflexive awareness (saṃvedana) exclusively. {2.2.33}

Because this tantra uses some, if not all, front-generated deities, and, as far as I can tell, Transference as explained by Jnana Dakini also means she is an external form, it seems to me that self-generation is less important as a training technique, and the important thing is to simply become self-arisen White Heruka, which "you" do not do, "it" happens.

But this does make sense. It cannot be either merely or only the initiation into Vajravilasini that does everything, otherwise what would the rest of it be for? And it makes sense that "you" do not do something that it happens. But it happens as a result of relentless study of every detail and spending all one's time on it. That would correspond nearly exactly to what is called the Aha experience in math. Although it is definitely the desired goal, one does not get to "do" it, it has to dawn on you.

“Although one regularly meets with the beloved and is well-acquainted with the beloved, the ever-fresh sentiment of intense attachment causes the beloved to be newly experienced at every moment as if one has never before had any experience of such a person. The attachment which inspires such a feeling is known as anurāga.”.

"When anurāga reaches the state where it becomes the object of its own experience it is known as sva-saṃvedya."

This does sound a lot like how the training goes with the Dakinis. If I am observing it as time going by and as working on being able to do as instructed, it's a constant string of tryings hard and failures and then a success and when looking back it was easy all the time. But if I'm looking at it as a whole, it is like the fresh sentiment.

shaberon

7th December 2020, 07:46

Does re-ordering these come from another text? I'm not getting how you did this.

I didn't. I posted copies of Samputa. The Sanskrit version reads like the standard casting order, which starts East and goes clockwise, and does a second revolution if there are intermediate deities like in Dakini Jala. This is practically a universal law in tantras until you get into the surreal yogini tantras and so on, in which the first "variation on a theme" is to reverse it by starting east and going counter-clockwise.

Mitra Yogin's 108 Mandalas is really a study of the variant geometry which is found in mandala colors moving around and so forth.

I believe historically that some mandalas have changed the colors mistakenly by not understanding the rite meant that the retinue was cast in reverse direction.

And so when the Samputa text says "The eighth goddess should be drawn in the southeast", it does not mean 1, 2, 3...8 is Prithvi, so she must be southeast.

It means that the goddess who is in the southeast is drawn eighth or last.

That is why it looks to me to be using two strange casting orders, because there is no conceivable way anything would ever draw "third" in the "north". But that is exactly what it says it is doing. It seems to be messing up the expectancy of a circular pattern for its own reason.

What that means is, my first impression, the "goal" must be Saumya or Pleasant because the rite is turning Raudri into Pleasant, is a complete mistake, because the text says they are all Pleasant to begin with.

Saumya retains her association to the northern quarter, but, the goal or attainment in this ring is shifted to Ragavajra.

Is it mutually exclusive that she rule Samsara Skandha and manifest the Crown?

No, I believe it is part of an enigma.

The Crown, generally speaking, is protected by the Armor Deities of Jewel Family, and, specifically "gated" by Vajradakini of Agni nature in terms of the subtle body of the Deity Yoga of Jnanadakini, who is the authoress of Transference.

The Wrathful Deities, in the incipient stage, especially as Ten Wrathful Ones, who are like Lokapala or Directional Guardians for Bali Offering, are Vajra Family.

However Guhyagarbha Tantra in terms of its death visualizations, says that in the Bardo the Wrathful Deities dawn in Jewel Family.

And so again if Mamaki is some kind of tribute from Jewel Family to Vajra Family, and, we see the responsibility of Wrath is somehow passed off the other way round, this is some kind of alchemy.

The most Extreme Wrath or Raudra is passed again even further to Amoghasiddhi Family.

The misery of Samsara is equal to ignorant mishandling of the Mamos or Gauris.

Its phenomena come from the same Dharmodaya as does that of Nirvana.

Vajradakini is perhaps a similar pivot.

The idea that Vajradakini is Samsara is straight from the initiatic formula of Nairatma 228:

paścād amṛtabhṛtaiḥ kumbhair abhiṣicyate buddhaḥ /
secayen sarvvasambuddhaiḥ citteśamukuṭo bhavet //

First it seems to have a purley "colors" sequence like we found somewhere else recently:

prathamaṃ bhāvayet kṛṣṇāṃ dvitīye raktāṃ vibhāvayet /
tṛtīye bhāvayet pītāṃ caturthe haritāṃ tathā //
pañcame nīlavarṇābhāṃ ṣaṣṭhe suśukladehikām /
ṣaḍaṅgāṃ bhāvayet yogī paścāt varṇavivarjitām //

Then it defines the Skandhas although it would take some supporting work to identify what is meant by "Vajra" as the goddess of the first skandha:

rūpaskandhe bhaved vajrā gaurī vedanayāṃ smṛtā /
saṃjñāyāṃ vāriyoginī saṃskāre vajraḍākinī //
vijñānaskandharūpeṇa sthitā nairātmyayoginī /
maṇḍale sā sthitā bhīmā bhayasyāpi bhayaṅkarī //

Her Gauris:

pṛthivī pukkasī khyātā abdhātuḥ śabarī matā /
tejaścaṇdālinī jñeyā vāyurḍombī prakīrttitā //
rūpe gaurī sadā khyātā śabde caurī prakīrttitā /
vetālī gandhaviṣaye rame ca ghasmarī tathā //
sparśe ca bhūcarī khyātā khecarī dharmmadhātutaḥ /
sadā hy asāraviśuddhyā vai sidhyanti tattvayoginaḥ //

Her Nyasa:

cakṣuṣormohavajrī ca karṇayordveṣavajrikā /
ghrāṇe mātsaryyakī khyātā vaktre ca rāgavajrikā /
sparśe īrṣyāvajrī ca mano vairātmyayoginī //
kavacamebhir mahāśuddhyā indriyāṇāṃ viśuddhaye /
navamāryyaṃ dhṛtaṃ muṇḍaṃ karttrikā devacchedanī //

Notice that the Gauris have two roles, the first four are Elements, and the next ones are Senses. Sparsha is Bhucari, or, i. e., Touch is the goddess of the lowest chakra. The name Gauri is used twice, Vedana Skandha and Rupa or Sight.

Nairatma and Jnanadakini are not the same and so to be precise, Vajradakini has different roles with each. In this sadhana, the closest thing to a Crown deity appears to be "mano", which would be followed by the name of the sin of the sixth skandha, except unless the "v" is an "n", I don't know what it means. Here, she is the skandha that is usually Amoghasiddhi Family. Nairatma clearly involves a sixth principle, but does not deal with a sixth skandha.

Nairatma is a later, composite tantra explanatory to Hevajra, whereas Jnanadakini is older and closer to Dakini Jala.

In Dakini Jala, the Gauris are the inmost retinue of Vajra Family Heruka, who is a Bhairava with a Trident and separate bowls for flesh and blood. Gauri, Cauri, Pramoha, Vetali, and then PukkasI, Candali, Ghasmari, and Herukasamnivesa or Herukasamnibha, meaning fully alike Heruka.

Heruka then has four unique goddesses with a Bow and other items.

And then the same Offerings and Gatekeepers as All Dakini Jala Families use:

Puspa, Dhupa, Aloka, and Gandha; flowers, an incense-burner, a lamp, and fragrant powder;

and finally four theriocephalic (Pisaci or Tramen) gate-guardians:

Turangama, Vajramukhi (Sukaramukhi), Vajramamaki, and Bhasmapralayavetali stand in the four gates of the enclosure to subjugate all hostile deities (krodhakulam), with the heads of a horse, a boar, a crow, and a dog, and holding a hook, noose, chain, and bell.

It was not Sabari, the Guhyagarbha and Nyingma traditions keep Pramoha, but change the last to Smashani (which would be redundant to cemetery Pukkasi here). As well as being hypnotism, in Ayurveda, Pramoha is diseases to Smrti and Buddhi. So we see Varahi is already "doubled" in this court, as Pramoha and Vajramukhi.

Mamaki here is also dragged down to a Bodhisattva level in order to manifest Crow and Chain in what would ostensibly be Lotus Family sector. Perhaps, if you are good at this, you are able to mate with Vajrapani. Perhaps that is why she enquires him as to the Vajramrita Tantra.

Bhasma is Sacred Ash:

Bhasma (भस्म) means “that which has controlled the essence of the whole universe”. (Bha=vṛddhi (flourishing essence). Sma=svayam. Manyate=‘considers his own’).

It is in Sadhanamala hardly at all, but mostly with Vajra Tara.

So here is a second, different Vetali, visually an opposite of White Nectar Vetali. Those are still Wrathful Jnana Dakini.

It starts with a female Hayagriva (or Hayasira), then doubled Varahi, then Mamaki, then doubled Vetali. Those do its Wrathful Activities and do so for all the other Families as well.

That is a little bizarre.

The whole retinue as a class is "Vajradakinis", meaning potency or strength. The conventional ranking is:

Jnana Dakini

Buddha Dakini (Mahamaya; sex with both legs around partner; four armed drummer usually)

Sarvabuddha Dakini (Varnani)

That is the strand from Chakrasamvara literature. "Vajradakini" strength is perhaps a powerful manifestation of any of it.

shaberon

7th December 2020, 21:52

That would make sense, in that one might be able to get a glimpse of what was to be seen before being able to see it at will. I was being shown that because I had thought that emanating as multiple (small multiple, 3) forms and worlds was quite something, and was being told it was not.

Sure, almost anything like that can be summarized as "the phenomena", which are...neither the Dharmodaya, nor mastery of what comes out of it.

Samputa was a bit abrupt towards Laukika or Worldly siddhis. There are only two Transcendent siddhis: Generation and Completion, or, Utpatti and Nispanna. Note that "nispanna" also refers to the non-universe where one has the ability to exist or not, depending on the success of Svasamvedana, during the universe or during the phenomena.

So it definitely is "something", i. e., impressive to those of us who are too jittery to perceive such subtleness, but to someone who has been doing it for a thousand years, it is more like learning how to walk, and, how many of us, as adults, go around saying "Outstanding! You remembered how to walk, again, today! Now you will go in your circular habits".

Nothing in my shaking can occur without bliss. But death is often there, it just is usually decay and produces a creation thing. I don't think I usually have death all by itself.

That in itself, presence of Bliss, is said to be a primary difference between Buddhist and other yogas. I definitely started a powerful kundalini experience from a non-Buddhist perspective. It took maybe a year or so for me to figure out that bliss was even involved, and, when I started reading about Buddhism, I was not getting the stuff that clearly told me how bliss is a necessary ingredient of advanced meditation. Curiosity about death was almost entirely my "seeker's question" that was answered in spades.

Because I had a hard time figuring out what they meant by Wisdoms and was not understanding many aspects of spirituality, the experience shifted from "crystal clear vision of the moment of death, intermediate, and seeking rebirth states", into, I suppose, just the intensity of bliss itself.

Just from looking at the Sakya system, it is correct that Bharati as Bliss Arises and Increases and is central to any advanced practice, which includes Amaravajra or Deathlessness.

Although most of the death and dead imagery is a symbol of impermanence and emptiness, and of course future regrowth is inherent to anything destroyed, nothing will get around the fact that each of us is going to die and that process remains exactly whatever it is for however long it takes, without scenes of regrowth or anything of relative comfort being a part of it. So it would still be correct to describe the "Bardo" as different states of consciousness that it is best to become familiar with navigating.

Yes, you are best off bringing a bliss ball to the event, but if you do not have the skill of stabilizing the process, bliss leaks until it dissipates. It would be something like doing Suksma Yoga in this bitch kennel. Might start fairly well, but, when you get those storms at sea, it may kick you out into an emotional or energetic disaster.

Again I find it very telling that Vajra Rosary speaks of bliss and death as two sort of separate trends which nevertheless merge into one Path.

But this does make sense. It cannot be either merely or only the initiation into Vajravilasini that does everything, otherwise what would the rest of it be for? And it makes sense that "you" do not do something that it happens. But it happens as a result of relentless study of every detail and spending all one's time on it. That would correspond nearly exactly to what is called the Aha experience in math. Although it is definitely the desired goal, one does not get to "do" it, it has to dawn on you.

True, Vilasini is outright described as "limited", is relevant to the first one or two Bhumis, only.

Dawn is definitely the word used relative to Gnosis, i. e. there is your Bell, Seal, etc., that kind of thing, which symbolically moves to occupy the Eastern direction in a new practice.

Vilasini is an extremely specific rite, whereas Union as depicted by Samputa and Guhyajnana Dakini is the universal aspect or is dealing more directly with inherent personal forces, which means it is esoteric, or the language of communicating the Atma Vidya from a Yoga experience, similar to "Aha!", "Eureka!", etc.

The concept of Inverted Stupa means we are explaining Noumenal Yoga by such deities who refer to the innate capacities of body, speech, and mind, whereas "this system" is intended to hitch onto more specific transmissions such as Vilasini, or Vajravarahi, etc., as available Yidams or Ista Devatas.

Although there are many of those, we can say, overall, tantric energy arises as Vairocani which is a yellow glow, and, matures into something like Sita, Vausudhara, or Kamala Lakshmi, which is a golden glow.

I personally have faced the yellow quite aplenty and have no knowledge of gold whatsoever.

Samputa is Vajrasattva and Guhyajnana is Dakini, Bodhi Mind and Pranic Activity. Once they dawn to you, the Vajrasattva can become any of the male tantric principals, or any dakini and so forth can be summoned. That is why any local deities or protectors are a different thing, Yidam is deifferent, and so on. The Dhyanis or classes of deities related to Dhyana are internal and personal. And so for example, Sukla Tara is not necessarily a part of this--she just may be helpful at a particular stage in dealing with the things that are.

This does sound a lot like how the training goes with the Dakinis. If I am observing it as time going by and as working on being able to do as instructed, it's a constant string of tryings hard and failures and then a success and when looking back it was easy all the time. But if I'm looking at it as a whole, it is like the fresh sentiment.

I always wanted a word for it. The phoenix-like regenerating ever-fresh resurrection of the soul. I am sure there are poems about it. But here is one word, Anuraga.

I have no difficulty seeing this as a basis on which a permanent and immortal spirituality stands.

It tells us something about how the sexual bliss is conveyed to all activities.

It relates to Pandara and Desire and the mysterious glow of red onto white. Most texts refer to the end of Desire, but, Samputa states that it does not fall into the extreme of Absence of Desire. Arguably, it infers a type of Divine Desire that we lack words for, but, is somewhere in the center emptiness between the two extremes.

Perhaps it is why Ragavajra is shown having a strange promotion.

Vajra Ananga Manjushri clearly says that the Atma of Anuraga begets Svasamvedana. This kind of Manjushri based on Ananga (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ananga) is simultaneously Kama--Cupid--Desire as well as Body-less (dues to Shiva's incinerating gaze).

This is perhaps the only thing that "practices" Paramartha at all.

All of the Yogacara seems to aim No Ego at the first Void (Parikalpa or Imaginary), Pranic Mastery or Suchness at the second (Paratantra or Other-Dependent), and these all have detailed explanations, but Paramartha or Ultimate Meaning has no real explanation other than you see it by viewing the Prabhasvara or Absolute Object during the type of dissolution and emergence as taught in the sadhanas.

You have to transcend a Black Void to do it.

It is extremely relevant to me. Without guidance, I would easily take familiarity with death and bliss and whisk myself into a permanently-still nirvana. If I took refuge in Buddha confident that his teaching would tell me something new and useful, then, yes, the way Vajra Rosary explains it, and what is here shown in Samputa, is really important.

Fortunately, I can easily get a kernel of this to alight in the Ucchista pile. It is not old garbage to recycle, more like an eternal flame. The Ucchistas are not made of only garbage, they are Stainless and simply being kind by being willing to stoop into human mess in order to help. And so is this Anuraga something like the center of five arrows or of the Arrow of the Sugarcane Bow? Yes, it seems pretty doggone close to the feeling of the un=weaponlike arrow I experienced moving from heart to heart.

Is it the less-screamy Hrih which turns out to be hugely important in the overall practices?

I am not sure of all the details, but, I am sure it is vital.

Old Student

7th December 2020, 21:54

And so when the Samputa text says "The eighth goddess should be drawn in the southeast", it does not mean 1, 2, 3...8 is Prithvi, so she must be southeast.

It means that the goddess who is in the southeast is drawn eighth or last.

This is the part I didn't understand. It makes sense now.

Bhasma is Sacred Ash:

Bhasma (भस्म) means “that which has controlled the essence of the whole universe”. (Bha=vṛddhi (flourishing essence). Sma=svayam. Manyate=‘considers his own’).

So then Bhasmapralayavetali is the Vetali that controls the essence of the whole universe and brings about the destruction of the world? The others at the other three gates don't seem anywhere near that fierce.

Question: You mention a relationship between these deities and the chakras. Is this because this is "Entering the Mandala"? Or is there normally a relationship between elements of the mandala and parts of the body when one is visualizing it?

shaberon

8th December 2020, 08:01

So then Bhasmapralayavetali is the Vetali that controls the essence of the whole universe and brings about the destruction of the world? The others at the other three gates don't seem anywhere near that fierce.

That is what it sounds like. Raging opposite of White Nectar Vetali from the inner ring. Of course it is this white one that is the conundrum, like the white Vajraraudri. Neither of those are elsewhere in any of their forms or appearances. The more "the Gauris" metamorphose through the tantras, they become more gruesome and graphic.

Question: You mention a relationship between these deities and the chakras. Is this because this is "Entering the Mandala"? Or is there normally a relationship between elements of the mandala and parts of the body when one is visualizing it?

Different cases.

Sometimes, a mandala resident is the Ears deity, and so on.

In the case of a Body Mandala, it means it represents all of the sacred sites and therefor the chakras, and is the Kaya Vajra of Kaya--Vak--Citta (Three Vajras), or, part of the Nirmanakaya (Tri-kaya).

Entering the Mandala, strictly speaking, is an initiatory rite where one receives empowerments for the relevant deities and gains permission to ask them to inhabit the Palace. It would also teach self-generation as the deity. And then the moment of Vajra Netra or Eyes means one is supposed to actually see the inhabitants.

Most of our lore consists in finding and climbing Mt. Meru while we are learning the associated components, Banner, Parasol, and the rest. We are working on establishing the Vajra Bhumi or Ground on which the Palace will later appear. This process could be described as Dhanada Krama which is Difficult. As far as I can tell, she is the teacher of a basic mandala up to Gatekeepers and Offering Goddesses.

Dhanada is Green Vasudhara.

She is almost mantricly identical to Mahasri who is Green Lakshmi.

Vasudhara is a type of Lakshmi.

She heads the Dharani sequences. If I look at Namasangiti, she is first as Vasumati Mahalakshmi Ila Devi, or, if I look at the Days of the Week, she is first, on Sunday.

It is not a mistake, the earthy Vasudhara is related to the Sun.

Dharani, by name, is the wife of Parasu Rama, who will be the Guru of Future Buddha Maitreya in the Cycle of Amoghasiddhi.

In the sense of Vajrasattva being considered the seed for the father or male aspect in rites, Vasudhara is the gate or samaya of goddesses such as Vajravarahi, she is the seed of the mother aspects.

Samputa brings into view the goddess Prithvi, right after Vajra Yakshi, with the Yaksha realm being what Vasudhara guards. Prithvi is or was Vasudhara depending on legend consulted.

In a full Homa, 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.

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:

http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/hinduism/explore/images/prithvi.jpg

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.

Prithvi is the only available source of sustenance, and so the Gopala or cowherd mentality is of treating the environment respectfully and protectively.

Her opinion is important in terms of one's Buddhahood.

Vasudhara however has other samaya beings, Ila and Manohara (Hook). Here is Ila Devi from the Dharani with Cintamani and Manohara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1070px/3/2/1/32159.jpg

This Cintamani could be called "Yellow Tara". She arises from the Jupiterian syllable Bhrim. Then she has her Gopali form.

Ila and Bhu explain the whole Vedic background and use of Agni Homa, and, there is enough information to this, I will post it separately.

shaberon

8th December 2020, 17:34

Vasudhara demanded to step back into view.

She is really perhaps the first goddess that should be "pushed" at one. Depends. In Buddhism, we see it that every person is a little bit crazy, is broken, needs an overhaul. And so Tara especially in her Eight Fears version is generally recommended. That is what helped me. But then suppose there should come a day when I decide I don't need to spend so much time repairing myself...if I was able to function in some kind of "normal" capacaity...it is hard to gain any identity of what that might be. Vasudhara is less like uplifting you from a vale of tears, and, more like putting you to work. Maybe when you stay focused on productive things, you fall apart less. She is less like a hospital, and more like occupational therapy.

The occupation in this case is illusion and spell-casting.

I can not have a day that is not mired in illusion, but, I can learn how to be aware of this and how to control its process in a beneficial manner.

We have found a couple instances where goddesses are featured as something more than or as ultra-Prajnas.

One of these is the Nepalese system, which includes a special trinity. Guhyeshvari is the chief, who is perhaps similar to Guhya Kali. Parasol is another, which is like Buddha's acquisition of Pratyangira and Aparajita, the tenth Durga. And finally there is Vasudhara, who usually appears as an outer wealth deity, thereby seeming less profound.

However, Buddha's Enlightenment is said to have been witnessed by Bhu Devi, a form of Vasudhara.

At Ratnagiri, there is a second witness, Aparajita.

So, ok, two of the special Prajnas equate to the powers who judge one against past standards of liberation, versus whether you have accomplished the Tathagatas' Wisdom.

One of them or Bhu is both an example where Buddhism has retained the ancient tradition and not mixed her up with Sarasvati, and, this aspect is the root of Bharati, who is Increasing Bliss, or, the indispensible way of getting closer to Buddha's or the Tathagatas' Wisdom.

The various Earth Devi names are not obscure, they are all in for instance in a list of Ayurvedic synonyms for Dharani (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/dharani#ayurveda) (Earth) including:

Dhartri, Bhu, Ksiti, Mahi, Vasumati, Bhumi, Ila or Ida, Vasudhara, Acala, Jagati, Prithvi, and even Ananta.

Ila (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ila) is an ancient, complicated name, derived from il, "to send". In practice, it is the name for Samaya Vasudhara, a basic form holding grain or corn. It is this form with the name Vasumati who starts the Namasangiti Dharanis, and therefor is one of the few examples where the devi is not changed or reduced to be in this roster.

With occult color, 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, giving it the yellow color.

Ila is the consort of Budha--Mercury.

One of the simple Yellow Vasudhara forms is called Ila, and 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.

Iḷā sarasvatī mahī, tisro devīr mayobhuvaḥ; barhiḥ sīdantvasridhaḥ.

“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 of Rg Veda:

ā no yajñaṁ 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 Manohara goes to Takki and Cup Bharati 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.

Among the Vedic traditions 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. The hymns 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- (Lunar Dynasty);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 Cintamani is an early term for the whole Jewel Family.

Sarasvati can even be mimicking and buffoonery. All three are understood as communication 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.

These three goddesses are consistently found in the eighth verse of all ten gotra lineages of Apri Hymns.

Those Hymns 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:

Bhrigu--Gritsamada
Viswamitra
Angiras--Gautama
Atri
Angiras--Bharadvaja
Vasishtha
Pragata

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.

In going over those details, one notices that Ila and Bhu both require Rta or the tight bowstring of Jupiterian discipline, but, then they go beyond it. Similarly, the Yellow Cintamani Tara or Ila form uses the Jupiterian syllable Bhrim, but then, this vanishes from mantra practice almost entirely.

Ila and Cintamani are almost the same; Ila always has corn, and offers something that usually looks like gems; Cintamani may have corn, or, she may pick fruit from a tree, and her offering usually is more fruit-like and is a tantric Bindu, same one that will later be held by Varuni's unique Bindu Mudra.

Tara abandoned Jupiter as a symbol of rebellion against rote memorization, routine, superstition, mentality of a Tirtha and so forth, things that leash a disciple to the lowest tantras. She enjoyed the Moon--Soma instead, and their somewhat androgynous child was Budha--Mercury, who later winds up conjoining Bhu--Earth.

The Tree, the Yellow color, Mercury, Vairocani, are all related to Gopalis and Forest Maidens who, so to speak, lead one across the frontiers of Mt. Meru to the One Initiator or Nagarjuna.

In Buddhism, Gopali is like the next generation of Ila, herding the Kamadhenu and being the source of Yogurt in the tantric jar.

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:

bhuyasy ehi, sreyasy ehi, vasiyasy ehi, citta ehi, dadhisa ehi, 'da ehi, sunrta'ehi ti

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.

In Buddhism, both Nidhi Khanda (http://threeroyalwarriors.tripod.com/vasudhara.html) and the basics of Vaudhara Dharani announce right off the bat that she has nothing to do with wealth in the muindane sense, that material wealth is ok if it is based in sharing, and more importantly, she means spiritual wealth derived from secret treasure. So this is unmistakably clear.

That has her long Dharani which for example gives some of her retinue names; most of the time, her attendants are simply minor variant Vasudharas. There are smaller examples, such as 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/ BHAÑCA BHAÑCA/ JAMBHA JAMBHA/ STAMBHA STAMBHA/ AMṚTE/
UTBHAVE/ KURU KURU/ MAMAKA JYAIṂ SVĀHĀ

Vasudhara is nominally like Vajra Tara, being the main Jewel Family goddesses. Vajra Tara lacks any intermediate developmental forms. Vasudhara definitely has these, she has stupa forms and powerful six arm forms with significant retinues, and in Nepal she has a bundle of massive Dharanis. A lot of her strangeness is more to be found in her merry association with Jambhala. In Sadhanamala, she is extremely simple.

Vasudhara appears once with Khasarpana, Sudhana, Bhrkuti, and Hayagriva.

Vasudhara 213 is a small retinue form. Her other Sadhanamala articles are incredibly brief and appear to indicate Ila or rather Cintamani who is giving a comlicated Manjari Ratna kind of jewel or jewelled grain:

214.

atha vasudhārāṃ bhāvayitum icchati, tadā sarvvam eva
pūrvvavat kin tu ṣaṣṭhasya tṛtīyakaṃ bījaṃ arddhendubindu-
bhūṣitaṃ tenaiva niṣpannāṃ vasudhārāṃ pītavarṇāṃ dhānya-
mañjarīnānāratnavarṣamāṇaghaṭavāmahastāṃ dakṣiṇena varadāṃ
sarvvālaṅkārabhūṣitāṃ sakhījanaparivṛtāṃ bhāvayet aham eva
vasudhāreti / hastadvayena muṣṭiṃ baddhvā madhyamātṛtīyaparvvabhagnā
vasudhārāmudreyam / tato jāpaṃ kuryyāt - oṃ śrīvasunidhāna-
kṣetre svāhā / paṭṭagatāṃ bhagavatīṃ avatāryya mahatī pūjāṃ
kṛtvā bhāvayet svapec ca / tataḥ siddhā bhavati bhagavatī /

// vasudhārāsādhanam /

215.

pūrvoktavidhānena pītavaṃkāraparinatāṃ dvibhujaikamukhīṃ
pītāṃ navayauvanābharaṇavastravibhūṣitāṃ dhānyamañjarīnānā-
ratnavarṣaghaṭavāmahastāṃ dakṣiṇena varadāṃ anekasakhījanapari-
vṛtāṃ viśvapadmacandrāsanasthāṃ ratnasambhavamukuṭinīṃ svabīja-
hṛdayāṃ jhaṭiti niṣpādya mudrāṃ bandhayet / hastadvayena muṣṭiṃ
kṛtvā madhyamā tṛtīyaparvvabhagnā vasudhārāmudrā / tataḥ
oṃ vasudhārā ratnanidhānakṣetre svāhā iti mantraṃ japet /

// vasudhārāsādhanam //

216.

vasudhārāyāḥ paṭasya pratimāyā vā agrataścandanena catu-
rasraṃ maṇḍalakaṃ kṛtvā tatra bhagavatīṃ manasā' 'ropya pūjayitvā
candranāliptapāṇiḥ vasudhārādhāraṇīpustakasūtrāvabaddha-
kusumamālāṃ purataḥ sthāpitodakabhājanena nikṣipya sarvva-
sattveṣu mahāmaitrīcittamālāmbyābhimatasiddhyai hṛdayam ādhāya
vasudhārādhāraṇīṃ paṭhet / paṭhaś ca svāhānvitamantrāṇāṃ
svāhāśabdam uccārayan sitapuṣpadūrvvāsahitākṣatataṇḍulā-
nyudakabhājane dadyāt ṣaṇmāsaṃ yāvat / pāṭhāvasāne ca
śucipradeśe tadudakaṃ visarjjayed iti /

// vasudhārādhāraṇyupadeśaḥ //

One thing she does is arise from Yellow Vam syllable. So, this thing is not forbidden and does have a legitimate use other than Vajravarahi. Of course, these exercises are right before the major exposition of Varahi. The two are undoubtedly related. Bhu is a Boar Rider. But there is not much in any Vasudhara development that really raises this power; it appears to be passed to Marici. If Bhu in some sense is considered the mother of Usas, this perhaps makes sense.

If Ila is not quite specifically Buddhist, Cintamani is. She probably is the best option for a Samaya to Jewel Family. She takes the normal Tara mantra and inaugurates the syllable Bhrim, which can hardly be found elsewhere.

Taranatha suggests she is actually dancing:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1070px/4/0/3/40328.jpg

Vasudhara will also convert Bhrim into the more well-known Srim syllable, the Lunar one, related to Sri. 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).

Red Vasudhara mating with Jambhala comes from the Jnanadakini and Virupa Chakrasamvara lineage. Jambhala occasionally has an elephant head; he and Vasudhara may have a mouse or mice known as a Treasury Mouse. There is a lot to say that Ganapati is not quite a Yidam, but, a great deal of his work appears to be claimed by Jambhala, who is. In some instances, the union of Jambhala and Vasudhara is crowned by Vajradhara, which is extremely unusual.

So in a general sense, she could be considered Sunday goddess in basic Ila or Cintamani forms. You would do this as long as needed until going to her Red forms or more complex Dharanis. She would always be a part of whatever one may make of Homa, or, rather, she is expounding the whole thing.

Dharani categorically is related to Parasu Rama, who in turn is related to Dattatreya ("giver of Atri or Aitreya lineage") who in turn is related to the Matangi and Sabari lineages.

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, 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.

For the very basic Yellow and Red Samaya Taras, there is not strictly an Ila form in the sadhana oceans, which call forward:

RG 62 Cintamani Tara is probably the most basic sadhana ever.

TD 138 expands it a little bit and adds a mantra almost identical to Dhanada's, except it reads:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Dhanam Me Dehi Svaha

Sakya Red Tara is next, TD 139 or RG 63, who is Hook and related to Hrih and Vasikaran. After her is Dhanada, so, these are a "cluster". This one is not quite called Manohara but is obviously going that direction.

Arya Cunda is TD 152 or RG 70 uses only the plain Tara mantra, but is also offering Picula fruit. This is perhaps a bit odd being Red Cunda with a piece of Vasudhara's property, and yet being purely Tam and Tara's mantra.

Vasumati in Namasangiti is Ila, and this form is also used in the increments of increasing Vasudhara. So it can be isolated and associated with its own mantras or dharanis. By name, Vasumati is a Yakshi in Manjushri Mulakalpa. For her, we have also appended the Mahasri Sutra and the Namostute or Kolhapur Mahalakshmi song. And so it is "this" Ila which would propogate across most of the Vasudhara mandalas.

Ila will parallel with most of the relevant Hinduism, whereas Cintamani is a way to specifically make her Buddhist and a nexus of tantric incipience. Ila as the Dharani source is an Amoghasiddhi emanation, whereas the rest of her is almost always Jewel Family. All the Dharanis hold a Crossed Vajra, so she is yellow, has this, and corn.

The Ila mandala in Sadhanamala is in Akshobya Family, and the name Vasumati is its final or northern resident. Here, manjari is supposed to be corn, so, that interpretation should hold on her other forms. As we can see, the first thing she "does" is like a sub-Mamaki alchemy from Jewel Family to Vajra.

Old Student

9th December 2020, 05:18

In the sense of Vajrasattva being considered the seed for the father or male aspect in rites, Vasudhara is the gate or samaya of goddesses such as Vajravarahi, she is the seed of the mother aspects.

Samputa brings into view the goddess Prithvi, right after Vajra Yakshi, with the Yaksha realm being what Vasudhara guards. Prithvi is or was Vasudhara depending on legend consulted.

She is the mother aspects and is the earth? If Vajrasattva were associated with the sky it would sound Mongolian.

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.

Vasudhara, if you look at a lot of sources without further looking, is the stream of gems. But oddly, her name is not translated as that in Chinese, it is 持世 which means "The One Who Supports the World", probably a reference to her as Bhumi.

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.

The earth is not really what is green about a green world, is it? But we think of it that way here.

shaberon

9th December 2020, 05:50

There is a kink.

Vasudhara uses some of the most basic mandalas which give her retinues of four, or eight, goddesses, depending on the mantra or dharani referred to. Only the most basic kind is in Sadhanamala. With respect to this, I believe he made another mistake in the descriptions. It is unusual for a deity to hold another as a hand symbol, but, we know this is done by Usnisa Vijaya 191:

dakṣiṇacaturbhujaiḥ viśvavajrapadmasthabuddhabāṇavaradamudrādharāṃ

Her four right hands hold Crossed Vajra, Padmastha Buddha, Bana (arrow or arrows), and Varada Mudra--so her relation to Padma or Amitabha is -dhara, being held, whereas she is crowned by Vairocana:

caityaguhāgarbhasthitāṃ vairocanamukuṭinīṃ

Vasudhara does not have a mukuta or "crowned", she has:

dhānyamañjarīdharām akṣobhyadhāriṇīm

where again, -dhara or similar means "holding", so, dhanya (giving) manjari (corn), but then Akshobya, which appears to be in the second hand, has the odd ending Dharini (dhānyamañjarīdharām akṣobhyadhāriṇīm) which has nothing to do with a crown, is commonly used for "holding" in Sadhanamala, and is the chosen spelling for "Dharani goddesses" according to Bhattacharya, whose additional errors creep onto that very page.

The suggestion has been something like Abhayakaragupta selected Dharanis to group together, however, the set really comes from Namasangiti. And there his mistakes stand at:

1. Sumati (not the male Bodhisattva, should be Vasumati)

4. Mari (not the pisaci or plague goddess, should be Marici)

it is not just what you might guess if you thought about it for a while, the correct names are from the Nepalese archives.

It looks to me like she is supposed to be holding a mini-Akshobya, which is not being recognized by art or other sadhanas.

Her other forms are Ratnasambhavamukutinim.

Avalokiteshvara and Guhyajnana Dakini are each other's heart mates based on Hrih. Here, Jambhala has in his heart a Vam which emits Vasudhara, so they work similarly. So you need a Jambhala--it doesn't specify yellow, just any Jambhala form--in order to make the multiple Vasudharas. The basic Vasudhara mandala is like a four goddess version of the following, except the four have as their seeds "their initials", which are Vam:

Vasudhara Yantra - auspicious for the acquisition and accumulation of wealth.

The central Vasudhara has one face and two hands with the right in a gesture of generosity holding a jewel and the left at the waist holding a stalk of grain. At the heart, written in a circle of Tibetan letters is the shortest mantra of Vasudhara - om va su dha ri ni sva ha. The right leg is pendant with the foot resting on a wealth vase and bowl of jewels. The left leg is drawn up in a relaxed posture; seated in the center of an eight petaled lotus.

Surrounding that, on the eight circling petals are eight forms of Vasudhara all identical in appearance except for the mantra in the heart which is different for each. Outside of that is a complete ring of Sanskrit mantras written with Tibetan letters followed by a further ring of vajras and then finally by a ring of flames representing the five wisdoms.

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/7/9/57912.jpg

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/8/4/98436.jpg

The smaller version with four "V" goddesses is also:

pratyahaṃ gomayena

Before them is gomaya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/gomaya) which is dung. Although the mass of bodily substances visualized in tantric ritual has never been known to have been taken literally, the opposite is true of the Five Products of a Cow, so even this is part of the ancient Vedic performance.

Vasumati is in Lankavatara Sutra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/lankavatara-sutra/d/doc82488.html) after the explanation of Buddhahood being attained in Akanistha (neither Kama Loka nor Formless Realm), wherein Buddha says:

798. My mother is Vasumati, my father is the wise Prajāpati; I belong to the Kātyāyana family, and my name is Viraja the Victor.

So there he is about as close as can be to a male version of Katyayani and Vimala and Viraj aspects.

In Sadhanamala, Vasudhara is really Ila, the first one you could call Ila with retinue, the next two are similar solo Ilas, and, the last piece does not really talk about form because it is her Dharani Upadesa or discusses the intent of her Dharani practice. For one, it appears to be suited towards worshipping Devi in a mental form:

bhagavatīṃ manasā' 'ropya pūjayitvā

and it also says that it does not use the spelling "Dharini" to mean the mantric spells:

vasudhārādhāraṇīṃ paṭhet

So for her, Sadhanamala is perhaps the only source of Ila and nothing else, however, she has several "else's" which are important.

Dhanada may be a Vasudhara but she cannot possibly be the Hindu one, since her Treasures are the Paramitas, and her practice is a complete Buddhist mandala.

Ila is still what she was in the beginning, plus, "the basket of Dharanis".

That is, of course, Sound having a lot to do with Earth as for some reason highlighted by the Vajraraudris.

Old Student

9th December 2020, 05:52

“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.” "
[...]
Ila is the vision of the seer which attains the truth.
[...]
Bharati is drink, sometimes called Hotra Bharati. She is the vastness of luminosity.

But also,

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.

And you mention Vasudhara as Ila being associated with curds, or as Gopala with yogurt.

This looks like a vision of the world as created in its various aspects (at least the female components) by bliss. It is interesting that Bharati is luminosity, elsewhere, you have Vasudhara as Prithvi, who is the mother of Ushas, who is dawn, also drawing associations with milk and luminosity.

Arya Cunda is TD 152 or RG 70 uses only the plain Tara mantra, but is also offering Picula fruit. This is perhaps a bit odd being Red Cunda with a piece of Vasudhara's property, and yet being purely Tam and Tara's mantra.

Vasumati in Namasangiti is Ila, and this form is also used in the increments of increasing Vasudhara. So it can be isolated and associated with its own mantras or dharanis. By name, Vasumati is a Yakshi in Manjushri Mulakalpa. For her, we have also appended the Mahasri Sutra and the Namostute or Kolhapur Mahalakshmi song. And so it is "this" Ila which would propogate across most of the Vasudhara mandalas.

Ila will parallel with most of the relevant Hinduism, whereas Cintamani is a way to specifically make her Buddhist and a nexus of tantric incipience. Ila as the Dharani source is an Amoghasiddhi emanation, whereas the rest of her is almost always Jewel Family. All the Dharanis hold a Crossed Vajra, so she is yellow, has this, and corn.

The Ila mandala in Sadhanamala is in Akshobya Family, and the name Vasumati is its final or northern resident. Here, manjari is supposed to be corn, so, that interpretation should hold on her other forms. As we can see, the first thing she "does" is like a sub-Mamaki alchemy from Jewel Family to Vajra.

And this part goes back towards her "stream of jewels" characterization. I was going to write something else but it looks like my online sanskrit dictionary's website has been captured even as I was writing.

I thought I had a sort of neat picture in my mind of how things were put together surrounding the chakras (in my shaking with all the emanations), based on emanating from the lower abdomen and formerly having seen from the jewel at my throat.

Then last night I had a rush of energy -- which was interpreted very much as Shakti related by what the Dakinis were doing and saying when it happened. But instead of originating along the centerline -- at Muladhara or dantian or somewhere, or even at the crown, it originated at the soles of my feet, went rushing up through me and pushed out as beams of light through my face and head. It was the same as the endless worlds emanation I had told you about, the green one from my lower abdomen, it was also the same as the net seen from my throat, the yellow/golden one. But it was splashed with all sorts of colors and rushing quickly without form through me, causing me to twist around in a continuation of the dance at the waist, like a corkscrew with arms flung upward.

The analogy that seemed to fit was of the endless emanation of worlds in green being "classical" -- say, maybe, Beethoven or better Rimsky-Korsakov, and this splashed and streaked multicolor flood being more jazz or modern, say Philip Glass or Vieux Fakra Toure (who I'm not sure is really jazz). Or between form and formless.

shaberon

9th December 2020, 06:37

She is the mother aspects and is the earth? If Vajrasattva were associated with the sky it would sound Mongolian.

Yes, I think it is like that.

She is the material aspect and he is the mind.

The material is all the power, the mind can only hold it.

She is Nidhana Ksetre, the farmer or field of hidden treasure, and this Ksetra is both used in "Buddha Fields" as well as the Sister class of deities, subterranean or within the body and related to Sambhogakaya.

I would say she should be "the first goddess given" for multiple reasons. Her appearance in Namasangiti is pivotal not only for what it is, but, she equates to a unique introductory Paramita as well. She depicts the unusual association of Earth to Yellow and equating to the Buddhic Plane rather than "most dense", which carries on to Nagarjuna and tantric Kamala and so forth. Yellow into Molten Gold seems to be a staple of maturation. And overall she works out to be a developmental samaya to Vajravarahi as well as Bharati.

It is Vajrasattva who does that development. She dances according to his vibration, so to speak.

Vasudhara, if you look at a lot of sources without further looking, is the stream of gems. But oddly, her name is not translated as that in Chinese, it is 持世 which means "The One Who Supports the World", probably a reference to her as Bhumi.

Yes, but, only slightly less than looking very far, the general source about the Vasus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasu#:~:text=In%20Hinduism%2C%20the%20Vasus%20are,of%20Manu%20or%20Brahma%20Prajapati.) shows why it is significant that she is the Dhara of them. The Chinese is accurate since "dhara" may mean "holds in the hands", but also, "to support, to bear", and so she is certainly more "bearing" these Vasus than displaying them in any of her forms.

Vasus are Aditis.

But--the details vary--they request to be reborn through goddess Ganga.

So they show the descent of formless or mental elements into the Gangetic or illusory astral plane, which itself is prior to material creation.

Again this is extremely similar to Ganga giving birth to mayavic Agni seeds from the Pleiades.

Lakshmi explains this in terms of Shaktis, i. e. the powers associated with enlightened use of the Vasus. Both the Shaktis and Vasus swirl/mix/reflect in order to move from the formless world into material. "Reversing Creation" is not simply a matter that there are more etherealized states, it is a Noumenal process of disengagement from it.

Individual shaktis are thought of as existing on a per-element basis, so you have Magnetic Shakti, Fire Shakti, and so on.

Vasudhara may hold them, but, she may not, personally, tell you anything about the dangers of Water, leaving that to Janguli for instance.

Ila is the source of Food, and we see how that goes through Ghasmari--Samputa into Annapurna, which is the entire Homa. All of the secrets I can come up with, directly spill from the cornucopia of this deity.

shaberon

9th December 2020, 07:15

And you mention Vasudhara as Ila being associated with curds, or as Gopala with yogurt.

This looks like a vision of the world as created in its various aspects (at least the female components) by bliss. It is interesting that Bharati is luminosity, elsewhere, you have Vasudhara as Prithvi, who is the mother of Ushas, who is dawn, also drawing associations with milk and luminosity.

Yes.

Gopali is like a samaya to the Sabaris or Forest Maidens.

On the one hand, Krishna's Gopalis discovered the Red Kunkuma powder which goes in the jar "Kumari".

On the other hand, one of the products of the cow goes in the jar "Yogurt".

So there you have two of the main "magical substances" used in a Homa.

As for the Kamadhenu or Gomata, they are also magical cows which may become luminous:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1070px/4/0/5/40518.jpg

They have many stories, especially about being stolen, but with the transition she is making, they become inhabitants of the slopes of one's personal Mt. Meru. Think of it that way. She helps you rustle and milk these cows. Then you make magic yogurt purified by the sun for use in the Homa. Vasudhara said to meditate her mentally. We can mostly do it that way. If a person buys actual yogurt, or, emulates the entire rite by making it themselves, that can only help.

In her 108 Names she is also Kama Dhatvishvari, same as Lakshmi of Hevajra Tantra.

The Gopali form is another Dharani goddess who is an increment past Ila, and a bridge to Manohara.

As we see, Vasumati is like a Mother aspect to Kumari or Katyayani (or equivalent such as Buddha).

So there are two tracks of Yogurt and Red Powder used in the Homa on that basis.

The yogurt has a cosmic aspect similar to the Milky Way or nebulae, as well as a personal aspect, like the degree and quality of luminosity.

The luminosity intended by matured Vasudhara is absolutely gorgeous, like aurorae. Mind's inner nature is incomprehensively beautiful. We have dirt or Earth in our Vajra Eyes.

Old Student

9th December 2020, 19:31

Before them is gomaya which is dung. Although the mass of bodily substances visualized in tantric ritual has never been known to have been taken literally, the opposite is true of the Five Products of a Cow, so even this is part of the ancient Vedic performance.

I think it actually has been known to have been taken literally, somewhere around the 10th century, there were rumors of priests ingesting dead flesh and feces and so forth. When the collapse came starting in 1003 B.C.E., this was cited as part of the evidence that the truth had been strayed from and reform was needed.

It seems like all of the esoteric religions of the East (I can't answer for those of the West, I just don't know enough about them, but certainly some of the beliefs and what they did with them in the Malleus Maleficarum would point that way), went through an early period when people strained at how to describe and explain the means and methods for pursuing enlightenment, longevity, siddhis, and the like. Then there was a period where people took the texts those earlier people wrote literally in harmful ways -- the aforementioned eating foul things, or in China, the Daoist alchemy being interpreted as really eating cinnabar (mercury) and malachite, and so forth, which of course are poisonous and people died. And then a third period started where those experiments were proof that the meaning was something that had to be contemplated inside and true appreciation of the texts began. I suppose we are fortunate that the poisonous experiments and damaging ones have already been tried and cast aside. But I can find plenty of people on websites all over that are rediscovering the texts without rediscovering that knowledge of the history and starting in on harmful experiments again.

Her other forms are Ratnasambhavamukutinim.

Avalokiteshvara and Guhyajnana Dakini are each other's heart mates based on Hrih. Here, Jambhala has in his heart a Vam which emits Vasudhara, so they work similarly. So you need a Jambhala--it doesn't specify yellow, just any Jambhala form--in order to make the multiple Vasudharas. The basic Vasudhara mandala is like a four goddess version of the following, except the four have as their seeds "their initials", which are Vam:

Vasudhara Yantra - auspicious for the acquisition and accumulation of wealth.

So again the association of wealth. Or maybe not quite, as you say it could be any Jambhala, so it could be anything from close to Avalokitashvara to red Ganapati.

There is a deeper reason that the earth is always yellow and not green. The cognitive colors psychophysicists catalog different color schemes with the civilizations that have them, there are at most 30 colors in such a scheme -- you figure out which they are because they have their own names (e.g. yellow) and not the names of something (rose, gold). In societies that have 5 cognitive colors, they are always black, white, red, green, and yellow. In such schemes, green cannot be the color of earth because it is the color of the sky. E.g. the term 青 in Chinese is both the color of the sky and the color of a forest. But never the color of the earth.

Old Student

9th December 2020, 21:08

[Replying to both the short posts, because of the first sentence in the first being related to the last para of the second]

It is Vajrasattva who does that development. She dances according to his vibration, so to speak.

Quote Vasudhara, if you look at a lot of sources without further looking, is the stream of gems. But oddly, her name is not translated as that in Chinese, it is 持世 which means "The One Who Supports the World", probably a reference to her as Bhumi.
Yes, but, only slightly less than looking very far, the general source about the Vasus shows why it is significant that she is the Dhara of them. The Chinese is accurate since "dhara" may mean "holds in the hands", but also, "to support, to bear", and so she is certainly more "bearing" these Vasus than displaying them in any of her forms.

Vasus are Aditis.

But--the details vary--they request to be reborn through goddess Ganga.

This is truly interesting, I read the link to the Vasus, thank you. So this brings together her roles that I had called "Mongolian" with her roles in the heavens and makes her a supporter of the whole "world". And she does this dancing to the vibration of Vajrasattva, supplying the power coming from the earth.

Lakshmi explains this in terms of Shaktis, i. e. the powers associated with enlightened use of the Vasus. Both the Shaktis and Vasus swirl/mix/reflect in order to move from the formless world into material. "Reversing Creation" is not simply a matter that there are more etherealized states, it is a Noumenal process of disengagement from it.

Individual shaktis are thought of as existing on a per-element basis, so you have Magnetic Shakti, Fire Shakti, and so on.

Reversing creation to realize the primordial state or to realize nonduality?

They have many stories, especially about being stolen, but with the transition she is making, they become inhabitants of the slopes of one's personal Mt. Meru. Think of it that way. She helps you rustle and milk these cows. Then you make magic yogurt purified by the sun for use in the Homa. Vasudhara said to meditate her mentally. We can mostly do it that way. If a person buys actual yogurt, or, emulates the entire rite by making it themselves, that can only help.

In her 108 Names she is also Kama Dhatvishvari, same as Lakshmi of Hevajra Tantra.

The Gopali form is another Dharani goddess who is an increment past Ila, and a bridge to Manohara.

As we see, Vasumati is like a Mother aspect to Kumari or Katyayani (or equivalent such as Buddha).

So there are two tracks of Yogurt and Red Powder used in the Homa on that basis.

The yogurt has a cosmic aspect similar to the Milky Way or nebulae, as well as a personal aspect, like the degree and quality of luminosity.

So some of this goes a long way towards explaining why there is so much milk and yogurt in some of my shakings. And goes back to my question about relating these goings on with the body and chakras. The yogurt or cream I told you about formed above my palate, and that is only a few centimeters from where, in the space in the front of my head in the cranium, I had found a "micro-pair" that was clouds and space -- filled with stars.

I put these responses in one response because I wanted to quote the following from the first and the second of your posts:

Yes, I think it is like that.

She is the material aspect and he is the mind.

The material is all the power, the mind can only hold it.

The luminosity intended by matured Vasudhara is absolutely gorgeous, like aurorae. Mind's inner nature is incomprehensively beautiful. We have dirt or Earth in our Vajra Eyes.

These two statements come very close to describing the endlessness of the visions and blisses that I find during shaking. The material is the power - the bliss is generated and refined and stored by the body. The mind holds it -- there is huge space in the visions and encounters powered by the bliss. The luminosity is gorgeous, like aurorae -- this aptly describes the sort of "volume on 10" beauty of what happens in any of the visions. Mind is incomprehensively beautiful -- in two senses. It is endless and spectacularly beautiful beyond comprehension, and it is by "not comprehending" that one can see it.

I've spent a lot of time recently on the notions (some of which I'm reading in the Avatamsaka) that one should relinquish imagination and the senses. I have seen/been taught/been shown that this means ending the association of these things with the self -- with "I". If "I" cease to imagine things and just let "imagine things" without the "I", the imagination expands to the infinite. If "I" cease to sense things and just let "sense things" without the "I", there is seemingly no limit to what is sensed.

There are physical relationships to these things, there is a "mind's eye" in the brain, it is part of the pattern recognition system by which we understand the world. When we recognize something, a movie playing from our memory lines up with the sensory input from our eyes, and identifies the latter. When we imagine something, the movie plays back on our sensory inputs. One can teach, by biofeedback, a blind person to draw from their imagination this way. The mind is not just memories but also subconscious, unconscious, collective subconscious, and the last of those acquires into the genetic memory everything from our ancestors, but also from the spiegelbund (marketplace of words), from similar circumstances and from antiquity -- even sometimes the birds, caught in just the right movement and angle, show their forebears the dinosaurs. So even if one only believed in the physical, the statements you made above are true, and nothing changes that.

Only the self seems ever to limit the mind, the places we "don't want to go", the places we "want to see again". And in mirror to that, one would see that the beauty that can be appreciated is limited to what the self imposes on the senses as well. It's kind of a well-known fact that if a cow started flying tomorrow, only those who's senses and mind could accommodate the belief in flying cows would be able to see it.

shaberon

10th December 2020, 04:48

Allright, it is perhaps historically true that there was consumption of feces and so forth; after all, it is Tson kha pa who speaks to us about Golden Zombie as if it were the Methodist gardeners' square dance.

I don't think it literally is part of a Homa, like Five Products of Cow and so forth.

We definitely symbolicly are talking about eating Mercury, and, perhaps literally, semen and menstrual blood. However, most alchemy, the Mahabharata, the lives of the Mahasiddhas, should be seen as biased towards metaphorical. Recall the gentlement who came round waiting for a bid to die so he could get Peacock's Neck. It means copper sulfate.

"Green like the sky" is a phrase we have seen lately, and, correspondingly from what can be told of most older cultures, any difference between blue and green is vague or seems to lack vocabulary. That is why to be picky about sadhana-ese, we could say:

Nila is deep or midnight blue

Krsna means "dark", usually blue, but is sometimes called "black" without any additional modifiers present

Syama means "dark", usually green, and is the word for green on most such deities, although sometimes is black in mandalas

Harita is a lighter, yellowish, nitrogenated vegetative shade of green, such as Green Janguli

Priyangu Fruit is a similar pale green

Turquoise is its own special shade or designation

Sky Blue is an alternate for white

Gaura is arguably white or orange

White may be Sita, Sukla, or Sveta

Gold can be Kanaka or Hema

Silver is not even used that I have ever seen

Blood color is with Mahamaya Vijayavahini

The idea of "reversing creation" is really the reason that all Puranas must contain a creation myth.

It is a very old idea in Yoga which I think in Buddhism we are saying is a little more that just saying, well, there are ever-more ethereal states of being. It is like having all the Void Gnosis available from Nirguna and yet forbidding if from being the only school by saying Buddhahood is reached in the Akanistha, because it is going to radiate back out into the lower world. It is not so much in finding that Akanistha is very ethereal or is like a Perfect Form--you are able to remain stable, dissolve the voids, and Emerge in Reverse Order.

I cannot recall where I first dug up some of this material what is now a few years ago. We can say, that in Sadhanamala, Vasudhara is a simple Ila who does perhaps the world's most basic mandala by staffing it with clones.

The Nepalese Sanskrit archive could be described as repeating this cycle in a larger format more related to the mandala with eight cloned attendants.

The Vasudhara Dharani (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/21/223) itself is related to Vajradhara and Tara.

When I first looked at her, it was difficult to see how the "initials" could be anything but Vam; however, the Dharani makes it plain that in some cases, it is Srim, regardless.

So although she has odd combinations like "Srim Vasusri", her identity is plainly given:

hṛdayam| lakṣmyai svāhā| om upahṛdayam| om lakṣmī bhūtalanivāsine svāhā|

It is Lakshmi, but also as resident in the place of Bhutas, which has a dual meaning.

Yama, the fearsome judge of the dead, is a Preta. This is the regular class of Ghosts, such as the Four Kings, or, also, Bhutas, are "elementaries" meaning drawn back to the physical world.

The Pisacis are more powerful, but, for all intents and purposes, Pretas and Bhuts are powerful enough.

Bhuta also simply means Element.

So it may mean Resident in Ghost World (Kama Loka) as well as Resident in Elements.

It also calls her Vrstini Patini, probably a cloud or goddess of Rain (Vrsti), right after Kailasa Vasini, and an unknown term:

levadike
levadika

Her Nama Dharani song (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/218/911) near the beginning explains her as:

dharaṇī dhāraṇī dhātā śaraṇyā bhaktavatsalā |

prajñāpāramitā devī prajñā śrībuddhivardhinī || 2 ||

Saranya is perhaps Saranyu or Swift Cloud Samjna.

She also refers to at least Dana, Virya, and Ksanti Paramitas by name. She has Candi, Sabari, Raudri, and others. For Energy, she says something it is hard for me not to see as a play on "Vairocani" and then the two wives of Ganapati:

vīryapāramitā devī jagadānandarocanī |

tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā || 7 ||

She implies that a matured Cintamani turns gold and carries a Prajnaparamita book:

śuddharūpī mahātejā hemavarṇā prabhākarī |

cintāmaṇimahādevī prajñāpustakadhāriṇī || 10 ||

She handles Seven Patalas or underworlds, and, it is not "Kama", it is actually Karma, we see Karma Dhatvishvari and Ratna Dhatvishvari as if she were unleashing two Families.

As such, she does have the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment:

bodha(dhi)nī sarvasattvānāṃ bodhyaṅgakṛtaśekharī |

dhyānā dhīrmuktisaṃpannā advayadvayabhāvinī || 16 ||

In a Four Verse song (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/219/912), she is called Samjna, twice.

She deals with Dharmaraja and Sukhavati. She seems tangentially related to Lotus or Padma, and evidently to the Skandha of that Family.

Dhanada comes up so frequently that you would expect to go off and look for what is this.

Vasudhara throws tentacles at Dhanada, Cintamani, and Manohara.

The Dharani is a Mahavidya. That makes it a fluidic practice or publicly-accessible and considered to have revelation within the doing so.

It would get two syllables going, Vam and Srim, on one form, Ila. Obviously these are closely related to Sri, where again, our Sri is almost mantricly the same as Dhanada.

One can even build to this since "Sim" = Sita who is accepted in Buddhism as Vasudhara.

I am not sure if Sim is even used in any Buddhist sadhana, but, I am sure that Sita is the "pre-Buddhist closest neighbor and philosophy".

That would give you Peace Syllable followed by Lunar Syllable.

Vayu as the Calf is from Yajur Veda (http://www.ishwar.com/hinduism/holy_yajur_veda/book01/book01_07.html) on the role of the sacrificer in the new and full moon sacrifices.

This role may be performed by Ganapati, and the Full Moon is Purnimasa or Vajrasattva, or Amrta or human monad.

In a commentary (https://books.google.com/books?id=B1KR_kE5ZYoC&lpg=PA271&ots=0PvZpuMXrk&dq=ida%20vayu%20calf&pg=PA271#v=onepage&q=ida%20vayu%20calf&f=false), the calf returned to its mother is Vayu joined to Ida (Cow). Their meeting is the Viraj, When the calf is being milked, the milk belongs to the Aswins, when done, to the Viswadevas.

That is a subtle hint about Aswin Nectar which is Deathlessness.

Their meeting is the Viraj...what did Buddha just claim to be...well...

Elsewhere the Yajur (https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yv/yv02.htm) says:

(The offering) to Vaiçvanara is on twelve potsherds; the year has twelve months; verily by the year he removes his rivals for him; there is one to the Maruts [6]; the Maruts are the subject class among the gods; verily by the subjects among the gods he wins for him the subjects among men; (the offering) is on seven potsherds; the Maruts are in seven troops; verily in troops he wins his rivals for him; he deposits (the offering) when (the verses) are being repeated; verily he makes the people follow him.

Without poring through the whole thing, at a glance, we see something about Wind as a returned prana capable of transmitting immortality; Vaisvanara is Agni Visnu Man, a type of primordial Purusha who was shattered Osiris-like, and who is being re-assembled by various fires and sacrifices, against the tendencies of his son Samsya "Problem".

Just as Vasus are associated with Vasudhara, they are also with Agni. The Yajur has a Marut hymn which says that the divine body is broken into four chunks and that part of the destiny is to unite Rudras with Maruts:

g I hail the dear names [1] of yon impetuous ones,
That, O Maruts, calling they may rejoice.
h For glory they are wreathed in flames,
In the rays (of the sun), adorned with rings they (are accompanied) with singers;
They wearing daggers, impetuous, fearless,
Here found the dear home of the Maruts.
i First let Agni with the Vasus aid us;
Let Soma with the Rudras protect (us);
Let Indra with the Maruts act in due course;
Let Varuna with the Adityas quicken us.'
k God Agni with the Vasus [2],
Soma with the dread forms,
Indra with the Maruts, worthy of sacrifice,
Varuna with the Adityas hath been in harmony with us.
l As the Adityas are united with the Vasus,
The Rudras with the Maruts,
So, O thou of three names,
May the All-gods without anger be of one mind.

A bit further along is an even stranger section where Ida shows back up in the context of the Aswins:

a What went new that became fresh butter; what crept that became clarified butter; that which became firm became ghee.
b Thou art the breath of the Açvins; of that to thee let the two give whose breath thou art; hail! Thou art the breath of Indra; of that to thee let him give whose breath thou art; hail! Thou art the breath of Mitra and Varuna; of that to thee let them give whose' breath thou art; hail! Thou art the breath of the All-gods [1]; of that to thee let them give whose breath thou art; hail!
c Stream of ghee, path of ambrosia,
Given by Indra, presented by the Maruts,
Thee Visnu perceived,
Then Ida moved thee in the cow.
d Let the god Savitr set thee free for life, for living, with the Pavamana Stoma, with the path of the Gayatra (Saman)...

In Tattirya Aranyaka (https://books.google.com/books?id=vnZZl-oZnyEC&lpg=PA74&ots=ILn6a0EEUQ&dq=ida%20vayu%20calf&pg=PA79#v=onepage&q=ida%20vayu%20calf&f=false), the same concept is presented; Bharati is called Aditi; Vasat ("in the power of") is the invocation for Aswins; on p. 79, Viraj is Food. Usually, Viraj (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/viraj) is the non-dual state prior to creation, and is the "neuter" Brahma. It is not just Victory like Jaya or Aparajita, nor just Stainless like Vimala, but more like the rarefied state attained by them.

There, Prana is also called Yama with the Angirases and Pitris (p. 78), as well as the most Indra-like fire. Aditi or Agni and the Vasus are also time cycles or seasons. Pravargya is the head of the sacrifice (Aditya oir the Sun), Wind is its body. Udumbara Wood is Food.

There is a special ray of the sun that brings rain; in one instance, Prsni (https://rigvedaanalysis.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/the-birth-of-the-maruts/) is "that cloud". Prsni (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/prishni) is mother of Maruts, or of Savitri, and is also "that cow".

The scenes are complex, since they describe multiple levels of creation, from prime motion down to the interqction of heat and moisture; and yet the sacrifice or rite is always about harmonizing the Winds, Vayu or Maruts, which animate us. The Maruts come under the influence of Indra, so they are apt to become Storms, but again Indra is like a "middle junction" that one has to become conscioously and eventually transcend.

In the older systems, "the one" Prana is Rudra--Atman (https://hara-hara-mahadev.blogspot.com/2009/09/hymn-to-prana.html), and so his descendants and branches are "the Rudras" and then "the Maruts".

Vasudhara (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc371638.html) is also a waterfall above Badrinath, perhaps the most important water site.

Nidhāna (निधान, “treasure”) is accomplished by performing mantrasādhana (preparatory procedures) beginning with japamālā using a rosary bead made of conch shell beads, according to the Kakṣapuṭatantra verse 1.47, “to achieve artha (wealth), a rosary should be made from conch shell beads. To accomplish the nidhāna (treasure) and Yakṣiṇī ritual, the rosary should be strung with a white thread”.

(S) A treasure of kubēra the Indian Plutus. There are nine, padma, mahāpadma, śaṅkha, makara, kacchapa, mukunda, nanda, nīla, kharva.

Also a treasury storehouse, or death or annihilation.

False treasure in the Dnyaneshwari or Jnaneswari (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/jnaneshwari-bhavartha-dipika/d/doc492338.html) which evidently is published.

Kshetrajna is one of the "principles of Vishnu" formed primordially:

Kṣetra is the physical body and kṣetrajña is the soul. Kṣetra is made up of thirty six tattvas (some take only twentyfour) or principles. Kṣetra is gross and kṣetrajña is subtle. Kṣetra is perishable, whereas the knower of Kṣetra, kṣetrajña is eternal and imperishable.

Kshetra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kshetra) could also be the Seven Cities of India, or the zones of Jambuvipa, or the "fields of the body".

Vasudhara pre-dates Buddhism or Durga considerably, and, in her mantra, is Nidhana Kshetre, so the intent is rather clear, though somewhat variable as to the details of the classifications.

Old Student

11th December 2020, 01:35

shaberon

11th December 2020, 08:35

But people get desperate when they try to accomplish something that evades them, and the do things literally, convincing themselves that it's the one death-defying thing they haven't tried. All I was pointing out is that throughout history there have always been such people -- today we would think of them as New Agers who were deluding themselves and others about a far-off religion they didn't really take the time to understand.

There was also a monk in the Tarim Basin someplace in the 800s who was the subject of countless complaints to civilian authorities because he was apparently "practicing" karmamudra with everybody's daughters and ruining their marriage prospects.

Indeed. There are aspects of that which are quite silly, but, at the same time, some of it is pretty serious.

Having mentioned Badrinath, it is correct that on the "pilgrimage routes" all over India, there are certain meeting points a few times a year determined astrologically. The main meeting is near Badrinath.

As to how close the Buddhist Theosophical Mahatmas were to this core of Indian esoterism, in referring to "D. Swami" or Dayanand Sarasvati, they said "last year he was a high chela at Badrinath".

He had actually spent something like six years scrambling over the mountains until his shoes wore off and he had none. He kept going around and met one guru just briefly and then kept going until he got what he was looking for and was given the disciple name "Sarasvati".

The same guru had another chela who went off to become Kasi Naresh, that is, spiritual advisor to the Maharaja of Kashi, which is perhaps the most powerful office held by Indian esoterists and so held for 12,000 years. This particular fellow is another "Sarasvati", can't remember the first name, but he met for instance Alexandra David-Neel and Mark Twain, and I think his picture is on Wikipedia.

The motto of the original Theosophical Society is nothing but a copy of the motto of the then-Maharaja of Kashi.

"D. Swami" *was* in good standing, but, when he took the nationalistic spin into Arya Samaj, they said:

"We will stop him".

His expertise was replaced by that of Subba Row.

But he took the hardship of a solo quest very literally for a long time. Hence the hesitancy to just "hand it over" to someone.

My resident speaker says that bhuts are what some other people call "spirits" and pretas are the souls of people.

Preta Loka is the Ghost Realm in Buddhism, so, it is at least the "shells" of people.

By "spirits" he probably means pookas and brownies and so forth, probably types of Elementals. I think when it means a Pure Element it is called Mahabhut.

So I mean that is roughly correct, but, try to get an English speaker to give us the difference between "soul" and "spirit". Maybe they can?

she says something it is hard for me not to see as a play on "Vairocani" and then the two wives of Ganapati:

vīryapāramitā devī jagadānandarocanī |

tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā || 7 ||

Is this the two consorts, or is it a bestowal -- rddhi, siddhi, bala, pradA (bestow upon)?

In Jainism, Kshetra interestingly is both clairvoyant knowledge, and they have Kṣetrariddhi, which refers to “extraordinary power to enhance a space of small capacity to a space with extraordinarily large space”.

I think the phrase says Riddhi and Siddhi are made stronger by the fierce form of tapas, which is the intent of Energy or Virya Paramita and a Devi whose name is something like Jagad Ananda Vairocani. That may not necessarily be correct since just as it is written, Rocani (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/rocani) is Yellow Locana, which seems much more appropriate, or, close. She would still be Yellow Earth in Vairocana Family. But I think she can deify three elements. All those kinds of things are like a matter of "at this time", i. e. there is a reason she was Space and got moved.

Rocani "may be":

Wife of Kakusandha Buddha in his last lay life (BuA.210; DA.ii.422). Elsewhere (Bu.xxiii.17) she is called Virocamana.

As far as I know, Rddhi and Siddhi are only considered "consorts" specifically by Ganapati; elsewhere, they are "related subjects".

That one is called Lakshmi Ganapati; and Siddha Lakshmi was the tutelary goddess of the Malla dynasty, something like a nice version of Guhya Kali. So you perhaps could learn it by Siddha Lakshmi without the Ganapati. But then you probably would be better off if you had Siddha Lakshmi that you also did Ganapati. Or you could get it from Kurukulla. There could be multiple avenues of approach, but, categorically, none of it happens without something from Tapas.

Because Ganapati Hrdaya is the Dharani given, and, it is weird once you start looking into it, you may think of it as conjuring one Vinayaki like him, or, two devis, or, one at a time, or, different ones depending upon the rddhi or siddhi emphasized.

It is like it is ok for Ganapati to sportingly chase any goddess. If they are any way meaningful to or constructive of Rddhi or Siddhi, it will work. It is probably more meaningful to spend most of his time around Matangi, nevertheless, we have to say he is not a Yidam and you really only have to have one Yidam. He is something like "good choice in a powerful booster".

He still looks a lot like a backstory for Jambhala, and if we do Vasudhara it will bring Jambhala anyway. This pair is easily avoidable if you keep your eyes closed. But if the Path requires Bliss and Increasing Bliss, this is Bharati, who is a Vasudhara. So then one can easily see Vasudhara as starting the whole mantra path--in its Mahavidya aspect--as Vasumati Ila Devi and her subject Nidhana, and, continuing, at the very least, to the point where Union at Bodhisattva-level strength is unavoidable, including the Completion Stage details I usually don't say much about.

Then it occurs that Union at Bodhisattva-level strength is the means by which Buddhahood is attained.

Does that mean we have to use Buddha's personal consort, Tilottama, of whom there are two?

One created by Viswakarman, and another Tilottamā was born to Pradhā, wife of Kaśyapa, grandson of Brahmā and son of Marīci. Alambuṣā, Miśrakeśī, Vidyutparṇā, Aruṇā, Rakṣitā, Rambhā, Manoramā, Subāhu, Keśinī, Suratā, Surajā and Supriyā were all sisters of Tilottamā.

She is in Dakarnava but not as the principal consort.

Since her name includes "finest", then it is much like an inner meaning of "most subtle", and I am pretty sure the one we have to have has to match this description.

Was she a form of Bharati? It was Bhu who attested to the Tathagatas that Gautama was ready, but I am not sure that it says anything about whether she slipped inside the rite. One way or another, Vasudhara has the final word.

In her own song, it would seem unlikely that Ganapati is implicated in any way. I would take the verse as Vasudhara telling us how Virya Paramita works. I think the basic thing they tell people is "I need energy for mindfulness", since that is the condition they are found in, and this Vasudhara will not work that way. Once you can follow the Sutra level, she is telling us the basic tantric equivalent, and making it Bala or strong, which, by comparison, Ganapati or Pancha Raksha can make it Maha Bala at which point we are dealing with the Raudras--Maruts. Vasudhara starts the beginning of the Yaksha Realm, and most of these could be more accurately described as "impish or mischievous", and Ganapati is able to command their upper echelons and angrier versions.

So those two deities are on the map, they are tantricly related, but one would probably conclude that "Vasudhara and some version of Rddhi and Siddhi" are crucial, whereas Ganapati and the enactment of them as consorts would be a unique and powerful assistant if so chosen.

In a Four Verse song, she is called Samjna, twice.

She almost seems like a "pre-Tara". Samjna is part of the eightfold path.

I had not looked at it like that.

That is possibly because the "Eightfold" contains repetitive elements to other groups, and so, when boiled down, it is not noticeable, but I think some versions of Thirty-seven Point Enlightenment have it. And when looking at those and the replication, instead, I have found that if one was to group that many things, the version that teaches Kriya-Chara into Yoga is much more explanatory since it is starting from the Six Gods of Abhisambodhi, and the Atma Tattva and Devata Tattva, and thereby forces extreme grounding into what Deity Yoga actually is, you would no longer be able to bombard it with funny foreign notions. That is the kind of material I wish had been available when I was younger.

The deity Samjna is of two kinds, the original or Swift Cloud or Saranyu Samjna, and, the sister that she made, Chhaya or Shadow Samjna. The latter means Terrestrial Perception and so is mainly the same as Samjna Skandha. The first is of course purified spiritual perception:

Name of a daughter of Tvaṣṭṛ (in, [Ṛg-veda] represented as the wife of Vivasvat and mother of the two Aśvins, and [according to] to some, of the twins Yama and Yamī, whom she brought forth in the form of a mare; [according to] to some also Name of the Dawn.

And so if purified Samjna Skandha is Lotus Family which means also Long Life which is really the pursuit of immortality, which is the gift of the Aswins or the most occult deities, and this same lore rapidly attaches Varuni and Vairocani, that is what tells me tantric Buddhism is a lot more Puranic than it is a novel product.

Vaivasvata or Sun Manu is the son of the Sun and Samjna, and finding at first that he could not create beings he caused a sacrifice in honour of Mitra and Varuṇa out of which came Iḍā or Ilā. Manu is the Hindu Noah or sire of the human race. Ila must not be the earth, itself, but a shakti or creative power of it.

Vasudhara also had a Rain Cloud motif slip in. There definitely is significance to Cloud as we find them in the Cemeteries as well as being the ninth or tenth Bhumi.

The only real difference I can say as to Tara is that she is a Noumenal presence. In other words, if you do almost any Yoga to a successful point, then you are going to realize the default Lakshmi. We are taking whatever this "is", and, so to speak, placing it in Tara's hand of grace. Lakshmi is just whatever Prakriti actually is. Tara is a person like us who attained Buddhahood in a prior cosmos, so, she must have Svasamvedana and have experienced Parinispanna as Seven Eternities of Bliss. In our time she is already a Tathagata even compared to Buddha Gautama.

She "isn't" Lakshmi or Durga, other than she can operate them.

She appears to operate Lakshmi by the name Vasudhara. Vasudhara is Tara. Therefor Tara is Lakshmi, by way of claiming or co-opting her.

I did not realize Nidhana also meant "Muttering", and, the difference with Charchika is that she "only" means Muttering and "only" at a tantric stage, whereas the Nidhana is much more broad-based and introductory and simply includes it.

It was 108 Names that says Vasudhara is Kama Dhatvishvari, whereas in the song, it appears to be making her the progenetrix of Ratna and Karma Families. That would probably be pretty handy for someone who may be accustomed to the Three Jewels and perhaps Three Families of Kriya or Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani.

Then I honestly think she is going to be a tease and hide in the woods and make us figure out a Pandora's box of Vasus and shaktis and so forth until we find her again in Sambhogakaya.

An evolved Six Arm Vasudhara is in TD 504, although it is one of the briefest, least informative articles. She is a Yellow Vam-arisen Ratna deity with eighteen attendants who are not described. It says it comes from the short Vasudhara-kalpa, but the editors disagree, and think it may come from the Rite of Reciting the Vasudhara Dharani. It's All-Purpose mantra is that of Vighnantaka (i. e. Ganapati). This article tells us almost nothing, and certainly nothing new, except that five of her hands have standard Vasudhara attributes, and the third right is:

Raised in homage to the Tathagata Vajradhara Calling with the True Voice of the Sea (Sagara Nirghosa).

Vajradhara is somewhere in the west of the large mandala; he is the central figure in the Sutra portion of her Dharani (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/21/223), which is probably what the editors mean, and he is also invoked by mantra in that name.

Vasudhara appears to be aimed frim Ila who may be very Hindu, into her Six Arm form that likes Vajradhara, in retinues based on four, eight, or eighteen deities, mostly within the power of her Dharani.

Debris of the Ages:

The most popular and common in Tibetan art is the two armed and the most common in Nepalese art is the six armed form.

None of these Vasudharas have a Four Arm form, until you accept Dhanada. Then you can easily see Dhanada Krama as a gate from the minor Vasudharas to the big one, which seems to be the intent.

Concerning her gesture which has a more specific meaning:

...the third with the hand in a gesture accompanying singing...This form of Vasudhara arises from the Togpa Chungwa and the Vajravali text of Abhayakaragupta.

That is a bit less instructive than what the sadhana says, but, of course it also clarifies that there is a song-like intent here.

Artists have retained it as a sort of raised hand, sometimes adding a rosary or something, but sometimes it appears empty:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/5/8/65819c.jpg

Vajradhara is not prominent in her mandala; it is possible he is here in the Northwest. Occasionally, you can find her crowned or surmounted by Ratnasambhava, which people might easily mistake for Buddha:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/9/0/89012.jpg

There are several versions (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=5525) of this, and, it is unusual, on the ones where the Grounds are obvious, South is Blue, sometimes with Sky Blue.

North is typically a lighter Harita Green or else black.

You can see this in the Grounds around her detail image:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/5/8/65819.jpg

Here is one with a lighter North which perhaps is even Yellow:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/5/10521.jpg

There are some tricky details right under the hood of a goddess who is "public" and "popular". I might tend to guess that even people who are immersed in this culture may not even be aware that why it looks like Vajra Family in the South is a question.

That is why I think you do need the "basic", or, even pan-cultural type of Pancha Jina or Pentagon or Quintessence, and then you are in a position to uncover the Winds and Families and what they are doing as mental and pysiological changes to a person in these tantras.

Old Student

12th December 2020, 04:53

So I mean that is roughly correct, but, try to get an English speaker to give us the difference between "soul" and "spirit". Maybe they can?

They were actually wordier than that, that was my synopsis -- spirits meaning spirits of places and things and such, what you are calling "elementals" what some Europeans might call fauns. Preta ghosts are souls of people. But both are translated as "ghost" -- as in ghost pepper = bhut jolokia.

vīryapāramitā devī jagadānandarocanī |

tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā || 7 ||

I think the phrase says Riddhi and Siddhi are made stronger by the fierce form of tapas, which is the intent of Energy or Virya Paramita and a Devi whose name is something like Jagad Ananda Vairocani. That may not necessarily be correct since just as it is written, Rocani is Yellow Locana, which seems much more appropriate, or, close. She would still be Yellow Earth in Vairocana Family. But I think she can deify three elements. All those kinds of things are like a matter of "at this time", i. e. there is a reason she was Space and got moved.

Okay, but it could also be
jagadānandarocanī = "light of the universe"
tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā = the ugly form of an ascetic and giving (rddhi,siddhi,bala) powers.

Since her name includes "finest", then it is much like an inner meaning of "most subtle", and I am pretty sure the one we have to have has to match this description.

Was she a form of Bharati? It was Bhu who attested to the Tathagatas that Gautama was ready, but I am not sure that it says anything about whether she slipped inside the rite. One way or another, Vasudhara has the final word.

This makes sense.

"In a Four Verse song, she is called Samjna, twice.

She almost seems like a "pre-Tara". Samjna is part of the eightfold path."

I had not looked at it like that.

I made a mistake here, I confused Samjna with Samya.

Vasudhara also had a Rain Cloud motif slip in. There definitely is significance to Cloud as we find them in the Cemeteries as well as being the ninth or tenth Bhumi.

As a motif in my shaking, clouds tend to mutate -- into birds, into waterfalls, etc.

[Tara] "isn't" Lakshmi or Durga, other than she can operate them.

She appears to operate Lakshmi by the name Vasudhara. Vasudhara is Tara. Therefor Tara is Lakshmi, by way of claiming or co-opting her.

I'm not understanding the distinction, if she can "claim" Lakshmi and be her, by operating her as Vasudhara, is she not also Vasudhara and Lakshmi? Is she not who she appears to be at the moment she appears to be her? Tara seems like the universal consort (okay, so does Samantabhadri) wouldn't that be the Buddhist equivalent to the universal shakti?

There are some tricky details right under the hood of a goddess who is "public" and "popular". I might tend to guess that even people who are immersed in this culture may not even be aware that why it looks like Vajra Family in the South is a question.

That is why I think you do need the "basic", or, even pan-cultural type of Pancha Jina or Pentagon or Quintessence, and then you are in a position to uncover the Winds and Families and what they are doing as mental and pysiological changes to a person in these tantras.

I perceived channels in the way they are depicted for the first time the night before last, just briefly, and because I was being 'worked on' because my breathing was in distress. They were beautiful, but I could not pay much attention because of the need to generate nausea to fix my breathing.

shaberon

12th December 2020, 10:21

But both are translated as "ghost" -- as in ghost pepper = bhut jolokia.

Exactly, and, to its credit, the original Theosophical system attempted to nuance the distinction between "paranormals".

Koothoomi quit dabbling with A. P. Sinnett largely because "your house is a colony of Bhuts".

In America, it was originally a movement to purge necromancy, much like as was happening in Tibet at the time.

This is of course a bit related to the aesthetic of cremation.

HPB was completely clairvoyant, as an example, she asked W. Q. Judge how many keys were on his ring and he could not remember. The answer was given by a series of "knocks" and HPB said "it was easy to get the answer from your subconscious", and then there was an elemental present and "he" would do minor tricks at her bidding such as make knocking sounds.

There are definitely differences and gradations but we are facing something along the lines that, almost any person might be willing to agree they have a Life Force if they are asked to feel for it for a moment, but, not many are going to know anything about it on a Yoga basis.

Crowds are easy targets for something like Rope Trick and when photography came around, there was no trick, they're just standing there with some rope on the ground.

vīryapāramitā devī jagadānandarocanī |

tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā || 7 ||

Okay, but it could also be
jagadānandarocanī = "light of the universe"
tāpasī ugrarūpī ca ṛddhisiddhibalapradā = the ugly form of an ascetic and giving (rddhi,siddhi,bala) powers.

Yes, it is pretty close to that, although it also says Ananda or Bliss. In that sense, it is a regular name, where Rocani is probably just itself and maybe we could say related by extension to Vairocani. Even if it directly means Locana, this is Buddha Eye which perforce operates in Akashic Light.

I'm not understanding the distinction, if she can "claim" Lakshmi and be her, by operating her as Vasudhara, is she not also Vasudhara and Lakshmi? Is she not who she appears to be at the moment she appears to be her? Tara seems like the universal consort (okay, so does Samantabhadri) wouldn't that be the Buddhist equivalent to the universal shakti?

Buddhists seem to hate the word Shakti and say Prajna.

In that sense, Bhattacharya was a bit rough in his handling since he considers any consort a Shakti.

I am not sure I am the greatest at coming up with a distinction.

It is a bit like saying Indra is an office that can be occupied by anyone, or that Amitabhas will be the building blocks of the next universe.

It is somewhat paradoxical to say Amoghasiddhi is my Purified Sense of Touch, withdrawn from the world, and yet he is also Drum Sound Buddha from a previous universe.

When we say he "is" this, it means he is Not Ignorant about Occult Powers, the Powers are Shakti, and so Tara is the Empty Wisdom of the Occult Powers.

This is an activity of Bodhi which means for instance, when the universe went to Pralaya, this Mind remained firm and unaffected. And so Amoghasiddhi and Tara are like the Knowledge carrying itself forward.

Lakshmi--Vasudhara was the Prakriti there as she is here, and it is possible to perceive her and deal with her without going through Tara at all. The reverse is not true, you cannot go far with Tara without being faced with Lakshmi and Sarasvati, since those have Occult Powers she requires you to be Not Ignorant of. Tara does not really have a new set of Siddhis in the usual sense, because the unique Buddhist Siddhis are Generation and Completion Stages, and she can do those.

Vasudhara is perhaps Tara because she is Nidhana Ksetre, which, at a glance, does not come up as any kind of Hindu stock phrase.

The closest thing to Buddhist universal consort is perhaps Viswamata, who is Annapurna.

Or the most secretive one is perhaps Guhyeshvari.

It is a weird subject, to dig up the many ways that Lakshmi is the main attainment in Buddhist sadhanas and then to deny it or try talking sideways that it is not really her. It is still her, but, as used in conjunction with Buddhist methods, such as Vajra Panjara Tantra. Ratnagiri was gated by Gaja Lakshmi.

But it is similar to why all the Hindu deities generally are converted or subjugated and present in mandalas.

I am not a Hindu, and if I look at Vasudhara, she is going to be Nidhana Ksetre, related to Vam and Srim, in Jewel Family, with a Dharani that calls her Tara about fourteen times. My purposes are Noumenal because it is for Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

I can still accept Mahalakshmi of her own background, and, in addition, give it a certain primal stamp from Jewel Family which the other source does not deal with. There has been some kind of Tara overhaul to, shall we say, how the experience is being shaped.

I perceived channels in the way they are depicted for the first time the night before last, just briefly, and because I was being 'worked on' because my breathing was in distress. They were beautiful, but I could not pay much attention because of the need to generate nausea to fix my breathing.

That is...well, that sounds a bit unusual, but it is something I will not understand because it is a breathing repair.

On its own, that is, of course, important, but it still seems to match Yoga, in a backwards way. Most people can be trained in breathing easily enough, and have a hard time finding the breath of the energy-winds in the channels.

Usually, breathing is what is meant by Pranayama, but in Laya Yoga and in sadhanas, breathing becomes soft and goes away, and the energy-winds come under our control.

Again the Air symbolism of Amoghasiddhi seems to show this, starting as default it means external Wind perceived by the Body Surface as Touch, but then as Air begins to mean the pranic winds, Touch moves towards the element of Space instead of the physical surface.

This is how the teaching seems to go, but, you have harnessed enough prana to go backwards and fix coarse breathing. Something like the ultimate work-around.

The channels are probably the most important visualization, of which, the self-arisen kind is superior to the "with effort".

I am not yet sure we can say much about the increased six arm Vasudhara. He did not include it in NSP, and its presence in Tibetan Deities is paltry. Rinjung Gyatsa has Tara Vasudhara which is Dhanada, followed by Yellow Tara who has Jambhala. Then there is Red Vasudhara which is Bharati. That is how slippery and imprecise it tends to be. The one place where it might be normal Vasudhara, she has been overlooked, and there is no Corn, there is a Yellow Lotus.

We can say as Heruka increases from two, to four, to six, to sixteen arms, "the consort" shifts from Nairatma, to Vajravarahi, to Vajrashrnkala, to Nairatma.

Nairatma is a part of Vajra Tara, who is not called Vasudhara by name, but certainly stands in the character of what she would increase to next.

I suppose a lot of the Vasudhara is really with Jambhala, who, for example, may be crowned with Vajradhara Yab-Yum. They increase until their six arm forms are in union, holding Treasury Mice.

A Vajravali thangka reads Usnisa Vijaya, Pratisara and Pancha Raksa, Grahamatrika, Vasudhara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/535px/3/1/2/31203.jpg

We can observe the two on the right have "switched" the southern color to blue.

I have one note that says:

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.

Vasudhara has an uncommon Six armed form, depicted here from her personal text Vasudharoddhesa (according to the Met):

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/9/0/89003.jpg

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. Again--and this seems to be frequent--the top appears to house seven dhyanis, which no one has a guess about.

Concerning Tara, I had a long quote from Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsan, who is explaining the Nagarjuna--Tilo lineage that employs Mrtyuvacana. To us, she is explaining death, and to it, she is cheating or deceiving. It is often said that Tara was emanated into our realm by Avalokiteshvara. Then it turns out that the main Green Tara of Lotus Family is really Day-Night Tara. And so he is at least mentioning something that is not usually plain.

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.

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.]

"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. 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.

The Worshipful Lady is yellow 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.

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.

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."

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."

shaberon

13th December 2020, 06:08

It occurred to me that Vasudhara's Nidhana probably has direct bearing to, or is a component of, Pranidhana, which we have looked at before as a type of Vow or Vrata or Samaya. Here is not really meant the simple intro version, it is a cultivation or maturity, much like a matured Samaya is no longer just a Sattvic bond to a deity's meaning, it becomes Time spent in their affable presence.

Arguably, Dhanada--Vasudhara refers to all the basic Paramitas as Nidhana, and then Pranidhana comes up as a double bottleneck to them. It sounds a bit like assimilating all the specific Nidhanas in order to proceed with Pranidhana.

Some of the words are their own antonyms, such as Nirghosa, which can be sound (Vajranirghosa = Thunder), or, silence. It looks like the negation of Ghosa, but has both meanings.

"Nir" is usually a negative, but the "Ni" of Nidhana is not.

Nidhana is about the same word as Nidhi:

E. ni in or on, dhā to possess.

In Sadhanamala, it does not exist apart from Vasudhara, What is more common is Pranidhana, which is both a Paramita and a Bhumi, and, it can still be found close to Kshetra or Buddha Kshetra or Buddha Fields.

In Prajnaparamita Sutra:

During innumerable kalpas of this kind (asaṃkhyeyakalpa), the Bodhisattva has formed the great vow to save all beings. This is what is called the vow of the Great Mind. In order to save all beings, the fetters (saṃyojana) must be cut through and supreme perfect enlightenment (anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi) must be realized. This is what is called vow (praṇidhāna).

Praṇidhāna (प्रणिधान) or Tripraṇidhāna refers to the “three kinds of aspirations” as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 112):

susthāna-prābandhika (bound to the beautiful),
sattvārtha-prābandhika (bound to the welfare of beings),
buddhakṣetra-pariśodhaka (purifying the Buddha-field).

In general usage, it has other meanings which we address by more specific terms, such as Energy (Virya) or Fixation of the mind (Dharana), or Renunciation of the fruit of actions (karmaphalatyāga or Jnanagni).

Prajnaparamita Sutra in speaking of Prajna says:

[The bodhisattvas] who seek buddhahood make the following vow (praṇidhāna) as soon as the first production of the mind [of Bodhi] (prathamachittotpāda): “I wish to become Buddha, to save all beings, to attain the attributes of the Buddhas, to practice the six pāramitās, to destroy Māra’s army and the kleśas, to obtain omniscience (sarvajñāna) and to realize the state of Buddha.” Until they enter into nirvāṇa without residue (nirupadhiśeṣanirvāṇa), they observe their initial vow. From that moment on, all their wisdoms (prajñā) and all their knowledges (jñāna) of general characteristics (sāmānyalakṣaṇa) and specific characteristics (bhinnalakṣaṇa) are called Prajñā of the Buddhas.

The dependence of Buddha Fields on Pranidhana is Quality Twenty-Five (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc225133.html):

25. buddhakṣetrapraṇidhānaparighṛhīta:

Sūtra: They have taken possession of an infinite number of buddha-fields by means of their aspirations (apramāṇabuddhakṣetrapraṇidhānaparigṛhītaiḥ).

Śāstra: Seeing the wondrous infinities (apramāṇavyūha) of the buddha-fields (buddhakṣetra),[1] these bodhisattvas formed all kinds of aspirations (praṇidhāna).

Question. – But by virtue of the purity of their conduct and their actions (caritakarmaviśuddhi), the bodhisattvas automatically obtain good rewards (śubhavipāka). Why must they first aspire to them in order to obtain them later? A farmer who has grain, must he still wish for it?

Answer. – Merit (puṇya) is ineffective without aspiration (praṇidhāna). Making the aspiration (praṇidhānaprasthāna) is the guide that leads to the result. In the same way, metal-casting requires a master, the crude metal [itself] being formless (aniyata). Thus the Buddha said: “Some people cultivate (bhāvayanti) the limited merit of generosity (dāna) or morality (śīla), but are ignorant of the law of merit; learning that there are wealthy happy people, they always think about them and endlessly wish for [similar] happiness; at the end of their life, they will be reborn among wealthy happy people. Others cultivate the limited merit of generosity or morality, but are ignorant of the law of merit; hearing about the existence of the Caturmahārājika, Trāyastriṃśa, Yāma, Tuṣita, Nirmānarati and Paranirmitavaśavartin gods, they endlessly wish for [similar] happiness: at the end of their life, they will be reborn among those gods. This happiness is the result of their wish.”[2] In the same way, it is by aspiring for the pure universes (viśuddhalokadhātu) that the bodhisattvas acquire them later. Therefore it is thanks to their aspirations (praṇidhāna) that they possess superior fruits (agraphala).

Furthermore, the adornment of the buddha-fields (buddhakṣetrālaṃkāra) is important. By itself, cultivation of the qualities (guṇa) of the bodhisattva would be unable to realize it; this is why the power of aspiration is necessary. Thus, an ox (go-) has the strength to draw a cart (ratha) but a driver (nāyaka) is needed to reach the destination. It is the same for aspirations [108c] related to the pure universes: merit is like the ox, aspiration is the driver.

Question. – [If you are to be believed], one would gain no merit if one did not make an aspiration.

Answer. – Yes! One would gain merit, but not as when the aspiration is added. If one thinks endlessly of the goal, the merit increases (vardhate).

In regular Eight Limb Yoga (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-vasistha-english/d/doc117964.html), it is part of Niyama, which we seem to have subsumed under "preliminaries" while re-arranging this system entirely. It does mention Samadhi ( ~~); Absorption in meditation, in two ways:

1. Savikalpa ( ~~); With retention of self volition.

2. Nirvikalpa ( ~~); With loss of volition.

A Vaisnava view of Transient Ecstatic Disturbances (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/sri-bhakti-rasamrta-sindhu/d/doc218180.html) says:

dṛḍhābhyāsena, yathā —
praṇidhāna-vidhim idānīm akurvato’pi pramādato hṛdi me |
hari-pada-paṅkaja-yugalaṃ kvacit kadācit parisphurati ||2.4.131||
Smṛti arising from determined practice:

“Spontaneously, without concentrating, the lotus feet of the Lord now appear in my heart at any time or place.”

Pranidhana has to do with the most auspicious Merit, Self-arisen manifestation, and the transition from Kama Loka to Buddha Fields.

Here is the link to The Met's (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/682119) Nepalese Vasudhara mandala, just to know I am not coining things and they say they have looked at the corresponding text, which implies Vasudhara is Prajnaparamita, as well as the center of Pancha Raksha. Most of the population is Yakshas with gem sacks and treasure chests.

How close is Yellow Four Arm Prajnaparamita to a missing Four Arm Yellow Vasudhara?

Her white form is certainly close to Sarasvati, who goes in that mandala as a Yakshi.

How close is Vasudhara to Pratisara?

That is like a triple identity. It is possible, since advanced deities are often intended as hypostases. Dhanada already has a Prajnaparamita text. Vasudhara can also have it, or her own.

I feel bad since on a personal level I am unable to approach most Lakshmis. She is not very favorable to an Ucchista. I had wanted to change that by now, but, forces are still arrayed against me. Too much karma recycling to be done. It's terrible, it is like knowing how to swim, but no-one will put water in the pool today. If they did it would be like Tantalus.

That is why I do not "have" Ila Devi. Even if she is basic, she is looking for certain conditions. In most cases, something like Parnasabari should be adequate to rectify this. Things are just harder for me, which means I probably have to go through Ganapati first, if not something more ferocious.

Tomorrow or Monday is time for the Dragon's Head, so, let us make good choices.

Yakshas are in the yellow mandorlas in the gates, and their consorts are in the corners. This makes the last couple Yellow and Green, with Vajra Family still apparently South:

https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collection/v1/iiif/682119/1888231/main-image

The Pancha Raksha are in the corners of the outmost square, bracketed by Eight Auspicious Symbols:

https://collectionapi.metmuseum.org/api/collection/v1/iiif/682119/1888229/main-image

Hevajra Tantra is similar to, but not the same as, Bhattacharya's "Heruka" series. Hevajra similarly evolves in two, four, and six arm forms, although Vajrashrnkala seems to be used as the consort twice.

Sixteen Arm Hevajra's inner circle is the Gauris. These, I think, will be impossible to see in their Dakini Jala version, because they are consistently changed to use Sabari and Dombi. However, we can find an exact match for Vajraraudris as they are given in Samputa Tantra:

raudrī śuklavarṇā |
dakṣiṇe vajrabimbā pītavarṇā |
paścime rāgavajrā raktābhā |
uttare vajrasaumyā haritābhā || 3.4.48 ||
aiśānyāṃ vajrayakṣī ca sitapītābhā |
āgneyyāṃ vajraḍākinī pītaraktābhā |
nairṛtyāṃ śabdavajrā tu raktanīlābhā |
vāyavyāṃ pṛthivīvajrā tu haritasitābhā

So for instance, you look to the northeast and can easily find green and white Prithvi, in the evolutionary or increasing mandalas in this 1500s Ngor:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/1/9/31931.jpg

Body mandala is Two Arm Weapon Bearing form, seventeen deities. Speech mandala is Four Arm with Blue Varahi, thirteen deities. His Mind mandala has two stages, Abbreviated and Complete. In the first he is with Blue Six Arm Vajrashrnkala, who is perhaps a bit darker, and in the final one, it is Two Arm Light Blue Vajrashrnkala. Both of these have seventeen deities, with the difference being their color change.

There are a lot of Hevajra mandalas, but it is hard to find Vajraraudris matching the Samputa description.

It is also correct that Samputa leads more to Weapon Hevajra than to Skull Hevajra as shown in most images referring to his sixteen arm form.

Shrnkala is a very elusive thing, with no outer or preliminary rites that I know of, appearing for instance in Krsna Yamari's Janguli mandala. Hook and Noose have very obvious outer deities such as Manohara and Amoghapasha.

Old Student

14th December 2020, 05:55

That is...well, that sounds a bit unusual, but it is something I will not understand because it is a breathing repair.

On its own, that is, of course, important, but it still seems to match Yoga, in a backwards way. Most people can be trained in breathing easily enough, and have a hard time finding the breath of the energy-winds in the channels.

Usually, breathing is what is meant by Pranayama, but in Laya Yoga and in sadhanas, breathing becomes soft and goes away, and the energy-winds come under our control.

Again the Air symbolism of Amoghasiddhi seems to show this, starting as default it means external Wind perceived by the Body Surface as Touch, but then as Air begins to mean the pranic winds, Touch moves towards the element of Space instead of the physical surface.

This is how the teaching seems to go, but, you have harnessed enough prana to go backwards and fix coarse breathing. Something like the ultimate work-around.

The channels are probably the most important visualization, of which, the self-arisen kind is superior to the "with effort".

The breathing repair is done by generating nausea, specifically splitting a drop at the heart, and the bottom part becomes bliss and the top becomes nausea, one falls into my abdomen the other rises to my throat.

It probably is backwards. Most people do not have a problem with just stopping breathing, I do, and it goes to an abnormal form if left on its own, which is a kind of respiratory distress (my blood-oxygen level goes down). I don't normally experience a vision of channels when I'm trying to use Dakini-taught techniques to fix it, this was the only time. I have practiced the nausea thing a lot, it's not hard to do if I don't have a breathing problem, it's very hard to do if I do.

With her extra hands, she holds a Prajnaparamita book. She is conceived as simultaneously Prajnaparamita and the center of Pancha Raksha (in the corners).

So Vasudhara becomes Prajnaparamita? This is pretty interesting.

Concerning Tara, I had a long quote from Jetsun Dragpa Gyaltsan, who is explaining the Nagarjuna--Tilo lineage that employs Mrtyuvacana. To us, she is explaining death, and to it, she is cheating or deceiving. It is often said that Tara was emanated into our realm by Avalokiteshvara. Then it turns out that the main Green Tara of Lotus Family is really Day-Night Tara. And so he is at least mentioning something that is not usually plain.

This ritual seems to arise several Taras of several colors. Is one "moving through" Tara as she emanates in different forms, or is it seen as bringing up multiple Taras as different people?

Old Student

14th December 2020, 06:22

In Sadhanamala, it does not exist apart from Vasudhara, What is more common is Pranidhana, which is both a Paramita and a Bhumi, and, it can still be found close to Kshetra or Buddha Kshetra or Buddha Fields.

When I look up pranidhana, I get vow or prayer, when I look up nidhana I get "contains within itself" which fits the derivation you give. Prajna is pre-knowledge, jnana is knowledge, there is a way one could get from "contains within [ones]self" to vow or prayer by being before.

“Spontaneously, without concentrating, the lotus feet of the Lord now appear in my heart at any time or place.”

I hadn't read down to this point when I wrote that right above this quote, but this is the to contain within itself that would be presaged by an aspiration or vow or prayer.

That is like a triple identity. It is possible, since advanced deities are often intended as hypostases. Dhanada already has a Prajnaparamita text. Vasudhara can also have it, or her own.

So does Cunda. I think in some sense, Cunda is from Prajnaparamita, she is her tantric evolution. (I may have Cunda on the brain, I got lectured by her last night about just about everything about my form and execution of something).

I feel bad since on a personal level I am unable to approach most Lakshmis. She is not very favorable to an Ucchista. I had wanted to change that by now, but, forces are still arrayed against me. Too much karma recycling to be done. It's terrible, it is like knowing how to swim, but no-one will put water in the pool today. If they did it would be like Tantalus.

That is why I do not "have" Ila Devi. Even if she is basic, she is looking for certain conditions. In most cases, something like Parnasabari should be adequate to rectify this. Things are just harder for me, which means I probably have to go through Ganapati first, if not something more ferocious.

Even through Matangi? It seems like she is an Ucchista, and she is somehow too close to not be together with Sarasvati.

shaberon

15th December 2020, 20:26

It probably is backwards. Most people do not have a problem with just stopping breathing, I do, and it goes to an abnormal form if left on its own, which is a kind of respiratory distress (my blood-oxygen level goes down). I don't normally experience a vision of channels when I'm trying to use Dakini-taught techniques to fix it, this was the only time. I have practiced the nausea thing a lot, it's not hard to do if I don't have a breathing problem, it's very hard to do if I do.

That is...ok, I understand what you are saying...and do not literally understand, since I have never experienced anything like this.

Instead, I would say that what I have experienced as yogic states was 50% oxygenation and 50% heightened nerves.

Gopi Krishna in his book simply called "Kundalini" described his "problems" as the opposite of this, "poisoned nerves". If he experienced a piece of gravel in the wrong place, it would throw him into an uproar for the rest of the day. We might say, well, that does not represent Upeksa, but, this is the hardest part. He was confined to the second story of the house and could barely move or do anything. That is how powerful this stuff gets. That is why I can't apply myself that deeply to it. What he and I experienced is never-ending, it does not care if you have a job, family, chores, etc., you dwell in Bliss with no regard for the outer world other than it being quiet. Almost any influence makes you very sick.

Is the oxygen depletion mechanical (lack of diaphragm strength, lung expansion, etc.] or more physiological such as a damaged interface from the lungs to the blood stream?

So Vasudhara becomes Prajnaparamita? This is pretty interesting.

Manjushri is the same.

Vajrasattva is Prajnaparamita in one letter, A.

I think we could say, like Parasol, Prajnaparamita is an exclusively Buddhist deity. The aspect of her "accepting" or "merging" with Sarasvati and Vasudhara is therefor another way of making Hindu deities work in a Buddhist manner.

It probably works either way, such as her being the beginning. Prajnaparamita is a widely-distributed text goddess, so, one might learn her first, and then she could add Vasudhara by extension. How many of these are Buddha Mother? Vasudhara "is" Buddha's mother, at least spiritually, unless we want to consider if Yasodhara is her emanation. Prajnaparamita, Locana, Buddha Dakini, and probably some others also have this role.

Practically any deity that is holding a text has the Prajnaparamita Sutra, which would be almost the same thing as holding Prajnaparamita deity herself.

When taken as inner meaning, especially as the series of Paramitas centered in the Heart under Vajra Family, then for instance equating it to Manjushri--Sarasvati has something to do with circulating such energy through the throat and head; Vajra Family perhaps a bit more to do with opening the subtle layers of the heart. Vajrasattva will convey it to penetrate anywhere.

Either the Kalachakra Tantra or the Sadhanamala refers to Completion Stage as a fusion of Prajnaparamita and Vajradhatvishvari. I am not sure that it ever means a rite of visually combining deity forms or anything like that, but I am positive it means a combination of the Wisdom of Emptiness with the Most Subtle Energy Wind.

This ritual seems to arise several Taras of several colors. Is one "moving through" Tara as she emanates in different forms, or is it seen as bringing up multiple Taras as different people?

In the long run, one is going for the Quintessence, which is Secret Guru.

Given the language and most peoples' likely interpretations, they probably only train it in the worldly sense, wherein for example Yellow Tara is still going to increase riches in the ordinary sense. Or if you want the Red function, you just use Red Tara like a tool to do it. Generally, I would file all that kind of stuff under "personal business", since in each case, it is the inner or esoteric meaning that has to do with Wisdom and the Winds, which is our subject in Yoga.

Now if you can emanate Rainbow Light, I would figure you could manifest any of the corresponding deities. I can't, so I have to ladder-rung my way through it. So because I used Green Tara many years ago, when I started looking into White Tara, I got really confused. Here, the original or most basic ones are more like White Vajra Tara and Mrtyuvacana, which tell me something a little different than simply placing White Tara in the Tibetan Long Life Trinity. They are almost like a well-lit Nairatma; after all, Vajra Tara is the source of Nairatma. White Vajra Tara has as her main application the Emptiness Mantra:

Om Sunyata Jnana Vajra Svabhavatmako 'Ham

And at least when I do this, my ego falls off like slow-cooked meat slipping off the bone, and is replaced by something that I cannot describe in any other way than Void Gnosis. There could be hundreds of ways to to this, but, this way is singular, definitive, and original, and because it is Tara doing it, it is really easy. Tara is really forgiving towards tantric energy, if you are not developing or progressing this way it does not matter much, because she will affect you mentally and emotionally in such a way that over time, the subtle body and energies adjust accordingly.

I believe the Kadam Tara is a straight Five Families version. However, from studying Sadhanamala, the "important" one is Mahasri Tara, accompanied by Marici, Ekajati, Mayuri, and Janguli. Those tell me a lot more than a brief "Red Tara does x", which gives more opportunity to fail to comprehend or apply x, whereas if I talk about Lotus Family or a deity such as Mayuri, I get a comprehensive subject dependent on Mantra, Wind, and the development of Yoga. If I thought Lotus or Red only meant "subjugating others", I would probably ignore it, but when shifted to the inner meaning, it becomes inevitable or unavoidable or desirable.

In the initiated rituals, one of course does self-generate as Red Tara or whomever, and so in what way this means oneself or the Tara are moving through each other, I cannot really say since I do not do this. But I have little trouble erasing the distinction between myself and another being, so, even if I generate Tara in front, I never think she is "someone else", we cannot be separate selves or anything other than appearances on the same One Life. My person has a Sthula Sharira or coarse body, she does not. One of us is direly in need and one of us permanently has all perfections to share/transfer/inspire.

Tara's light is to fill one with Buddha Qualities, the enlightened intentions of the Families.

When seen as Vasudhara, it will employ Vam, Srim, Nidhana Ksetre, and the Yaksha Realm, whereas Prajnaparamita uses Pra or Pram and either Gate Gate or the Sarasvati Picu Vardhani mantra and Formlessness. And so these should have slightly different effects and perceptions. So they are not literally identical, but, again could be called something like energetic parallels doing slightly different jobs in the same department.

shaberon

15th December 2020, 21:51

So does Cunda. I think in some sense, Cunda is from Prajnaparamita, she is her tantric evolution. (I may have Cunda on the brain, I got lectured by her last night about just about everything about my form and execution of something).

Yes, in a lot of ways, Cunda is the gobsmacker of them all.

With her, you get the shortest, most basic mantra with no known evolution, the least information, the most basic forms including a Red Arya Cunda Tara samaya being, but then we find her as the root of the tantric Pala dynasty, and, in the Manjuvajra lineage, emerging in the most grandiose twenty-six arm form, which must be holding more attributes than I can even begin to guess.

So far, that is quite thoroughly "self-secret".

Once I compile the information, I come to a complete standstill as to how she works or what she is doing. That is one huge heaping pile of Sutra-to-Tantra transformance based on nothing, and, since Buddhism is intended as a guide, I would guess she must require Sarasvati and others as explanatory deities.

That is similar to Sarvadurgati Parishodana for example showing Bhutadamara Vajrapani in a critical role, whereas it is the Bhutadamara meditations as detailed in Sadhanamala that are the "explanation" or practice of the tantra. They all work like that. All the tantras require Vajrasattva plus some number of other things, which are rarely explained within the tantra itself.

I feel bad since on a personal level I am unable to approach most Lakshmis. She is not very favorable to an Ucchista. I had wanted to change that by now, but, forces are still arrayed against me. Too much karma recycling to be done. It's terrible, it is like knowing how to swim, but no-one will put water in the pool today. If they did it would be like Tantalus.

That is why I do not "have" Ila Devi. Even if she is basic, she is looking for certain conditions. In most cases, something like Parnasabari should be adequate to rectify this. Things are just harder for me, which means I probably have to go through Ganapati first, if not something more ferocious.

Even through Matangi? It seems like she is an Ucchista, and she is somehow too close to not be together with Sarasvati.

Well, yes, in the long run, I think Matangi is quite capable.

Yesterday I got an intersection of a rerun of the "Hrih Flower Arrow" along with a mental focus on Ganapati during a time period which began to Accomplish the Purpose. So that actually was step one in a fusion of tantric or alchemical processes into regular life. Today is for Ganapati and it is also Day One of the lunar cycle, so, Matangi is supposed to be strong on day three.

Ganapati is a bit sharper and harder, or, takes a nimble presence of mind to retain and deploy. Goddesses once known are so close, it is too easy for me to "bask" in them and let the male-based Method rot away, and then we plunge into self-deception.

With Vajrasrnkala, I was confused by my own notes telling me she is seen in Sadhanamala, because I can't find her, she is not in any retinue. What it meant, however, is that she has three solo sadhanas in the missing back half; she still has nothing minor, only six and eight arm forms. According to Bhattacharya:

Three Sadhanas in the Sadhanamala are devoted to the worship of Vajrasrnkhala. Her colour is green, and as she emanates from Amoghasiddhi she bears the image of that Dhyani Buddha on the crown. "Srnkhala' means a chain, and as the
goddess carries a chain, marked with a Vajra, she is called Vajrasrnkhala. The chain, therefore, is her characteristic sign and should be paid particular attention to, in identifying her images, if ever, thev come to light. She may be compared with Vajrasphota another chain- bearing deity. One of the Dhyanas describes her form in the following manner :

"Haritara trimukhara astabhujam; prathamamukham Isaddhasarasara; daksinara kapilara kapilalocanara ca ; vumara raktara bhrkutidarhstra-karalara ; daksinesu catuhkaresu abhaya-vajra-srhkhala-saradhaiarii ; vamacatuhkaraih
rudhirapurnakapala-tarjani-pasa-capadharam ; lalitak- sepasanasthara, marjjaracarmottariyam, Amoghasiddhibhusitoidhva- pingalakesam vicintya...

Vairasrnkhaia-Sadhanam/' Sadhanamala, p. 414.

"The worshipper should visualise himself as (Vajrasrnkhala) of green compiexion, with three faces and eight arms. Her first face is gently smiling, right face is of brown colour with brown eyes, and the left is of red colour and appears
temible with contortions of the brows and bare fangs. She shows in the four right hands the Abhaya pose, the Vajra, the Vajrasrnkhala and the arrow, and in the four left, the Kapala full of blood, the Tarjani, the noose and the bow. She
sits in the Lalita attitude, has a scarf of cat's skin, and her brown hair rises upwards and is decorated with the image of Amoghasiddhi. Thus meditating .".

Vajrasrnkhala may, according to the Sadhanas, have another form with three faces and six arms, in which case she carries the Vajra, the Vajra srnkhala and the arrow in the three right hands ; and the Tarjani, the noose and the bow in
the three left hands. The illustration (Fig. 175) shows this form of the goddess as drawn by the native Citrakaras of Nepal. She is represented in China -.

Well, I have tried to compare her to Vajra Sphota, whose chain is not necessarily surmounted by a vajra. Obviously, they are in different Families, since Sphota is Lotus Family who has this power, but, no symbolic development of the Chain item whatsoever. It is on Srnkala, who is like the Citta Chakra consort of Heruka or Hevajra; and in some cases, it is either her or Nairatma who may be the consort of his major form.

As an adjective, here, we see "bhrkuti" is attached to something else when it is intended to mean "scowl".

As a noun, "shrnkala" is extremely rare, archaic, and possibly obsolete.

Then if we look at her sketch, the trouble is that she does not even appear to hold the Vajrashrnkala, she has a small torc which looks like the skull rosary or something; the rope-looking thing is her "Noose":

https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/files/fig175-Vajrashrinkhala.jpg

That also looks more like a Bhutadamara mudra than "a threatening gesture":

Tarjanī (तर्जनी) refers to a “threatening hand posture” and represents one of the gestures made with the left hand of Heruka: one of the main deities of the Herukamaṇḍala described in the 10th century Ḍākārṇava chapter 15. Heruka is positioned in the Lotus (padma) at the center; He is the origin of all heroes; He has 17 faces (with three eyes on each) and 76 arms [exhibiting, for example, tarjanī]; He is half black and half green in color; He is dancing on a flaming sun placed on Bhairava and Kālarātrī.

Note this big Dakarnava Heruka has a coloration similar to that of Guhyeshvari.

When I see this chick, what I get is that the real Chain power is not really working until one is stable with the real Six Arm class of deities. Again, Six Arm Sukla Tara is something like a "gate" for this in dealing with the cemeteries, which is paralleled by the odd Parasol with no Parasol and her equivalent Maha Pratyangira (Amaravajra), and the general trend of six arms appearing to be a type of revelatory form in any practice.

Now the colors of the biggest deities, Heruka and Guhyeshvari, appear to be Vajra and Karma Families, similarly to how Vasudhara, Jambhala, Ekajati, Mamaki, and Vajramrita Tantra appear to mainly be Vajra and Jewel Families. For example when it says Vajra Bimba is a Southern goddess, she may be in a minor form, but, it actually means the big Vidyujjvalikerala Twenty-form arm Ekajati, so, these are all some big secret process of Wrath and Amrita. This also seems related to Noose power via Aparajita and Sumbha and it actually becoming Serpent Noose.

It is true that, in Nepal, for example, there are Five Families of Yamaris, although only two are famous. It is also true that like Wu Tai Shan Manjushri is Five Families, that Jambhala also does so. However, with him, he mainly deals with Jewel and Vajra Families, and he has few, maybe three, solo sadhanas on his basic yellow form with Mongoose and Citron. Then if we view his evolution and involvement, it is a close parallel of Vasudhara:

When represented in yab-yum, he sits on the moon under which there is a double lotus of eight petals. He wears all sorts of ornaments, his complexion is golden yellow and he [has a] protruding belly, He carries the citron and the mongoose in the right and left hands respectively, wears a garland of yellow lotus, a and remains in yab-yum with Vasudhārā. The eight petals of the lotus seat are occupied by the eight Yakṣas, to wit, Māṇibhadra, Pūrṇabhadra, Dhanada, Vaiśrayaṇa, Kelimālī, Civikuṇḍalī, Sukhendra and, Carendra who are identical in all respects with the principal figure. Each Yakṣa is accompanied by a Śakti with whom he remains in yab-yum in the same way as Jambhala remains with Vasudhārā, and the names of these eight Yakṣiṇīs are: Citrakālī, Dattā, Sudattā, Āryā, Subhadrā, Guptā, Devī and Sarasvatī. The Yakṣiṇīs are identical in form with Vasudhārā, who is yellow in complexion, carries the ears of corn and shows the Varada-mudrā in her two hands.

Jambhala in yab-yum has another form with three faces, six arms and white colour. According to the Sādhana his two faces to the light and left are red and blue respectively, Jambhala sits in the Vajraparyaṅka attitude, and embraces his Prajñā Vasudhārā of his own creation with the two principal hands. In the two remaining right hands he carries the red Vajra and the sword, and in the two remaining left hands he holds the emerald and the lotus. In all other respects he is identical with the forms described previously.

He also does a thing which I got mixed-up with Ucchista. He is an Ucchusma or Dimbha, which refers to being a fool or oaf, which is a Wrathful Akshobya emanation.

One can see that Bhattacharya mixes the terms "Shakti" and "Prajna" indiscriminately for "consort". As to how one "creates" Vasudhara, one doesn't, it means he has the mental capacity to emanate this murti or form of her. She is there because he says so. If he lacked the method or ability, she would not work.

As we see, here, that nice clean Ila Devi who is by herself from ancient texts into Buddhist dharanis and sadhanas, is, here, sexualized by Jambhala.

They actually do so many things, they are like a kaleidoscope. If we just ask Vasudhara, we are basically just going to get all her Yoga scenes, but when we ask Jambhala, it turns into Highest Yoga quick.

Manjushri, Vajrapani, and Avalokiteshvara do a ton of trooping around before the aspect of Union would be "forced" to arise in their practices. Jambhala does not. That is why I think once you get the idea of Wealth switched around to what it is supposed to indicate, the guy is like lightning, like a tidal wave that is going to hurl you into non-dual unity with All Vasus, similarly to how Ganapati wants all the shaktis.

Yellow is quite an Igniter or Agni. If one were to infuse Vasudhara with a little Cintamani and Gopali, that Jambhala would rock her world titanicly. As to whether this is beneficial towards Vairocani and the elusive Vajravarahi of Jewel Family and Vilasini, seems like it should be.

This lends towards the view that Jewel Family is nearly indescribable as a static picture, is a dynamic process, only. Karma Family is something like the back half of this "inside the Mirror". Because a major theme of Jewel Family is Use of All Families Equally, by definition, this would force more Karma Family into view than one has previously had before. You have three Families that are relatively easy to know and become firm with, then, one whose nature is something like an activated flow, and then one who is perhaps a surprising and possibly uncanny forced result from those. In this way, they are a bit more Noumenal than simply the fact of five elements.

In looking at this critically, we could say there are two kinds of full mandala goddesses, Dhanada and Vajra Tara.

The glaring difference is that Dhanada has the directions but not the axis. Vajra Tara does not have all the directions, but she does have the vertical axis. Dhanada does evolve her environment from Bhrum and extend a Canopy, but she does not have Zenith and Nadir deities.

With Vajra Tara, you use her Ten Syllable mantra Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha to go around once as Offering Goddesses, and then again as Gatekeepers, and then as the axis. Here the text gives the order Usnisa, Sumbha, but the rules for mantra generally state that Svaha "ascends", so it goes Sumbha, Usnisa. This confusion may be different because her Nyasa goes from Om at the head to Ha at the feet, so it is a complete descent, and still does not refer to base of the spine as "endpoint", although it is included with a previous syllable.

Dhanada uses the Ten Syllables as Nyasa and she arguably just makes a Quintessence where, for example, it is not the Vajra Tara deity just mentioned, but "any" Tara in Vajra Family. Likewise, there is not really such a thing as "Buddha Tara", it means "a" Tara in Tathagata Family. That is what Dhanada has for her inner ring:

pūrve vajratārāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ vajrahastām, dakṣiṇe ratnatārāṃ pītāṃ
ratnahastām, paścime padmatārāṃ raktakamalahastām, uttare
buddhatārāṃ puṣpadāmadharām,

As you can see, Karma Family is almost always last in rites, except when they are centered, Buddha Family does it.

That is how Mahamaya is with Dakinis. If you don't personalize them, they are generic. But if I extrapolate the "generic" into, for example, Tara of Ratna Family, it can froth up a hypostasis of several, with Aparajita and Prasanna.

The Dharani goddesses of Namasangiti are like that, compressions of whatever you can make of Marici, Janguli, etc.

It was noted that Vasudhara sadhanas do not give her any pose, which is why she is often depicted standing:

https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/files/fig186-Vasudhara.jpg

Old Student

16th December 2020, 06:19

I had written responding to you:

"This is how the teaching seems to go, but, you have harnessed enough prana to go backwards and fix coarse breathing. Something like the ultimate work-around.

The channels are probably the most important visualization, of which, the self-arisen kind is superior to the "with effort"."

The breathing repair is done by generating nausea, specifically splitting a drop at the heart, and the bottom part becomes bliss and the top becomes nausea, one falls into my abdomen the other rises to my throat.

It probably is backwards. Most people do not have a problem with just stopping breathing, I do, and it goes to an abnormal form if left on its own, which is a kind of respiratory distress (my blood-oxygen level goes down). I don't normally experience a vision of channels when I'm trying to use Dakini-taught techniques to fix it, this was the only time. I have practiced the nausea thing a lot, it's not hard to do if I don't have a breathing problem, it's very hard to do if I do.

This turned out to be wrong on my part, it wasn't some kind of backwards thing, the seeing the channels was unrelated to my breathing problems, and in fact, it was going on in spite of the breathing problems, and I did not come up with the proper amount of listening attention to see that when it was happening and missed some of what was an opportunity as a result. I had another infinity experience last night, I was completely clear body (in my clear body with no muscle memory of my physical body), and became colossal, only partly there, and points in my body began to glow like orbs and traced out the Sri Yantra (Tripura-Sundali's yantra) which then became prominent as my body faded completely. Coming out of this experience, I understood that I am being "shown" various "infinities" and that showing is neither dependent on me being in the right state, nor held back if I'm too not in the right state to appreciate it.

Which means for the time being, I missed details of something important.

Once I compile the information, I come to a complete standstill as to how she works or what she is doing. That is one huge heaping pile of Sutra-to-Tantra transformance based on nothing, and, since Buddhism is intended as a guide, I would guess she must require Sarasvati and others as explanatory deities.

She is a relentless critic of my form and detail to me, which I can't complain, helps me make corrections in a "traditional" way (if there is anything traditional about my practice right now), by minute changes here and there that are expected to be perfected ASAP, the way my former Liuhebafa teacher did things.

That also looks more like a Bhutadamara mudra than "a threatening gesture":

Agreed, the threatening gesture is a pointing finger.

Jambhala in yab-yum has another form with three faces, six arms and white colour. According to the Sādhana his two faces to the light and left are red and blue respectively, Jambhala sits in the Vajraparyaṅka attitude, and embraces his Prajñā Vasudhārā of his own creation with the two principal hands. In the two remaining right hands he carries the red Vajra and the sword, and in the two remaining left hands he holds the emerald and the lotus. In all other respects he is identical with the forms described previously.

He also does a thing which I got mixed-up with Ucchista. He is an Ucchusma or Dimbha, which refers to being a fool or oaf, which is a Wrathful Akshobya emanation.

One can see that Bhattacharya mixes the terms "Shakti" and "Prajna" indiscriminately for "consort". As to how one "creates" Vasudhara, one doesn't, it means he has the mental capacity to emanate this murti or form of her. She is there because he says so. If he lacked the method or ability, she would not work.

Unless it's not an oaf but a fool. I'm not understanding what Buddhist principle being an oaf would symbolize.

buddhatārāṃ puṣpadāmadharām,

This seems to say Buddha Tara holding a flower garland? The other ones had described colors?

shaberon

16th December 2020, 19:31

I had another infinity experience last night, I was completely clear body (in my clear body with no muscle memory of my physical body), and became colossal, only partly there, and points in my body began to glow like orbs and traced out the Sri Yantra (Tripura-Sundali's yantra) which then became prominent as my body faded completely. Coming out of this experience, I understood that I am being "shown" various "infinities" and that showing is neither dependent on me being in the right state, nor held back if I'm too not in the right state to appreciate it.

Which means for the time being, I missed details of something important.

Light years beyond me. I have used Sri Yantra as a focus which readily generates astral light, and that's about it. I would suggest it as a preliminary to anyone, something more than a Kasina disk and less than a mandala.

That has little to do with a self-arisen one.

Sri Yantra is a major compound, compared to which, the Mahavidyas all have similar but simpler Yantras, and there are plenty more, such as usually a Hexagram is just the Anahata center. There are different versions, usually corresponding to the petals perceived. In Buddhism, it seems more important that the heart has eight spokes to the body, and there is something simpler "inside" this.

Perhaps Cunda is working as the "Infinity Goddess" like the translator of mandalas to chakras.

Unless it's not an oaf but a fool. I'm not understanding what Buddhist principle being an oaf would symbolize.

I have not looked into it, again, because I have usually kept those pesky Bodhisattvas out of my research until they "force" their way in. From that, we can say the perhaps comparable Donkey Face Vajrapani may look a little slow and dumb, but, it represents him trudging through the mire of experience without losing concentration or confidence.

Bhattacharya was actually doing something similar but more exoteric. I do goddess-based research since due to the symbols and so forth, they reveal experience and progression. He, on the other hand, was doing something similar with male Bodhisattvas from the view that there is usually a main group of Sixteen, with one major retinue headed by Samantabhadra, and another by Maitreya.

I feel it is a safe bet that if the ladies are present, the requisite male will show up, but, much like in regular life, a male by himself might take a long time to summon ladies and get them to act right.

Sounds superficial, but, in tantra, it is the goddesses who do initiations.

Speaking of Bengal, Bhattacharya says:

In this Vahga'Samatata region one of the most important places is the Pargana Vikrampur in the Dacca district. Anyone acquainted with the ancient inscriptions of Bengal will be able to appreciate the import- ance of Yikrampur which is
sometimes mentioned as the seat from which imperial charters were issued. There was a great Buddhist monastery here in the reign of the Candras and the Senas. Atisa Dlpahkara, famous in Tibetan history as a great scholar and master of
Tantric lore, is said to belong to the royal family of Vikrampur. Vikrampur is recognized even to-day as one of the foremost places of culture in East Bengal.

In this Pargana Vikrampur there is a fairly large and well-populated village which is now known by the rather extraordinary name of

Vajrayogini.

Round about this village numerous Vajrayana images have been discovered, and among them may be noticed images of Jambhala, Parnasaban, Vajrasattva and Tara.

Jambhala is pre-Buddhist and widely found among the earliest and into the most developed artworks. Bhattacharya says most Akshobya emanations are fierce, except for a Jambhala whose color is not mentioned (presumably Blue):

'The worshipper should conceive himself as Jambhala, three-faced and six-armed, on whose matted hair there is an image of Aksobhya. He carries in his three right hands the citron, the goad and the arrow. He embraces the Prajna with the

first left hand, carries the mongoose tied round with a lasso and the arrow respectively in the second and the third. Thus meditating...".

Kalachakra Tantra uses a Blue (or Green) Jambhala like this. Akshobya's Ucchusma Jambhala has a terrible appearance, and, unusually, he is a five-year-old,

Jambhala tramples Hindu Dhanada and/or Kubera, whereas Akshobya's Vighnantaka with Vajra and Tarjani--Pasa tramples Ganesh (as does Aparajita). The Nyingma Tertons give Jambhala a multi-color form. Red Jambhala is part of the Chakrasamvara lineage from Virupa:

Jnana Dakini, Mahasiddha Virupa, Kanha, Damarupa, Avadhutipa, Gayadhara, Drogmi...

which gets us back to Manohara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/3/6/53653131.jpg

and Bharati:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/5/40509.jpg

and since we have a decent idea of how that works, then we have an idea where to go with what we can get from the prior Ila Vasudhara.

buddhatārāṃ puṣpadāmadharām,

This seems to say Buddha Tara holding a flower garland? The other ones had described colors?

Yes.

Sometimes the text has misspellings, omits or reproduces lines, and for instance next we might critique it for Dhanada's Offering Goddesses not mentioning Puspa Offering in the Agni corner:

naiṛtyakoṇe dhūpatārāṃ kṛṣṇāṃ dhūpakaṭacchūhastām,
vāyavyakoṇe dīpatārāṃ pītāṃ dīpayaṣṭidharām,
aiśānakoṇe gandhatārāṃ raktāṃ gandhaśaṅkhadharām

So yes, that Buddha Tara is only said to be holding a Garland, which, twice elsewhere in the Sadhanamala, is used like:

oṃkārākṣaraniṣpannāṃ puṣpadāmakarākulām /

Comparatively, what Vajra Tara does is:

The Sādhana further describes the deities constituting the Maṇḍala. In the four cardinal points there should be four goddesses on the four petals of the lotus on which Vajratārā sits.

1. Puṣpatārā (East)

“On the east is Puṣpatārā, who is white and winsome, is born of the syllable ‘Om’, carries the garland of flowers, is two-armed, one-faced and decked in all ornaments.

2. Dhūpatārā (South)

On the south is Dhūpatārā, who is of blue colour, attractive, carries the Dhūpa (incense) stick and is decked in all ornaments”.

3. Dīpatārā (West)

On the west is Dīpatārā, who carries the torch in her hands, is of yellow complexion, profusely ornamented and has ear-rings swaying.

4. Gandhatārā (North)

On the north is Gandhatārā, who carries in her hands the conch of scents, and has red complexion.

All these (goddesses) should be situated in the inner circle”.

The Sādhana further says that the following Guardians of the Gates should also be meditated upon as around the principal goddess, but apparently not in the same circle with the four described above.

5. Vajrāṅkuśī (East)

“On the eastern gate there is Vajrāṅkuśī who is one-faced and two-armed. She carries in her two hands the goad marked with a Vajra and the night lotus. She has a distorted face and is blue in colour”.

6. Vajrapāśī (South)

“On the southern gate there is Vajrapāśī of yellow colour. She has one distorted face. She carries in her two hands the noose marked with a Vajra”.

7. Vajrasphoṭī (West)

“On the western gate there is Vajrasphoṭī of red colour. She has one distorted face. In her two hands she carries the chain marked with a Vajra”.

8. Vajraghaṇṭā (North)

“On the northern gate there is Vajraghaṇṭā of white colour. She has one distorted face. In her two hands she carries the bell marked with a Vajra”.

9. Uṣṇīṣavijayā (Above)

Goddess Uṣṇīṣavijayā occupies the upper regions.

10. Sumbhā (Below)

Goddess Sumbhā occupies the lower regions.

All these goddesses stand on the orb of the sun in the Ālīḍha attitude with the right leg stretched forward. They are radiant like the Sun-god and are surrounded with a fiery halo. They are decked in ornaments of snakes.

These goddesses originate from the ten different letters of the mantra of Vajratārā, which is “Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā”, consisting of ten syllables. Each syllable brings forth a goddess, and these goddesses are said to be the embodiments of the ten Paramitas of the Mahāyāna School.

Here it does have the Gatekeepers with "terrible" appearance; Sphota is already a Vajra Chain; but Ankusi has two items, including Blue Lotus.

I think it would be fair to say that Buddha Tara is White in Dhanada's retinue, but, then why is the similar Puspa Tara not mentioned? Should she be there anyway?? The other inner Tara--Prajnas are holding their Cinha or Family Symbol, which, for Buddha Family, is usually the Chakra.

Dhanada is either glaringly missing something routine, or, somehow the ordinary Puspa Tara has gotten intertwined with the Prajna level.

Dhanada may be describing the situation in this bit before her Gatekeepers are given:

imā viśvapadmapatrasthacandreṣv aṣṭau śaśiprabhāḥ sattvaparyaṅkaniṣaṇṇā vāmenotpaladhārikāḥ smeravadanā nānālaṅkāravastradhāriṇyaḥ /

Double lotus, moon disk, eight emanated lights, peaceful pose, utpala held in left hand, smera = smiling, ornamental clothing, I think this just says the Gatekeepers have an unusually Peaceful appearance, carrying a Blue Lotus along with their personal Weapon.

This maybe is telling us something about the interface of Blue and White Lotuses. I am not sure why else the person who usually provides the White Lotus would be missing, and fierce Gatekeepers pacified by holding the Blue.

It would make an identical Ankusi as that of Vajra Tara, and distribute Blue Lotus likewise to the other Gatekeepers.

Even if that phrase refers to the Offering Goddesses, then the next would say the Dvarapala or Gatekeepers also have Blue Lotus:

etāścaturdvārasūryeṣu paśyet sūryaprabhāḥ piṅgalordhvajvalatkeśā ālīḍhapadasthitā bhujaṅgabhūṣaṇā vikṛtavadanā vyāghracarmāmbaradharā vāmakareṇotpaladhārikāḥ

Those are Vikrita Vadanas, so they look disgusted, and they have Warrior stance with tantric flameswept hair, so this one is probably saying they are Wrathful Gatekeepers who nevertheless have Blue Lotus.

Then the principal uses a Heart Lotus which is Most Subtle or Ati Suksma:

tato jñānasattvena sahaikīkṛtya svahṛtkamalagatasvabījam atisūkṣmaṃ
bhāvayet viścalena manasā /

Dhanada's mantra is given, and the end of the sadhana says:

tata utthānasamaye oṃ akāro mukham ityādinā mantreṇotpalamudrayā baliṃ dattvā praṇidhiṃ vidhāya devatācakraṃ svabīje antarbhāvya svadevatāhaṅkāram
udvahan yathāsukhaṃ viharet / madhyāhnasāyāhnasandhyayos
tu svahṛdbījāt jhaṭiti devatācakraṃ saṃsphārya pūrvavad
dhyānajapādikaṃ kuryāt / sāyāhnamadhyāhnasandhyāyāṃ punar ayaṃ
viśeṣaḥ / puṣpādinā jñānamaṇḍalaṃ sampūjya oṃ tāre
tuttāre ture mur ity anena visarjayed iti /

Utthana Samaya is distinct as it refers to rising, getting up, mother arising from childbed, exerting oneself, or:

Utthāna (उत्थान).—On the part of a king could overcome even fate; daiva and kāla supplement one's efforts.*

* Matsya-purāṇa 221. 3-12.

Utthana is a solar hatha yoga pose, one can only estimate what a Samaya of this might mean; Om seems to be the Face of this, related back to Dina, which is part of the Sun Chakra in Kubjika Tantra.

Then, Utpala Mudra is part of the Pranidhana...again I think we got this one from Four Arm Sita.

The Heart Seed should manifest the Devata Chakra and there is Dhyana based in Japa.

"Puspadina" uses Dina or "day", which would seem to mean Day Lotus as part of the Jnana Mandala. This may mean that the retinue are given Night Lotuses, which change. I am not sure, it is conjoined with Sampujya, a general honorific to which we give a tantric meaning of "Emergence", and so it perhaps is then regular Tara mantra which does this opening or change.

I am probably slaughtering the sense of the prose, but, at the basis of it, I think there is something to Mahattari being a solo deity with a special Flaming Blue Lotus, carried through into Dhanada Krama which is a higher iteration of her same Family, doing, at least, "something" to or with Blue Lotus.

One of the older names for Karma Family is Kusuma or "blossom".

Old Student

17th December 2020, 06:51

Perhaps Cunda is working as the "Infinity Goddess" like the translator of mandalas to chakras.

This is a distinct possibility. There was another one last night that seemed "Egyptian" in that it took place on a sandy colored pyramid. I don't have any idea why, as the rest of what happened had to do with the south islands (which I told you I interpret as being maybe Indonesia). I'm not aware of sandy colored pyramids there.

The Sādhana further describes the deities constituting the Maṇḍala. In the four cardinal points there should be four goddesses on the four petals of the lotus on which Vajratārā sits.

1. Puṣpatārā (East)

“On the east is Puṣpatārā, who is white and winsome, is born of the syllable ‘Om’, carries the garland of flowers, is two-armed, one-faced and decked in all ornaments.

2. Dhūpatārā (South)

On the south is Dhūpatārā, who is of blue colour, attractive, carries the Dhūpa (incense) stick and is decked in all ornaments”.

3. Dīpatārā (West)

On the west is Dīpatārā, who carries the torch in her hands, is of yellow complexion, profusely ornamented and has ear-rings swaying.

4. Gandhatārā (North)

On the north is Gandhatārā, who carries in her hands the conch of scents, and has red complexion.

But wasn't the flower garland holding Buddha Tara in the north?

uttare buddhatārāṃ puṣpadāmadharām,

I think it would be fair to say that Buddha Tara is White in Dhanada's retinue, but, then why is the similar Puspa Tara not mentioned? Should she be there anyway?? The other inner Tara--Prajnas are holding their Cinha or Family Symbol, which, for Buddha Family, is usually the Chakra.

White does seem like it is the color not mentioned.

shaberon

17th December 2020, 07:09

We can just about show that the "weird" sounding titles for Scraps Ganapati and Childish Jambhala are like a fork of similar meaning in Vedic and Tantric veins.

As we have seen, Green Dhanada--Vasudhara draws from Atharva Veda, as does Ucchusma Jambhala, who is related to Rudra like Ganapati:

1) Ucchuṣmarudra (उच्छुष्मरुद्र):—[=uc-chuṣma-rudra] [from uc-chuṣma] m. [plural] Name of a class of demons, [Atharvaveda-pariśiṣṭa]

Ucchusma Kalpa or its explanation is part of the same Atharva.

The term has almost no other usage.

Ucchista Ganapati is featured in Rudra Tantra:

Ucchiṣṭagaṇapatijapavidhi (उच्छिष्टगणपतिजपविधि) as mentioned in Aufrecht’s Catalogus Catalogorum:—and kavaca, from the Rudrayāmala.

Ucchista is accepted as a Sakta Tantra:

The texts of Śāktāgamas are called as Tantras. Pratiṣṭhālakṣaṇasamuccaya of Vairocana divides the Śāktatantras in to four parts viz.

Gāruḍa,
Vāma,
Dakṣiṇa,
Bhūta.

Bhuta Tantra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhutatantra#shaktism) includes Halahala, Hayagriva, Karkota, Karota, Khadgaravana, Humkara, Ucchista, Vimala, and Vikata.

So again we find Ucchista related to Bhuta, whereas Bhutala Vasini is Vasudhara--Lakshmi, and so the Ucchusma and Ucchista are at least peripherally related by Bhutas and Rudra, furthering the similarities between Jambhala and Ganapati.

It does not tell us, but, if we take Bhuta Tantra as something probably close to the purgation of Kama Loka like the Buddhist practices involving, for instance, Humkara, it is probably not too wide off the mark.

Bhutala Vasini [Sarva Buddha Dakini, Varnani, Pranava Vajradakini] contrasts against Akasa Vasini [Buddha Dakini, Vairocani].

I have seen this concisely in a source, and cannot recall where, Bhutala Vasini and Akasa Vasini.

Sumbha is generally equivalent to Bhucari in the Nadir, which, "experiences the nature" of Samsara, it does not quite seem to say the Nadir "is" Samsara in quite the same way Vajradakini is Samsara Skandha.

Vasudhara's verse that practically calls her Vinayaki also hammers Seven Underworlds:

vainayaki vineta ca sada klesavicchedani
bhindani sarvamaranam saptapatalaksobhani

So she is among Bhuts or the Patalas or Kama Loka itself, which is the Yaksha or Subterranean correspondence to the usual ideas of Dakinis and Akashadhatvishvari and Maitri's Raised Foot Flying Dakini and so on.

Because this is the Sister class which mainly produces Bliss and Sambhogakaya, that is how they are "under or behind" Kalaratri or the Queen of Dark Space, and you get Bliss or Sukha Bharati and Increasing Bliss or Sukhavardhani Bharati.

There is a Vietnamese Vasudhara sadhana, 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. 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.

Of "impure offerings" in Baudhayana Dharmasutra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/baudhayana-dharmasutra/d/doc116407.html):

18. If (any) impure (substance) is thrown (into the sacrificial fire) let him place (the two Araṇis one) on (the other), produce fire by friction, (and offer) a Pavamāneṣṭi.

The two sticks are the mind's halves, or mantra itself, which is the meaning of Fire by Friction, one of the three main forms of Agni, most of which mean "purifying/purifier", such as Pavamana.

If I ignored Cunda for being too sly, I would get her back at the top end of my own study emphasis, if I look at extending the main basic Paramitas, she intervenes next.

Now, if we overlook the fact that in Namasangiti, Ila Devi does some special introductory thing with Ayur Mastery called Ratna Paramita, informing us that the Paramitas are Ratna Family, which is normally Ila's property, and that this intro is its own unique thing that has no correspondence in any other known system, Dhanada's box of goodies would nevertheless top out with Prajna--Upaya as the final portion, and Upaya is related to Cunda and the Mastery of Pranidhana:

Discipline.......Ground....................Paramita......... ..Dharani

Citta.............Pramudita (Vajrasattva)...Dana........Ratnolka
Pariskara........Vimala (Vairocana)......Sila.............Usnisavijaya
Karma...........Prabhakari (Ratna)..........Ksanti.........Marici
Upapatthi.......Arcismati (Amitabha).......Virya.........Parnasabari
Rddhi............Sudurjaya (Akshobya).....Dhyana........Janguli
Adimukti..........Abhi-mukhi (Amoghasiddhi)..Prajna...Ananta-mukhi
Pranidhana......Durangama................Upaya.............Cunda

That is one way to see Seven Paramitas. The way Sarvadurgati Parishodhana does it is, for some reason, to "pull down" Pranidhana Paramita, where here we have Upaya.

In the normal sequence, there is a Pranidhana Discipline or Mastery, followed by Pranidhana Paramita on the next Stage, the way shown here.

Ila has the ability to hang out with this chaste crowd indefinitely, or, she can get Jambhala and do whatever.

shaberon

17th December 2020, 08:04

But wasn't the flower garland holding Buddha Tara in the north?

uttare buddhatārāṃ puṣpadāmadharām,

Yes, exactly.

Buddha Tara is a Prajna, of whom, Flower or Puspa Tara is a type of Bodhisattva, Akashadhatvishvari is a type of Dakini, and so on.

And so in Dhanada's sadhana, it is "as if" Buddha Tara is holding Puspa Tara.

I wanted to tell it that it does have Puspa in the Southeast, but, the symbolic transfer here seems to be a more likely choice than editorial omission, it looks a lot more like she is simply in Buddha Tara's hand.

Buddha Tara is in the North because this is an Amoghasiddhi-centered rite, and so whatever is going on with this Flower has substituted for whatever we would usually think of as a goal.

In most other cases, Buddha Family is in the East because Akshobya is centered, in most mandalas following Guhyasamaja that are based on tantras.

In some cases, it appears that Akshobya goes to the Ratna quadrant when Ratna is centered.

Because Dhanada appears to be an edit to a more basic or Vairocana-centered tantra, we would think of her as more basic and preliminary to the antics of Varamrita Tantra and most of the other weirdness in Vajra and Ratna Families,

She makes a basic mandala with an Amoghasiddhi Quintessence and standard attendants. It is not by any means challenging, in terms of the complexity of it, but to actually do the practice in a meaningful way, it is.

It is possible they are all Bodhisattvas, something like Padmapani Tara and so forth, but they are clearly generic placeholders. I suppose if it meant Pandara and others of her ilk, it could easily say so. This is the only time in Sadhanamala that a retinue is named this way. She does have a confabulated spawn sequence which passes through Red Pam as if Pandara were the "thing revealed". She holds a Pustaka or book. i. e., nominally, Prajnaparamita Sutra, along with Rosary, Varada, and Utpala.

What we have to go on is the sadhana, her definition as Paramitas, and her rare but prominent placement with Seven Syllable deity and in the weird, rare Nepalese manuscript, in ways that seem to match her role.

The fact that she is recorded and known in Tibet does not tell us much about what happened to Puspa.

Like Sukla Tara casts only Ground, Fence, and Cemeteries, Dhanada is a bit further along with more mandala components and retinue. She lacks some finishing touches, but, seems to subsume "most" of creating a mandala, or at least at a Yoga level.

Vajra Tara without any Prajnas is not here doing anything particularly with Families to make a pattern of any kind. The Offering Goddesses seem to have inappropriate colors, but I think that is to resemble their items. I am not sure why the Gatekeepers look a little weird, i. e., White Ghanta. Vajra Tara herself is just redundantly named for her main item. I am not sure that she is ever in Vajra Family at all, even though she produces Nairatma as her sixth principle.

So her Puspa Tara is in a customary, expected location, whereas Dhanada's Buddha Tara and absent Puspa are some kind of rabbits-in-a-hat trick.

Old Student

18th December 2020, 04:49

The texts of Śāktāgamas are called as Tantras.

The Saktagamas would assert that theirs are the original Tantras.

So she is among Bhuts or the Patalas or Kama Loka itself, which is the Yaksha or Subterranean correspondence to the usual ideas of Dakinis and Akashadhatvishvari and Maitri's Raised Foot Flying Dakini and so on.

Because this is the Sister class which mainly produces Bliss and Sambhogakaya, that is how they are "under or behind" Kalaratri or the Queen of Dark Space, and you get Bliss or Sukha Bharati and Increasing Bliss or Sukhavardhani Bharati.

So this must be at least somewhat because of her connection with the fields and rice. Is the underworld facet of them why they are "under or behind" or the bliss?

In the normal sequence, there is a Pranidhana Discipline or Mastery, followed by Pranidhana Paramita on the next Stage, the way shown here.

I'm not understanding. Pranidhana is the Discipline Paramita? I thought Pranidhana meant something like submission.

Old Student

18th December 2020, 05:00

Buddha Tara is a Prajna, of whom, Flower or Puspa Tara is a type of Bodhisattva, Akashadhatvishvari is a type of Dakini, and so on.

And so in Dhanada's sadhana, it is "as if" Buddha Tara is holding Puspa Tara.

So you think it's Puspa Tara and not the flower garland (pushpadama)?

Buddha Tara is in the North because this is an Amoghasiddhi-centered rite, and so whatever is going on with this Flower has substituted for whatever we would usually think of as a goal.

So this is maybe why we don't get a color for Buddha Tara, that we are being told something different -- a goal?

Vajra Tara without any Prajnas is not here doing anything particularly with Families to make a pattern of any kind. The Offering Goddesses seem to have inappropriate colors, but I think that is to resemble their items. I am not sure why the Gatekeepers look a little weird, i. e., White Ghanta. Vajra Tara herself is just redundantly named for her main item. I am not sure that she is ever in Vajra Family at all, even though she produces Nairatma as her sixth principle.

So her Puspa Tara is in a customary, expected location, whereas Dhanada's Buddha Tara and absent Puspa are some kind of rabbits-in-a-hat trick.

So Puspa Tara is in Buddha Tara's hand, she is some kind of a goal, and is not where she should be. I'm not sure how one decides why she is there.

shaberon

18th December 2020, 08:27

The Saktagamas would assert that theirs are the original Tantras.

These things are a bit timeless.

We would say the Vedas arise in any world-system due to the penance of Brahma.

Buddhas arise in "some" world-systems, which is the main difference in them perishing or flourishing.

The oldest written tantric lore we can attest is not earlier than ca. year 300, however, prior to that, there was a Lokottara or Transcendent school known to have existed for centuries, almost to the time of Buddha. In that case, for instance, the presence of Matangi arises.

Then if we look at Mayuri, for example, Buddha is talking about her in some other Kalpa or Eon. His personal memory is said to recollect Ninety-one Kalpas.

If we say "Jnanadakini transmitted a tantra to Virupa", it means in this world-system, as the reality contained in the tantra does not perish, but the world-systems do. It may have taken place in any number of places.

Most of the Chakrasamvara literature is a copy of Shiva lore with only a few specific changes.

I would guess a lot of that was because the original intent was to retain Indian sacred sites, not be slaughtered off of them.

Because of slaughters, the original symbolism is in the stones of Kashi and some other places.

And so yes, it may be that the Shakti syllables are the original set, and that the Buddhist version is an adapted copy which for example disregards Klim. That is similar to changing or relocating some of the Pithas.

What we do have is Swayambhu Purana, which is the only Buddhist Purana, which is that of Nepal.

What we believe is that Parasu Rama and Dharani will be the Guru of Future Buddha Maitreya.

It is closely wound together, and overall I guess Shakta is mostly a Yantra practice where Buddhism uses Mandalas.

Since Sri Yantra is really 3-D much like Mt. Meru and the Palace, I think they are just different schools of doing almost the same thing.

I like the Yantras although from a rough overview, it looks like it would be way more difficult for me to "personalize" its Yoginis and so forth. On the other hand, although books like NSP were like a brick wall to me at first, now, I can see through the whole thing, at a glance. Mostly. That is because it is made of patterns and waves and so forth.

I can just look at Marici and say, well, she starts with Horses, the normal vehicle of Jewel Family and any sun deity, but, wait, then it is a Boar, same as Bhu Devi, and, hold on, she's mixing them in with peoples' faces, then, oh, there are a few billion of them streaming out on all directions, and, stop. That is only one aspect of her.

So then whenever Marici is a Tara companion, or something about the Sun being involved, such as Vajra Tara and Vajrasurya initiation, you just get more details. For some reason, I can "package" most of these assemblies more readily than I can get something from the details in Shiva or Shakti's Chakras. Most of the principal deities such as the Mahavidyas are very meaningful, but, at the end of the day, I am doing something a little different. I use the "guest" version of the Yantra with its seed syllable, and they do entire pujas based off the angles and so forth.

So she is among Bhuts or the Patalas or Kama Loka itself, which is the Yaksha or Subterranean correspondence to the usual ideas of Dakinis and Akashadhatvishvari and Maitri's Raised Foot Flying Dakini and so on.

Because this is the Sister class which mainly produces Bliss and Sambhogakaya, that is how they are "under or behind" Kalaratri or the Queen of Dark Space, and you get Bliss or Sukha Bharati and Increasing Bliss or Sukhavardhani Bharati.

So this must be at least somewhat because of her connection with the fields and rice. Is the underworld facet of them why they are "under or behind" or the bliss?

Underworld seems to have a dual meaning.

Let us suppose that an ignorant worldly being does not realize how to operate its Body with Prana and Bliss, then, its consciousness is not in the Lokas but in the Talas, and so its destiny is "the Underworld".

If that is changed and those poor insides are treated divinely, then the "subterranean" or material body will be Blissful.

Kama, or Iccha, or Cetana, or Samsara is the agent of choice.

Kalaratri or Mamo Botong or Ekajati are like worldly beings the only ones of their kind to also be wisdom beings. "In front or before" them are ferocious, ravaging Mamos, but "behind" her i. e. by a stable practice [on Gauris and Vajraraudris] is the Sambhogakaya.

I'm not understanding. Pranidhana is the Discipline Paramita? I thought Pranidhana meant something like submission.

It is tricky since so many synonyms used. Discipline or Mastery are two of the usual translations of Vasita. And so the Vasita maybe tells you something about what you are "doing". The Paramita is something you are "showing". The Bhumi means that you cannot be knocked off of doing/showing this stuff.

In some Sutra and with some basic deities, six Paramitas are referred to, always culminating in Prajna Paramita.

This basic group has been increased to seven in a couple ways. HPB installed Vairagya, which was, perhaps, authentic, in some ancient Pali source. Sarvadurgati Parishodana also said to use seven.

The full tabulation is confusing, since Pranidhana is iterated twice, once, as a Vasita, then, as a Paramita.

Here is a look at Namasangiti's introductory Paramita, and then the repetition of Pranidhana on what are normally Stages Seven and Eight:

Discipline--Vasita...........Ground--Bhumi.....Paramita..........Dharani

Ayur............................Adimukticarya........Ratna .............Vasumati Mahalakshmi

Pranidhana...................Durangama.............Upaya.... .........Cunda
Jnana............................Acala...................Pranidhana.......Prajnavardhani

Pranidhana is the Discipline for the stage Durangama (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc226392.html) "Going Afar" which suggests many things one might show as Method--Upaya.

Next you get an Unremovable or Acala degree of the Discipline of Jnana which is Gnosis, and that is what you would show as Pranidhana.

Those are the things that will menace us if we try to outgrow Prajna Paramita and her basic bundle.

Pranidhana according to HPB is the strong suit of the Agnishvattas, who are the Three Formless Worlds or Arupa.

These are Three Voids, Non Ego, Voidness [Suchness], and Darkness [Ultimate Meaning], there is a formless triple fire (Agnishvattas or Pranidhana Natha) of sad bhava, or true existence, and three shaktis called Iccha, Jnana and Kriya. Agni and Svaha (formless aerial flame) produce Pavaka [Oceanic], Suchi [Solar], and Pavamana [Fire by Friction], witnessed later by light, heat, and moisture.

The esoteric name of the agnishvattas is, literally, the ‘Lords’ (Nath) of ‘persevering ceaseless devotion’ (pranidhana).

Svaha represents the star Zeta Tauri, which is the tip of one of the horns of Taurus. Svaha was desperately in love with the god of fire, Agni. Unfortunately, Agni was infatuated with the seven Krttika, who were married to the seven Rishis of the Bear. Svaha then disguised herself as the Krttika and conquered Agni's love. Six times, Svaha made love to Agni, who believed that he had conquered the attractive wives of the seven Rishis. Svaha could mimic only six of the Krttika since the seventh sister, Arundhati, was too devoted to her husband to be imitated. After a while, Svaha gave birth to a child that she named Skanda. With his birth, rumors began to spread that six of the Rishis' wives were his mother. The seven Rishis divorced their wives. Arundhati was the only one that remained with her husband as the star Alcor. The other six Krttika went away to become the Pleiades.

Almost any Buddhist mantra is a mental fire sacrifice through her.

Most Hindu mantras end in Namah because they only do Svaha using an actual fire.

So I think when we dip our toes in the next "progressive" Paramitas, we go to Cosmic Maya so to speak, or those are pretty clearly dealing with transcendental planes above the Ganges Mirror. Or beyond Kama Loka.

shaberon

18th December 2020, 09:51

So you think it's Puspa Tara and not the flower garland (pushpadama)?

So this is maybe why we don't get a color for Buddha Tara, that we are being told something different -- a goal?

So Puspa Tara is in Buddha Tara's hand, she is some kind of a goal, and is not where she should be. I'm not sure how one decides why she is there.

My easiest guess is that it is a "charge up" for White Lotus since Vajra Tara uses a White Lotus Throne. I think she is a little more powerful.

Dhanada "gives us" a Quintessence in a standard mandala, which is the closest thing to a mandala based on the usual Green Tara many people know. The other similar ones such as Mahasri only have retinues, there is no mandala.

Vajra Tara spans twenty pages or so.

Dhanada's sadhana text is plain, and so it literally just says Buddha Tara has a Garland. What Puspa Offers is not necessarily a Garland. The lack of Buddha Tara's color and the lack of Puspa Tara whatsoever cannot be definitely said to be related according to my guess.

When Families move, it is usually just a straight trade. It is rare to see for instance the weird Pancha Raksa 206 which is a partial rotation. That is why Dhanada appears, to me, to be a modification to a Vairocana or Buddha Family mandala. There would be precious few if anything else to compare it to.

In Dakini Jala, when Vajra Family is the main court, Amoghasiddhi Family splits into sub-courts, the only one to do so.

Here, we would quickly find it is impossible to even define "Buddha Tara". Is it Sita Tara meaning White Tara in Vairocana Family? Which one is that?

We would expect her/them to be alter egos of Dhanada which might mean they are Bodhisattvas.

Most Taras are considered to be Bodhisattvas. She "is" a Prajna, but the Prajna does not really do anything, she is an Agnishvatta.

If the ring is "Dhanadas of the Families", it would be "Vasudharas of the Families", if Taranatha just calls it Green Vasudhara, then she would be surrounded by Blue Vasudhara and so forth.

Then you might say Amoghasiddhi makes Vasudhara into a Quintessence. Amoghasiddhi already makes Ila Vasudhara march all those Dharanis into something that makes Prajnaparamita Sutra a kind of Mahavidya practice. Either one resembles a Blossom does it not?

There is no place in the world that I am aware of that can even formulate that into a subject.

Amoghasiddhi x Vasudhara does exactly those two things which can be shown as obvious within the old Nalanda system.

In neither case is she his consort, but, his emanation.

I am not sure if holding a Garland equates to holding Puspa Tara. The Lotus Tara ostensibly carries a Kamala rather than a Padma. Vajra and Ratna Families have the exact symbol of the exact name. And so if we said holding a Ratna means holding Ratna Tara, we would get an infinite loop.

Garland is a...it does not suggest Buddha Family to me from any context. Why would it not be Cintamani Chakra? The only "Garlands" I know of are Sragdhara and Malini.

She is still in the North and it is still the Bell quadrant. This is an utter inversion. Originally, Buddha Family was the center of mandalas, then, they were in the East or first position. They have hardly ever moved anywhere else, except here.

Those are the two most common words in the whole freaking vocabulary and no one could really pin down what the heck Buddha Tara is.

I would lean towards a Bodhisattva level of Vasudhara. I might guess that Buddha Family was long associated with Earth Element and Body, and if now, they are kicked into Air, hopefully it has been re-assessed as Pranic Wind rather than Entire Surface, meaning as experience and Activity.

So far, those are just my hunches on the weird and missing parts. In a lot of cases, something is "shown present by its absence", so, barring scribal error, the absence of Puspa is likely intended to have a reason.

Being that there is some confusion in mandala design, we can see for example with Francesca Fremantle (https://buddhismnow.com/2013/11/26/five-buddha-families-francesca-fremantle/) describing a Vairocana mandala, it goes on to depict East = Water = Vajra and then South = Earth = Ratna.

But then when he steps out, the design runs East = Earth = Vairocana and South = Water = Ratna. There is some basic shift which is also related to Blue and White and to the similar changes of Locana. After this, I believe it is rare that you could say the Element itself moves elsewhere in the mandala. She does not address this. I am pretty sure the central element is always Space, and, once this thing between Earth and Water is set, the motions of deities pertain more to for example Sense of Touch transits from Air to Space when Amoghasiddhi is centered. I do not think it means Earth Element goes North when Buddha Family is there. I think it has more to do with the regular distractions of Air being shielded by some degree of Tathagata Family Wisdom which was not there at the beginning of practice. Something like the arising of Dharmadhatu, which is purified in Stages.

I would think this has to do with Blue and White Lotuses, and Blue and White Hum and Hrih syllables as used in various sadhanas.

That article is where she challenges Amitabha's "Discriminating Wisdom" as to its actual meaning, and, I think, whatever has been translated is generally inadequate and that Ms. Fremantle is more on the right track here, but, it seems to me that it should throw in Mahakarunika and the Throat as intended by Yoga. As to the Wisdom, it may be difficult to name or describe, but, it should be the elder or Saranyu Samjna, which is spiritual perception based from the sun.

The branches of Tathagata Family are described by Vimalakirti to Manjushri in the Wrong Way (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Tathagata_family), such as:

He may manifest to living beings the ways of the sick and the unhappy, yet he has entirely conquered and transcended the fear of death.

So it makes an Amoghasiddhi or Abhaya or Fearless example. After several Wrong Ways, they say:

Manjusri replied, "Noble sir, the family of the Tathagatas consists of all basic egoism; of ignorance and the thirst for existence; of lust, hate, and folly; of the four misapprehensions, of the five obscurations, of the six media of sense, of the seven abodes of consciousness, of the eight false paths, of the nine causes of irritation, of the paths of ten sins.

[one can see the same numerological progression as Five Skandhas, Six Ayatanas, etc.]

Vimalakirti: Manjusri, with what in mind do you say so?

Manjusri: Noble sir, one who stays in the fixed determination of the vision of the uncreated is not capable of conceiving the spirit of unexcelled perfect enlightenment [Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi]. However, one who lives among created things, in the mines of passions, without seeing any truth, is indeed capable of conceiving the spirit of unexcelled perfect enlightenment.

Noble sir, flowers like the blue lotus, the red lotus, the white lotus, the water lily, and the moon lily do not grow on the dry ground in the wilderness, but do grow in the swamps and mud banks. Just so, the Buddha-qualities do not grow in living beings certainly destined for the uncreated but do grow in those living beings who are like swamps and mud banks of passions. Likewise, as seeds do not grow in the sky but do grow in the earth, so the Buddha-qualities do not grow in those determined for the absolute but do grow in those who conceive the spirit of enlightenment, after having produced a Sumeru-like mountain of egoistic views.

So they are talking about not using Nirguna only. It is an aspect of meditation but is not itself full Buddhahood:

When he goes into the states of motionlessness and immateriality, he does not dissolve therein.

The teachings deny a "Permanently Still" Nirvana, so, here, I think it is something like "you" are not permanently "dissolving". Obviously, here, "you" went into "immateriality", so from our perspective, something must be temporarily erased.

Old Student

19th December 2020, 05:36

The oldest written tantric lore we can attest is not earlier than ca. year 300, however, prior to that, there was a Lokottara or Transcendent school known to have existed for centuries, almost to the time of Buddha. In that case, for instance, the presence of Matangi arises.

I was actually kidding, because Shaktis (Saktagama) believe Buddhism is a late phenomenon. Agreed, Matangi is extremely old. The date on the "earliest tantric lore" is done by looking for two things, the existence of mandalas and the existence of guru lineages. Much of what we discuss can easily predate those criteria, and be from the same tradition, but not get called "tantric lore".

Since Sri Yantra is really 3-D much like Mt. Meru and the Palace, I think they are just different schools of doing almost the same thing.

I've been thinking about what you had said about this yantra for a few days (I had it happen one more time but less bright). When it happens to me, it is actually centered at the heart, so it does not contradict with you're saying it is small and at Anahata, it is to them what the visualization of deities who start as the size of a mustard seed and then the visualization makes them the size of the universe and back to the mustard seed. If you shrank the Sri Yantra that happens to me small enough it would be inside the heart.

These are Three Voids, Non Ego, Voidness [Suchness], and Darkness [Ultimate Meaning], there is a formless triple fire (Agnishvattas or Pranidhana Natha) of sad bhava, or true existence, and three shaktis called Iccha, Jnana and Kriya.

The three voids sound something like dissolve, decay, decompose.

So I think when we dip our toes in the next "progressive" Paramitas, we go to Cosmic Maya so to speak, or those are pretty clearly dealing with transcendental planes above the Ganges Mirror. Or beyond Kama Loka.

I wonder why the Dakinis said "skillful means" then.

Old Student

19th December 2020, 06:00

Those are the two most common words in the whole freaking vocabulary and no one could really pin down what the heck Buddha Tara is.

I would lean towards a Bodhisattva level of Vasudhara. I might guess that Buddha Family was long associated with Earth Element and Body, and if now, they are kicked into Air, hopefully it has been re-assessed as Pranic Wind rather than Entire Surface, meaning as experience and Activity.

So far, those are just my hunches on the weird and missing parts. In a lot of cases, something is "shown present by its absence", so, barring scribal error, the absence of Puspa is likely intended to have a reason.

There might be another way to break it up, puspada ama dhara "a kind of rice" "unhusked" "holding". Especially if you think it is a Bhu reference and possibly related to Vasudhara.

So they are talking about not using Nirguna only. It is an aspect of meditation but is not itself full Buddhahood:

When he goes into the states of motionlessness and immateriality, he does not dissolve therein.

The teachings deny a "Permanently Still" Nirvana, so, here, I think it is something like "you" are not permanently "dissolving". Obviously, here, "you" went into "immateriality", so from our perspective, something must be temporarily erased.

This makes perfect sense.

shaberon

19th December 2020, 09:09

I was actually kidding, because Shaktis (Saktagama) believe Buddhism is a late phenomenon.

Well, what if we keep pushing this. What would they say about how permeated Orissa is by so much of the Buddhist tantric base?

Almost no tantras describe their authorship, but, Vajradaka Tantra states it was written at Ratnagiri.

Kalachakra is strongly believed to have been composed there, the town of Sambal Pur has a strong case as the root phrase for Shambhala, and so on. There is a heck of a lot of common ground, and, when we get to Nepal, people are of both schools.

I accept that there is such a thing as a Guhyasamaja or Esoteric Community that pre-dates the writings in about the same way I accept that Bodhidharma is the lynchpin of Shaolin martial arts. Neither has anything close to "reliable reporting" about it, but, I think both of those go back to Buddha.

Were there ancient, historical Buddhas such as Dipamkara and so on, yes, I think so, the only difference is they did not leave schools of disciples that persisted. Gautama is the Manushi or Human Buddha because he does have a school of disciples that can be known about if not joined by almost anyone in the world currently.

The school of Mantra is certainly much older, and, besides any literary evidence, the main distinction of Tantra is by adding visualizations. I have no problem describing Vairocani as found in Samvarodaya Tantra as the same in Durga Suktam which can reliably be estimated ca. 300 B. C. We can find Seven Syllable deity having Lasya for his Shakti. Indrabhuti is one of the main teachers whose layout features Charchika.

What is even better is that a distinction cannot be made between the philosophy of Adi Shankara and that of Shentong. There was already a historical trend of Hindus crowding Buddhists out of Orissa due to the perceived rivalry, because only certain views were expressed to the other.

I might say that Shakti has been here since the beginning, and "Buddhist Shakti" is only here to the extent anyone manifests her.

Buddha says the Vedic Rishis are valid.

Boiled down, all of the Buddhist lore contains only a minor amount of original material, or, if Kalachakra is the most advanced tantra and its goddess is Viswamata who is Annapurna the deity of Kashi, it is like tossing originality altogether and declaring vassalship to an archaic kingdom.

So far, to understand our deities, one would have to be conversant with Samkhya, the Vedas, Puranas, Epics, Shakta, Shaivite, and Vaisnava traditions, and Buddha even said you should give alms to the Jains.

Overall, I think it comes out closest to Shakta. But this is, for example, what the deities are based on from Tibetan culture: nothing. That is why I would have to bug most Buddhists about why they are averse to Puranic explanations and so forth. In many cases it bears extreme relevance.

I wonder why the Dakinis said "skillful means" then.

If it is Method or Upaya it is Father Tantra, which "is" non-dual but emphasizes Method. So for me as an example, when I switch to talking about Ganapati as a male deity, it is an Upaya. It becomes Skillful Means in Action within what could perhaps be called a Matangi environment, or even Vinayaki.

I have never done this so it is new and I am not used to describing it. The Upaya is the male half of Prajna--Upaya which is Vajrasattva.

Bhiksu is the term for a monk but that is not even Buddhist because the Puranas say:

main vratas five; and supplementary, five; main:—dhyānam, samādhi of the senses, begging at seven houses, silence and release from sangha. Supplementary:—Purity in conduct, discipline (vinaya) śaucam, non-retaliation and samyakdarśanam, besides non theft, Brahmacarya, non-covetousness, ahiṃsa, non-anger, service to the Guru, medicated food, daily study, alms, resignation, generosity, etc., becomes one with Brahmā for observing such dharma.

Prajnaparamita did not invent this, but adds:

Furthermore, bhi means to cut (bhid) and kṣu means afflictions (kṣud = kleśa). The person who has cut the afflictions is called bhikṣu.

Furthermore, bhi means to frighten (bhī) and kṣu means ability (kṣam). The one who has the power to frighten Māra and his followers is called bhikṣu.

For some reason, this is stuck in what to me comes across as the most poignant part of Ganapati Hrdaya:

om namostute mahārudra vacanāya svāhā ||

om amṛtavindū bhikṣū cittam hāsamāgachati mahā bhayaparākramaḥ mahāha smidakṣiṇīyava bhodadāpaye svāhā

Bishop of Nectar Seed, give the Mind Refuge in your Hasama (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/hashama) [retinue] Method of Great Fear Great Smi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/smi) [smile, laugh, blush, bloom] Right Hand [scale or attainment]

Seed is:

Vindu.—(EI 7-1-2), also spelt bindu; ‘cypher’.

Zero.

Two is not really used in philosophy; the two, alone, without expanding the third aspect or Manas, would retreat to the Unmanifest.

2 = 0. Passivity; Father-Mother, Svabhavat, Parabrahm.

One is Three, or, when Manas arises, it has the aspect of a trinity, so it is the Three Shaktis, the Three Agnis, the Three Voids, and so on, each as a respective way of describing this triple refinement, such as the human Monad or Amrita, Atma--Buddhi--Manas of the Formless Planes.

Zero is an Infinity, One is an Infinity.

Zero has its own nature which is unlike anything else, whereas One is manifest which means it must have attributes of a Bhagavan, or, in the preferred Buddhist nomenclature, Full Sambhogakaya. This is the "special mark" of a Buddha as compared to say, if Buddha had the opportunity to "fully dissolve" into the revelation of his Enlightenment when he was Twenty-nine, he would not have been a Buddha; the Tathagatas told him so. That is to say he had full awareness of Zero and could have "let go" and it would have been easy, but, he turned back around to manifest perfectly to the world.

If Ganapati applies his Method, Matangi will tell me how he does.

With his syllable, G could probably be said to have the "sharpest attack" of any letter, and is probably the most central, downwards force jet of any of them. Maybe K seems similar but it goes back to front. Totally different from anything I am used to. Gives you a trunk and big ears and your ajna talks subsonically.

Old Student

20th December 2020, 05:12

Well, what if we keep pushing this. What would they say about how permeated Orissa is by so much of the Buddhist tantric base?

Orissa is where the cryptobuddhists were during the Sena kingdom. There is no problem with there being Buddhist tantrists in Orissa before, especially during Pala. Near Chatgaon (Chittagong), many formerly Nalanda influence viharas have been renamed to be "Nath" tradition, which is later.

Kalachakra is strongly believed to have been composed there, the town of Sambal Pur has a strong case as the root phrase for Shambhala, and so on. There is a heck of a lot of common ground, and, when we get to Nepal, people are of both schools.

And yet Kalachakra, as it came to Tibet, came from Naro who learned it in Suvarnadvipa -- either Southern Thailand or Sumatra. And others would put Shambala far to the north, some in Mahabahar (Balkh) and some in the Pamir Mountains. It very much depends on who's theory you read.

I accept that there is such a thing as a Guhyasamaja or Esoteric Community that pre-dates the writings in about the same way I accept that Bodhidharma is the lynchpin of Shaolin martial arts. Neither has anything close to "reliable reporting" about it, but, I think both of those go back to Buddha.

My own discipline, Liuhebafa, is reputed to go back to Chen Xi Yi on Mount Hua. But there are people who say it was composed in the 1800s. I make no judgments on it either way, but do hold out that there can be ways it was either.

What does it mean to go back to Buddha? The sutra I'm reading, the Avatamsaka, begins with, "Thus have I heard," which is to indicate it is the teachings of the Buddha directly or in transmission. But there are chapters that definitely seem to have been composed by different authors, or at least are written in different styles. Do I think it "goes back to Buddha?" Yes. Do I think it speaks of Buddha in third person and seems probably to have been amalgamated and drawn from different sources? Also yes.

Boiled down, all of the Buddhist lore contains only a minor amount of original material, or, if Kalachakra is the most advanced tantra and its goddess is Viswamata who is Annapurna the deity of Kashi, it is like tossing originality altogether and declaring vassalship to an archaic kingdom.

I think I would say that sanskrit Buddhist lore contains only a minor amount of distinct material. It is also never certain looking at more modern texts and practices which ones originated with the Buddhists and which ones originated in Hinduism. Hatha yoga originated in Buddhism from the kriyas of Naropa and Niguma. But people in the Nath movement believe it existed in antiquity.

...and Buddha even said you should give alms to the Jains.

They were contemporaries. What I meant is that in history classes in Shakti Bengal, they are taught that Buddhism and Jainism were anti-Brahminical movements. They were taught that Sikhism is an amalgamation movement, by contrast. Consequently, they do believe that their own faith both predates Buddhism and is the source from which Buddhism split away.

I have never done this so it is new and I am not used to describing it. The Upaya is the male half of Prajna--Upaya which is Vajrasattva.

Yes, this is what they meant I think, the union of wisdom with skillful means, which is equated with compassion, and as such becomes the union of compassion and wisdom. They were referring to a form of compassion.

Seed is:

Vindu.—(EI 7-1-2), also spelt bindu; ‘cypher’.

Zero.

Again, my source here says shunya is the concept of zero, bindu is the shape of it.

Two is not really used in philosophy; the two, alone, without expanding the third aspect or Manas, would retreat to the Unmanifest.

2 = 0. Passivity; Father-Mother, Svabhavat, Parabrahm.

One is Three, or, when Manas arises, it has the aspect of a trinity, so it is the Three Shaktis, the Three Agnis, the Three Voids, and so on, each as a respective way of describing this triple refinement, such as the human Monad or Amrita, Atma--Buddhi--Manas of the Formless Planes.

Not sure I understand why 2 is not a thing. Coming from the Daoist side, Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three beget the ten thousand things. Two is seen as male-female, or as you said, Father Mother.

But this is interesting about zero and one. The difference between being nowhere and everywhere, neither is somewhere.

shaberon

20th December 2020, 08:12

And yet Kalachakra, as it came to Tibet, came from Naro who learned it in Suvarnadvipa -- either Southern Thailand or Sumatra. And others would put Shambala far to the north, some in Mahabahar (Balkh) and some in the Pamir Mountains. It very much depends on who's theory you read.

It does.

Sumatra and Java were massively influential for a few centuries of royally-supported expansion.

The North was influential timelessly by ascetics.

I do not know. However I am convinced that any mythical kingdom is a metaphor, exists within, is a state of being. At the same time I became dubious about the promotion of "Shamballah Warrior", I think it may make disturbing nationalistic trends when it is, I would say, diluted like this. Then to be blunt, we are not in a land tamed by Dharma, we do not have a Gesar, or a Tseringma, or anything like this.

The last thing Buddhist teaching wants you to do is fawn over an ideal future state.

The Manjushri lines from the other day said something more like you are going to mature in a pile of manure.

My own discipline, Liuhebafa, is reputed to go back to Chen Xi Yi on Mount Hua. But there are people who say it was composed in the 1800s. I make no judgments on it either way, but do hold out that there can be ways it was either.

I do not know that much about China, but I think Confucius is a type of ear-whispered doctrine going back to ca. 3,000 B. C. I can recall documents being unsealed from a wall somewhere recently that would tend to go along with this. It looks to me like China had spiritual discipline for millenia while Tibetans believed they were descended from monkeys.

What does it mean to go back to Buddha? The sutra I'm reading, the Avatamsaka, begins with, "Thus have I heard," which is to indicate it is the teachings of the Buddha directly or in transmission. But there are chapters that definitely seem to have been composed by different authors, or at least are written in different styles. Do I think it "goes back to Buddha?" Yes. Do I think it speaks of Buddha in third person and seems probably to have been amalgamated and drawn from different sources? Also yes.

It never means "this is the Word" and has to be crammed down your throat.

It is almost never literal and can scarcely go into words.

Buddha never wrote anything, he definitely did not write Avatamsaka Sutra.

He was magic. He could have manifested anything to any number of audiences anywhere. He cannot be limited. Several texts claiming descent from him contradict each other.

It is barely the mortal man, Gautama Siddartha, that I ever talk about. It is a Mayavi Rupa he produced in Akanistha which persists as Vajradhara. This is still "the Teacher".

Kalachakra and Dharmadhatu Vagisvara Manjughosha mandalas were projected at Amaravati. Buddha says that Mahendra is an important Agni to meditate on.

As well as being a mountain prregnant with many meanings, Mahendra may equivalently refer to Indrani and is classed as:

Name of Amarāvatī, the capital of Indra. °मन्त्रिन् (mantrin) m. an epithet of Bṛhaspati. °वाहः (vāhaḥ) the elephant Airāvata.

What I meant is that in history classes in Shakti Bengal, they are taught that Buddhism and Jainism were anti-Brahminical movements. They were taught that Sikhism is an amalgamation movement, by contrast. Consequently, they do believe that their own faith both predates Buddhism and is the source from which Buddhism split away.

Sikh is about as anti-Brahmanical as you can get, and anti-Mohammedan to boot. It repudiates both and backs that up with the sword.

Buddha was familiar with Ganesh and the Aranyakas. I am not sure you can get much closer than Sita and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad as to Buddha's personal background. It may even be Vaisnava since based on Agni Vaisvanara and Sita being the wife of Vishnu's avatar Rama.

I think of Adi Shankara as something like a "Shakta reformer", having probably merged and streamlined existing practices. Concerning what Shakta institutions may have been around during, for instance, Asoka's reign, I am not sure.

Yes, this is what they meant I think, the union of wisdom with skillful means, which is equated with compassion, and as such becomes the union of compassion and wisdom. They were referring to a form of compassion.

Then at the core of this stuff, it at least is the same as Vajrasattva in tantric Buddhism. It is still the same as Sutra-level Buddhism but experienced more intensely.

Not sure I understand why 2 is not a thing. Coming from the Daoist side, Dao begets One, One begets Two, Two begets Three, Three beget the ten thousand things. Two is seen as male-female, or as you said, Father Mother.

But this is interesting about zero and one. The difference between being nowhere and everywhere, neither is somewhere.

Maybe you already know it as Quantum Uncertainty principle.

Baby Universe Pairs can spawn all the time right under our noses, but when they split, they just cancel each other out and nothing is observed.

If a pair happened to get split by, say, an Event Horizon, one would be disposed into the Unknowable and the other would "pop out" and emanate as a White Hole.

Two "is" a thing but it is No-thing since it can only be Unmanifest.

That is why you do not do a mantra twice, and you generally avoid even numbers until you get to a big one like Thirty-six.

The Two simply are One which is Unbegotten.

The occult marriage speaks of the marriage of Manas to Buddhi, not the elimination of Manas. We are just trying to shed the Manas of its patterns and behaviors as described by Yogachara. If we were to somehow drop it, I would guess that might be the point where one would be whisked to Permanently-Still Nirvana.

Yajnawalkya is said to have witnessed this taking place in the sphere of the Sun.

Sunya is *taught* as the concept of Voidness, but, it actually *is* the stuff.

As to how a Bindu or Zero could be the Shape of such a thing is somewhat mind melting. The Shape is a Point, perceived everywhere, found nowhere. It is the center or Prabhavapyaya to which a human in Samadhi is the reflecting final mirror boundary.

It does not reflect off the material plane. That goes to the Talas.

It reflects by someone using the material plane, by the breath of life having conscious control of its motion through the waters, and so i. e. knowing the "secrets of nature" and so forth.

The Point cannot be in any different places. It is all in the same place.

In Nepal, Two is called Prajna Upaya.

Manjushri called it ignorance and the thirst for existence, something like the opposite of the above.

Either requires Manas.

Similar to the saying, wherever there is Voidness, there will be a Dependent Arising; and wherever there is a Dependent Arising, there is Voidness. Or that Samsara and Nirvana are two facets of the Dharmodaya.

The Absolute has two modes, Pravritti and Nirvritti, Active and Passive, with the main distinguishing feature being Manas, or, Mahat in the cosmic sense.

One is seeking to enter the Nirvritti with Svasamvedana. Or, we are not really "seeking" to enter it, we just inevitably will, and so we are doing the Svasamvedana or Manifest Buddha during the Active period.

Old Student

21st December 2020, 02:04

I do not know. However I am convinced that any mythical kingdom is a metaphor, exists within, is a state of being. At the same time I became dubious about the promotion of "Shamballah Warrior", I think it may make disturbing nationalistic trends when it is, I would say, diluted like this. Then to be blunt, we are not in a land tamed by Dharma, we do not have a Gesar, or a Tseringma, or anything like this.

I must have missed the Shamballah Warrior, sounds a little like I was fortunate for doing so. Shambala as a myth was supposed to have risen straight into the air and disappeared after, anyway.

I do not know that much about China, but I think Confucius is a type of ear-whispered doctrine going back to ca. 3,000 B. C. I can recall documents being unsealed from a wall somewhere recently that would tend to go along with this. It looks to me like China had spiritual discipline for millenia while Tibetans believed they were descended from monkeys.

Documents are always being unsealed from walls, but they have to do with the Zhou dynasty and Warring States period -- during which all the originals -- Laozi, Zhuangzi, Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius) lived. Hanfeizi's Legalist school became prevalent during the Qin dynasty and Qinshihuangdi (literally, "The First Qin Emperor") burned the books, so people hid them in the walls, and they are literally still being discovered. When I was studying Chinese, the big thing was the "Cloth Laozi", now that is old hat compared to others. But then again, when I was studying Meso-America, they hadn't deciphered more than 10 Mayan glyphs and now they can read the whole language.

Maybe you already know it as Quantum Uncertainty principle.

Baby Universe Pairs can spawn all the time right under our noses, but when they split, they just cancel each other out and nothing is observed.

If a pair happened to get split by, say, an Event Horizon, one would be disposed into the Unknowable and the other would "pop out" and emanate as a White Hole.

The uncertainty principle is about pairs of measurements that are entwined by a Fourier transform. It occurs in image processing, it occurs in quantum mechanics. Not only pairs can split and disappear, but timelines can do this as well, and future states of a physical system. Yes things happen at the Event Horizon, no they aren't everywhere, event horizons require a black hole.

As to how a Bindu or Zero could be the Shape of such a thing is somewhat mind melting. The Shape is a Point, perceived everywhere, found nowhere. It is the center or Prabhavapyaya to which a human in Samadhi is the reflecting final mirror boundary.

There is a story about it which gives it the shape. If an Indian mathematician were to do their math with marbles (invented in India) on the sand, when you have one, and you take it away, there is just the ring in the sand where the marble was, and that becomes the symbol for shunya -- the bindu marking it. Yes it also means point. Shunya does mean voidness in philosophy, but it also just means zero or empty. Nibbana in Bengali, for instance, is the verb to turn out the light, yes it means the "blowing out" both in Buddhist terms and in mundane every day terms of what you do with a light switch before going to bed.

The Absolute has two modes, Pravritti and Nirvritti, Active and Passive, with the main distinguishing feature being Manas, or, Mahat in the cosmic sense.

Which is neither of the two, but is not different from either of the two. Does that really make it three?

shaberon

21st December 2020, 19:18

I must have missed the Shamballah Warrior, sounds a little like I was fortunate for doing so. Shambala as a myth was supposed to have risen straight into the air and disappeared after, anyway.

Back in the 70s, Kagyu wanted to project "Buddhism for the West" by an organization simply called Vajradhatu.

It was this that evolved into Chogyal Trungpa Rinpoche and such things as "Crazy Wisdom" and "Shamballah Warrior", the latter of which, comes a bit too close to today's "Social Justice Warrior".

I do not accept anyone using some top-down power pyramid to enforce changes through laws and the social pressure of controlling "today's dialogue" and so forth. Then we are just like any kind of crusader using glib sayings to cover up crimes.

It is about as bad as Ledbeater's revision of Theosophy.

If you missed them, so much the better; they will always serve as bad examples.

Outside of Kalachakra Tantra, Buddhism is replete with Abodes, Akanistha, Sukhavati, Pure Lands, and so on. When we put together for instance what Vajrayogini's Abode and the Two Mountains are, then it has continuity with everything else in the teachings. I am not sure I have "encountered" Shamballah anywhere outside of Kalachakra.

The uncertainty principle is about pairs of measurements that are entwined by a Fourier transform. It occurs in image processing, it occurs in quantum mechanics. Not only pairs can split and disappear, but timelines can do this as well, and future states of a physical system. Yes things happen at the Event Horizon, no they aren't everywhere, event horizons require a black hole.

So the universes could be born at a frequency of gigahertz per cubic centimeter. Probably not. Casmir Vacuum Plates show that there are, at least, particle-antiparticle pairs which are dense enough to exert observable pressure. Takes little to split them.

The random energy and chance to emit a whole universe right at an Event Horizon would be a bit on the rare side compared to this.

Maybe one could cough out of a random Quantum Well. The pair "shouldn't" have split because it lacks the energy to do so, but, it did.

The smallest cells already do this in order to intake oxygen.

I hesitate to say "Noumenal process x = observable physical matter y". I am just making a comparison that there is such a thing as "creation" which does not last and does not lead to manifestation. And so Manas is just "similar" to physical conditions which permit "nothing" to become "everything".

The Absolute has two modes, Pravritti and Nirvritti, Active and Passive, with the main distinguishing feature being Manas, or, Mahat in the cosmic sense.

Which is neither of the two, but is not different from either of the two. Does that really make it three?

In the Puranic and Theosophical terms, yes.

"Bright Space, son of Dark Space".

It is what experiences the apparent separation of Spirit and Matter.

Buddhist practice looks a little different because it is not a creation myth, The Puranas are. They each in their own way attempt to describe what it means for spiritual principles to awaken from slumber and build forms, Mind or Manas being the "awake" in this sense.

Our sadhanas are almost entirely talking about burning the Skandhas of the personality and entering/penetrating the Manasic or Akashic plane, or the inverse of the Puranas.

In the most basic sense, the "awakening" is the Trinity or Three-in-one, which, in the outer planes, makes a Solar or Seven-rayed manifestation.

The Theosophical Glossary gives a cluster of excellent leads all around the same area. The seventh ray is Viraj, or non-dual Brahma Viraj and Vach Viraj, not the male Brahma of the lowest sphere:

Svarâj (Sk.). The last or seventh (synthetical) ray of the seven solar rays; the same as Brahmâ. These seven rays are the entire gamut of the seven occult forces (or gods) of nature, as their respective names well prove. These are: Sushumnâ (the ray which transmits sunlight to the moon); Harikesha, Visvakarman, Visvatryarchas, Sannadhas, Sarvâvasu, and Svarâj. As each stands for one of the creative gods or Forces, it is easy to see how important were the functions of the sun in the eyes of antiquity, and why it was deified by the profane.

That is a pretty heavily esoteric Puranic statement which sounds nothing like any western seven ray school.

Svasam Vedanâ (Sk.). Lit., “the reflection which analyses itself ”; a synonym of Paramârtha.

Svayambhû Sûnyatâ (Sk.). Spontaneous self-evolution; self-existence of the real in the unreal, i.e., of the Eternal Sat in the periodical Asat.

So most of the doctrines are based on the same kind of on/off switch for the entire cosmos. "Something" is impervious to the switch, and, for a long time, there were heckles about the subject:

Svabhâvat (Sk.). Explained by the Orientalists as “plastic substance”, which is an inadequate definition. Svabhâvat is the world-substance and stuff, or rather that which is behind it—the spirit and essence of substance. The name comes from Subhâva and is composed of three words—su, good, perfect, fair, handsome; sva, self; and bkâva, being, or state of being. From it all nature proceeds and into it all returns at the end of the life-cycles. In Esotericism it is called “Father-Mother”. It is the plastic essence of matter.

Svâbhâvika (Sk.). The oldest existing school of Buddhism. They assigned the manifestation of the universe and physical phenomena to Svabhâva or respective nature of things. According to Wilson the Svabhâvas of things are “the inherent properties of the qualities by which they act, as soothing, terrific or stupefying, and the forms Swarûpas are the distinction of biped, quadruped, brute, fish, animal and the like ”.

That may sound strange when, historically, we can find the fourth or Svabhavika Kaya is in the tantras and came up as a subject of dispute ca. 700s. And then it is perfuse in Sadhanamala, or, rather, svabhava in general is, and, since it is used on the two main Yoga-to-Tantra mantras, Purity and Emptiness mantras, we would be unable to remove it from practice.

Svadhâ (Sk.). Oblation; allegorically called “the wife of the Pitris ”, the Agnishwattas and Barhishads.

So there in a few words starting with "Sv" is more or less a summary of the entire doctrine.

Svabhavikakaya is the evolving Vajrasattva, is the permutation of Prajna with Upaya and Karuna. One could largely just make a "mental note" that there are three other subtle Kayas described in advanced tantras, and focus on this one, it has a lot of mileage.

Is she on track with esoteric Bhagavad Gita, which seems to be copied into the Buddhist RGV?

svārājyaḥ An epithet of Indra; भवान् भक्तिमता लभ्यो दुर्लभः सर्वदोहिनाम् । स्वाराज्यस्याप्यभिमत एकान्तेना- त्मविद्गतिः (bhavān bhaktimatā labhyo durlabhaḥ sarvadohinām | svārājyasyāpyabhimata ekāntenā- tmavidgatiḥ) Bhāg.4.24.55.

Svarāj (स्वराज्).—a.

1) self-luminous; त्वमकरणः स्वराडखिलकारकशक्तिधरः (tvamakaraṇaḥ svarāḍakhilakārakaśaktidharaḥ) Bhāg.1. 87.28.

2) self-wise; Bhāg.1.1.1. -m.

1) the Supreme Being.

2) one of the seven rays of the sun.

3) Name of Brahmā; दिदृक्षुरागादृषिभिर्वृतः स्वराट् (didṛkṣurāgādṛṣibhirvṛtaḥ svarāṭ) Bhāg.3.18.2.

4) Name of Viṣṇu हस्तौ च निरभिद्येतां बलं ताभ्यां ततः स्वराट् (hastau ca nirabhidyetāṃ balaṃ tābhyāṃ tataḥ svarāṭ) Bhāg.3. 26.59.

Svarāj (स्वराज्).—m. Brahman or Supreme Spirit.

of one of the 7 principal rays of the sun, [Viṣṇu-purāṇa]

As to whether Sva, Atman, or Dhatu is exactly a "self", in math, Sva:

In algebra. Affirmative quantity, plus. sva occurs in comp. with numberless words, sometimes answering to Self-, but more frequently to Own.

And the same idea can be carried into linguistics, it is more like own-ness or Own Nature which underlies the disintegration of "self"

Old Student

21st December 2020, 22:43

So the universes could be born at a frequency of gigahertz per cubic centimeter. Probably not. Casmir Vacuum Plates show that there are, at least, particle-antiparticle pairs which are dense enough to exert observable pressure. Takes little to split them.

At a gigahertz? I think the only thing you get at that low an energy is photons from Casimir. 1eV is about 10^14 Hz, or 100,000GHz in order of magnitude.

The Theosophical Glossary gives a cluster of excellent leads all around the same area. The seventh ray is Viraj, or non-dual Brahma Viraj and Vach Viraj, not the male Brahma of the lowest sphere:

Viraj or Svaraj? The rest is svaraj.

Sva is self meaning a reflexive, like 'se' in French. In ancient math texts it is one of the vocabulary words used for 1 before they wrote in symbols.

The way you go from Dao to three in Daoist alchemy is to create one which is the "original yang", then to make yang and yin (two), then to make three: spirit, qi, and jing (qi = prana, jing is "creative essence" sexual liquids). This is what is indicated below (although the diagram is actually right to left, because it is the process of reversing this through neidan -- Daoist inner alchemy).

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pYGpfynjPjM/UiUcBQx352I/AAAAAAAAAR0/sB6Nq1VDjQk/s1600/neidan_graphic_summary.jpg

In the Puranic and Theosophical terms, yes.

"Bright Space, son of Dark Space".

It is what experiences the apparent separation of Spirit and Matter.

This seems odd to me that it is separate from them.

shaberon

22nd December 2020, 06:52

In the crucible which lies beneath the communion of Ganapati for me is no shortage of stuff that may be described as putrid filth from which the Lotus blossoms.

And so in the less, or, actually not spoken part would have been along the lines that for a few weeks now I would have said "The spell you cast on me backfired horribly and I am going in to damage control mode".

So I have been thinking this as well as looking to express my understanding and practice of reality without being preachy about it. And so after extolling the benefits of exercise, I went on to that we believe there is no one in the "face" and that the real person is in the heart.

I didn't quite get to some of the further things we might say about this power, because I found out that for a few weeks, they have experienced a "minor" heart issue.

So, to me, that is a bit too much Hand of Destiny, it sounds like that final finger tap to get your attention before you obliterate yourself, or, that is, in this case, the body.

The grievous level of concern that red lights such an issue is perhaps a good enough reason to attempt to explain the Ganesh idol that they gave me.

The rushing roar in the background of the news was like a summoning of benevolent forces that said Welcome to Elephant Clan.

It may suggest for my Tuesdays that I usually do the practice to add the next mantra from Astroved.

~ To remove very stubborn obstacles, Dr. Pillai recommends chanting:

OM GHE GHE GHE, KROM KROM KROM, UCCHISTA GANAPATAYE, HASTI PISACHI LIKHE SWAHA

At first glance we would think this resembles Buddhism with Krom for Krodha or Krodha Vinayaka.

The first syllable looks "softer" than Gam or Gah, being a form of Gha:

Gha (घ).—n. (Used only as the last member of comp.) Striking, killing, destroying; as in पाणिघ, राजघ (pāṇigha, rājagha) &c.

-ghaḥ 1 A bell.

2) Rattling, gurgling or tinkling noise; 'घः सूनुर्वह्निः पूषा नृपो गजः (ghaḥ sūnurvahniḥ pūṣā nṛpo gajaḥ) |'

So there is the syllable of the Fourth Activity: used one way i. e. Wrathfully, it is the Destroyer, the other way, is a Bell, or bell sound, or by convention also the same as Uddiyana which is a bell ornament at a woman's waist.

Now on this one, he may have some kind of peaceful conclusion, but that is not what it is about. If I do this, he is going to Rampage.

Nothing has worked, so far, at least in terms of trying to save someone from something I have been hunting for over fifteen years.

It is in that bowl of Laddu Sweets. I have to be able to make a real one; none of the destroyer part is a challenge to me; but the lack of such a bowl is what a lot of this is about anyway.

I am pretty sure he is sharing a syllable with Buddhist Ghasmari even if with a different vowel.

Likhe in the mantra is related to the much more common Lekha or letter which is also "gods" of the previous system:

Lekha (लेख).—A deva-gaṇa (set of celestial beings) of Raivata Manvantara. In this set there are eight Devas named Dhruva, Dhruvakṣiti, Praghāsa, Pracetas, Bṛhaspati, Manojava. Mahāyaśas and Yuvanas. (Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, 2, 36, 76).

1a) Lekha (लेख).—Eight groups of Gods of the Cākṣuṣa epoch;1 Manojava, Praghāsa, Pracetas, Vāta, Dhruvakṣiti, Adbhuta, Avana and Bṛhaspati.2

1) Brahmāṇḍa-purāṇa II. 36. 67, 76; Matsya-purāṇa 9. 23; Viṣṇu-purāṇa III. 1. 27.
2) Vāyu-purāṇa 62. 63-4.
1b) A class of Pitṛs propitiated on every New Moon day.*

* Vāyu-purāṇa 56. 21.

The term is common in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, and is a literary genre in the Sanskrit Buddhist resources.

The usual definitions go on to "young moon's crescent", scratch, and furrow.

The stem "Likh" advances the concept of scratching or furrowing to:

6) To peck (as a bird).

Which is the closest sexual metaphor and why intercourse is an obscure but valid meaning for Ganapati to be saying from definition eight.

It is part of how he uses the Most Fierce Air Elementals to remove obstacles and manifest a healthy situation.

shaberon

22nd December 2020, 07:18

"Bright Space, son of Dark Space".

It is what experiences the apparent separation of Spirit and Matter.

This seems odd to me that it is separate from them.

It is not in any way separate, it is more of the Witness of the apparent separation.

Mind is akin to Svaraj.

It is just circular reasoning from Viraj to Svaraj: both indicate the neuter or non-dual Brahma, whose halves are Brahma Viraj and Vach Viraj.

It is from this Viraj which the Manasa Putras or Prajapatis evolve, who are the Planetary host. Prajapati is:

With a view to making creation easy Brahmā at first created twenty-one Prajāpatis (creators). They are Brahmā, Rudra, Manu, Dakṣa, Bhṛgu, Dharma, Tapa, Yama Marīci, Aṅgiras, Atri, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Vasiṣṭha, Parameṣṭhī, Sūrya, Candra, Kardama, Krodha and Vikrīta. (Chapter 384, Śānti Parva).

or:

Śrīmad Bhāgavatam 8.8.16 cites Vishvakarman as the leader of the prajāpatis, the sons of Lord Brahmā who generate progeny. The eleven lords of created beings first created by Brahmā, which are the Prajapatis:

Vishvakarman
Marichi
Atri
Angiras
Pulastya,
Pulaha,
Kratu,
Vasishtha
Prachetas or Daksha
Bhrigu

The Mahabharata mentions, in the words of celestial sage Narada, 14 Prajapatis (lit:caretakers of the Praja) excluding Vishvakarman namely:

Daksha,
Prachetas,
Pulaha,
Marichi,
Kasyapa,
Bhrigu,
Atri,
Vasistha,
Gautama,
Angiras,
Pulastya,
Kratu,
Prahlada and
Kardama

They are the caretakers of the fourteen worlds - seven lokas and seven talas.

They are Manasa Putra or Mind-born Sons of Viraj.

Prajapati Kasyapa marries Aditi, Boundless Space, which is mental and their progeny leads to the transition into form in the next wave with Diti, Bounded Space.

The Puranas do not agree in the details in the names and numbers of deities involved in the projects, but they do agree on a wave of emanation, prior to the Prajapatis, who then interact with Aditi, leading to another wave which is an interaction with Diti.

Old Student

23rd December 2020, 00:52

To be quite honest, I'm not really sure what you are referring to in this post. Did something happen?

Old Student

23rd December 2020, 00:59

It is not in any way separate, it is more of the Witness of the apparent separation.

Mind is akin to Svaraj.

It is just circular reasoning from Viraj to Svaraj: both indicate the neuter or non-dual Brahma, whose halves are Brahma Viraj and Vach Viraj.

It is from this Viraj which the Manasa Putras or Prajapatis evolve, who are the Planetary host.

But then if mind is non-dual, it is the others. My response was based more on the feeling that the separation takes place within the mind.

shaberon

23rd December 2020, 08:33

But then if mind is non-dual, it is the others. My response was based more on the feeling that the separation takes place within the mind.

Well, yes, The situation is a little paradoxical and koanic.

We say the mind is non-dual, but, for us, it is usually a process of non-dualization in order to attain the single non-conceptual mind of the central energy wind.

Spirit--Matter are never exactly separate, only apparently so, to the Witness.

The Puranic layers are relevant because it is the same Kasyapa we have in Buddhism, who is Tortoise, the fully-produced planet with all its kingdoms of living bodies, the "bed of life".

That section begins from non-duality and moves into variegation as an activity of mind.

Brahma--Viraj is only a mental creator who emanates the host of Prajapatis including Kasyapa, who are Formless, interacting with Aditi. Another important Prajapati is Daksa, via whose antics led to the disaster which culminates in Sati's body lying around India in pieces, whereby she has the name, Dakshayani, and we have her Pithas.

So it is these Prajapatis who are like a Divine Mind or G. A. O. T. U. at work. Brahma--Viraj does not project a full-formed Kasyapa, he casts some kind of simple Heruka Kasyapa who goes through Time and Space in aeons of generations, and this Kasyapa does whatever he does with his progeny.

Kaśyapa (कश्यप).—(savituḥ vidvān, Mārīci) son of Marīci and Kalā, and husband of Diti.1 Married twelve (thirteen matsya p.) daughters of Dakṣa, who were brahmavādinīs and loka-mātas. Married also Pulomā and Kālakā on the advice of Brahmā. Their sons were Dānavas distinguished for warlike qualities. 60,000 of these were killed by Arjuna while in Heaven to please Indra.2 Aditi was another wife of Kaśyapa, and was the mother of Vāmana-Hari. On an appeal from her on behalf of gods exiled from Amarāvatī, Kaśyapa taught her the payovrata to please Hari.

In Saura Purana:

Kaśyapa’s thirteen wives are Aditi, Diti, Danu, Ariṣṭā, Surasā, Svadhā, Surabhi, Vinatā, Tamrā, Krodhavasā, Irā and Muni. [...] Then Kaśyapa created the animals, animates and inanimates and again for the growth of progeny he underwent austere penance. By the power of penance two sons namely Vatsara and Asita were born .

That is related to Mind, however the spiritual trinity or Amrita or Atma--Buddhi--Manas does not descend from Kasyapa but is an entirely different entity from Purnamasa, who is rare like Vairocani and can only be found in two or three of the Puranas.

Kasyapa is nevertheless at a pre-Vamana level, and it is Vamana which strides all space and so begins entering the world of Form, which is still watery, and it is the next avatar, Varaha, that makes it crustal.

The principles of Vishnu that interpenetrate all the evolved skins or degrees of space each have a type of Maya which means they will lose conscious affinity to their origin, and so there become forms of consciousness that are only aware of their surroundings. There are fewer and fewer kinds who are as wise as Shiva. Prana is trapped in Senses.

So the Viraj or sixth plane can be said to be in a position where it can emanate Prajapati, or else lapse into slumber or non-manifestation, as if the seed of a universe or white hole failed to activate. This corresponds to Varuna.

When we re-live the role of a Prajapati, we are going to manifest the Perfection of all the Families in all the Directions. We do not have to manufacture water and soil and worms and so forth, we have to do something else of a Nirmana nature connected to the hearts of sentient beings.

At that level, one would also find the evolution of Rudras, and so it is energy re-claimed from them which will drive us to said plane or state of being.

We would sense it as Prana, which turned out to bear an unusual relevance to Ganesh or Ganapati.

One of the Ganapati mantras granted him Pranashakti, which is a title from within 108 Names of Adi Lakshmi related to Srim:

42, Om Shrim Pranashaktyai Namah।

45. Om Shrim Bhudevyai Namah।

There is specifically a Sri Bala Pranashaktyai Homa (https://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_devii/bAlAhomaHlaghuH.itx) which also refers to the Prajapati of the Three Worlds and Rudra Pasupati.

So that is kind of supposed to be Vishnu's consort, but Ganapati has gotten her.

A general Ayurvedic view says:

Prana shakti is one of three forms of Shakti that energizes our body, mind and soul. Chitta Shakti controls the mind, while Atma Shakti is associated with the soul.

There are three main Saktis in your mind, viz.,

lchha Sakti (Will)
Kriya Sakti(Action)
Jnana Sakti(Knowledge)

In Samkhya, Prana is described as emerging from the apparent separation of Prakriti and Purush, which is the simultaneous arising of Citta. Prana then becomes the interconnecting medium or bridging link from mind to matter.

What they are calling Mind or Citta Shakti is a mortal version of the same as Divine Shaktis, it is close to saying that where there is a Prana, there is a Mind that rides it.

When they are called shaktis, they are non-different from Prakriti, which is to say that life and consciousness are non-different from matter, or are properties inseparable from matter, in the sense of a material that is more refined and more ethereal than gross elements. They are just the Prakriti in its Awakened or Active phase and why Devi is the preferred central figure of sadhanas.

At the Mars temples, then, Ganapati's Prana Shakti is almost Siddha Lakshmi:

The Subramanya Swamy Temple (or Subrahmaṇya Svāmi Temple) in Tiruchendur (or Tirucendur/Tirucentur), [Murugan temple].—Vināyaka is found in lalitāsana with four hands as usual. A specialty is that Siddhi, the wife of Vināyaka, is found seated on his left thigh.

Another Subramanya Swamy Temple in Thiruparankundram or Parankundram (Paraṅkuṉṟam), [Murugan temple].—Vināyaka is represented as seated in lalitāsana pose with four hands [...] Then comes the Tiruvātcī Maṇḍ apa. There is a teppakulam (a holy pond found in most temples) and to the right of the teppakulam is Siddhi Vināyaka. Siddhi Vināyaka is represented with four hands.

He frequently has a Bell. And so from doing the mantras, I get the sense that the eight seed syllables are like the Directions, and they sweep around like a curtain or like the formation of an egg, and so when I think of doing the mantra seven times related to the Maruts digging seven planes in space, it turns out that is exactly how it works at Kashi and why there are fifty-six:

Vināyaka (विनायक).—The Skanda-purāṇa 4.2.57 gives the locations of the fifty-six Vināyakas at Kāśī (Vārāṇasī). These Vināyakas are arrayed at the eight directional points in seven concentric circles centering around Ḍhuṇḍhirāja near the Viśvanātha temple.

Vināyaka (विनायक).—The total number of vināyakas is 56. It refers to the divine guardian concept. The guardian deity (Śiva, or Gaṇeśa/ Vināyaka) at the junction of eight cardinal directions in all the seven layers of the atmosphere (8x7) protects human being from obstacles. This in itself presents a model of the cosmos.

Gaṇeśa/ Vināyaka, with his 56 forms, protects the dwellers or visitors to this city (Kāśī, Vārāṇasī) from obstacles at eight cardinal directions in all the seven layers of the realm between earth and heaven (symbolically representing seven layers of the atmosphere). They serve as lokapala, the directional guardians of the universe who reside at all the cardinal junctions. The number and location of 56 vināyakas can be represented in a spatio-cosmological model showing the eight directions, seven layers, three sacred segments of Vārāṇasī and the interlinking routes of pilgrimage journeys in spiral form.

The sequential arrangement of 56 vināyakas, is arranged in a model as described in the mythologies and followed by the pilgrims performing the sacred journey. The arrangement symbolises the concept of universe within universe, i.e., interconnecting macrocosmos, mesocosmos, and microcosmos. This can be experienced and revealed only by eternal sense, soul—a subject beyond the bodily experience; it is the complement of spiritual experience which some of the pilgrims receive, of course there is no language for expressing the ultimate nature of revelation and eternal experience.

The central Ganapati is perhaps called The Seeker:

Ḍhuṇḍhi (ढुण्ढि).—m.

(-ṇḍhiḥ) A name of Ganesha. E. ḍhuḍhi to seek, ki aff.

In Skanda Purana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423796.html), this assembly coincides with the entrance of Viswamata--Annapurna into Kashi.

Interestingly, it says Naga damsels performed the Nirajan, which in the outer sense is a Lamp Offering but, in terms of Inner Homa, we use it to mean heat applied to the abdominal prana to cause it to rise.

The goal in this Purana is to not be reborn in this world, so, we share most of the inner meaning, but have a different application.

The pilgrims mostly think they are going to die there and gain this liberation by following directions. Like Shambhalla, we think it is part metaphorical and has more to do with ego death and the onset of Prajna in the Heart.

This retinue is maybe similar to Dhanada, lacking the vertical axis for all Ten Directions.

If my personal experience really does not involve the realm of Vairajas or Celestial Buddhas, I am not really in a place to talk about the highest planes as if they were just there for the saying so, and so if I do not insist on the Vinayakas of seven planes, then they would just as easily work with Seven Buddha Families, and so i. e. would be equivalent to accessing the Wrathful power of each.

In one version of Sarvadurgati Parishodana, the additional Families may be called Kumara and Naga.

Or, when we look as RGV, Ratna Gotra Vibhaga, its subject, Seven Vajra Mysteries, already uses synonyms of Three Jewels and two of the Families (Guna, Karma), with the sixth and seventh being Dhatu and Bodhi--just not in order as Families usually appear.

The Seven Mysteries are its "feet" or Vajrapada, which, as a phrase, is almost non-existent:

Vajrapāda (वज्रपाद).—m. pl., name of a brahmanical gotra: Divyāvadāna 635.11.

Vajrapadavikramin (वज्रपदविक्रमिन्).—name of a Bodhisattva: Gaṇḍavyūha 81.8.

It does, however, roar to life in the history of Mahamudra with Siddha Urgyanpa Rinchenpal (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/blue-annals/d/doc425094.html). The Tibetan Urgyan (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/u-rgyan) is Uddiyana, usually thought of as Kashmir or Swat, and more recently as Orissa.

As said by him:

"If I were to preach the Sevasādhana, (bsnyen sgrub, "service and propitiation", u rgyan bsnyen sgrub), the country would have been filled with mahāsiddhas, but as a holder of the Lineage of 'brug pa, I held in high esteem the eight great expositions (khrid chen brgyad).”

In this manner, of the two branches of the principal precepts of the 'brug cycle, the one which possessed the understanding of the "Great Seal" (Mahāmudra), became the most numerous. His disciples were very numerous, and were not threatened by fire, water, enemies, poison, abysses, etc. His chief disciples who had obtained the Sevasādhana of the Trivajra (rdo rje gsum) were: rin po che mkhar chu ba, the Dharmasvāmin rang byung ba, the bla ma dbu ma pa, the maha upādhyāya bsod nams 'od zer, the ascetic (rtogs Idan) zla ba seng ge, and the Dharmasvāmin kun dga' don grub.

Now, the main tenets of the system of the Sevasādhana which originated from the Dharmasvāmin rang byung ba, were slightly different. Later, it spread among the incarnated kar ma pa hierarchs, and the Lineage of their disciples. Likewise, among the followers of the dbu ma pa there are found the “Explanation of the rdo rje'i tshig" (Vajrapāda, the explanation of the original Text of the Sevasādhana) and the practice of hidden precepts. The maha upādhyāya bsod nams 'od zer also composed an extensive exposition on the Vajrapāda. The Lineage (of the Sevasādhana) continued from the Dharmasvāmin gangs pa until dpal ldan bla ma dam pa (Śrīmat Sadguru) bsod nams rgyal mtshan. The Dharmasvāmin zla ba seng ge had also composed an analysis (rnam bshad) on the Vajrāpada, as well as numerous treatises (śāstras), such as a text book on the "Stage of Guidance" (khrid rim gyi yig cha), the "Removal of Accidents" (gegs sel), and "Introduction” (ngo sprod), etc. He taught them to his disciples basing himself on the "Large 'Commentary on the Tantra" (rgyud 'grel chen mo, i.e. The Vimalaprabhā). He also composed Notes on discourses held by the Precious Mahāsiddha (u rgyan pa), which were known by the name of phren skor. His disciple was the maha upādhyāya of mchid phu, byang chub seng ge.

In the Mahamudra history of Vajrapani (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/blue-annals/d/doc425159.html#note-t-150326), there are:

Seven Classes of Realization" (grub pa sde bdun), the gsań ba grub pa of mtsho skyes (saroruha, padmavajra [who codified Seven Skandhas])

the rdo r’je'i tshig 'byed (vajrapāda nāma)

According to Rangjung Yeshe (http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/S_continued_-_S1):

sevasadhana. Sevasadhana.: Tibetan: bsnyen sgrub. While the Sanskrit word sadhana can have as many as thirty-four different meanings, the meaning here of course is the practice of a Tantric deity as "a means of accomplishment". The word "Seva" also has a range of meanings, its root being to serve and attend, but also meaning to honour and worship, to be devoted or even addicted to, to practice and employ, to follow, to cultivate, practice, to frequent and inhabit. The Tibetan part of this word: bsnyen, can mean both to honour or worship, and to approach or be near to. However, the basic meaning of this whole word, is to practice something assiduously and intensively, or to do something repeatedly. A Tibetan definition, is "to be closely associated with a deity". Thrangu Rinpoche says that sevasadhana means an intensive practice of a deity, but not necessarily within a retreat context, although it is a retreat form of practice that will be described in this text. He also states that it does not specifically mean the repeated accumulation of specific numbers of mantras, another principal characteristic of the practice. Although Rinpoche said that "intensive-practice" would be a suitable translation, it proved rather awkward, due to its repeated use in the text. As sadhana is already a familiar term, I have used the Sanskrit for this important word throughout the text. [Peter Roberts]

Sadhanamala mentions Vajrapada as one of its main subjects as early as 2.03, and does not refer to it by name again.

...imāṃ mūlavidyāṃ buddhapratimāyā
agrato maṇḍlakaṃ puṣpābhikīrṇaṃ kṛtvā praṇmya
bodhicittam utpādya sarvabuddhabodhisattvebhya ātmanaṃ niryātya
tatpraṇāmālambanajāpamabhyasan sahasraṃ japet / tataḥ
sarvamantrāṇāṃ lakṣajāpaḥ kṛto bhavati / sarvarakṣādimantrāś
cāsya siddhā bhavanti / tatreyaṃ vidyā-
002ḷ01 namaḥ sarvabuddhabodhisattvānām amalā malahārakā anantāḥ
002ḷ02 samutaḥ sarvajinā asīmaniṣṭhā varadā mama dentu atyudāraṃ
002ḷ03 varamagyraṃ sama sarvadā anantam / tatra ime vajrapadāḥ /

followed by a Dharani.

That is the second paragraph. The very first contains:

śrīmātrisamayaṃ

So it is a Samaya of Love, based on a Jala or Net of Three Samayas:

iha khalu śrītrisamayajāje mahātantrarāje mahānantre
mantramaṇḍale rajomaṇḍale vā vidhival labdhādhikāro mantrī
taduktasamayasamvarasthaḥ pūrvasevāṃ cikīrṣaḥ pūrvatāraṇyādiṣu
guhāgṛhārāmalayanādiṣu vā viviktavijaneṣu
manorameṣu vasan ādau tāvad imāṃ mūlavidyāṃ buddhapratimāyā
agrato maṇḍlakaṃ puṣpābhikīrṇaṃ kṛtvā praṇmya
bodhicittam utpādya sarvabuddhabodhisattvebhya ātmanaṃ niryātya
tatpraṇāmālambanajāpamabhyasan sahasraṃ japet / tataḥ
sarvamantrāṇāṃ lakṣajāpaḥ kṛto bhavati / sarvarakṣādimantrāś
cāsya siddhā bhavanti /

and then continues to the numbered second paragraph with Vajrapada.

This seems to be to be the older background for Mipham saying the pattern of Seven is "the root of all these sadhanas", and that the Seven Syllable deity--or, perhaps, we could call it the Seven Jewels deity, for that is what they are--is like an "engine" of Completion Stage that has to be "built" by the disciple. It is not grabbing at raw sixth and seventh elements, saying, you have enumerated these, you are saved. They are a different kind or Noumenal additions to the bundle of five which we would say is inherent to mundane existence.

That is why our Sadanga or Six Limb Yoga is almost backwards to Astanga or Eight Limb Yoga, and is still not identical to the Six Limb Yoga of Shiva.

We are talking about two additional operative principles, within incarnate man, only.

We consider that by default, they are inoperative, or even non-existent.

If I refer to sixth and seventh planes, they would always be existent. Those are not Noumenal products generated within my individual organism.

I would not have difficulty accepting that Vasudhara "holds" whatever they "are", she is a maestro of it, but, I cannot see or use the stuff, and so the ability to magnify samadhis in the Vasudhara line would be a Noumenal way to insure that whatever it "is", is grafted onto Manifestation of All Families Equally.

Ganapati and the Maruts "dig" the planes into space, Agni or fiery mind awakens or arises like tongues or dragons in each of these "places", Vishnu as Vamana--Dwarf takes three steps across the Three Worlds, and so he "fills space", and the seven kinds of airs and fires become occupied by corresponding "principles of Visnu" such as Ksetrajna and the rest. Then you have an Agni Vishnu, and it is this which becomes shattered throughout the Jivas or individual life forms. Then we have some unstable Visnu-type consciousness which flails around in some dim Agni-esque interplay of mostly terrestrial lights. A piece of the Sun gets clipped off and stored in the White Bodhicitta.

It looks to me that most practice is steered into perhaps a Vaisnavite depiction, and that Shiva and Sati can be mostly overlooked since they can basically only be perceived within the cleanest and most subtle type of Visnu--Lakshmi Abode, which, arguably, consists in collecting Sati's Pithas.

Visnu as Rays corresponds to Planets, as closely as I can figure out, as this:

Sushumna (Sun or Moon), and the rest are Hariksha (Moon or Sun), Vishvakarma (Mercury), Vishvashrama (Venus), Sapadsawa or Sannaddha (Mars), Arvavasu (Jupiter), Swaraj (Saturn). In some versions those planets are different, but the order 1-7 seems firm. Vidya is in this reflection.

Maya--Avidya stems from highest form of existence, Mulaprakriti, whereas Vidya is revealed in the imaginary, non-existent manifestation.

So while a Loka usually corresponds to the Tala of the same plane, it seems we are told that from any Loka, one may perceive any Tala. The Talas are "south poles" with mayavic conditions; Ratna are the expedient means that neutralize their attraction.

In practice, it would be easy to see Ganapati deploying eight directional guardians versus seven kinds of sin, since five are about the same as they are elsewhere, and we can specifically say well, we are going to add Sakkaya Ditthi and Atta Drsti, and then since he is supposed to get the superior shaktis over these vices, they would run on an axis of conversion into the Seven Jewels.

Rather than something like Vajradaka Tantra where each Jewel is individually deified, here you would get a Sphere which becomes coated with the seed syllables in the directions. It might not exactly matter whether you thought it was centered on Vairocana, or Akshobya, or whomever. I would probably think it was talking about Vajrasattva first, and how he is supposed to be Mudita and Void Gnosis and so forth, and how any Skandhas are in conflict with this, and this Sphere would be protected by a round of syllables. Then it would be a very different thing than saying Earth is the lowest and most dense plane, running in the same straight order of planes as in the solar Gayatri. It would not be talking about matter as I know it. It would switch to a different bundle of mind and feelings as per the Dhyani Buddhas. It would be this and a stacking set of Paramitas. Following Abhidanottara Tantra, then it would give Buddha Family the second Paramita and so on. You would just focus on Noumenal operative elements, since these function on any plane(s). If your Buddha Family is screwed up here, it will be messy in any kind of astral plane, and we are trying to change the being more than remark on the material.

Old Student

24th December 2020, 05:26

Well, yes, The situation is a little paradoxical and koanic.

We say the mind is non-dual, but, for us, it is usually a process of non-dualization in order to attain the single non-conceptual mind of the central energy wind.

Spirit--Matter are never exactly separate, only apparently so, to the Witness.

The Puranic layers are relevant because it is the same Kasyapa we have in Buddhism, who is Tortoise, the fully-produced planet with all its kingdoms of living bodies, the "bed of life".

That section begins from non-duality and moves into variegation as an activity of mind.

And the non-dual state is the one from which things like infinities and infinite possibilities can happen. Even physically in terms of brain cells, the experience of something without and differentiation or without 'creating' it as a thing is a place where what is there is powerfully unique and not capable of being "classified".

Prana shakti is one of three forms of Shakti that energizes our body, mind and soul. Chitta Shakti controls the mind, while Atma Shakti is associated with the soul.

There are three main Saktis in your mind, viz.,

lchha Sakti (Will)
Kriya Sakti(Action)
Jnana Sakti(Knowledge)

In Samkhya, Prana is described as emerging from the apparent separation of Prakriti and Purush, which is the simultaneous arising of Citta. Prana then becomes the interconnecting medium or bridging link from mind to matter.

What they are calling Mind or Citta Shakti is a mortal version of the same as Divine Shaktis, it is close to saying that where there is a Prana, there is a Mind that rides it.

When they are called shaktis, they are non-different from Prakriti, which is to say that life and consciousness are non-different from matter, or are properties inseparable from matter, in the sense of a material that is more refined and more ethereal than gross elements. They are just the Prakriti in its Awakened or Active phase and why Devi is the preferred central figure of sadhanas.

This is useful information, thank you.

Maya--Avidya stems from highest form of existence, Mulaprakriti, whereas Vidya is revealed in the imaginary, non-existent manifestation.

Maya is Avidya or Maya + Avidya? This one I'm not sure I understand.

I have had now two nights of stopping breathing episodes. They all seemed to be using the stopping breath as a switch or a means to change something -- similar to the dissolve when my sense of self disappears and regroups. But I could not say I figured out what.

shaberon

24th December 2020, 06:39

There is a way to chronicle tantric development in symbols and scriptures, which leads to a tendency to overlook the more basic ones.

Basic Kriya sadhanas would be a simple Parnasabari or Usnisa Vijaya, familiar things like that. What is important is not just that Parnasabari can tantricly slither her way into the Gauri realm, but, correspondingly, the lower degrees define divinity and meditation in the way it is supposed to be trained. This is a somewhat large and difficult subject. I want to get to it soon, but, here is a Ganapati-themed look at how the levels work.

Himalayan Art Resources is not very aware of Aparajita trampling him, but finds Ganapati in the following retinues:

- Vinayaka under the feet of Shadbhuja Mahakala (Kriya Tantra)
- Vinayaka under the feet of Bhutadamara Vajrapani (Charya Tantra)

- Retinue Figure in various Kriya, Charya & Yoga Tantras
--- Trailokyavijaya Mandala (1037 Deity)
--- Paramadya Vajrasattva Mandala (77 Deity)
--- Sarvavid Vairochana Mandala (37 Deity)
--- Chakravarti Guna Mandala
--- Trailokyavijaya with 9 Bhairavas Mandala
--- Trailokyavijaya with 8 Mahadevas Mandala
--- Chakrasamvara, Raudra Samvara Mandala
- Thirteen Enemy Gods (Dralha Chusum)
- Kolpo Kundali (as a retinue figure) [identical to The Servant Amritakundalin]

Firstly their own link is mistaken for Raudra Samvara Chakrasamvara. This is neither a mandala nor Ganapati, it is an 1800s Situ which is excellent for the Four Dakinis.

Chakrasamvara, Raudra Samvara (Tibetan: dem chog drag po): 1000 hands, multi-legged and multi-faced, embracing Vajravarahi and typically appearing in a 62 deity mandala. Lineage: Heruka Shri, Vajrayogini, Kantapa, Tailopa, Naropa, Chatapa, Sonam Jungne, Jigme Jungne, Dashapala, Drenpa'i Pal, Shri Gupta, Lodro Jungne, Karmin Trin, Jnana Mitra, Taranata, etc.

Along the bottom from the left are Rupini, yellow in colour, with a lion face; Dakini, blue, with a buffalo face; Lama, green, with a horse face; and Khandaroha, red, with an elephant face.

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/0/1/90190.jpg

Khandaroha is, literally, a Hasti Pisaci there, like the phrase intended for Matangi, who is never a Hasti or Elephant Face that I am aware of. Exactly "who" Vinayaki is, remains hard to say.

They say Ganapati is in the smaller Paramadya mandala which appears preparatory, given its titles Sanskrit: sri paramadya nama mahayana kalpa raja [Toh 488]. sri paramadyamantra kalpa khanda nama [Toh 488]. Well, those just sound like the tantra texts it is in.

We cannot get information about it, but we can see the inner courts are simple peaceful figures. The East and South outer rows appear to be Planetaries (with one on a Garuda), the top or West looks like Yakshas or Vasudharas, and finally to the North are some Boar-headed Tramen and what looks like Ganapati:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/8/1/58164.jpg

The larger Paramadya mandala is from the same texts, but, has its own name intending evolution of the Families:

Paramadya Samksiptakula Mandala, Vajrasattva, 319 Deity.

In Paramadya Tantra, Jewel and Karma Families are not distinguished, and, the mandala shows the set of four sub-courts which are carried forward with Karma Family doing the same thing in Dakini Jala. So, at this point, they are trying to show something like the Four Activities arise in a "Jewel--Karma" Family, which would then apparently resolve into distinct entities at the Yoga level. Although this is a Vajrasattva tantra, he does not seem to be counted as a family. He is, perhaps, being "activated" as one along with these other new or hypostasized families.

This one is mostly symbolic or its deities are just dots, which helps the Four Activities courts stand out:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/8/1/58163.jpg

Compared to what we know, Paramadya is supposed to export seventeen deities to Vajrasattva in Dakini Jala; its own limited symbolism has not yet named the main seventeen deities classed as Vishuddhi Pada. It is based from four families, where Jewel has the function of Karma or Action Family as well, and here, Vairocana is Raga--Lust and Amitabha is Moha--Delusion. It does not mention Dharmadhatu Wisdom, and refers to three paramitas. Four Families most ostensibly refers to four form or gross elements. So in other words this may be pretty difficult to beginners, but to anyone who has studied symbolism, it is obviously incomplete.

If Space or Sky is a difficult element to conceive at first, we might say the emergent fifth element is related to the fivefold Vajra of all Vajrayana which carries the main inner meaning in Paramadya, as the installation of the Cinha or Symbol. If we look at Reality of the Hand Symbol in Paramadya, then, this is the process of making a Pancha Jina of Vajrasattva, or, Bodhi Mind arises in a Relative or Aspirational Condition, experiences Four Activities, up to an attainment of Gnosis, and the sealing of success is the Body of Vajrasattva.

The older name Paramasva is used for Amoghasiddhi; of Mahabala, Bhattacharya says:

In the Vajrahumkara Mandala he is given the name of Mahakala. But in the Dharmadhatuvagisvara Mandala he is known as Paramasva.

That is talking about the Northwest, Nairrtya or Vayu guardian, of the Ten Wrathful Ones. In DDV, he is an Akshobya emanation just due to the fact all Ten Wrathful Ones are. Humkara is a simple procedure which just summons the Ten, and renames them. DDV has the four "Takas", then Trailokyavijaya, Vajrajvalanalarka, Herukavajra, Paramasva, followed by Usnisa and Sumbha. They surround sixteen male Bodhisattvas of the third circle begginning with Samantabhadra. Outside of them are Peaceful Offerings and Hindu Eight Directional guardians, and outside all the circles are cosmic deities such as Lunar Mansions.

Paramasva does have a similar feature to Hayagriva, but is not the same. He translates Sadhanamala:

"The worshipper should think himself as Paramasva, of red colour four^faced, eight*armed and four-legged. The first face with three eyes displays angry passion, the second depicts wrath, the third is the face of Brahma [four faces], and the fourth on
the top is green, distorted like a horse with its lower lip beautifully protruding. He weilds the double Vajra, in one of his right hands with three fingers erect (TripatakaJ and in one of his left hands carries the staff with the double lotus. Another right hand, with three fingers erect, is raised upwards, and the other left carries the Sakti (dart). The remaining two right hands carry the Khadga and the arrow, and the remaining left carry the staff and the bow. He stands in the Pratyalldha attitude, and tramples with one of his right legs upon Indrani and Sri, and with the second Rati and Prlti ; with one of the left legs Indra and Madhukara, and with the other left Jayakara and Vasanta".

Asva (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ashva#buddhism) is "horse", generally, but due to the association of rays, it is also Seven. When you figure in what Brahma is doing there, Paramasva is Seven Faced.

Like Shrnkala, this deity is extremely rare and only found in the same area of Sadhanamala, yet was the original version of Amoghasiddhi in tantra. Since his first symbol appears to be Crossed Vajra and he also has Khadga, those are Amoghasiddhi items.

Similarly to the "kinds of women", Paramasva can be found in a table of Indic "kinds of horses" (https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/bitstream/handle/1773/25018/Meadows_washington_0250E_12667.pdf?isAllowed=y&sequence=1), the kind that should not be ridden, only worshipped. The similar term Paramasvadharman (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/paramasvadharmman) is Parama, Sva, and Dharma.

We might wonder if his name is Parama Sva; with accents, it has the long mark over the a and the rising mark over the s, which probably does make it Asva.

However, Viswadaka (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vishvadaka) is equivalent to Paramasva, and is represented horse-headed at Tsaparang. So it is not Hayagriva, it is Amoghasiddhi.

According to Wayne Verrill, Chakrasamvara Root Tantra (Laghusamvara) separates Sarva Buddha Samayoga Dakini Jala as not being "limited", in that Tattvasamgraha, Guhyagarbha, Paramadya, and Vajrabhairava Tantras mostly use mantra repetition and fire offerings, i. e., external ritual actions, which is truncated and performed in Chakrasamvara by meditation alone. The Samayoga is not limited that way, and may also be taken as Mother tantra.

Dakini Jala places the Dhyani Buddhas in courts of Gauris. So this is much different from previous formats where they mainly interface with other Dhyanis or Bodhisattvas. In Dakini Jala, they also have Wrathful and Peaceful Bodhisattva Offering Goddesses, but the core is made of the Utpatti, Sampatti, skyes rim, or Generation Stage tantric deities. Comparatively, it is ironic that the orthodox Ganesh Homa Baudhayana Dharmasutra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/baudhayana-dharmasutra/d/doc116407.html#note-t-64995) with a Buddhist-sounding name if there ever was one, specifically singles out Ucchista and Candali as "impurities" which the priests are supposed to cleanse or throw away anything from the touch of. That is basically what the Gauris are saying is to be turned around and stuffed back into your body and mind and meditational practice.

Anyone may be the central deity in Dakini Jala, but, its two main modes are the familiar Wrathful and Peaceful varieties.

The second, or Vajrasattva-centered mandala scheme in Samayoga has Vairocana East, Heruka South, Padmanartesvara West, and Vajrasurya North. Paramasva Family has four mandalas in the corners; in Chaturangarthaloka, Humkarakirti describes these as Four Activities.

Ganapati is sometimes credited as Nirakara Para Brahma Swarupa (https://www.manidweepa.org/teachings/gods-and-goddesses/ganesha/the-greatness-of-ganesha/) and shown different forms in each Yuga.

When the Ganapati manifestations are said to include Guna Chakravartin, it means Jewel Family or Ratnasambhava, and the example given is from Sarvadurgati Parishodana. In this case, it looks like the Sarvavid Vairocana mandala with Ratnasambhava in the center, he seems to be holding a Vase. However Ganapati is hard to find:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/8/1/58169.jpg

This evolution is important to the unfolding of tantric "levels" as for instance described by Mitra Gyats (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=2096).

His Kriya roster is standard although it does say:

8. Shakyamuni (Jvalamukhi) 35 Deity

Which is unusual since...Jvalamukhi is supposed to be a secret tantric goddess and the Tongue Pitha...

In Chara, he includes something a little more basic than Vajramrita Tantra:

17. Amritakundali (?) 5 Deity

Otherwise it is mostly Akshobya and Vajrapani. So this Amritakundali character is important early on, and again seems to be some kind of courier for Vajra and Jewel Families.

For Yoga, he has Namasangiti and Prajnaparamita, but, more emphatically, starts it in mostly the same way as Sarvadurgati Parishodana:

25. Navoshnisha 37Deity
26. Sarvadurgati Root Mandala 101 Deity
27. Amitayus Vak Mandala 13 Deity
28. Vajrapani Chitta Mandala 13 Deity
29. Sukhavati Guna Mandala 8 and 44 Deity
30. Jvalankara Karma Mandala 17 Deity
31. Vajrapani and the Four Kings 23 Deity
32. Vajrapani and Eight Planets 45 Deity
33. Vajrapani and Eight Great Nagas 13 Deity
34. Vajradhatu Mandala 53 Deity
35. Trailokyavijaya 53 Deity
36. Gathering All Beings 53 Deity
37. Amoghasiddhi 53 Deity
38. Paramadya (?)

So he is pretty closely tying Paramadya to Sarvadurgati, even if the site does not know the retinue or what it is talking about.

In Highest Yoga, he binds together Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra, Shastradhara Weapon Hevajra from Samputa Tantra, Seven Syllable deity, and Cinnamasta. He also gives a Six Family Wheel like Dakini Jala, followed by Jinasagara with Guhyajnana Dakini, Vajra Tara, and Suryagupta Tara.

Although he does not have everything in Sadhanamala, or in Vajravarahi's Sadhanamala, etc., he has made a fairly concise framework that traces and emphasizes the use of most of our rare and obscure points.

It is interesting that Namasangiti is shown as a Yoga tantra which is "allowed" to grow to Highest Yoga, whereas Vajra Tara is only said to be Highest Yoga. It is as if she is a major expansion of Jewel Family, which then triggers the very special Amoghasiddhi Tara, who Reverses Amoghasiddhi and unpeels mundane reality. The only one after them is Mahakala.

I have never even seen the Suryagupta method, but, the mandala is a consequence of having assembled Twenty-one Taras.

Although that is the name of a teacher, Jewel Family Tara being related to Vajrasurya, followed by Karma Tara related to Suryagupta, makes great sense or i. e., both are part of the Secret Sun.

Historically, Mitra is showing more or less the same emphasis as Jnanapada and Anandagarbha, Haribhadra and King Dharmapala who started Vikramasila, to use the lower tantras "just enough" to get one started, and then stressing Yoga and translating it to inner meaning, rather than simply handing you a copy of Kalachakra. This is also the style of Bu-ston, who compiled Twenty-eight Volumes (https://shalu.org/collected-works-of-omniscient-buton-rinchen-drup) which include commenting Paramadya right before Sarvadurgati Paraishodana.

The Seven Syllable or Seven Jewel deity is still one of the oldest (1100s Nepalese) and best (at least voted so for the cemeteries) thangkas in existence. Its main portion is conforming, and the lower register contains the devotees' personal choices, which are said to include Six Arm Vasudhara on the right; they do not dare to identify the other goddesses.

They are not "regular" Taras since they have Vajra Feet. Almost be default, we would think of them as including Four Arm Sita and Gold Prajnaparamita, some Red Archer quite possibly Kurukulla, along with Green Vasudhara or Dhanada. It is still too vague to make out their items. But it is difficult to say they are doing anything other than Dhanada Krama in conjunction with the Paramitas.

The Sadhanamala version is from Durjayachandra, and Mitra's is from Advayavajra or Maitri; at this, the site lists the retinue twice, slightly differently:

Heruka (blue), Bhairavi (yellow), Krodha (red), Ishvari (green), Nimitta (smokey) and Vajra Dakini (white).

On the six spokes, circling to the right, in the East is blue Heruka, red Bhairavi, red Krodha Bala, green Nangchema, smokey coloured Vajra Krodha, and white Vajra Dakini. All have one face and four arms with the first two holding a hand drum (damaru) and bell and the second two a katvanga staff and skullcup.

They have posted an alternate, cleaner image:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/9/8/19802.jpg

Vajrasattva as Prajna--Upaya is the "input" to Paramadya tantra, and this is the "outcome", or full ability to do Completion Stage, with the charnel ground requisite and the self-arisen White Heruka.

Vajra Tara and Pratisara are outer practices of Vajra Panjara Tantra, which is explanatory to Hevajra Tantra.

Panjara uses the term "Vajradaka" for Father Tantra (Mahayoga), and "Yogini" for Mother Tantra. Its scheme likewise proceeds from Paramadya and says:

Vajradaka tantras bring benefit to other beings, i. e., emphasize method, and has four root tantras:

1. Delightful Dakini or Dakini Ecstasy is Sarva Buddha Samayoga [it is now recorded as Father and Mother tantra]

2. Ocean of Ecstasy is Dakarnava Tantra

3. Space or Equal to Space is Khasama Tantra

4. Golden Rain is Chaturpitha Tantra

And four explanatory tantras:

5. Great Pleasure or Secret Moon is Candra Guhya Tilaka Tantra

6. Ghasmari or Power of Food is Samputa Tantra (Seven Secrets)

7. Extreme Amusement or Secret Enjoyment

8. Secret Charm or Great Ecstatic Charm

Yogini Tantras:

1. Hevajra

2. Secret Treasury [Guhya Garbha or Vajrasattva Maya Jala]

3. Source of Vajra Nectar -- Vajramrita Tantra (explanatory for Secret Treasury)

4. Union of Chakras -- Chakrasamvara Tantra

5. Canopy -- Vajra Panjara Tantra (explanatory for Hevajra)

6. Source or Heruka Manifestation -- Heruka Bhudaya Tantra (explanatory for Chakrasamvara)

Vajradaka is the explanatory form of Seven Syllable deity with Six Goddesses, is much like an inevitable male seed emitted into no matter how large a bevy of beauties we may have relied on. It is commensurate with Vajra Rosary. So this central male is continuity from Prajna--Upaya Vajrasattva through Karuna and Sukha.

Although Hevajra iconography rarely picks anything up from Samputa, here, we see nevertheless that Samputa is intended to assist Panjara and Hevajra. Usually, Panjara equates to Mahakala, so this is much like the last item in Mitra's long list of sadhanas.

Budhaya is not usually a name for Chakrasamvara, but is for Mercury:

'Om Bum Budhaya Namah' is the Budh (Mercury) Graha Mantra.

"Source Chakrasamvara" would usually be Samvarodaya Tantra, although Rigpa Wiki calls it "Emergence", like in Samputa:

Saṃvarodaya Tantra (Wyl. sdom 'byung gi rgyud) or Tantra of the Emergence of Chakrasamvara was requested and compiled by Vajrapani.

Daya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/daya) on its own is mercy, compassion, Devi, a gift or inheritance.

Himalayan Art uses an 1100s Tibetan list which probably gives a more reliable title, Heruka Abhyudaya. Abhyudaya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/abhyudaya) tends towards the rising of sun or stars. It comes up first in a list of Maitri's works (https://sites.google.com/site/advayavajra/the-team/oeuvres?tmpl=%2Fsystem%2Fapp%2Ftemplates%2Fprint%2F&showPrintDialog=1) followed by Seven Syllable deity. It is in the Yamantaka lineage of Rwa (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/blue-annals/d/doc424983.html) who was protected by Remati. In this manner, it does mean Heruka Rising (https://books.google.com/books?id=pD8CDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA146&ots=hDnOKJIGa0&dq=heruka%20abhyudaya&pg=PA146#v=onepage&q=heruka%20abhyudaya&f=false), whereas Heruka Abhidana means Discourse or Conversation of Heruka. Varahi also has an Abhyudaya. Durjayachandra (https://books.google.com/books?id=Sj5qDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT103&ots=QSdg1x5T3X&dq=heruka%20abhyudaya%20samvarodaya&pg=PT103#v=onepage&q=heruka%20abhyudaya%20samvarodaya&f=false) speaks of "the Udaya", which might be Samvarodaya or either of the two Abhyudayas. That is how the ending "-daya" is distributed in the tantras.

Samvarodaya Tantra (http://abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Vajrayogini/Samvarodaya-tantra.pdf) in three languages is noteworthy for a couple things; on p. 283, it gives the central consort as Vajravairocani, who is Bandhuka color with Vajra and Skullcup; like Vajra Tara, she has a Vajra name because it is her main item. Also, the long introduction becomes a study on how Samvarodaya portrays "dakinijalasamvara" as "the" subject of Sahaja, is the same as Samvarodaya or the type of sahaja extracted from Abhidhana tantra. And so then it shows that dakinijalasamvara, one word, is like a key-word or pass-phrase for the whole Ganacakra tradition. And then, for instance, Hevajra is really Srihevajradakinijalasamvara.

The 1100s list also puzzlingly says:

The Secret Mantra Yoga Tantra are the Tattvasamgraha, Vajra Shikhara, Shri Paramadya, Trailokyavijaya, [etc.], the Sarvadurgati Parishodhana Tantra, Sarvarahasyo, [etc.]."

Rahasya means Secret Doctrine and is proliferous in Hinduism, but only has a tiny amount, maybe three, Buddhist representations, the main one being Rahasya of Dakini Jala. However, Alex Wayman (https://jainqq.org/explore/269565/37) seems to have uncovered a Sarva Rahasya Tantra based on Quintessence.

In Dakarnava Tantra, Vajradhara explains Father or Method:

"Dividing the Anuttara Tantra into [maha] yoga-tantra and yogini-tantra — in the
‘kings’ of the [maha] yoga-tantras taken by themselves. By what method
is it done? One generates in the forward direction the three [called] Light
( aloka ), Spread-of-Light ( alokabhasa ), and Culmination-of-Light ( aloko -
palabdhi), together with the Clear Light ( prabhasvara ); and at the time
of emerging from the latter, in the reverse direction one accomplishes
the Illusory Body from the five rays of wind ( vayu ) riding on the four
Voids. The method consists in emerging in the Illusory Body from the
Clear Light by way of knowing in exactitude such things as the coming
forth with skill and the varieties of their rites.

In short, the basic classification of the Anuttara Tantras is into those
which teach elaborately the subject matter of the Knowledge of the in¬
dissolubility of Beatitude and Void on the side of the Void, and into
those which teach elaborately the coming forth with skill in the method
of accomplishing the Illusory Body from the five rays of wind riding on
the four Voids in the part of the ‘Means’ — or any Tantras belonging
to the [respective] categories."

Tantra of Effect. This is the rank of Vajradhara, which is the supreme
attainment. The terminology ‘pair combined beyond learning’ (asaiksa-
yuganaddha) and ‘rank possessing the seven members of the samputa ’
has the same meaning.

The seven members of the samputa are identified with
“perfection of body”. “Subsequent to the affiliation of pair combined
with learning ( saiksa-yuganaddha ), there arose the Body of pair combined beyond
learning (asaiksa-yuganaddha) and the rank of the seven members of the samputa
appeared directly; as long as samsara is not emptied [of its suffering denizens] That
abides immovable. The seven members of the samputa are as stated by the acarya
Vagisvarakirti: ‘(1) Sambhoga [-kaya], (2) samputa , (3) Great Beatitude ( mahasukha ), (4) no intrinsic
nature ( nihsvabhava ), (5) state of being filled with compassion, (6) non-interruption,
and (7) no cessation’."

“The seven members of the samputa are as follows: (1) the Formal Body {rupa-kaya ) adorned with the [thirty-
two) Characteristics ( laksana ), (2) samputa with one’s own manifested vidya, (3) mind
dwelling with Great Beatitude, (4) comprehension, with that Beatitude, of the lack
of intrinsic nature, (5) rejection, with compassion, of the quiescence extreme, (6) no
interruption in affiliation with the Body, (7) no cessation of wondrous action."

The five perfections are:

(1) perfection of body, viz., possession of the seven members of the samputa , decorated
with the Characteristics and Minor Marks (sku phun sum tshogs pa mtshan dpes
spras pahi kha sbyor yan lag bdun dan idan pa); (2) perfection of merit, viz., gain of
the ultimate merit, consisting in having eliminated [the imagination of both nirvana
and samsara ] and fully comprehended (yon tan phun sum tshogs pa spans rtogs mthar
phyin pahi yon tan brnes pa); (3) perfection of retinue, viz., comprised of one’s own
stream of consciousness (hkhor phun sum tshogs pa ran rgyud kyis bsdus pa); (4)
perfection of place, viz., the self-generated palace of divine knowledge (gnas phun
sum tshogs pa ye ses ran snan las grub pahi gzal yas khan); (5) perfection of affilia¬
tion, viz., continuity of the affiliation of both body and mind (rigs hdra phun sum
tshogs pa sku thugs gnis kyi rigs hdra rgyun mi hchad pa).

So to really possess the seven limbs of Samputa is to have advanced the Seven Jewels which are the Path into those perfections, which is the rank of Vajradhara or Ekajati, nothing left to be gained except one more life to impress Bhu, Aparajita, and the Tathagatas with full Buddhahood.

shaberon

24th December 2020, 19:21

Maya--Avidya stems from highest form of existence, Mulaprakriti, whereas Vidya is revealed in the imaginary, non-existent manifestation.

Maya is Avidya or Maya + Avidya? This one I'm not sure I understand.

I have had now two nights of stopping breathing episodes. They all seemed to be using the stopping breath as a switch or a means to change something -- similar to the dissolve when my sense of self disappears and regroups. But I could not say I figured out what.

Avidya is in Prakriti or is like a default condition upon awakening into Maya, so I guess the hyphen is like a plus sign. One speaks of matter, and the other, consciousness associated with or linked to or resident in such matter.

Vidya is cultivated from the illusory forms projected by or from Prakriti, or from within the Maya itself, after the various twists and reflections through planes and down the Ganges so to speak. That is why we do not listen to or follow Devas, per se. They may have a long lifespan such as a whole day of Brahma, and it may even be blissful, but, this was just handed to them, it is the own-nature of how they are born, and they do not traverse other spheres or grow or develop. Vidya comes from the total compounding of all elements which is man.

Lakshmi refers to Yoga Maya which is on Devas, and Mahamaya which humans are under. My best guess is that Yoga Maya is "handled" by Rta, Jupiter, and Ganapati, as something like "natural harmony", but it is not really the path of teaching or wisdom for people. Mahamaya is the ongoing theme of illusion in the tantras, which is more related to Dharma and closer to "social order" and everything about a human being which makes them different from animals, rocks, etc. So Vidya as it comes to us is part of Mahamaya.

Samvarodaya interestingly calls non-duality Prajna--Upaya and says that Vijnana and Jnana arise between them. That is pretty much the same pattern of Female--Male with mind or consciousness spilling forth due to activity, having the capability to turn itself into Gnosis or Vidya and dwell in the presence of its parents. The introduction is about seventy pages and runs the gamut on this and, what appears to be the motto, dakinijalasamvara. The Samvarodaya is heavily relied upon in Nepal, and has not traveled much. That looks to be a good edition. It is exciting to me that we could re-do the tantric flowchart and link in the originals:

Samvarodaya Tantra (http://abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Vajrayogini/Samvarodaya-tantra.pdf) pdf of 1973 book

Samputa Tantra (https://read.84000.co/translation/toh381.html) 2017 write-up

Like Sarvadurgati, Namasangiti, and the others, they are of limited use, without digging into the commentaries and corresponding Sutras and philosophies. Then they are alchemical ovens.

Old Student

25th December 2020, 06:30

Chakrasamvara, Raudra Samvara (Tibetan: dem chog drag po): 1000 hands, multi-legged and multi-faced, embracing Vajravarahi and typically appearing in a 62 deity mandala. Lineage: Heruka Shri, Vajrayogini, Kantapa, Tailopa, Naropa, Chatapa, Sonam Jungne, Jigme Jungne, Dashapala, Drenpa'i Pal, Shri Gupta, Lodro Jungne, Karmin Trin, Jnana Mitra, Taranata, etc.

This is interesting. I wasn't aware that there were 1000 armed Chakrasamvaras. Vajravarahi is shown with three eyes. It could be just so they could accomplish having one eye look at the world and one at heaven, but I haven't seen that before, either.

In Paramadya Tantra, Jewel and Karma Families are not distinguished, and, the mandala shows the set of four sub-courts which are carried forward with Karma Family doing the same thing in Dakini Jala. So, at this point, they are trying to show something like the Four Activities arise in a "Jewel--Karma" Family, which would then apparently resolve into distinct entities at the Yoga level. Although this is a Vajrasattva tantra, he does not seem to be counted as a family. He is, perhaps, being "activated" as one along with these other new or hypostasized families.

Paramadya meaning something like past the middle or the middlemost? Is this four rather than five because the tantra was written earlier, or is the evolution you are talking about in terms of a progression?

Also, the long introduction becomes a study on how Samvarodaya portrays "dakinijalasamvara" as "the" subject of Sahaja, is the same as Samvarodaya or the type of sahaja extracted from Abhidhana tantra. And so then it shows that dakinijalasamvara, one word, is like a key-word or pass-phrase for the whole Ganacakra tradition.

So bliss is the subject of the tantra on the emergence of Chakrasamvara? This is consistent with his depiction subsequently, and with some interpretations of the word 'samvara'.

When I was experimenting, before discovering shaking, this is a visualization I did, that of Chakrasamvara and consort Vajrayogini, following instructions in Lama Yeshe's book. That was a twelve arm form.

Old Student

25th December 2020, 06:45

Vidya is cultivated from the illusory forms projected by or from Prakriti, or from within the Maya itself, after the various twists and reflections through planes and down the Ganges so to speak. That is why we do not listen to or follow Devas, per se. They may have a long lifespan such as a whole day of Brahma, and it may even be blissful, but, this was just handed to them, it is the own-nature of how they are born, and they do not traverse other spheres or grow or develop. Vidya comes from the total compounding of all elements which is man.

This total compounding is potentially nearly infinite.

Samvarodaya interestingly calls non-duality Prajna--Upaya and says that Vijnana and Jnana arise between them. That is pretty much the same pattern of Female--Male with mind or consciousness spilling forth due to activity, having the capability to turn itself into Gnosis or Vidya and dwell in the presence of its parents. The introduction is about seventy pages and runs the gamut on this and, what appears to be the motto, dakinijalasamvara. The Samvarodaya is heavily relied upon in Nepal, and has not traveled much. That looks to be a good edition. It is exciting to me that we could re-do the tantric flowchart and link in the originals:

Samvarodaya Tantra pdf of 1973 book

Samputa Tantra 2017 write-up

Thank you for these links.

As per infinite, I have been having an interesting set of shakings. I had told you about the sort of tour of infinites. There were some specific prescriptions about my kriyas and so forth, which I took to mean I should 'roll out' and wait in those positions as a starting point for shaking. That certainly seemed to be what to do. I tried this for quite a while, things got more and more disorganized and empty.

I decided I was 'ritualizing' too much and should be listening more and abandoned the kriya thinking that perhaps what was meant was that I should learn how to listen my way into the kriya. The first result was a completely hollowed and disorganized empty shaking, which i realized I had actually spent looking at myself from the inside as a hollowed carcass.

I decided that at root was bliss, there was not something else for which it could be sacrificed, and also doubled down on my standing to regain the state of quiet from which my clear body originally came. Last night, I learned that indeed there was a shaking way into the kriya, it was not supposed to be done 'voluntarily'. A very long shaking later the blank that I was experiencing was populated with spheres at my chakras and became infinite but without any form whatsoever, just shining. I was told (and it was proven subsequently) that all the other stuff was still going on, but it was experience and this was action, and that I was not good enough -- i.e. not ready -- to experience them simultaneously. I was given some pointers about doubling down on my standing.

I spent the better part of a physical hour in that space with the shining and the spheres.

shaberon

25th December 2020, 07:38

Allright. Just a couple more things and then the instructions.

On the Panjara-related tantras, we do not really have Paramadya, except for Alex Wayman's extraction. He was important not just because he started publishing around 1961, but, for example here, he asked relevant practice-related questions in order to dig up the inner meaning. This is quite a bit different than the questions posed to the original western converts to Buddhism; back then, people wanted proofs of magical abilities and to ask about things like Planetary Chains, the kinds of things that are just a bit dazzling and grandiose compared to the Path in its own terms.

We do not have Vajramrita Tantra, aside from some pieces I reverse-engineered from Wisdom Library, plus the presence of some of its deities or sadhanas in the Tibetan Deities book based on IWS.

We do have Lotsawa Vairocana's Khasama or Equal to the End of Sky (http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/vairotsana_vajrasattva-tantra.pdf) Vajrasattva tantra. According to HPB, he was the most important and accurate Lotsawa; without trying to evaluate that, we will just say Khasama is a valuable reference.

The Panjara classification has overlooked "Death" tantras such as Vajrabhairava or Sarvadurgati, although we will see in a moment such things are requisite. I, personally, cannot say why Manjushri as Vajrabhairava, Yamantaka, and Yamari, would have a considerable variety of things that appear to contend with Death. However, we can see that Parnasabari is relevant to Krsna Yamari, and that Janguli has her only retinue there. According to a recent paper (https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/11/3/124/htm) asking about sexual innuendo and sub-standard Sanskrit, Krsna Yamari works like this:

These Apabhraṃśa verses appear in the root verses of the Kṛṣṇayamāri Tantra, the anuyoga verses in the seventeenth chapter and the mahāyoga verses in the twelfth chapter. Chapter seventeen begins with the Buddha visualizing different Buddha-forms (buddhabimbaṃ), and then the text declares that the practitioner becomes the cakra-bearer by the practice of the four [Vajra] songs (associated with the four yoginīs). On the other hand, chapter twelve begins with the Buddha entering into different meditative concentrations (samādhi), each associated with one of the text’s four yoginīs (Vajracarcikā, Vajravārāhī, Vajrasarasvatī, and Vajragaurī), and thereupon recites each yoginī’s specific verse. However, the actual contextualization of these verses within detailed sādhanā instructions does not appear in the root verses. Instead, they are provided in the commentary composed by Kumāracandra.

Anuyoga is the second phase of the four-fold yoga, defined in the root verses as the “arising of the stream of Vajrasattva” (after the generation of Vajrasattva in the first phase, “yoga”). Anuyoga begins with summoning and worshipping the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and afterwards one visualizes the maṇḍala and numerous Sanskrit syllables stationed throughout. After dissolving the maṇḍala, one sees Vajrasattva, after which the four yoginīs appear. An important note here is that each of these yoginīs (Vajracarcikā, Vajravārāhī, Vajrasarasvatī, and Vajragaurī) are associated with long-standing Buddhist meditative states: loving kindness (maitrī), compassion (karuṇā), empathetic joy (muditā), and equanimity (upekṣā). These yoginīs then sing the verses sung by the Buddha at the beginning of chapter seventeen.

uṭṭha bharāḍaü karuṇākoha |
tihuaṇa saalaha pheḍahi moha ||

(Vajracarcikā)

Arise, O Bhagavan, whose feigned wrath is compassion.
Cut the delusion of the material world!

e caumāra parājia rāula |
uṭṭha bharāḍā citteṃ vaüla ||

(Vajravārāhī)

You’ve overcome the four Māras, O Royal One.
Arise O Bhagavān, [my] mind is stricken.

loaṇimanti acchasi suṇṇe |
uṭṭha bharāḍā loaha puṇṇe ||

(Vajrasarasvatī)

Summon forth the world, you who dwells in emptiness.
Arise O Bhagavan, by the merit of the world!

kaï tu acchasi sunaho viṃtti |
bodhisahāva loaṇimaṃti ||

(Vajragaurī)

Why do you dwell in emptiness?
O Nature of Enlightenment, summon forth the world!

Immediately following these verses, the practitioner visualizes more syllables and the sādhanā culminates in one becoming the Buddha Dveṣayamāri. The next phase of the four-fold yoga is “atiyoga,” after which the practitioner enters the final phase of the four-fold yoga, “mahāyoga.” While the verses in anuyoga display the same conventions observed in the previous texts, the sādhanā of mahāyoga significantly subverts them. Mahāyoga is defined as the “entrance to the gnosis-cakra (jñāna-cakra), tasting its nectar, as well as the Great Worship and Praise.” In this sādhanā the practitioner beseeches the Buddhas for consecration, visualizes the assembly of Yamāris and yoginīs with their tutelary Buddhas, and engages in more subtle yoga within the visualized maṇḍala. Thereupon, the practitioner takes on the face or form (Skt. mukhena) of the maṇḍala’s four yoginīs in turn, and worships the maṇḍala with the songs uttered by the Buddha in chapter twelve of the root text:

aḍeḍe kiṭṭayamāri guru raktalūva sahāva |
haḍe tua pekhia bhīmi guru chaḍḍahi koha sahāva ||

(Vajracarcikā)

A ḍe ḍe Black Yamāri Guru, you are wrathful in form and nature.
Seeing you I grow frightened, O Guru, abandon this wrathful nature.

païṇaccaṃte kaṃvi aï saggamaccapāālu |
kiṭṭa bhinnāñjaṇa kohamaṇu ṇaccahi tuhu ve ālu ||

(Vajravārāhī)

You dance and upend everything in heaven, on earth, and in the underworld.
Dark like black eyeliner, you dance like a Vetāla, O Fierce One.

kālākhavva pamāṇahā bahuviha ṇimmasi rua |
vajjasarāssaï viṇṇamami ṇaccahi tuha mahāsuharua ||

(Vajrasarasvatī)

You are black, short in stature, and take on various forms,
You dance and you are of the nature of great bliss, I, Vajrasarasvatī supplicate you.

hrīḥ ṣṭrīḥ manteṇa pheḍahi kehu tihuaṇa bhānti |
karuṇākoha bharāḍaü taha kuru jagu pekkhanti ||

(Vajragaurī)

With the mantra hrīḥ ṣṭrī, cut the delusion of the three realms!
Therefore, O Great Lord, Whose Wrath is Compassion, do [your duties!], [for] the world looks on.

In the root verses of chapter twelve, the Buddha recites these verses after entering the respective samādhis of the four yoginīs (i.e., the four brahmāvihāras), and in this sadhana, the practitioner does as well. Thus, the long-standing Buddhist brahmavihāras are imagined as yoginīs in a tantric context. Afterwards, the practitioner prostrates before each of the maṇḍala’s Yamāris and the ritual is complete.

Makes sense to me, although the spelling and/or grammar make it nearly illegible. And again, it says the instructions are mostly in the commentary.

So the things Panjara is talking about, are definitely above and beyond introductory beginner material or i. e., all the lower or outer tantras. But before we skip the intro, we should see what Wayman says about the progress through the levels of tantra in Introduction to the Buddhist Tantric Systems (https://archive.org/stream/IntroductionToTheBuddhistTantricSystemsAlexWaymanMlbd_201806/Introduction-to-the-Buddhist-Tantric-Systems%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Alex%20Wayman%20Mlbd------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_djvu.txt), which is a horribly messy copy, cleaned up here a bit:

In the three lower Tantras (i.e., Kriya, Carya, and Yoga) there are neither the aims (artha) nor the terms (yyavahara) of the Steps of Production {utpatti-krama) and the Steps of Completion ( nispanna-krama ). If one proceeds according to the characteristics of the Steps of Production, it is not sufficient to limit oneself to an intense contemplation (bhavana ) in immediacy conforming to the five perfections of the resultative complete Buddha, for it is also necessary to have the yoga of intense contemplation conforming to the three spheres of purification, namely, birth, death, and the intermediate state.

[so it does say that death yoga is part of Generation Stage]

For the complete characteristics of the Steps of Completion, it does
not suffice to have merely the intense contemplation of voidness ( sunyata )
of the natural state of things ( dharma ) and the intense con¬
templation of the yoga of the winds ( vayu ), but it is also necessary to
have three special things, as the case may be: (1) the knowledge of bliss-
void ( sukha-sunya ) which occurs from making the wind(s) enter, stay,
and rise for leaving in the central vein ( avadhuti ); (2) the divine body
which occurs from that [knowledge]; and (3) the yoga of piercing the
vital centers in the uncommon ‘means’ body (upaya-deha) attracted by
those two (i.e. the knowledge and the divine body). In the three lower
Tantras, there is the intense contemplation of the voidness of the natural
state and there is the intense contemplation of the yoga of the winds;
but as the others (i.e. the three special things) are lacking, there is no
intense contemplation of the Steps of Completion.

...in each of the three lower Tantras, there are both the yogas
called “with signs” ( sanimitta-yoga ) and “without signs” (animitta-yoga).

The book does describe the progress of outer yoga up to pranayama, which is what we are focusing on. It reviews the full Completion Stage, and then compares the outer methods, keeping in mind the chief of Charya tantra is Vairocana Abhisambodhi:

The equivalent to that [Calming or Shamatha] in the Kriya-Carya is the accomplishment [of those
complete characteristics] when contemplating the six gods and when
reaching the limit of the meditations of dwelling in the flame and dwelling
in the sound.

If, through one’s own power of contemplation in the meditation of
dwelling in the sound, one is able to attract in actuality the physical and
mental cathartic (kaya-prasrabdhi and citta-prasrabdhi), one accomplishes
the complete characteristics of Calming.

[That is the result and now we will go back to the procedure.]

In the Kriya-Carya one contemplates the body as the Great Seal ( maha -
mudra ), speech as Incantation ( dharanl ), and mind as Reality ( tattva ).

Body as the Great Seal: This is the contemplation of the six gods.

[that is not Six Families, but rather more like increments, described below]

Speech as Incantation : This is the meditative object in the sounds of
the syllables of the Incantation, and the meditative object in the form
of the syllables, in the phase of meditation attended with muttering.
However, the main part is the meditative object in the sounds of the
Incantation in the phases of meditation of dwelling in the flame and
meditation of dwelling in the sound.

Mind as Reality : This is [the three things, viz.] the meditative object
in the Reality of the mind, the yoga without signs, and the limit of the
meditation of dwelling in the sound. Because it constitutes the contem¬
plation of voidness which is the basis of the affiliation with the Dharma-
kaya at a subsequent time, it grants the freedom of the Dharmakaya,
and thus is the meditation which grants freedom at the limit of the
sound. That being so, those three are identical.

The Dhyanottara is a portion of the great Tantra of the Kriya Tantra
called the Vajrosnisa-tantra. It is also regarded as a kind of Continuation
of that Tantra. It deals with ten kinds of subject matter: 1. The char¬
acteristics of the place where one practises; 2. The Self Reality; 3. The
Reality of the vidya-dharani ; 4. The Reality of the God; 5. The medita¬
tion of dwelling in the fire; 6. The meditation of dwelling in the sound;
7. The meditation which grants liberation at the limit of the sound; 8.
The rite of engaging in the practice of the vidya-dharani 9. The rite of
the burnt offering; 10. The initiation rite. Of these, the three headed
by “The Self Reality” show the four members of recitation that are of
great importance in both the Kriya and Carya Tantras. The three kinds
of meditation, starting with “dwelling in the fire”, are the main part
(maula ) of the action of the Kriya and Carya Tantras. The rite of en¬
gaging in the practice of the vidya-dharani shows how to perform the
service ( seva ) which precedes [that main part] and how to perform that
which concludes [it].

[These are large stages, any sub-section a, b, etc., is approximately "months" doing the thing.]

The main part of the four members of muttering (Ground, Objective and Subjective;
Immersion in Mind; Immersion in Sound):

Here there are two parts : the service to be done through contemplation
of Self Generation; and the method of presenting offerings through the
contemplation of Generation in Front. [Self = Subjective Ground, and Front = Objective Ground]

a. Generation of Self into Deity [here at most we do Divine Pride of Vajrasattva, or possibly start a connection to Tara, etc., reason being a deity is allowed to put its lotus throne on top of your head]

The first god

The Self Reality ( *atma-tattva ) is the contemplation (bhavana) that (1) is
free from such concepts as singleness and multiplicity by recourse to
the reasoned formulations of the Madhyamika; and (2) which decides
that one’s own mind is void because accomplished by intrinsic nature.
-After that, the God Reality (*devata-tattva) is the contemplation of the
reality of the god to be contemplated and the Self Reality as inseparable
and as devoid of intrinsic nature. The two realities constitute the Reality
God ( *tattva-devata ) among the six gods. They are equivalent to the
contemplation of voidness in the higher Tantra divisions that attends
the muttering of such expressions as svabhava and sunyata.

(* svabhava ’ and * sunyata the author presumably refers to the
two dharanis : Om svabhavasuddhah sarvadharmah svabhavasuddho ’ham and Om
sunyatajnanavajrasvabhavatmako 'ham)

[So the first, Shuddha or Purity mantra, concerns Atma Tattva or Self Reality, concept-free by becoming centered in Catuskoti, the second, Sunyata or Emptiness Mantra, concerns the inseparable Devata Tattva or God Reality, or Ishvar Reality. Together, they are the Tattva Devata or Ishvar]

The second god

Then one imagines that the god to be contemplated (i.e. created medi¬
tatively) out of the sphere of the Void is that very god in essence, and
that his aspect (akara) is the intonation of the sounds of the dharani to
be muttered. That [aspect] as the mind’s sole meditative object ( alam -
bana) is the Sound God (*sabda-devata).

The third god

Then one imagines that his own mind ( citta ) transforms itself in the sky
into a moon disk ( candra-mandala ) upon which the god to be contem¬
plated is that very god in essence. The contemplation of its aspect as
the aspect of the letters, the color of liquid gold, of the dharani to be
muttered, is the Letter God ( *aksara-devata)

For those Sound and Letter Gods, it is satisfactory to use either the
long ( dirgha ), the essence (hrdaya), or the near-essence ( upahrdaya )
dharani.

The fourth god

Then one imagines that from those letters emanate innumerable rays
of light, from the ends of which issue innumerable aspects of the body
of that god to be intensely contemplated. They purify all sentient beings
from their sins, obscurations, and sufferings, and they give joy to all the
Buddhas and their sons [i.e. Bodhisattvas] by making offerings to them.
Then the rays, together with the gods, are withdrawn, absorbed by the
letters; and the moon, together with the letters, transforms itself into
the perfected body of the god to be contemplated. This as the meditative
object is the Form God (*rupa-devata).

At the time of doing service through contemplation of Self Generation,
one need only contemplate the Lord ( *prabhu ) but not his retinue ( pari -
vara ), palace ( vimana ), etc.

The fifth god

Then, if one knows [them] he touches whh the various dharanis and seals
(mudra): 1 . the crown of the head, 2. the space between the eyebrows
( urna-kosa ), 3. the eyes, 4. the shoulders, 5. the neck, 6. the heart,
and 7. the navel. If one does not know [them] to that extent, he touches
those places with a single dhararni and seal of that particular Family
among the three Families. And having been [thus] blessed (adhisjhita),
they are the Seal God (*mudra-devata).

That is equivalent to the blessing of the sense bases (ayatana) in the
higher Tantra divisions.

The sixth god

Then, while the aspect of the god is bright, one fortifies the ego ( aham -
kara or garva). That [aspect] taken as the mind’s sole meditative object
is the Sign God ( *nimitta-devata ).

Those [gods] are equivalent to the generation by means of the five
Abhisambodhis in the higher Tantras.

The Anuttara pranayama means the abolition
of the coursing into the right and left channels; the present pranayama [i.e. of the
Kriya Tantra] means the abolition of the coming and going of the wind (vayu) riding
on discursive thought (vikalpa ), as well as the inner containment [of the wind].

Vairocana tantra and Buddhaguhya say: prana is the vital air (vayu) passing through the
doors of the sense organs ( indriya ); ayama is the dispersal into other
sensory domains ( visaya ) of the mental elements (*tarka). Binding or
abolishing the prana-ayama means preventing the vital air and the mental
elements from escaping outside, and containing them inside.

It is contemplated on the occasion of service ( seva ) in the Kriya and Carya
Tantras, either after completing contemplation of the six gods, or after
accomplishing Generation in Front, as the case may be.

Controlling the vital centers of the body, one draws the upper vital air (urdhva-vayu) inside
to the navel, pressing it down; and draws the lower vital air (adhas-vayu)
up to the navel, holding it there. The mind is fixed solely upon the god.
Thereupon, when one is no longer able to retain the vital air, it is emitted,
and while one is relaxing, the mind is fixed solely upon the god. Then
he again holds the vital air within and contemplates in the same manner.

Generation of Deity in Front

There are six things, offering and so on, to be done while accomplishing
the Generation in Front: generation of the residence; invitation to the
gods to be residents and offering of seats; exhibition of the seals; offering
and praising; confession of sins; contemplation of the four boundless
states. compassion ( karuna ), friendship {maitri), sympa¬
thetic joy ( mudita ), and indifference ( upeksa ).

[this is for Ocean of Milk and Mt. Meru, similar to Peaceful Offering Bodhisattvas, lengthy details omitted for brevity]

If we have not learned all the parts about multiple deities and how to make a Meru, if we just call for a solo deity, the rest of it is similar to any sadhana:

A'. Confession of sins (papa-desana).

B'. Refuge formula (sarana-gamana).

C'. Sympathetic delight ( anumodana ) [with the merit (punya) and
knowledge (jhana ) amassed by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas].

D'. Exhortation and entreaty [to the Buddha to turn the Wheel of the
Law and to not depart into Nirvana as long as there be candidates].

E'. Fervent aspiration ( pranidhana ) [to alleviate the sufferings of
humanity].

VT. Contemplation of the four boundless states (caturapramana-bhavana)
and Generation of the Mind (cittotpada)

Those two [i.e., the Generation of Self and the Generation in Front]
constitute members of muttering ( japa-anga ). For the genuine muttering
one must complete the four members of muttering (Ground, Objective and Subjective;
Immersion in Mind; Immersion in Sound). Consequently, the
Dhyanottara says, “Immerse yourself in the sound, the mind, and the
ground.”

The “ ground ” member : The “ground” (T. gzi , S. *vastu ) is the body
of the god in whose heart the dharani wheel is deposited. Of the two
kinds, the “subjective ground” (bdag gi gzi) is the contemplation of
oneself transfigured into a god; and the “objective ground” {gzan gyi
gzi) is the contemplation of the god generated in front.

The member of immersion in mind (*citta-nimna): This has the vivid
meditative object ( alambana ) consisting in one’s mind (citta) in the shape
of a moon -mandala in the heart of the deity generated in front.

The member of immersion in sound (*svara-nimna): This has the vivid
meditative object consisting in the letters of the dhararnl to be recited,
located upon that [moon -mandala].

[Sound as a noun is Sabda. Here as the object of a preposition it is svara.]

Muttering while dwelling on the shape of the syllables

There are two kinds: muttering while dwelling on the shape of the
syllables in the heart of the deity generated in front; muttering while
dwelling on the shape of the syllables in one’s heart.

The first kind : One binds the prana-ayama as previously described
and mutters by way of the complete four members of muttering while
simultaneously dwelling on the body of the deity generated in front and
on the three syllables which are on the moon seat in the heart [of the
deity’s body]. When exhaling, one should not mutter dharanis , but hold
the mind fixed on one’s own body contemplated as the deity. Then,
again holding the breath, one should mutter as before.

The second kind : The garland of dharanis is at a modest distance in
front of himself, slightly higher than himself, upon the moon in the
heart of the deity generated in front. While inhaling, he attracts that
[moon and garland] into himself and transfers it into his own heart.
He dwells on it while muttering, as long as he does not release his breath;
but when he exhales the wind, he is to imagine that the moon, along
with the garland of dharanis , is emitted together with the wind and then
is stationed in the heart of the god in front. Again in the same manner
as before he transfers it into his own heart.

Muttering while dwelling on the sound of the syllables

First one distinctly recalls the four members of muttering. Then,
without dwelling on the shape of the syllables of the dharani, the moon,
or the body of the god, one dwells on the tone of the sounds of the
dharani while he recites. Moreover, it is not as though the dharani were
being uttered by another person and being heard by oneself, but rather
one dwells on the tone of the sounds of that dharani at the time oneself
is reciting it.

This rite of dwelling on the tone of the dharani involves both mental
recitation and whispered recitation. The commentary (Toh. 2670) [on
the Dhyanottara ] states that one cannot employ whispered recitation
while restraining the prana-ayama. [the work] explains the sequence
in outline this way: first one performs the whispered recitation; when,
during that [recitation], the mind is not distracted, then one restrains
the prana-ayama, performing the mental recitation.

According to the commentary, in the first case (T, the first kind),
there are three meditative objects: the god, the moon, and the dharani -
garland; in the second case (T, the second kind), there are two medita¬
tive objects: the moon and the dharani-garland; in the third case (IT),
there is only one meditative object: the sound [of the dharani]. A single
person must proceed by these three steps.

One must complete the muttering with recitation ;

Then permanently protect it by doing

The muttering twenty-one times

To the Mother and Master of the Family.

The Mothers of the three Families are Locana, Pandara, and Mamakl.

(c) Terminating acts to the four members of muttering

The way in which one concludes the four members of muttering is to
offer his roots of merit (kusala-mula) as a cause ( hetu ) for siddhi to the
deity by means of the seal of the flask (kalasa-mudra ).

One releases in reverse order to the se¬
quence in which the six gods were contemplated.

The meditative object in the sound of the dhararii being recited is
released by dwelling on the letters of the dharani ; those, in turn, by
dwelling on only the moon. The moon is released by dwelling on just
the body of the deity; that body in front, by thinking only of one’s own
divine body.

That divine body of Self Generation is released by thinking only of
the syllables in its heart; that, in turn, by dwelling on the sound; the
sound, in turn, by dwelling on the Knowledge Body of the god; that, in
turn, by dwelling on the Dharma-kaya. In turn, unsupported by that,
one should dwell on the Self Reality (*atma-tattva). That, in turn, is
released by thinking of the Maturation Body ( vipaka-kaya ) which ap¬
pears as an illusion, mirage, and so forth.

Having summarized by steps those meditative objects, finally he is
equipoised in voidness ( sunyata ). Thereupon, because he emerges in
the fashion of an illusion, even at the time of giving up the watch, he
should not release his hold on divine egoity. This procedure is equiv¬
alent to the unification in the phase of the Anuttara.

MEDITATION WITHOUT MUTTERING

This has three sections, namely, exposition of the meditation ( dhyana )
of dwelling in the flame, exposition of the meditation of dwelling in
the sound, and exposition of the meditation granting freedom at the
limit of the sound.

a) Meditation of dwelling in the flame

What type of person has this contemplation? The one who has come
to the limit of the contemplation of the six gods has this contemplation.
What is the method of contemplation? One contemplates himself as
the deity; in his heart he contemplates a tongue of flame, like a bright
and blazing butter lamp, and in it he discerns the Self Reality ; and he
contemplates the aspect of his mind’s reality as the tone of the sound of
whatever dharani is to be uttered.

The standard for having come to the limit is as follows: When one
does not feel the pangs of hunger and thirst, although not partaking
of external food or drink, and when one depends on internal warmth
and beatitude, the samadhi is produced.

(b) Meditation of dwelling in the sound

One contemplates himself as the deity; in his heart, inside the moon-
mandala, he contemplates a tiny body of the deity, similar to himself.
In its heart, he imagines [a flame] like that of a burning butter lamp,
and within [the flame], he contemplates the tone of the sounds of the
dharani. This is not the same as the dwelling on the sounds of the syl¬
lables in the phase attended with muttering. In that case, it was a dwelling
on the sounds recited by oneself, whether the recitation be whispered
or mental. In the present case, there is no recitation by oneself: one
dwells on the tone of the sounds of the dharani within the flame, heard
as a bystander. The situation in the phase of dwelling in the flame is
also like the present case.

And again the present case, one contemplates its aspect as the tone of
the sounds of the dharani and its essence as the essence of one’s own mind.

In the present case, one vividly imagines the body of the god, and
so on, in sequence. Thereupon, one hold the mind solely on the sound,
paying no attention to other objects, such as the body of the god. On
the other hand, at the time of dwelling in the flame, one holds the mind
on both fire and sound.

The standard for having come to the limit is as follows: For example,
when one goes to the limit of the contemplation of a god, the bodies,
colors, hand symbols, and so on, of the chief god and of all his retinue
become simultaneously more clearly visible than ever when seen without
loss of definition before the [ordinary] eye. Likewise in the present case,
when one reaches the limit, the sounds of the syllables of the dharani do
not appear one after another, but arise in the mind simultaneously, more
clearly and distinctly than when heard by the ear as audible sound.

All those [i.e., (1) Meditation with muttering, and (a) and (b) of (2)
Meditation without muttering] are yoga with signs ( sanimitta-yoga ).

(c) Meditation granting freedom at the limit of the sound

Buddhaguhya (Toh. 2670), Thu, 26b-7, describes the meditation this way: “The
expression ‘granting freedom at the limit of the sound’ should be considered. The
previously mentioned ‘limit of the sound’ is silence ( *nihsahda ); when one dwells
solely on the sound of the mantra and then releases it, there is the limit of the sound.
The meditation is the mindfulness that the mantra at the limit of the sound has granted
the freedom abiding in the intrinsic nature of the Dharmakaya”

In general, the samadhi in which Calming (samatha) and Higher Vision
(vipasyana ) are combined together ( yuganaddha) is the backbone, so to
say, of the path of both the Paramita-yana and Mantra-yana. Of those,
in the Paramita-yana, having first developed Calming and having at¬
tained in full measure its characteristics, one develops, on the basis of
that, Higher Vision. Having attained in full measure the characteristics
of the latter, one proceeds to Calming and Higher Vision combined
together. However, in none of the four Tantra divisions is the method
of accomplishing explained in terms of Calming, nor is that necessary,
because by the contemplation itself of the yoga of the deity, one develops
the complete characteristics of Calming.

Thus, in the two higher Tantras fi.e., the Yoga and Anuttara] one
accomplishes the complete characteristics of Calming when reaching
the limit of the two yogas of the deity, the rough and the fine. The
equivalent to that in the Kriya-Carya is the accomplishment [of those
complete characteristics] when contemplating the six gods and when
reaching the limit of the meditations of dwelling in the flame and dwelling
in the sound.

Even when one reaches the limit of the meditations with signs he is
still without the basic antidote that eradicates the root of the ‘cycle of
transmigration’ (samsara). For eradicating the root of samsara, one
must have the yoga without signs (animitta-yoga). In the latter contem¬
plation, one does not contemplate any conventional aspect, such as the
body of a god, but contemplates according to the precepts through
becoming skilled in the analyzing contemplation and the
stoppage contemplation of voidness. If, through one’s own
power of contemplation in that manner, one is able to attract in actuality
the physical and mental cathartic, one accomplishes the complete char¬
acteristics of Higher Vision.

Although "without images" is a subtle, refined state, according to Vairocana Abhisambodhi, it is not in isolation or at expense of "with images":

(1) PROCEDURE OF PRELIMINARY SERVICE AFTER
BEING COMMITTED TO THE PLEDGES

There are two phases: Yoga with images; Yoga without images. The
first of these is the yoga of the deity not governed by voidness; the
second, the yoga of the deity governed by voidness. However, one
should not contemplate only voidness, because one does not become a
Buddha by merely contemplating voidness: it is explained that one does
not accomplish both siddhis by means of the Yoga without images.
Moreover, if someone enacts the contemplation of voidness prior to
the contemplation of Yoga with images, with that alone he does not
pass into Yoga without images.

Vairocana's Yoga with images is much as the prior description with also:

From the sphere of the void, one generates as before [a deity] or the
Victor Sakyamuni from any of the four letters A, A, Am, Ah. This is
the ‘Subjective Ground’. It is taught that in the heart of that [deity] he
imagines an unblemished moon-disk like a mirror with two surfaces.
He fixes [his attention] on it, contemplating his own body until he sees
it as the body of the deity.

[Two-sided mirror is described further along]

(b) Yoga without images (animitta-yoga)

This is the habituation in the decisive knowledge that concludes through
higher cognition that all things (sarvadharmah) are void and not isolated,
as regards accomplishment by intrinsic nature.

The “signature” of that intense contemplation is the trans¬
figuration of the body of the deity on the manas-face as though
before the eyes, after reaching the limit of Yoga with images. And when
he contemplates in the manner by which that brightness appears only
on the buddhi- side without leaving it, and the body
of the deity appears to be like the illusion of a void accumulation, he
is able to attract the complete characteristics of higher vision {vipasy-
ana). In the present Buddhist nomenclature, the first side of the buddhi is called the manas face; the reverse side of
the buddhi , the buddhi-side. Hence, the limit of Yoga with images is still involved with
the first side of the “mirror” but with eidetic or “realistic” imagery. Thereafter, Yoga
without images is involved with the reverse, or inward-directed, side, on which one
cognizes things as arising dream-like or as void.

[So there is a small glimpse of Buddhi, which, with continuation, takes the whole person inside the mirror]

If we understand Kriya-Charya, what does it mean to enter Yoga?

Union {yoga, nal jor ) means union with the dharmadhatu, the interior objects of the mind {manas), according to Buddhist
Abhidharma theory; the ‘source of natures’ ( dharmodaya ) and the Absolute ‘Object’
(paramartha ) in Buddhist Tantra by means of Knowledge {jnana).

The fundamental Yoga tantra is Tattvasamgraha or STTS. Yoga tantra is aimed at those who enjoy samadhi and would be motivated to do nispanna or Completion Stage.

The title Tattvasamgraha means “collection of categories”. According to Pad-
mavajra’s Tantrarthavataravyakhyana (Toh. 2502), which we cite in abbreviation as
Avatara-vyakh , there are thirty-seven categories (tattva), which we give in Sanskrit
reconstruction: (1) hrdaya, (2) mudra, (3) mantra, (4) vidya, (5) adhisthana, (6)
abhiseka, (7) samadhi, (8) puja, (9) atmatattva, (10) devatattva, (11) mandala,
(12) prajna, (13) upaya, (14) hetu, (15) phala, (16) yoga, (17) atiyoga, (18) maha-
yoga, (19) guhyayoga, (20) sarvayoga, (21)japa, (22)homa, (23) vrata, (24) siddhi,
(25) sadhana, (26) dhyana, (27) bodhicitta, (28) sunyata-jnana, (29) adarsa-jnana,
(30) samata-jnana, (31) pratyaveksana-jnana, (32) krtyanusthana-jnana, (33) vi-
suddhadharmadhatu-jnana, (34) akarsana, (35) pravesana, (36) bandhana, (37)
vasikara.

So the Kriya-Chara principles of Atmatattva (9) and Devattatattva (10) lead to Mandala (11), which then shows the Androgyne (Prajna--Upaya) and the Path. Bodhicitta is followed by Six Wisdoms and Four Activities. So to contemplate actual Yoga required an esoteric instruction for (9) and (10) which is really like the preliminary meditation. It is preparatory for the Yoga phase, a magic circle of Six Wisdoms intended to go to Completion.

This is its own "Thirty-seven points" which has *no* redundancy. It is therefor *not* the same as those Thirty-seven which constitute the Vajrasekhara Mandala and all the rest. Those are all basically similar. In Samputa, we find:

Four magical females are described in Samputa as Mother, Sister, Daughter, Kin. Or in the case of Eight Gauris, Brahmin Twice-born--Tathagata, Kshaitriya Royal--Vajra, Vaisya Cowherder--Karma, Sudra Servant--Mahavairocana, Dancer--Padma, Dyer--Karma, Outcaste--Vajra, Candalini--Jewel.

It uses a more formal Thirty-seven points as Four Stations of Mindfulness (four realizations of ignorance that require the next group), Four Elimination-exertions (longing, striving, examination, thought), Four Bases of Magical Power, Five Organs, Five Powers (belief, striving, mindfulness, samadhi, prajna, same as the organs), Seven Jewels of Enlightenment, Eightfold Noble Path. The home of the Bodhisattvas is the same as the true form of the organs and of the skandhas "in a distinguished way".

This tantra gives the title of Samayoga:

"He who is joined to all Buddhas has the vow of the net of dakinis."

So the samvara of dakinijalasamvara has the meaning of "vow", although this has a comprehensive meaning itself.

Dakini is diverse illusion, illusory women, and going in the sky. Pervasive of all things and states. The tantra starts by defining Samputa as Prajna-Upaya, and increases this to Great Bliss.

Whoever shines brightly and (praises) the Buddha here in Jambudvipa becomes the (evam) of pleasure in the middle of the pure triangle in the form of "e". When there is pleasure in the triangular mandala, it is called Vajra Arali (also bhaga of the lady and dharmodaya).

[I believe Vajra Arali may be the proper name of Panjara tantra 7., Extreme Amusement or Secret Enjoyment, and 8. Secret Charm or Great Ecstatic Charm is probably Mystic Kiss, which is the Four Chaturpitha Yoginis joined at the mouth]

At the filament in the middle of this [eight petals around the triangle], is known to be the Supreme Female Lord ["a"].

The dharmarali arises from the great place of various knots.

"E" is known as earth, karmamudra, and Locana, residing in nirmana chakra. "Vam" is known as water, dharmamudra, and Mamaki in the dharma chakra at the heart. "Ma" is fire, maha-mudra, and Pandara, in the sambhoga chakra in the throat. "Ya" has the nature of wind, maha-samaya mudra, and Tara, in the Maha Sukha chakra.

"E" is prajna and "vam" is means. These syllables are Evam Maya Srutam, Thus Have I Heard, which is a Thirty-seven Syllable mantra used with the same thirty-seven point pattern. These chakras are obviously in a different condition if earth = navel and so forth. This perhaps is intended as a type of protective preliminary to fire = navel. Importantly, in neither case is it trying to say something like "earth is this exact piece" and it is "located right here" because there is always intermixture. Earth and Locana do some weird things, there is definitely motion involved, the starting condition does not remain in stasis.

if one attracts the Knowledge Being (jnana-sattva) and draws it into any Anuttara mandala, and
the male deity moves correctly while the yogini remains immobile, one
has Father Tantra; if one attracts the Knowledge Being and draws it
into any [Anuttara] mandala , and the yoginls move correctly while the
male deities remain immobile, one has a Mother Tantra.

So the evolution through Kriya--Charya--Yoga is the ability to perform the instructions, which are already exhaustive. That is why we generally are unfit to just be given or just do any higher tantra or Completion Stage. What is meant by Yoga here is not a few postures and breathing exercises! It's pretty intense. But it will work with basic, outer Manjushris or Taras, and if that is what we have because things like Vajradhatu Mandala empowerments are not often seen in our culture, we can use those.

shaberon

25th December 2020, 08:46

Paramadya meaning something like past the middle or the middlemost? Is this four rather than five because the tantra was written earlier, or is the evolution you are talking about in terms of a progression?

Paramadya is usually called "Supreme Original".

It and STTS being among the early tantras do not show the Families as we know them.

Because I, personally, never learned it as being three or four of them, I would be unable to revert. For someone else who does not understand Amoghasiddhi or especially tantric Amoghasiddhi, it may be helpful to start with a more basic concept and progress through it. I think, when we study the stuff, we can usually see about how far we have "gotten it" and that is where we should focus our training.

Although it looks, in writing, like "literary development", the response from the Transcendental side is "no one to understand it", which is why there was no available Hevajra or Kalachakra during the lifetime of Buddha.

So bliss is the subject of the tantra on the emergence of Chakrasamvara? This is consistent with his depiction subsequently, and with some interpretations of the word 'samvara'.

The samvara sweeps through all of its interpretations from a vow, to an individual, to a Ganachakra. Excerpts:

"In its last chapter (33~30), the Samvarodaya refers to the
Sriherukabhidhana-tantra. It defines itself in the final remark of
the last chapter as the Sahajodaya-kalpa extracted from the
Sriherukabhidhana-mahatantraraja of 300,000 slokas. "

"This reconstructed text means that Sahajodaya-kalpa, Sarvayoginirahasya and Samvarodaya are equivalent..."

"1. The ultimate reality
2. The individual existence
3. The relation between the ultimate reality and the individul
existence.

This third point of view is nothing but utpatti-krama (the process
of origination) and utpanna-krama (the process of perfection)."

"(1) The cause (mentioned in) tantra is the body (pudgala) of
a practiser.
(2) The means (mentioned in) tantra is practice of utpattikrama and utpanna-krama.
(3) The result (mentioned in) tantras is apratisthitanirvana ,
Vajradhara and the body of yuganaddha."

"1. The ultimate reality.

a. Various aspects of the ultimate reality.

'It is of the nature of the four dhatus, (the five) skandhas and
likewise the six visayas'."

"The metaphysical aspect of "it", the ultimate reality, is
defined as jnana. Jnana in turn is defined as being caused through
the inseparable union of Heruka, the theistic aspect of "it", with
his female partner. This jnana is of the nature of the four dhatus, the five skandhas and
six visayas, that is, all the dharmas of the phenomenal world (3-7).
Its theistic side i. e. Nairatmya and Heruka corresponds to the
metaphysical side, i. e. tathata (sunyata) and upaya; the inseparable
union or interpenetration of these two elements, which is nothing
but jnana, is itself the mandala, the figurative expression of the
phenomenal world (3-9).
As its own essence is the joy innate in everybody, it is inherent
(sahaja) in every dharma."

"As is already discussed, the goal is nothing but the
ultimate reality, that is, jnana; it is the state of interpenetration
(yuganaddha) of Nairatmya and Heruka i. e. prajna and upaya; it
is the universal, great pleasure which is expected to be identical
with the joy innate in everybody. This goal or the state in which
this goal is realized may be mentioned especially by the words
dakinijalasamvara (13-40, 33-31. ct. 3-6, 26-10) and samvara (3-17,
18, 19)."

"In chapter 53 of the Abhidhanottara, we find the following
verse:

'The mandala is the highest truth; it is Sriheruka, the highest
jnana, The mandala is the lotus of bhaga; it is the happiness
(subha) originated from the body of Varahi."

"'Sriheruka is the supreme hero; he is the union of all the
pleasures (priya). The attainment (of his status) will be realized
by Soma-drink. It is the highest abode of eternity, dakinijalasamvara (which) has been extracted from the Khasama
(-tantra). sarvajnajnana is his essence.'"

[there was confusion whether Khasama was the same as Abhidhana]

"Sriherukasamayoga fulfils all the wanted benefits. It is
superior to the superior, dakinijalasamvara. It resides always
in the essence of everything, in the joy of the supreme secret.
The being who is composed of all the dakinis is Vajrasattva,
the highest pleasure. This is the self-originating Lord, the
hero, dakinijalasamvara. '

As can be seen the word dakinijalasamvara occurs twice in this
passage. The meaning with it is used at the end of the passage
has brought a two-fold explanation from bTson kha pa :

and dakini means heroes and their female partners; jala is their
assemblage. Samvara means (the state in which) all of them
are bound together as the essence of the one and only Heruka.
The context is: by the Lord who is in this state the tantra is
explained. '

Dakini is thirty-six veins and humours flowing in them. jala
means assemblage. The wisdom appeared from the bodhi-mind
(bodhicitta) which is aroused by the wind circulating in it is
samvara; samvara means the supreme pleasure.'"

"We conclude: the system of the Samvarodaya-tantra can be
supposed to reflect the system of the Samvara literature. Its
originality lies in the fact that it introduces the concept of
dakinijalasamvara, and in the fact that this concept is an effective
expression of a fundamental image of the world, an image which
conveys the original identity of the ultimate reality and the
individual existence."

Samvarodaya and dakinijalasamvara are equal to "Source of Sahaja", and the author has only gotten one version of what this is, and sounds like he is talking about rising heat reaching the head or Mahasukha chakra. To someone who has never done it, rising heat may seem like Four Joys and then the melting of Bodhicitta must be Mahasukha. But, more comprehensively, we would call the melting the First Joy, and then it must descend into Nirmana Chakra, and this is Sahaja, not otherwise.

That is the proper fusion in "the Vessel" or Bharati, which makes Mercury, which then rises, and the next set of Four Joys are all Sahaja.

It also speaks of the chokma or "secret signs" and the delicacies of setting up a Ganachakra in a cemetery or somewhere unobtrusive, which was probably such a common understanding of dakinijalasamvara at the time that it needed no interpretation.

So the author has made a grand slam about dakinijalasamvara = Samvarodaya = Yogini Rahasya = extraction of Sahaja from previous Heruka or Vajrasattva material. I do not think he noticed anything about the telling presence of Vairocani, which would be the other thing that makes Samvarodaya unique. She is important because probably the main thing we are explaining is Inverted Stupa which, even here, is only "shown" and not "taught", even though this is the rite which uses Varuni to produce Vairocani, in whose body, you, Heruka, melt. So this is the most precisely relevant tantra to that whole process, which eventually produces Varahi.

By going through the steps, one gets the result; if one were to go around simply asking for Vairocani or Varahi, it may not go so well.

shaberon

25th December 2020, 09:36

I spent the better part of a physical hour in that space with the shining and the spheres.

That all sounded...tribulating.

I cannot even splash the color red onto Ganapati; I am pretty sensitive to a surreal light that can envelop the entire world, which I can get focused on the idol, but I cannot control it.

It seems to me the two unusual luminaries I saw in the moonlight last month were probably the optic nerves, looking similar to stars, only way too big. Maybe an arc welder. I keep getting quick glimpses of them in the middle of everything. Not exactly what I am looking for. Kind of in the way. Maybe they will "open", or perhaps I will just go blind, or, not really blind, just unable to see the physical world.

I have been wondering because I am not quite sure how you mean "kriya".

It does, in general, mean "action", and so in Buddhism, Kriya Tantra is the lowest kind because it mainly instructs in ritual behavior, which, as per the above post, does not in itself contain any of the inner yoga or explanation of Generation Stage. Can you take a Kriya deity and carry it through further stages, of course, in fact several of them were tossed out like breadcrumbs from their higher-level counterparts. But the practices at this level just tell you what to do. They are aimed at Brahmin converts so if they are really Tirthas then they will be "handcuffed" or stuck with this stuff without being given any of the juicy tidbits I savor.

In India, it otherwise has two main meanings:

Kriya Yoga (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriya_Yoga) according to Paramahamsa Yogananda is a type of Pranayama, is more or less the same as Laya Yoga (Zero).

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.1 defines three types of kriya (action):

The yoga of action (kriyayoga) is: asceticism (tapas), recitation (svadhyaya), and devotion (pranidhana) to Ishvara (the lord).

Kriya Shakti however is magic:

Kriyashakti is a Sanskrit word which means "using the power of thought to manifest things in the physical plane".

Well, we would have to say that "creative" deities must be doing this, the Prajapatis and the Manu and so forth; anyone would know that in the astral plane for instance, there is no barrier between thinking of a thing and it manifesting, but, as to how you shove this through the "blueprint" or astral double of the physical plane into a tangible, dense form, is...well, I have never gotten it to work.

That was, however, common among the Theosophical Mahatmas and chelas for a while, and even among European adepts such as Ooton Liatto producing rain indoors. One of the most famous "vindications" of HPB's antics was a letter delivered to her sister in Russia by a "messenger of Asiatic appearance" who "disappeared before our eyes". Morya forged $500 twice. The Mahachohan re-assembled a goat-shredded letter for Koothoomi. The precipitation of written letters was said to be related to an archaic word...bibliothon or something like that...referring to the impress of leaves onto stones. That is the only clue they gave.

As for the terribly frightening reasons as to why no one goes around materializing enough rice to feed the world, it has to do with karma and the limited use of such powers.

To say one "has" Kriya Shakti would mean one could do that, can dethrone and replace "the Creator".

That is why the Supreme Being of most religions is not really even recognized in Yoga, is just an ability.

Old Student

25th December 2020, 23:26

Paramadya is usually called "Supreme Original".
So split it Param adya = feminine version of Param adi supreme original instead of para supreme or very madya middle? Okay.

"The metaphysical aspect of "it", the ultimate reality, is
defined as jnana. Jnana in turn is defined as being caused through
the inseparable union of Heruka, the theistic aspect of "it", with
his female partner. This jnana is of the nature of the four dhatus, the five skandhas and
six visayas, that is, all the dharmas of the phenomenal world (3-7).
Its theistic side i. e. Nairatmya and Heruka corresponds to the
metaphysical side, i. e. tathata (sunyata) and upaya; the inseparable
union or interpenetration of these two elements, which is nothing
but jnana, is itself the mandala, the figurative expression of the
phenomenal world (3-9).
As its own essence is the joy innate in everybody, it is inherent
(sahaja) in every dharma."

The reason I had said bliss, is because Chakrasamvara is often rendered as "wheel of bliss", samvara means to bind, but refers to what you have labeled yuganaddha, conjoining. Lama Yeshe uses the Chakrasamvara visualization to teach Tummo, and the latter for him is from Je Tsongkapa and about generating four blisses.

What I had done, and this is documented here (https://www.thedaobums.com/topic/49293-learning-to-keep-breathing/?do=findComment&comment=887141), was to map out what I could research on Tummo, on Wind Cycle, on Microcosmic Orbit, and Kundalini experiences, and determine a way to experiment to try to get to the bottom of why I was having clear body experiences. I did every experiment that was a meditational/yogic/neidan/kundalini technique and involved a meditational posture in standing, I did some of the experiments with videos and tapes sitting in a computer chair. Among the Tummo techniques was Lama Yeshe's which both involves visualizing Vajrasattva and consort at the brow, and arising as Heruka and consort. He didn't detail this, so I tried various ways of doing this, and snorked down just about every description of 12 armed Heruka Chakrasamvara I could. I visualized it from each deity's point of view and finally from both at once.

I later found out one was supposed to be initiated to arise as a deity, I had already ended doing the visualization because I had found something that was more appropriate to understanding my clear body -- shaking.

Old Student

25th December 2020, 23:35

That all sounded...tribulating.
That particular experience was very blissful. The previous while was frustrating, I couldn't figure out why it was happening -- even though they have selectively 'blinded' me for various reasons before, it never occurs to me that that is what is going on.

In India, it otherwise has two main meanings:

Kriya Yoga according to Paramahamsa Yogananda is a type of Pranayama, is more or less the same as Laya Yoga (Zero).

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali 2.1 defines three types of kriya (action):

The yoga of action (kriyayoga) is: asceticism (tapas), recitation (svadhyaya), and devotion (pranidhana) to Ishvara (the lord).

Kriya Shakti however is magic:

Kriyashakti is a Sanskrit word which means "using the power of thought to manifest things in the physical plane".

There is another meaning for kriya which to some extent fits many or most of the above: It is involuntary postures -- asanas -- that have no history or classical name as a result of an experience (which may be generated by pranayama) similar to or involving kundalini - i.e. shakti awakening.

I was using it to denote such poses which are involuntarily entered but in my case have some prior history (sometimes they are new, however) and I recognize as being something in particular from prior shakings. Among other things, some of them are how the Dakinis identify, others are taught poses that they want me to use at certain times and can pretty much have me assume them at a metaphorical snap of the fingers. Some of them are completely spontaneous and one of a kinds, all of them have specific meaning and result from specific 'states'.

shaberon

26th December 2020, 20:04

So split it Param adya = feminine version of Param adi supreme original instead of para supreme or very madya middle? Okay.

Perhaps so, perhaps something else towards the androgyny of Vajrasattva. There is a distinct separate example of Param Adi Buddha being, I believe, what Kalachakra deity emerges from.

In looking at Khasama, I am not sure why it is a "tantra", it is actually in Tibetan archives, but not considered a part of Kanjur or Tanjur. It is a fairly concise excellent beginner look at Six Families. The querent is usually Sattvavajra, who would be an example of a Bodhisattva, which I think may be the same as Vajragarbha. He addresses Tathagata Vajrasattva, who refers to the Cuckoo and Samantabhadra as the gift-waves of the reality he expresses.

Interestingly it uses system of Nine and if is related to sadhanas, I would suggest it is to Picuva Marici, because the text does not use dakinis or anything like that, but, Marici is the speaker of the end of the first chapter, with a flock of subtly ornamented birds, Emanations of Light Rays, The goddess of mental pleasure. The text regularly threatens you with falling on a Vajra Needle.

It speaks of Nine Spaces, Nine Treasuries, Nine Realities, all the way through itself, with the major emphasis being on self-luminosity, which is Akanistha. It mentions svasamvedana or reflexive awareness.

Nine is the very subject:

The Tantra on the Nine Spaces that is Equal to the Sky,[29]

[29] Nam mkha’ mnyam pa klong dgu’i rgyud

It tells you to make your own commentary, which, we may have to, because it does not technically give them, but refers to them:

The nine spaces
Are the spaces of the root of the mind itself,
Yet they have no mind.

They sound like Spaces of the Winds, or perhaps the Nine Ways or Moods that Vajra Rosary says they convey through six chakras.

Nine Treasuries is mDzod dgu and then:

The nine jeweled spaces[33] are luminescent in our hearts.

[33] gLong

I would guess it is a spelling of Lung as in Longda (https://www.greattibettour.com/tibetan-culture/unveiling-the-mystery-of-longda) instead of Lungta.

Old Student

27th December 2020, 05:43

Perhaps so, perhaps something else towards the androgyny of Vajrasattva. There is a distinct separate example of Param Adi Buddha being, I believe, what Kalachakra deity emerges from.

Then that's definitely it, then.

Interestingly it uses system of Nine and if is related to sadhanas, I would suggest it is to Picuva Marici, because the text does not use dakinis or anything like that, but, Marici is the speaker of the end of the first chapter, with a flock of subtly ornamented birds, Emanations of Light Rays, The goddess of mental pleasure. The text regularly threatens you with falling on a Vajra Needle.

Falling on a Vajra Needle? Is this part of her 'sow the eyelids shut to ward off distractions' needle thing?

The nine spaces
Are the spaces of the root of the mind itself,
Yet they have no mind.

They sound like Spaces of the Winds, or perhaps the Nine Ways or Moods that Vajra Rosary says they convey through six chakras.

Nine Treasuries is mDzod dgu and then:

The nine jeweled spaces[33] are luminescent in our hearts.

[33] gLong

I would guess it is a spelling of Lung as in Longda instead of Lungta.

The "Longda" re-spelling would be (possibly automated) rewrite of Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration into Pinyin. Lung -> Long, ta -> da. At least for the travel agents you linked.

Question: The nine jeweled spaces highly resembles the pearl with nine passages in Chinese stuff. Of the two words in Sanskrit meaning "jewel" one, "mani" also means pearl directly. Do you think there is any relation between the two?

shaberon

27th December 2020, 09:17

Falling on a Vajra Needle? Is this part of her 'sow the eyelids shut to ward off distractions' needle thing?

No.

And firstly this is an English translation of a Tibetan text; there is no Sanskrit original known.

In the first chapter, the Dhyani Buddhas are addressed; Vajrasattva is proclaimed as a Tathagata, so, he is of a similar class as the ones evolved out of STTS whereby there become Five Dhyanis including Amoghasiddhi. So the Five are spoken to, and then Vajrasattva is the main speaker of most of the subjects.

It does not have the same tone as Marici sadhanas, certainly not Kriya ones.

After the Five are finished, the end of Chapter One with Marici's statement is:

Then the blessings of heroic compassion
Showed themselves in a body,
Using their five lights,
As a force of encouragement for people
At the end of the dominion of desire
Who have three names,
For there were three omens.
From atop the throne of a Dharma wheel,
Beneath a shining firmament of blazing jewels,
Vajra proclaimed the unspoken.
Princely people,
Having the resolve of awareness,
Understood what it means,
And that very moment
Was the instant of the ending of time for them.
So it was that the twenty thousand volumes
On the nine spaces[20]

[20] kLong dgu

Were disseminated in the abodes of the fortunate gods.
Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]

[21] ‘Od zer can

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
She was invested with empowerment
With the vase of royal investiture,
From seven fortunate children who were also emanations,
And met with the Bodhicitta without hindrance.
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.
Innumerable Victorious Ones have brought this together
From out of their perfect stores,
And proclaimed its teaching broadly.
There is nothing that is not included in the Nine Spaces.
The fortunate, those who know compassion,
Will understand this instantaneously.
Their bodies will fill the great expanse[22] of the vajra sky.

[22] Kyel po che

They will cut through the complications
Of there being a middle and extremes.
They will carry a wheel of wisdom lamps,
Without being given them.
Their luminescence is unspeakable.
Their inspiration equals the end of the sky.
They are primordially cleansed
From the complications made by definitions.
In the wheel of self-illuminating awareness
They are skilled in the methods
Of thought, speech, and practice.
In the wheel of the awareness of equanimity,
They lay things out with definitions and grammar.
From out of the wheel of self-occurring wisdom
Their fabulous compassion naturally arises.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva
Rises up from out of the wheel of self-occurring secrecy,
As do the teachings on the Nine Spaces,
And demonstrates how the self-occurring
Is clear by itself.
It explains things to itself.
It teaches itself.
It gathers itself,
And brilliantly comes together,
Dwelling as one with the uncontrived circle.[23]

[23] Thig le

The proclamations on awareness are clear by themselves,
And are beyond speaking.
This is well known as the Tantra on Effortless Perfection.[24]

[24] Bya bral rdzogs pa’i rgyud

I only know about enough Tibetan to say Ozercan = Marici and Thigle = Bindu.

I did see that Samvarodaya Heruka is also taught as expressing Nine Moods. Marici is here, and, "this" Vajrasattva is on its way to becoming "that" Heruka kind. The text has more of a Mahamudra flavor which begins to reject categories and philosophies and so forth, and so to me that has a lot to do with the attempt to convey this reality outside of the sadhana theater. The book does not exactly say do not do any practices, it is talking about an important engine needed to get them to work which is above and beyond words and ideas.

The threatening needle is for instance first aimed against outer practice without the driver:

If we do not hold to what is holy and victorious,
We might become learned in innumerable Tantras,
But we will die,
And when our hearts are not connected
We will surely fall onto the vajra needle.

Question: The nine jeweled spaces highly resembles the pearl with nine passages in Chinese stuff. Of the two words in Sanskrit meaning "jewel" one, "mani" also means pearl directly. Do you think there is any relation between the two?

The most specific way I can find Nine Spaces described so far is in the Heart, which suggests eight spokes and an axis, or the mystical way of counting Ten Winds.

Mani is a slippery word because, it might specifically mean pearl, which may associate to Nagas, or, it may be any gem or jewel, or:

Maṇi (मणि, “gem”) or Maṇiratna refers to the “gem jewel” and represents the fourth of the “seven jewels of universal monarchs” (saptaratna) as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 85).

The closest to a Tibetan original for "jewel" anywhere in the book is:

Nine Jeweled Spaces = gLong

So on this one, we cannot take it to task in the same technical way as the ones we can find two or three languages included. Just English, with some Tibetan phrases footnoted. At least the English sounds a little better than some of the old stuff that was done by Orientalist professors.

I am not familiar with the Chinese pearl, and besides the Heart, the main applications of Nine I can think of are the Winds in Vajra Rosary, Nine Moods deities, and the three additional Prajnas of Nepal, which make some form of Nine Buddha Families, using a hypostatic tantric trinity.

It could more commonly be rendered as Nine Planets and Nine Durgas, which is fine, but so far those are the subtle ways I can find in which Nine is employed.

A few ways in which "jeweled" is also used:

The wheel of self-luminescence has a purpose.
This jeweled wheel is All Good.
It abides in the self-luminescent hearts
Of the six kinds of living beings.

I just know enough English to say All Good = Samantabhadra.

In relation to "not getting it" whereas mandala = supreme reality:

They hold their breath and stop breathing.
They count,
And they cleanse their average minds,
Then they join together with their perfected minds,
But they do not get the meaning of self-luminescent wisdom.
They use a fierce introduction into opening and closing
The three channels where wisdom is condensed,
In connection with a structure of four mirrors
To stick the mandala of the sky into a lonely place.
They do not reach the end
Of the true light of burning wisdom.
They draw everything in,
Then join it into a single circle of wisdom.

This string of ropes made of magical jewels
Is like a crystal.
It holds a circle of purity.
Its light pervades and encompasses the three worlds,
Then melts once again into the heart-essence of wisdom.
The ambrosia fills up the dominion of the sky,
Then they savor the tastes of a hundred kinds of happiness
By cleansing the sky with ambrosia:
A great thousand of worlds spread out in clear light,
But this is also a contrivance.
It is a reverted pathway.
The mandala of the dominion of undeceiving power
Exists as a triangle, with what a shape!
There is a jeweled wheel on top of it,
Resting in the style of a construction of mirrors.
It has two sets of thirty-two.
They have a seed of coolness at their centers,
And are surrounded by the wheels of peace.
Both have eight leaves shining brightly.
There is one for each of the three wonders there are
In having the wisdom of the dominion of the Dharma
In our spirits.
Spheres of light rays and Putri Oṃ
Are in the way of tents made of bright silk.
What seem to be magical eyes and Apri Hūṃ
Are in the way of stringing blue crystal beads.
You must know that the sliver of the dark-red moon,
In the shape of a bow,
Is Bridu Oṃ.
The six classes of sentient beings do not understand this.
When we understand,
Our bodies, speech, and minds
Are blended in non-duality.
This is wisdom.

It is, in some way, trying to "pull" one through the complexities of the tantras:

The magical door of an awareness inclusive of methods
Holds heaps of self-originating jewels.
We open the door of this miraculously occurring awareness
With the key of self-luminous awareness,
And on a golden ground of precious jewels
There is the door to the elixir of jeweled awareness.
The stake of unchanging luminescence is planted there.
The illuminator is presented as a blazing jewel.
We do not turn back.
We must hold to our resolve.
We join the words to the meaning
To find the meanings of the symbols.

That is why I do not take the Mahamudra tone as saying not to do practices, but actually means to "get" the inner meaning of the practice *and* carry this through mundane life at the same intensity.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational. It is not something like Cintamani Tara where we can go, oh, this is pretty specific, it has the yellow color and a Jupiter syllable which does not itself continue in sadhanas but gets combined; Khasama lacks any such role or action. It is more along the lines of how you would know you were getting any of it right. You would try to fuse all the developments from Kriya--Charya and attempt to use this as an overall method for translation into inner Yoga and realize the luminescence which we also cannot get an original term for, even though the stem "lumin-" comes up 469 times.

"Self-luminous" may be Svaraj, or, if not, probably some combination with Sva or Atma. Rocana mayb be "bright sky or luminous sphere". "Prabhasvara" however has no form of sva, it is Pra Bhas (light) Varac (the above, upper, or outer part, or instead of). But I do not see any way to get whatever particular original term may have been used.

So just by way of familiarity we are able to say that the main deities involved in the subject are Marici who speaks, and Samantabhadra who is only described in terms of essence. Here, he is not evidently in "White" mode or center of Pancha Jina, but more as an extension of the sixth principle.

In having gained some familiarity, if I could go back and set up the best way to learn the tantric system, it would be 1--Khasama and 2--Sarvadurgati Parishodana. As we see in the Kriya--Charya instructions, the lower tantras lack the specific intent of cleansing death, bardo, and rebirth, which is what Sarvadurgati is doing and what makes it Yoga or the next level. It is doing this while it is giving a primordial stamp both on the Tri-samadhi of Body, Speech, and Mind, and the nature of Kama Loka.

Being in that we do see something that perhaps could be called a System of Nine, I do not think it diminishes Seven, I would lean towards the interpretation that Khasama is a valid depiction of the Sixth Family's Gnosis Wisdom and that Vajra Rosary describes the Seventh. Both seem to leave you grasping at nothing if you try to hammer down what should be their details. They are sphinxes. Khasama does not definitely plot such a thing as Nine Families by naming any more Tathagatas.

The title itself is Khasama Anta, Kha "sky" plus sam "same", followed by Anta "end", opposite of Ananta. For whatever reason, it is not conjoined into Khasamanta.

There is a similar-sounding Khasa goddess, daughter of Daksha, wife of Kasyapa, mother of Yakshas:

A consort of Kaśyapa; mother of two sons, Vikarṇa and Vilohita, one of four hands and four feet and the other of three hands and three feet, who were born in the evening and Uṣa period respectively. The eldest wanted to make a meal of of the mother herself and this the younger prevented. The father who noted this, named the elder Yakṣa, and the latter Rakṣa and said ‘tri’ it is said a son serves his mother and a daughter her father; and that the sons take after their mother. Seeing them ever hungry, he blessed them to get strength in the night and weakness in the day time and eat meat and flesh and disappeared. They married Brahmadhanā and Jantudhanā, daughters of two Piśacas, Aja and Śaṇḍa, and gave birth to a number of Rākṣasas, all given to fierceness; mother of Rākṣasa clans and of seven daughters who in their turn produced Rākṣasas.

or:

Khasa was one of the hundred daughters of Daksha. She was married to the great sage Kashyapa. The Yakshas are her children.

Name of a daughter of Dakṣa (one of the wives of Kaśyapa and mother of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas), [Harivaṃśa].

However her meaning is not light, but, a heap or pile, similar to Skandha. It has other meanings similar to Kirats or people near the Tibetan border, and is perhaps related to Kasya or Kashi.

Khasama does not show any meanings in language, is only a name. It just has the syononym of Khasarpana deity:

(-ṇaṃ) Gliding through the air. E. kha heaven, and sarpaṇa who goes to or in.

His retinue has the different Bhrkuti who looks like Prajnaparamita, but with an initiation vase instead of a book:

Here Bhṛkuṭī has four arms, is resplendent like gold, has matted hair, carries the staff with three horns and the Kamaṇḍalu in the two left hands. The two right show the mudrā of bowing in one and the rosary in the second. She has three eyes.

It is possible she is the one with Seven Syllable deity.

Khasama has no such details, but we are already familiar with Khasarpana. It is correct that their names do not have the same literal meaning, and that Khasarpana is an Avalokiteshvara.

If Anta is a stand-alone word, who knows:

Anta (अन्त) is the name of a Vākchomā (‘verbal secrect sign’) which has its meaning defined as ‘caṇḍāla’ according to chapter 8 of the 9th-century Vajraḍākamahātantrarāja.

Marici's appearance was at Dhanakosha:

Dhanakośa (धनकोश):—[=dhana-kośa] [from dhana > dhan] m. treasure of wealth or money, [Rāmāyaṇa].

It seems to me that it is also in the tales of Garab Dorje or some of the Mahasiddhas as a mystical lake which historians try to locate in Kashmir or Orissa or something like that.

Given the theme, we could say Khasama is not too far from Dhanada Krama, which, as a sadhana, is something like "Method of Mandala".

It seems to proclaim its "lack of details" and tell you to figure that out somewhere else:

This awareness treasure subsumes all the secrets.
It is a Tantra that does not exemplify self-luminescence
Through words, writing, symbols, or definitions.
It is called: “The Unwritten Tantra."

So it seems to me to be the "subject" or "krama" about making symbols "come to life", i. e., it is "found in" any and all of the other sadhanas. It is a lot like saying Varuni is the energetic kernel of all tantras, or that "seven lines" is "the root of all sadhanas". The Khasama is something like what you are doing with Vajrasattva which has arisen as Prajna--Upaya as per Paramadya and the like, and Vajrasattva begins all sadhanas, so if Ganapati is an "optional assistant", Vajrasattva is the "real operator" in Buddhist practice.

Old Student

28th December 2020, 05:32

Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]

[21] ‘Od zer can

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
[...]
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.

I picked out these lines because this is somewhat like what happens in visions during shaking, something becomes birds becomes light rays becomes form..., and then the essence of what is being taught always comes down to that it isn't a specific assembly of things but doing without expecting anything.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational.

I didn't get this feeling, is it because it contains no prescriptions for how to do anything? It does contain that one should settle into what pleases one, without looking for anything. That is an interesting prescription in itself.

The pearl of nine passages is a metaphor for how qi should move, without breaks around bends, and supposedly is about threading such a pearl, it is this movement which is why in my notes almost anything that has a pattern but no symmetries or overt rhythms gets described as "like push hands".

shaberon

28th December 2020, 05:49

Dharani-speak is difficult to read, but, you can get an impression such as the beginning of Ganapati Hrdaya:

|| 84 || om namo bhagavatyai āryyagavaṇāti hṛdayāyai || sumukhaścai vadantaśya kapirogaja karṇukaṁ likhādaṁsalaścaṇikato ghna rājovināyakaḥ ||

For example, he has something to do with Sumukhi, Likha, and Vinayaka in the first line.

In thinking of the name Khasama it registered that we have heard this somewhere before, in Sitatapatra Dharani. So I pulled up Dharani Samgraha which was something like 535 of them. We already know this name is "similar" to Khasarpana so we are not interested in that. Where else in the world is there such a thing as Khasama?

There is not. There is no other kind, the closest is part of 31 Nilakantha Lokesvara:

śaṁkhaśadvanirnno danakarāya svāhā||

It can, perhaps, be found elsewhere, but offhandedly, we would say it is parcel of Parasol bearing her title which contains 3/4 of her secret identity as a type of Adi Prajna in the unusual Trinity:

āryā sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣa śitātapatrenāmāparājitā mahāpratyaṁgirā mahāvipyā rājñī parisamāptaḥ || vijayavāhi || 0 ||

We are reading a Nepali accent on what is already intentionally erroneous Sanskrit, and so I would guess here that mahavipya = Mahavidya.

Namasangiti corresponds to those Mahayana systems which speak of eleven Bhumis, which are adding a special one for Buddhahood. However it turns out to use an unidentifiable goddess:

Sarvabuddhadharmakosavati or Dharmakayavati Dharani

Its highest league of Paramita deities includes:

Vajrakarma Paramita is of variegated colour and holds in her left hand the Visvavajra (double thunderbolt) on a blue lotus. Buddhabodhiprabha Vasita is of yellow colour. She holds in her right hand a Vajra with five thongs on a yellow lotus, and in the left the discus on the Cintamani banner. Samantaprabha Bhumi is of the colour of the sun at noon, and holds in her left hand the image of Amitabha Buddha which indicates Perfect Enlightenment. Sarvabuddhadharma-Kosavati Dharani is yellow in colour and holds in her left hand the trunk full of various kinds of jewels on a lotus.

So the concept of accumulated wealth is getting stuffed to her.

Parasol does not seem to be used in the list, which would have to be given a substitution.

Parasol Dharani is commonly used on Prayer Flags.

White Umbrella Ushnisha-Sitatapatra (gTsug-tor gdugs-dkar) Praise

Great repulser, queen of mantra,
Invincible lady, very strong!
To great White Umbrella and her host
Of buddhas and bodhisattvas, praise!

They usually use one of her longer mantras which is the only place I can find Khasama:

TADYATHA OM ANALE ANALE KHASAME KHASAME BHAIRE BHAIRE SAUME SAUME SARVA BUDDHA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE SARVA TATHAGATA USHNISHA SITATAPATRE HUM PHAT HUM MAMA HUM NI SVAHA

The version in Dharani Samgraha is a bit more complex, but includes this. It does however render "Bhaire" as "Vire" or Heroine.

This is where she is getting weird, but, she is intended to augment her mantra while shifting from two, to four, to six arm forms like Heruka and Hevajra:

In a Six Arm form, she is practiced in Drukpa, and with Eight Arms, in Mitra's sadhanas. The Six Arm is the one that loses the Parasol and would have a Vajra or Wheel as main item.

In 217 in Tibetan Deities, from Bari Lineage and Ngor, she is crowned with Vairocana in Thousand Arm form, Aparajita, which states the equivalent medium form is Six Arm 424, and condensed form is Two Arm with Parasol. In the dharani, Khasame is "equal to sky", Some is Soma Lady. So really, this version is for her Maha form, with Anale Khasame and so forth. In the short mantra, they do not attempt to translate "Ni". But this is also the third Dakini, Ha Ri Ni Sa.

424 in Tibetan Deities, as the Usnisa of Tahagata Family, uses Parasol's Six Arm form to make a Heart Gnosis being. Instead of the short mantra, it has the dharani with Anale Anale Visade Visade (fire, fire, bright, bright) where she is Vajradhari:

Om Anale Anale Visade Visade Vajra Vajra Vajradhari Bandhani Bandhani Hum Hum Phat Phat Svaha

There was a clear version of the Bari mantra with Khasame recorded, but they locked it. This is a Tibetan melange, part of "White Umbrella Deity Torma Offering For Turning Away Harms", which happens to include Bari or the Anale Anale Khasame Khasame version, as the soft-spoken part after some Tibetan:

gYjAcW_rQQs

It is very rarely recorded, whereas there are bunches of her shorter mantras, many of which are compelling, but right now we are looking at where Khasama fits in. If we could find another direct version, it would be great, but so far I cannot.

Often she is just thought of as White Tara as in another Tibetan Dukkar prayer which then throws in Tara's Sanskrit mantra Nine Times:

tAvAJ5mTWec

Nine Vases is a Tara, Vasudhara, or Lakshmi symbol of accomplishment.

Sitatapatra appropriates Bhrum syllable. So as we can see, she is a structured build of increasing mantras onto increasingly complex forms. The instructions pretty plainly state the basic view of her is similar to a normal two armed lady. With Six Arms, she has Om Ah Hum in her three places, she works like a female Vajradhara with a pledge being, which really also has Concentration Hero Om.

Right after her, 425 is Eight Arm Stupa Usnisa Vijaya also with a gnosis being; she is holding Amitabha as usual, but is crowned with Vairocana. She has six deities, two yellow devas crowned with Ratnasambhava pour nectar on her, and she has unusual body syllables. 183 is similar but uses her short mantras, from Maitreya and Asanga through Bari. So her retinue lacks an Amoghasiddhi representative. She is, so to speak, Bhrum, the life-imbued syllable at the top of the mandala that opens Sambhogakaya or Akanistha, and the Amoghasiddhi representative is that Tara such as Mahasri who is found in Akanistha.

Both these Usnisas are more or less the gate or vehicle of Marici. Both of those are also among the most important major recitals, Shurungama Sutra = Sitatapatra Parasol, and Usnisa Vijaya = Sarvadurgati Parishodana. Usnisa is shown closely replicated by the highest Namasangiti Bhumi goddess also holding Amitabha. Both of them are Bhrum-related, they are closely related, although I have never seen it suggested that they are identical.

The telling part of her Kasama Dharani is Sarva Buddha Adhisthana Adhitithe, or i. e. consecration by All Families, which would have a lot to do with Vajradakini regulating the Crown center with the influence of Jewel Family or Guna or All Families Equally, and Vajradakini is the other aspect of Sitatapatra Parasol which seems to only be told in the tantras.

shaberon

28th December 2020, 08:59

I picked out these lines because this is somewhat like what happens in visions during shaking, something becomes birds becomes light rays becomes form..., and then the essence of what is being taught always comes down to that it isn't a specific assembly of things but doing without expecting anything.

Yes, I figured some degree of Khasama would probably "click" with you. I just didn't know what it said.

Marici is no boar rodeo bag facer here. Leans a lot more towards self-arisen like Heruka. This type of Marici dates back at least to the times of the First Transmission:

As a young child, Vairochana was one of seven select Tibetan
children that had been singled out for intensive training in foreign languages
by the King Trisong Detsan, who ruled from 755 to 804 AD.

Is it Picuva? I don't know. Doesn't say. She takes an "extraordinary form". Picuva is so not ordinary that no one will draw it. Can't even say her name. But as soon as I saw this, it seemed like a snap fit.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational.

I didn't get this feeling, is it because it contains no prescriptions for how to do anything? It does contain that one should settle into what pleases one, without looking for anything. That is an interesting prescription in itself.

Perhaps I should not always choose my words so literally. I did not mean it is of "no" value, I just meant that it doesn't have practices, I do not think it even has a mantra, although we can find one I just posted above. By "inspirational", I mean things like, you can relate to Marici of the first chapter. And so the second thing you are mentioning is what I mean by "Mahamudra tone". This is still somewhat of a rivalry between Nyingma and Sakya. The Nyingma typically take the "tone" very seriously and do not try that hard at the samadhis as taught in sadhanas and tantras. Sakya of course are doing the same Mahamudra but, they usually also do about three hours of sadhanas a day.

The pearl of nine passages is a metaphor for how qi should move, without breaks around bends, and supposedly is about threading such a pearl, it is this movement which is why in my notes almost anything that has a pattern but no symmetries or overt rhythms gets described as "like push hands".

Well, that has got to be close, we can put it in terms of Nine Winds or Nine Spaces of the Heart, either one of which concerns prana, which is qi.

I do not really have any cognizance of their variety. What I have had was more of a sudden conflux into one wind which is what begins a Suksma Yoga sequence.

I have a very keen grip on the total power of the thing, with just like a single, raw kind of Wisdom and Protection, which lacks the fullness expressed by the Enlightened Intentions of the Families, which is why I personally am far from being able to describe Nine Winds in Six Chakras doubled to 108, I am just sure the Vajradhara works as described and that the others are like attached jewels, which I know almost nothing about.

I would think Khasama and Vajra Rosary would be excellent explanations of Guru Yoga as we have it in Kagyu, would be like Father Tantra in their own right, the method of Vajrasattva and Vajradhara.

I have tried combing the dictionary for some form of Nava plus Space or anything similar or anything, in search of some missed technical jargon that Vajrasattva is saying, and I cannot find anything, although "nava" can also mean "new" and what looks like Navakha or nine spaces just means "new".

There is a kind of Naga Bliss:

Navananda (नवनन्द).—Mahāpadma and his eight sons, who ruled for 100 years.*

* Bhāgavata-purāṇa XII. 1. 12.

or:

Navaśakti (नवशक्ति):—[=nava-śakti] [from nava] m. ‘having 9 faculties’, Name of Viṣṇu or Śiva,

or Navasamjna (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/navasamjna) is from Prajnaparamita Sutra and focuses on corpses and the movement from nine to ten, is like cemeteries and wrathful rites, and then shows how they crunch through Kama Loka and Thirty-seven point Enlightenment and so forth.

However it uses Navacandra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/maha-prajnaparamita-sastra/d/doc225929.html) to mean New Moon in an idea about venerating the Bodhisattvas more than the Tathagatas:

"And why? Because the Tathāgatas derive their origin from the Bodhisattva."

Sadhanas generally are mostly about Bodhisattvas.

But no, so far I don't see anything to add that would specifically identify Khasama's subject in the same way that we catalog Cemeteries or Paramitas or anything else. Because his spaces are very jeweled, it is hard to not think of the Nine Treasures of Kubera.

The translator thought "...it uses language that is unusual for a
Buddhist work. It talks about unity in non-duality, oneness, the lack of any
need to practice a path, and the irrelevance of cause and result, for example.
It talks about a self-luminescent wisdom that is eternal."

It has the unusual prequel:

These things were once spoken:

I wanted to say he simply gave the Nine things:

He has a retinue of natural essence, a retinue who looks after this nature,
and a retinue who actually attains this nature. They are like this: They are of
earth, water, fire, wind, space, the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the
formless realm.

But it is only eight because he did not name Manas as a sixth element, which we are pre-supposing that overall Vajrasattva is describing himself as this sixth sense user. This would be almost the same argument as Namasangiti. If we examine the wording carefully, he *has* a retinue of eight, which means there are nine members total. Namasangiti *has* Six Mantra Kings, so he is arguably a seventh entity.

I could be missing something, but, he seems to be missing the self-definition such as Seven Syllable deity has.

Maybe it is the same subject, Luminous Heart (https://www.buddism.ru///__UPLOAD_BOOKS/Tibetan_Buddhism/Brunnho%CC%88lzl,%20Karl%20-%20Luminous%20Heart_The%20Third%20Karmapa%20on%20Consciousness,%20Wisdom,%20and%20Buddha%20Nature.pd f) by H. H. 3rd Karmapa is a major primordial stamp for Shentong Kagyu. He makes significant use of the Seventh Consciousness. It is a much more difficult book than Khasama and it begins with a significant critical history of Yogacara. Rather dense. It does a "nebulous" corollary of some of the ways Khasama refers to Nine:

“all kinds” means
that the wisdoms on each one of these bhūmis have nine degrees in terms of
lesser, medium, and great.

which mixes blends like Vishuddhimagga:

82 This meditative absorption represents the cessation of all primary minds and mental
factors with an unstable continuum (the first six consciousnesses) as well as one of the two
consciousnesses with a stable continuum (the afflicted mind with its mental factors, but not
the ālaya-consciousness). This absorption is used as the culminating meditative absorption
in the process of “ninefold progressive abiding” (which includes various alternating ways of
training in entering and rising from the four samādhis of the form realm and the four formless
absorptions).

So you have lesser lesser, medium lesser, greater lesser, and so on, but to me at least, those are less indicative than something like Kubera or the Heart itself.

There is also a "literary device":

This is followed by the classical nine examples found in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and
Uttaratantra I.95cd–152 (such as a buddha statue in a withering lotus) for buddha nature being
obscured by adventitious stains. These correspond to increasingly subtler obscurations and the
respective natural qualities of buddha nature that are revealed.

I am not familiar with it, and, here again, "examples" are a bit less of a "stamp" than something like Nava Nidhi.

Khasama claims his subject is pervasive, so, it is either within the "Nines" we can come up with, or, he is going to have to explain it further.

Old Student

28th December 2020, 19:34

Two things: The first is how complete is the Khasama Tantra you are looking at? There is supposedly an "ur-text" called that that was 100,000 lines and preceded the Chakrasamvara Tantra. Is it the same one, or maybe an abbreviated version? Maybe something got left out.

Second, I did some searches, and the following, with the syllables "Kha sama" in the beginning of it, is a mantra to Simhamukhi:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

Any possibility that she has a relationship?

Old Student

28th December 2020, 20:04

The Nyingma typically take the "tone" very seriously and do not try that hard at the samadhis as taught in sadhanas and tantras. Sakya of course are doing the same Mahamudra but, they usually also do about three hours of sadhanas a day.

I did not take the translation to mean this kind of not trying hard. The text says:

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.

What pleases you is what the goddess Marici brings, and not looking hard is because it is what is not to be sought. This sounds almost identical to the balancing act that forms one of the cores of my shaking, where an enormous bliss has to be confronted with absolute non-reaction.

Just to complicate things, 'nava' does mean 'nine' and it does also mean 'new' but,

नवख navakha = "1 billion"
नवक navaka = "consisting of nine"

shaberon

29th December 2020, 09:47

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.

What pleases you is what the goddess Marici brings, and not looking hard is because it is what is not to be sought. This sounds almost identical to the balancing act that forms one of the cores of my shaking, where an enormous bliss has to be confronted with absolute non-reaction.

That is where I have something to learn, since, when I discovered Bliss was an active ingredient in the Yogic laboratory, I definitely reacted to it, totally mesmerized.

I think I get what you are meaning by "Kriya" as something like a "spontaneous asana", I suppose I have done a few things "in that style" or where the body selects some arbitrary posture for its own reason, just without the profundity that the Kriyas have.

It seems to me that Marici is all the Dawns from first glimmer to Buddhahood. Marici is several kinds of Ishvari, and, if I recall, she is the only Vajrasattva Ishvari. That has yet to have any meaningful application that I am aware of unless the one here at the opening of Khasama.

Because he has mantric identity with Parasol, we can say the Parasol Item is related to tantric Red Sun, and that it is held by Indra and others for Marici.

Here again, I am not sure if anybody has asked the obvious about how the Sun and an Umbrella might interact, but it has to do with the Usnisa or Crown center, and Jnanadakini will attest to that by deploying Vajradakini--Parasol there.

I am just glad the footnote verifies this is Marici rather than us sitting here going, well, it sounds like Marici. This has got to be something like her Kalpoktam or Explanation level, which is the one commonly found in her esoteric sadhanas, of which Picuva is the freaky twist that is almost more directly suggested here.

Marici's esoteric samaya seemed more to be in her Asokakanta form, and I bet if one called her up, it would be easy to go from there to here. You do not definitely need her Obstacle Clearing form since you can get Ganapati or Khandarohi or others to do it. If a Needle is Suci and this is also Solar Fire, we already know she has this out the wazoo, and secretly we are perhaps more interested if she has the Watery or Electric Fire. Well, we know that she does, in fact secretly this is her more powerful nature than the already-powerful visible aspect. So her Needle I think is a bit like Rta and it serves its purpose and then she has a bunch of other stuff which is actually more important.

Because part of this is the Paving of Golden Ground, it means her energy goes into the Bhumis, the first of which is Vajrasattva.

The introduction does not fiddle with Khasama's origin. It is from the introduction to Samvarodaya that looks towards the ur-text being Khasama or Abhidanottara and, in any case, nothing approaching a 300,000 verse magnum opus is known.

So yes, present version is likely an extraction or synopsis.

It says:

"A study of the possible origin of the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva is beyond
the scope of this introduction. Readers who are familiar with world literature
may well see evidence of Gnostic teachings in reading this. Clear evidence of
Gnosis movements along the Silk Route has been documented.[4]Some may
see evidence of the Upaniṣadic thought that informed the Advaita tradition
reflected here in Buddhistic terminology. It is possible that some writer had a
deliberate intention of subterfuge, intending to trick unwary Buddhists into
accepting non-Buddhist views, but it would likely have been disseminated
more widely if this were so. Those who seek evidence that Buddhist and nonBuddhist thinking had reached the point, by the Eighth Century, that they
were sometimes indistinguishable may find evidence of this in this Tantra. It
may well be that the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva was considered to represent
heterodox views by some Tibetans, and therefore excluded from the Kagyur.
Many who persevere at maintaining orthodoxy fail to remember that the
orthodox can only be understood in its relation to the heterodox. We will
better understand Buddhist orthodoxy by reading a text that represents what it
tries to guard against."

Now since there are missing mega-troves of the complete Kalachakra and Khasama or Abhidhana and so forth, well, these can only go missing temporarily, some Bodhisattva will restore them. If they are needed, and there is someone who can understand it, the Bodhisattva will bring it. Right now, we just found a way to set up a decent handful of Panjara explanatory tantras, which are probably enough to give me an entire career of seeking without needing much more.

Simhamukhi is a Wrathful aspect of Jnanadakini, she is not like a semi-wrathful Vajrayogini. The mantra is Tibetan creole:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

I do not know what they mean by "Ranza" but the presence of Maraya means this is a Kill Destroy mantra.

Now if my edition of Khasama is not too specific then I am going to hop over to Dakini Jala and just distribute six senses around the Families and voila, Vajrasattva Sat Chakravartin panel.

If I go much further along the page, it will interpose the fact of a Wrathful Reflex. I won't get far without what Prajnaparamita is describing as Nava Samjna, which would be expanded as the Cemeteries and Ten Wrathful Ones and so on. So even when we start with a wise and peaceful Vajrasattva, he still some day is going to expose a ferocious side.

Does Jnanadakini have a relationship to Vajrasattva, yes, the Dakini Jala will specifically suggest them as consorts. You could do that.

The whole thing is supposed to follow the similar 2--4--6 armed pattern like Heruka, Hevajra, and Sitatapatra.

It would be allowed to be based on Jnanadakini, Vajravarahi, or possibly others. It is not anything you want to stick in there. It is just the ones who are defined as what we might be forced to call "energetic equivalents", with the most generic terms being Dharmadhatu Vajra and Dharmadhatu Ishvari referring to the Sixth Sense and its Object, Element, and Prajna.

The presence of Kha syllable in mantras is voluminous, especially since the usual male Bodhisattvas of Sky and Earth are Kha Garbha and Ksiti Garbha, you will see Kha and Ksa from these frequently.

Kha (http://www.visiblemantra.org/vairocana.html) is also used in the Shingon method of linking Vairocana to Six Elements. In Sarma practices, it usually belongs to Amoghasiddhi.

Dharma Wheel (https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=12235) shows that the mantra is a current, known practice. But they say nothing about the meaning.

We can hack it by finding Ranza in whatever they did to Medicine Buddha (http://www.cintamani.com.br/loja/glossario/mantra/).

TAYATHA OM BEKANZE BEKANZE MAHA BEKANZE BEKANZE RANDZA SAMUGATHE SOHA

oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā

These mantras have even been compared (oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā) and no one noticed but Wildmind (https://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/bhaishajyaguru-medicine-buddha-mantra) has:

(tadyathā:) oṃ bhaiśajye bhaiśajye mahābhaiśajye bhaiśajyarāje samudgate svāhā.

So I would go with Ranza = Raja. Shanda (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shanda) would be difficult since its main meaning is "eunnuch".

The Tibetan Simhamukha mantra is a bit difficult for me to penetrate as to what in the world they are even trying to say, but it falls in the domain of Destroyer.

Parasol is really the most potent Destroyer. She is Maha Pratyangira who is also Narasimhi. By this it means she can defeat the most powerful black magic. Curses. Hauntings. Hexes. Now since Lion Face is Narasimhi, we see some strange alchemy between Parasol, Simhamukha, Ziro Bhusana, and Vajra Sphoti--Chain of Lotus Family. The Chain Item has something to do with Karma Family and seems to be something utterly other than the nature of Lion Face.

Because Buddhist Pratyangira is not Lion Face, she also appears to represent the opposite of sheer destruction, i. e. the six arm deity class supporting stability of the Heart, and it is this kind of Pratyangira which is the basis for Amaravajra.

It seems to me that Khasama relates Vajrasattva to Marici and Parasol in singular ways.

Here is an Amitabha Chittamani Tara, just from browsing around:

https://mk0buddhaweeklyqoftb.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Buddha-Weekly-Chittamani-Tara-tangkha-with-Amitabha-Buddha-on-her-head-Buddhism.jpg

Old Student

29th December 2020, 19:46

That is where I have something to learn, since, when I discovered Bliss was an active ingredient in the Yogic laboratory, I definitely reacted to it, totally mesmerized.

I have to act the same way towards any of the visions. It is something to do with not constraining things with desire -- to constrain produces limitations, frustration -- suffering. Whenever I forget that, which happens frequently when trying to learn something, the result is always failure over and over until I don't constrain things, which kind of burst through unexpectedly. It's kind of the shaking version of nirodha -- extinction of desire that ends suffering.

It seems to me that Marici is all the Dawns from first glimmer to Buddhahood. Marici is several kinds of Ishvari, and, if I recall, she is the only Vajrasattva Ishvari. That has yet to have any meaningful application that I am aware of unless the one here at the opening of Khasama.

This seems right. I keep wondering what her relation to Ushas is, any searching will give a chronological interpretation of Ushas becoming Marici, they are depicted slightly differently but I can see how that works.

Simhamukhi is a Wrathful aspect of Jnanadakini, she is not like a semi-wrathful Vajrayogini. The mantra is Tibetan creole:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

I hadn't noticed that, but it is pretty evident.

I did figure out why 'navakha' is 1 billion. It is specified in my dictionary as an "American billion" meaning one with nine "spaces".

Parasol is really the most potent Destroyer. She is Maha Pratyangira who is also Narasimhi. By this it means she can defeat the most powerful black magic. Curses. Hauntings. Hexes. Now since Lion Face is Narasimhi, we see some strange alchemy between Parasol, Simhamukha, Ziro Bhusana, and Vajra Sphoti--Chain of Lotus Family. The Chain Item has something to do with Karma Family and seems to be something utterly other than the nature of Lion Face.

Because Buddhist Pratyangira is not Lion Face, she also appears to represent the opposite of sheer destruction, i. e. the six arm deity class supporting stability of the Heart, and it is this kind of Pratyangira which is the basis for Amaravajra.

It seems to me that Khasama relates Vajrasattva to Marici and Parasol in singular ways.

The lion-faced Dakini that appears in my shakings is a guardian figure. I have not seen her in quite a while, partly because I haven't been in that place (in my head directly above the magnum foramen) in a while. What has happened is that the black panther or jaguar creature that is associated with one of the shamans has made "appearances". It is definitely somehow Mesoamerican, which I guess makes it a jaguar. The night before last it appeared, completely black with all edges and outlines like moonlight. I'm not sure what it is about yet.

shaberon

29th December 2020, 23:31

I have to act the same way towards any of the visions. It is something to do with not constraining things with desire -- to constrain produces limitations, frustration -- suffering. Whenever I forget that, which happens frequently when trying to learn something, the result is always failure over and over until I don't constrain things, which kind of burst through unexpectedly. It's kind of the shaking version of nirodha -- extinction of desire that ends suffering.

Yes, I think that is the underlying theme of any practices--not forming attachment.

For the rest of us, if we were able to get a good vision of a deity or mandala or something, we would do so knowing it would get scattered like dust in a few minutes when we stop.

It keeps us "mobile". If I said that Vajradhatu was the main exoteric Six Family Wheel, and Mahavajradhatu is it arising in Sambhogakaya, if I was really trained in that stuff, I should be able to just as easily dispense with Vajradhatu and do it some other way, without any emotional sticky-ness. Likewise, if I find Six Families esoterically with Vajrasattva, Namasangiti, or Sadakshari, I should be able to drop my favorite/most accessible one and go with something else.

That is like why we would say you can still go to a mosque or synagogue or something. Just because we do not think those places have Great Wisdom in a fully-revealed form, does not mean you should stop listening and dismiss them, because they still probably have something worth your attention.

When I figured out how to get Bliss into circulation like ordiniary blood, I definitely would have parked there like those schools that kind of get you face-to-face with what we might call the First Joy, and then run out of guidance. It is so pwwerful you just want to repose there like an infant in the womb, but, the Dhyanas clearly specify that at some point, you have to start overlooking this effect.

I keep wondering what her relation to Ushas is, any searching will give a chronological interpretation of Ushas becoming Marici, they are depicted slightly differently but I can see how that works.

I still cannot explain it either. Marici cannot be much other than a Noumenal, Mantra-bound aspect of Ushas, having swiped a name from male Rishi Marici. The main switch seems to be from her using Horses, who are the usual sun chariot haulers, and the main vehicle of Buddhist Jewel Family, to Boars, which are usually the vehicle of Earth or Bhu Devi.

It sounds similar to Vairocana and Locana leaving the center of the mandala to take over the Earth plane.

Also similar to accepting that Om may be "the original" syllable, which is like universal dawn and creation and an explosion of white brilliance, whereas Hum is this "anchored" into a focal point, which is an incarnate being, related to the solar origin and reflecting from the center of the Earth.

Marici is an extremely extensive deity who has kindly stretched her fingertips into the most basic Kriya practices, but in Khasama, she is all about translating the words and symbols into inner meaning. Tibetans probably house this in the manifestation of Rigpa (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Rigpa), which is like Vidya and Avidya.

I did figure out why 'navakha' is 1 billion. It is specified in my dictionary as an "American billion" meaning one with nine "spaces".

That tells us the Spaces are Zeroes, which would imply Khasama operates Nine Bindus, which sounds a bit like "Hidden Caves" of the Heart. It seems to me the Yoga system aims to clear/open corresponding spaces in the head and re-fill them with Akash, whereas the practical or experiential change really comes later on from finding these places in the heart and using them as the roots for divinizing their reflections in the head.

The lion-faced Dakini that appears in my shakings is a guardian figure. I have not seen her in quite a while, partly because I haven't been in that place (in my head directly above the magnum foramen) in a while. What has happened is that the black panther or jaguar creature that is associated with one of the shamans has made "appearances". It is definitely somehow Mesoamerican, which I guess makes it a jaguar. The night before last it appeared, completely black with all edges and outlines like moonlight. I'm not sure what it is about yet.

Tiger and Leopard maintain distinct identities from Lion.

As vehicles, they are how a deity interacts with the world, such as the Tiger Durgas are generally fiercer, whereas the few Lion Durgas such as Katyayani are more Saumya or Santi or peaceful, pleasant, etc.

As Tramen they are something else. Tramen are Pisaci, but, the Pisacis, Gauris, or Four Dakinis are capable of appearing with either animal or human faces.

Their outer correspondences and wrathful natures cannot, they are stuck with the animal face. That means they are limited, cannot convey Great Wisdom and so on. This is why we see something like Marici "washing the pig" off of Varahi. One such as Varahi is covered by Pig or Ignorance, but, she also has that Transcendental aspect which is free from such.

Similarly, "guardians" may mean Lokapala or Directional or Regional Guardians, such as if there is a local goblin who protects the yard and Indra protects the East generally, these are just worldly. It is only Dharmapalas or Dharma Protectors such as Ekajati who are different: she protects Vajramrita Tantra and a few other practices, and is capable of arising as a Wisdom Being who quells the ranks of her lesser breed, the Mamos.

The distinction of Ziro Bhusana is that she is red on red, like Sumukhi, whereas even the rare Red Simhamukha would not look so monochromatic. Because Vajrasphoti is Lotus Family and thereby related to red, it seems to me that Ziro Bhusana is the best funnel for red and lion together, which make the form for the Third Activity or Chain.

And of course I am trying to "stand under" Simhamukhi just like Varahi, i. e. to know about them and get the basis of their setup, without dealing with them directly. This can be taken as a general token of respect towards the lineages, or, the fact that if one was to have any success, they would come barreling out as Tramen or Teevra deities and wreck your mind, or karma, or both.

It is an inevitable power level that is not pleasant at all.

That is why it is remarkable to show Parnasabari as a Pisaci, she never has an animal face.

That way, we can show an axis that the most devilish aspect of these creatures is nothing but the Ground for Sampatti or Samadhi of the caliber of blending heat, wind, and mantra.

It does not make Accomplishment much easier, but it does mean one should clean the subconscious and death, bardo, and rebirth, before the Wrathful Deities dawn. In practice, Dawn usually refers to the self-arising of the deities.

That is an utter change in state of being.

"I" have never "become" any of these deities, or had an intricate look at webs of infinite worlds, but from the psychological aspect of killing the ego and is there a pantheon that "dawns", yes, the Deities have Dawned to me many times.

It is like the Zhitro or Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities.

I would say it is so because it is much like a baby. From what we can tell, a baby experiences and expresses primarily those two main moods. It's not using words and prior experiences to construct the moods. It is just direct. And so I think this mind, or, mindlessness, is pretty close to what we mean by the same in occultism, Noetic.

If that state has "at its fingertips" all the details, all the libraries and research of the world, the entire vocabulary and history of anything that is perceived, that, to me, represents Amitabha Wisdom or Pratyavekshana Jnana. His mind is never distracted by any of the details. It is as if a baby is just looking at meaningless colors and shapes and then, for example, telepathically beams us the name of a printer, its company, inventor, serial number, where you can get all the parts and what things this particular one has printed, and so on, its whole Chain of Dependent Arisings is plain and obvious.

It has all that available without any effort and without ever thinking about it.

Different kinds of cats would have to do with different nerves or pranic pathways, so they are all useful as needed, however even on a Sutra level, Lion is prominent with Lion's Roar Samadhi, which is iterated across Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Manjushri, at a minimum, and Tara certainly claims the Lion Vehicle. When expressed by Queen Srimala Devi, Lion's Roar immediately latches to RGV and Luminous Heart and Dolpopa, as far as what I can tell of what is meant by Shentong.

That is why I think this is one really deep, continuous subject, and why I am not personally dealing with everything that is available even in Buddhism, such at the Hinayana, or even the First Transmission to Tibet or the Kalachakra.

Something like a central thread through Marici which has composed its own Guide that I am simply trying to compile.

Like Bhrkuti's Loom, it may enjoy some cross-woven threads which it appears to request by things such as Dhanada Krama and Mahacina Krama, is looking for competence in certain samadhis. But I can get a lot of mileage much faster if I am able to put together RGV with Mipham's view of how it underlies all sadhanas, than from "academic" presentations telling me about why Buddhists think the Three Jewels are important and things like that. In other words, once Seven can be shown for what it is, similar to but in some ways different from Hindu and other usages, this is really powerful.

shaberon

30th December 2020, 09:02

I am a bit surprised the translator of Khasama would consider it may be a non-Buddhist ruse.

It mostly makes sense to me, because it appears to me to have the same subject as what is really The Subject.

In thinking of Khasama's main emphasis, Luminosity, well, this is really the same as that in Luminous Heart, which of course is way more precise and traces the idea from Sutra Nagarjuna through all Yogachara. This Luminosity is both Suchness, as well as the definitive feature of Shentong which simultaneously states it does not exist exclusively. From Luminous Heart:

The Karma Kagyü lineage is heir to both of the great mahāyāna traditions
of emptiness—Rangtong madhyamaka (“empty-of-self middle Way”) and
Shentong madhyamaka (“empty-of-other middle Way”). It is commonly
understood in this lineage that the rangtong approach is needed to determine
and gain certainty in the right view, while shentong is required for the practice of meditation. This combination of the right view of emptiness and the
meditative experience of luminous buddha nature is considered to be jointly
necessary for complete awakening.

So here, Rangtong = Drsti and Shentong = Yogachara.

The subject of Luminosity is what led to misunderstandings or disputes about the Eighth or Alaya Consciousness and potentially the Ninth:

Several texts by Paramārtha speak about the amalavijñāna (“pure or
stainless consciousness”) as a ninth kind of consciousness. It refers to the
unconditioned, changeless, permanent mind unaffected by any impurities,
identical with suchness as the ultimate. This amalavijñāna is said to be the
foundation of the Buddhist path, while the ālaya-consciousness is the foundation of all defilements and eventually eliminated. Paramārtha also equates
this amalavijñāna with suchness, nonconceptual wisdom, and mind’s luminosity. He says that it is unmistaken and free from both the imaginary and
the other-dependent natures (which comprise the manifestations of mistaken
consciousness), thus being reminiscent of typical shentong positions.

It is "reminiscent" because it says it defeats Parikalpa and Paratantra, the Imaginary and Other-Dependent Natures we have categorized as being dissipated by No Ego and Suchness.

Here is a technical Tibetan term for Luminosity:

as mentioned before, among Tibetan masters, there are a great number
of differing presentations of what exactly shentong means and how this differs from rangtong. Some use the term shentong to refer to a doctrine with set
positions (which can also differ greatly); some speak about it in the sense of
an experiential outlook; some refer to it as an approach to practicing meditation (sgom lugs); and others take it to be a synthesis of both view and
meditation. obviously, these approaches are more or less overlapping, and
their “borderlines” are fluid and often keep shifting when they are taught or
disputed. as for the Kagyü School, it makes a standard distinction between
“luminosity shentong” (gsal ba gzhan stong) and “expanse (dhātu) shentong”
(dbyings gzhan stong). Briefly speaking, the first refers to buddha nature’s wisdom being empty of adventitious stains (the “other”), and this wisdom itself
not being empty, but existing as the ultimate nature of luminosity. Thus,
the ultimate existence of the luminous nature of mind and its innate buddha qualities are emphasized. Typical proponents are Dölpopa, Tāranātha,
and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, who base their explanations mainly on
the Uttaratantra and combine them with Yogācāra templates, such as the
three natures. “expanse shentong” means that, in and of itself, the nondual
and nonconceptual, personally experienced wisdom that realizes the fundamental space of the dharmadhātu as mind’s true nature is free from reference
points. Though not denying the ultimate validity of realizing one’s primordial Tathāgata heart with all its qualities, this view accords much more with
a classical madhyamaka approach. Its most typical presentation (which one
is tempted to call “shentong lite”) is found in the eighth Karmapa’s massive
commentary on the Abhisamayālaṃkāra and in some of the works of the
Sixth Shamarpa. also certain aspects of mipham Rinpoche’s presentations
of shentong (who states that his own system is rangtong and that he does not
have the burden of feeling compelled to establish the shentong view), such
as his constant emphasis on understanding the madhyamaka approach to
emptiness and the inseparability of appearance and emptiness, seem to tend
more toward an “expanse shentong” approach.
as should be clear from the above and Rangjung Dorje’s own writings, his
“shentong,” if anything, could be described as a combination of “luminosity
shentong” and “expanse shentong,” steering clear of the pitfalls of reification
and nihilism. Yet again, rather than trying to find the “right” doxographical
box to stash away the Third Karmapa’s view, as with any accomplished and
original philosopher or spiritual master, it seems more fruitful and refreshing
to understand the full scope of Rangjung Dorje’s distinct approach—persistently pointing out the essential points of the Buddha’s teachings on mind’s
true nature in both traditions of the mahāyāna—in its own terms.

It is continuous from older scriptures:

The [Aṣṭasāhasrikā]prajñāpāramitāsūtra says:
The mind is no-mind. The nature of the mind is luminosity.”
This is also stated many times in the tantras and treatises, thus expressing
that [mind as such] is endowed with purity.

In general, Mind is like Sky, which is Luminous, but may be covered by Adventitious Stains such as fog, smoke, etc.:

To express the impure [aspect of mind as such] as “mind” refers to what is
taught as the “ālaya-consciousness.” The Abhidharmasamucchaya says:
mind being impregnated by all the latent tendencies of skandhas,
āyatanas, and dhātus is the ālaya-consciousness with all seeds.
This [ālaya-consciousness] is embraced by false imagination, consists of
the minds and mental factors in the three realms, is the root of all obscurations, and is to be overcome by buddha wisdom.

Nāgārjuna’s Dharmadhātustava

Likewise, mind that is so luminous
Is soiled by stains of craving and so forth.
The afflictions burn in wisdom’s fire,
But its luminosity does not.

The
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra says:
When murky water becomes clear,
[Its] transparency does not arise from elsewhere,
But is just its becoming free from pollution.
The same goes for the purity of your own mind.
It is held that mind, which is always naturally luminous,
Is [only] blemished by adventitious flaws.
It is stated that there is no other mind apart from
The naturally luminous mind of dharmatā.452
Luminosity and natural emptiness are not tainted by the nature of conceptions, since conceptions are [nothing but] nonexistents that appear. This is
stated many times, such as in the Dharmadhātustava:

about water at the time of spring,
What we say is that it’s “warm.”
of the very same [thing], when it’s chilly,
We just say that it is “cold.”
Covered by the web of the afflictions,
It is called a “sentient being.”
once it’s free from the afflictions,
It should be expressed as “buddha.”

The object of focus for this change of state
In the Uttaratantra, this is taught through the term “basic element.”
Here, it is discussed through the term “nonconceptual wisdom.” In the
prajñāpāramitā [texts], it is treated through the term “prajñāpāramitā.” The
Mahāyānasaṃgraha states:
There is no difference between prajñāpāramitā and nonconceptual
wisdom.

In the tantras, Non-conceptual Wisdom is ramped up to a quiescent mind mounted solely on the non-conceptual Wind, and this is Suchness. Although it is elsewhere called "Dhatu" and "Prajnaparamita", these sources do not usually express its meaning in terms of Prana. The series of luminous synonyms is convergent with the re-orientation of Prana into Bliss.

Therefore, naturally luminous stainlessness is unconditioned and changeless.
Thus, though the nature of phenomena is referred to by this term “fundamental change of state,” it is also called “permanent.”
There is nothing to be removed from it
and not the slightest to be added.
actual reality is to be seen as it really is—
Who sees actual reality is released.
The basic element is empty of what is adventitious,
Which has the characteristic of being separable.
It is not empty of the unsurpassable dharmas,
Which have the characteristic of being inseparable.

mind’s great luminosity is the dharmakāya.

What are the pure realms of the three kāyas?
The ālaya free from extremes, the actuality of the middle,
Is the pure realm of the dharmakāya.
mind’s great unchanging bliss
Is the pure realm of the sambhogakāya.
mind’s unceasing flow of luminosity
Is the pure realm of the nirmāṇakāya.

Nagarjuna refers to Dharmadhatu by:

to cleanse the blue beryl of mind

and therefore Beryl is synonymous with luminosity, as is:

the dharmadhātu—natural luminosity, the buddha
heart

mind as such—the luminous Sugata heart

“Luminosity” is [the dharmadhātu’s] own light, which is beyond identification and characteristics.

In a treasure below the earth, the
qualities of all one may wish or need exist right from the start. Likewise, the
naturally abiding disposition is the naturally luminous dharmadhātu (mind
as such), in which all buddha qualities dwell primordially in an inseparable
way. Its having become pure of stains is called “having attained one’s own
welfare, the dharmakāya.”

On Five Wisdoms:

the dharmadhātu wisdom is the essence of
all kāyas—the svābhāvikakāya, the basic element of all wisdoms, the wisdom of the nature of
phenomena—whose nature it is to be free from all factors to be free from and to be endowed
with all qualities. Some explain this from the point of view of a mere negation, but that is mistaken. Still, this very wisdom is divided into four in terms of its distinct functions. mirrorlike
wisdom refers to the appearance of the aspects of a Tathāgata’s own unshared dharmas within
luminous dharmadhātu wisdom through the power of the ālaya-consciousness having become
pure. The wisdom of equality refers to being endowed with great love and compassion in
an equal way for all beings by virtue of the afflicted mind having become completely pure.
Discriminating wisdom refers to having become a treasury of samādhis and dhāraṇīs that are
unimpeded with regard to all knowable objects by virtue of the flux of the mental consciousness having been stopped. all-accomplishing wisdom refers to having attained the power to
creatively manifest as, and transform into, favorable circumstances in accordance with the
respective objects of enlightened activity in infinite realms of sentient beings by virtue of being
free from the five sense consciousnesses.

So I think everything we have could be described as a Method of Increasing Luminosity.

The querent in Khasama, Sattvavajra, has a standard enough meaning:

sems dpa’ rdo rje - indestructible cognitive responsiveness, vajra-being, indestructible being, vajra of the mind, nature of the mind, great being, Sattvavajra

There is the highly similar:

Vajragarbha (Skt.; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྙིང་པོ་, Dorjé Nyingpo, Wyl. rdo rje'i snying po) — a bodhisattva who compiled the Dzogchen teachings given by the Buddha Samantabhadra in Akanishtha. He is counted as one of Tertön Sogyal's previous incarnations.

The main interlocutor of the Buddha’s entourage throughout many of the Yoginītantras, such as the Hevajra Tantra, is also called Vajragarbha.

He is in NSP:

(1: Dharmadhatūvāgīśvara-maṇḍala):—“Vajragarbha is of the colour of the petal of a blue lotus and holds in the right hand the Vajra and in the left the book called the Daśabhūmika”. (2: Durgatipariśodhana-maṇḍala):—“Vajragarbha is of bluish white colour and holds the blue lotus in the right hand while the clenched left rests on the hip”.

Old Student

31st December 2020, 06:06

When I figured out how to get Bliss into circulation like ordiniary blood, I definitely would have parked there like those schools that kind of get you face-to-face with what we might call the First Joy, and then run out of guidance. It is so pwwerful you just want to repose there like an infant in the womb, but, the Dhyanas clearly specify that at some point, you have to start overlooking this effect.

So in shaking, there is no problem with reposing like an infant in a womb, in fact there is no problem with being an infant in a womb, but there does seem to be a problem with trying to go some place you have already been. If it succeeded at all, it would be dull instead of blissful. Instead, everything is seen for the first time, which is fine except it isn't what one, as a human, is used to.

I still cannot explain it either. Marici cannot be much other than a Noumenal, Mantra-bound aspect of Ushas, having swiped a name from male Rishi Marici. The main switch seems to be from her using Horses, who are the usual sun chariot haulers, and the main vehicle of Buddhist Jewel Family, to Boars, which are usually the vehicle of Earth or Bhu Devi.

This is fine. Ushas is the only one who insisted on a specific name, although some of the others were so recognizable they didn't need to.

Tiger and Leopard maintain distinct identities from Lion.

As vehicles, they are how a deity interacts with the world, such as the Tiger Durgas are generally fiercer, whereas the few Lion Durgas such as Katyayani are more Saumya or Santi or peaceful, pleasant, etc.

This is a shaman familiar, so 'being' it is not like becoming filled with a Dakini, it's turning into something else. It has one characteristic that is very un-panther/jaguar like, the ears are more like the upward pointed ears you see in sculptures of cats or something. Actual leopard/jaguars have round ears. I'm not sure what that is about. But the others (animals, familiars) also have things odd. Sometimes the eagle is white which doesn't fit, and the snake is all about water but nothing like a water moccasin, which is the only water snake I know of.

If that state has "at its fingertips" all the details, all the libraries and research of the world, the entire vocabulary and history of anything that is perceived, that, to me, represents Amitabha Wisdom or Pratyavekshana Jnana. His mind is never distracted by any of the details. It is as if a baby is just looking at meaningless colors and shapes and then, for example, telepathically beams us the name of a printer, its company, inventor, serial number, where you can get all the parts and what things this particular one has printed, and so on, its whole Chain of Dependent Arisings is plain and obvious.

If you 'chose' a path through such a mind, it could be endlessly creative and never repeating itself but always slightly familiar. Which would be like a lot of the shaking visions.

Old Student

31st December 2020, 06:15

To express the impure [aspect of mind as such] as “mind” refers to what is
taught as the “ālaya-consciousness.” The Abhidharmasamucchaya says:
mind being impregnated by all the latent tendencies of skandhas,
āyatanas, and dhātus is the ālaya-consciousness with all seeds.
This [ālaya-consciousness] is embraced by false imagination, consists of
the minds and mental factors in the three realms, is the root of all obscurations, and is to be overcome by buddha wisdom.

So this explains something to me about what a 'sentient being' is, I've been reading the Avatamsaka and it keeps coming up that sentient beings need to be worked over to become beings that can start becoming bodhisattvas (Cleary very frustratingly translates 'bodhisattva' everywhere).

In the tantras, Non-conceptual Wisdom is ramped up to a quiescent mind mounted solely on the non-conceptual Wind, and this is Suchness. Although it is elsewhere called "Dhatu" and "Prajnaparamita", these sources do not usually express its meaning in terms of Prana. The series of luminous synonyms is convergent with the re-orientation of Prana into Bliss.

Luminous connotes a steady state, wind, prana, connote something that flows. This explains why they are interchangeable even though they never seem interchangeable.

So I think everything we have could be described as a Method of Increasing Luminosity.

And since Marici literally means 'ray of light' she would be central to this?

shaberon

31st December 2020, 07:03

So in shaking, there is no problem with reposing like an infant in a womb, in fact there is no problem with being an infant in a womb, but there does seem to be a problem with trying to go some place you have already been. If it succeeded at all, it would be dull instead of blissful. Instead, everything is seen for the first time, which is fine except it isn't what one, as a human, is used to.

I am not used to anything like it.

Ganapati told me to go search for the proper red in the darkness.

If anything, I am looking for something that is repeatable, the ability to visualize this color and to paint the idol with it. I do not really expect that to happen for a long time.

On the other hand I have seen fully-random things that are not the same for a second and would make it hard to say that one was "anywhere" except where light is subject to impulses.

Concerning the Shape of Zeroes and Bindus and what Khasama may be talking about, it came to mind there is one more example of Nine which is also like Eight Spokes plus a Center.

There are two main traditions of Kaya or Body Mandala in Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

The standard one is called Sarvavid Vairocana.

The other, uncommon one is called Navosnisa for Nine Usnisas.

Tabo (https://www.tabomonastery.org/seite/477964/mandala-temple.html) at Lahaul and Spiti says they have it, but do not show it.

They do show it in Korea (https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/navosnisa-mandala-anonymous/ngHa5p4V_13WGg?hl=en). They say it is a rare example where the Usnisas are shown arising from their symbols.

Here is a Tabo image where they also appear "seated" from a recent report (https://www.researchgate.net/figure/a-Center-of-Navosnisa-Sakyamuni-mandala-Tabo-dkyil-khang-mural-painting-photograph-by_fig10_326318992):

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Amy_Heller3/publication/326318992/figure/fig10/AS:647141043236867@1531301856765/a-Center-of-Navosnisa-Sakyamuni-mandala-Tabo-dkyil-khang-mural-painting-photograph-by.png

On p. 22 of Bodhisattva with Mask (https://pdfslide.net/documents/bodhisattva-with-mask.html) it specifies that Navosnisa means central figure plus eight usnisa deities. This is an in-depth study on Jaliniprabha and the linguistic problems of Jvala and Jala; it for instance describes the Vadiraj mandala. Also that Navosnisa is our NSP 22 version.

One of Navosnisa's deities is Gaganaganja (https://books.google.com/books?id=l8VWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT654&lpg=PT654&dq=navosnisa&source=bl&ots=5qzH73tqJg&sig=ACfU3U28W-I74ZWk_gqyNKyRcj1w0_fdIA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6ubSRw_ftAhXExlkKHXV8Cmk4ChDoATABegQIARAC#v=onepage&q=navosnisa&f=false) and he is perfuse in Paramadya.

It is standard to call the ring of Sixteen Bodhisattvas "the Vajrasattvas".

We have just declared him to be a Tathagata, so, this is kind of like saying any Bodhisattvas are owing to him.

Female Usnisas are Dharanis. Usnisa Vijaya and Sitatapatra Parasol or Vajra Usnisa are by far the most important, the others are difficult to even name, much less find material for. I think Jvalamukhi was one and nothing else even comes to mind.

That is a good question...why would he bother to emit eight different deities from his head...are they "spaces"? Exponentially-expanding logarithmic powers?

I am not sure. It is an "almost secret" way of doing body mandala as well as Dharanis.

shaberon

31st December 2020, 07:23

So this explains something to me about what a 'sentient being' is, I've been reading the Avatamsaka and it keeps coming up that sentient beings need to be worked over to become beings that can start becoming bodhisattvas (Cleary very frustratingly translates 'bodhisattva' everywhere).

Sometimes it is said that it just means "human beings", except here, it is something defined as a given mental apparatus.

An animal does not quite have the same apparatus, and is not thought to hear and respond to teaching in the same way as a person can.

But yes, the general idea is correct. Only Bodhisattvas receive Buddha's teaching directly, and it is mainly they who assist us to become Bodhisattvas. And while this is going on, the first Seven Bhumis are considered Reversible, which is why this is kind of a special batch for us to train in. Until the whole thing is solid, we are seen as able to lose the Path again.

And since Marici literally means 'ray of light' she would be central to this?

Yes.

I think there is a reason that the basic Tara companions are Marici and Ekajati, and those two go on to become something far from basic.

You "can" wrangle with them in their outer or Kriya forms, you do not have to, but at some point, they will assert themselves with respect to one's inner nature.

The only thing that really shows the fulfillment of this hypothesis is Sadhanamala. However the explanation that the real Marici appears at the time of Buddhahood to reveal it to all the Tathagatas, is from somewhere else. The definition of Ekajati as One More Birth or equivalent to Vajradhara is from the Sutra.

shaberon

31st December 2020, 17:35

Marici is kind of a "late model" goddess who does not, by name, reach back into pre-Buddhism like Mayuri or Matangi. She must be an aspect of Ushas, who does, but it is a bit odd that we would have a Homa which preserves Bharati in her ancient original meaning while not letting Ushas participate (by name).

We can say the Buddhist Sun is a weird tantric process in Jewel Family, which Marici is not usually part of, although she is usually in their color, unlike most Vairocana deities.

It is weird because the invisible electro-magnetic sun is more important than the shiny visible one, and its invisible nature is non-different from the same energies in man, or i. e. we have "captured a drop of the sun". Thus if we say there is love and intelligence and so on, it is this, the real "substance" of the sun.

The Sun is just a reflector of the central spiritual sun; Marici is Dipper Mother, and so the Noumenal Sun possesses some greater cosmic aspect, or the cosmic allowed or caused the individual solar system to form. This is, perhaps, a bit more philosophical than practical, whereas practices are all about the experience of doing it oneself, of finding Light in some spectrum other than the apparent one.

Luminosity is the very subject of Shentong (https://www.tsadra.org/2011/03/24/prajnaparamita-indian-gzhan-stong-pas-and-the-beginning-of-tibetan-gzhan-stong/) in an article looking for a "Sanskrit original", which there is, a refutation of Cittamatra Yogacara and of Sakara Vijnana Vada, and so Shentong comes closest to the title Nirakara Vijnana Vada, or Parasunya. Again, it accepts both Cittamatra and Prasangika--Rangtong as provisionally useful, but has its own way of accessing the Ultimate as described in the Three Natures of Yogacara, which is the teaching of Maitreya.

Two Prajnaparamita commentaries state:

Both also use the terms tathāgatagarbha and “fundamental change” (āśrayaparivṛtti), while making it clear that the perfect nature—suchness or mind’s natural luminosity—is completely unchanging and only obscured by adventitious stains.

The synonyms are of the same subject, although is some cases by degrees:

The Āmnāyānusāriṇī also relates suchness (the perfect nature) to its three stages of being impure, partially pure, and being utterly pure, usually explained as referring to tathāgatagarbha. Suchness, prajñāpāramitā, and the dharmakāya are held to be equivalent and said to represent ground, path, and fruition, respectively, in terms of the one and same suchness being more or less obscured by adventitious stains.

According to Wiki, Luminous Mind (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_mind) is:

prabhāsvara-citta

while Luminosity is:

prabhāsvaratā

The main root for "Light" is "Bhas", such as in Bhaskari or Vajrabhaskari with Seven Syllable deity. "Pra" is an intensifier, and the whole is often translated as "Clear Light" or "Purity".

However, "Vara" has little meaning of "Clear", it is more like Arya (noble) or -uttara (utmost):

manuṣyavara: Best of men

or is a Boon like in Varada Mudra.

"Light Maker" seems to be only used with Seven Syllable deity as in Buddhist Studies Review (https://archive.org/stream/BackCopiesOfBuddhistStudiesReview/Bsr9.21992_djvu.txt):

L smrti, mindfulness, is viewed as Sri Heruka;

2. dharma-pravicaya, investigation of dharmas, as HerukI;

3. virya, spiritual energy, as Vajrabhairavl;

4. prlti, joyfulness, as Ghoracandi;

5. prasrabdhi, tranquillity, as Vajrabhaskari;

6. samadhi, concentration, as Vajraraudri, and

7. upeksa, equanimity, is viewed as VajradakinI.

Vajrabhaskari is a Green Jewel Family goddess, corresponding to Samtrasani; as to whether it is an extension of Marici is hard to say. Bhaskara (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhaskara) was a name for Aditya--Surya--Sun since the Gupta era, ca. 300s, whereas Bhasvara (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhasvara) can be found as a gift from the Sun to Mars.

Bhaskari is in Sadhanamala once at the end of Vajra Tara 95:

vidhāya vajratārāyāḥ sādhanaṃ yan mayārjitam /
śubhaṃ tena janā sarve mantrasambuddhabhāskarāḥ //

And yes, she is the one enmeshed with Vajra Surya initiation.

As we can see, the Seven Jewels are far from a naming convention, those are all hypostases of things that are difficult to even describe. It looks like Vajrabhaskari would accept whatever we could glean of the Sun from Sarvadurgati Parishodana, along with the seemingly-related Vajramrita Tantra and perhaps Ganapati, and Marici. Here, Tranquility or Prasrabdhi is usually called "the Cathartic", i. e. is the basis of profound and fundamental change, similar to what Kriya--Charya is saying about Calming or Shamata.

One cannot say much of anything about Vajraraudri without Samputa Tantra.

Like Ganapati, this complex development is not present in the older original material, although Luminosity appears in older Pali sources:

In the Saṅgīti-sutta for example, it relates to the attainment of samadhi, where the perception of light (āloka sañña) leads to a mind endowed with luminescence (sappabhāsa).

The Pali Dhātuvibhaṅga-sutta uses the metaphor of refining gold to describe equanimity [Upeksa] reached through meditation, which is said to be "pure, bright, soft, workable, and luminous".

Buddhaghosa also mentions that the mind is made luminous by the fourth jhana in his Visuddhimagga.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu sees the luminous mind as "the mind that the meditator is trying to develop. To perceive its luminosity means understanding that defilements such as greed, aversion, or delusion are not intrinsic to its nature, are not a necessary part of awareness."

Luminosity is present in the First Turning, as well as the Second Turning or Sutra Mahayana. In the Pañcavimsati Prajñaparamita sutra, the prabhsvara-citta is interpreted thus:

This mind (citta) is no-mind (acitta), because its natural character is luminous. What is this state of the mind’s luminosity (prabhsvarat)? When the mind is neither associated with nor dissociated from greed, hatred, delusion, proclivities (anusaya), fetters (samyojana), or false views (drsti), then this constitutes its luminosity. Does the mind exist as no-mind? In the state of no-mind (acittat), the states of existence (astit) or non-existence (nstit) can be neither found nor established... What is this state of no-mind? The state of no-mind, which is immutable (avikra) and undifferentiated (avikalpa), constitutes the ultimate reality (dharmat) of all dharmas. Such is the state of no-mind.

Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga, also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and also another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi). In some Mahayana shastras, natural purity is another term for Emptiness, Suchness and Dharmadhatu. Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha for example, states:

The essential purity (prakṛtivyavadāna), i.e., the true nature (tathatā), emptiness (śūnyatā), the utmost point of reality (bhūtakoti), the signless (animitta), the absolute (paramārtha), the fundamental element (dharmadhātu).

The Bhadrapala-sutra states that the element of consciousness (vijñanadhatu) is pure and penetrates all things while not being affected by them, like the rays of the sun, even though it may appear defiled.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the luminous mind (Tibetan: gsal ba) is often equated with the Yogacara concept of svasaṃvedana (reflexive awareness). It is often compared to a lamp in a dark room, which in the act of illuminating objects in the room also illuminates itself.

Versus the blackness of Deep Sleep:

If one has the ability to remain lucid during deep sleep, one will be able to recognize the luminosity of death and gain Buddhahood. This is called the meeting of mother and child luminosities, resulting in the state of thukdam at death.

So it is like our entire subject is in this one term, Prabhasvara. It is distributed and offspring lights, but, on its own plane, it is the Absolute Object underlying the Voids. Is the Tibetan accurate? Is it Clear? It contains the nuances of Shentong and appears almost exclusively with Seven Syllable deity, as far as referring to Light instead of just Fire.

It is non-different from Tathagata Garbha or Buddha Heart, which is not just an experience of transcendental light per se, but also its application towards the benefit of others, which mostly consists of discovering the same.

It seems to me that the Eighth and Ninth, or Alaya and Amala Consciousnesses, do not practically exist for anyone, and are a bit like dividing the final Bhumi of full Buddhahood into three or more parts. As H. H. Rangjung Dorje says, it is more the Seventh Consciousness which is of extreme concern, and is like our most subtle aspect, and the continuity over lifetimes. He wrote on a Sutra basis, but, we can see the same intent at the Mountains of Vajrayogini and with Vajradhara, which are the tantric aims at the philosophical concept.

Vajrasattva is like a preface to it, to harness the Sixth Consciousness and affirm that a display of light is crucial for the entire enterprise.

Prabhasvara is found in Sadhanamala with Vajrasana 3:

tataḥ śunyatāṃ vibhāvayet / sarvadharmān
019ḷ09 niḥsvabhāvarūpān vibhāvya akṣararūpaṃ bodhicittasvarūpaṃ
019ḷ10 prabhāsvaram ātmānaṃ paśyet /

Sthiracakraya 44:

grāhyagrāhakahānito jagad idaṃ svapnendrajālopamaṃ śuddhaṃ ca prakṛtiprabhāsvaratayā vyomopamāmāśritam /

Arapacana 55:

paramārthasārthaṃ punar ātmadehaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ taṃ sakṛd eva paśyet //

Manjuvajra 71:

tato bhagavantaṃ nijabījena sahaikībhūtaṃ dṛṣṭvā sarvaṃ traidhātukaṃ sthāvaraṃ jaṅgamaṃ pratītyasamutpannaṃ svapnamāyāprativimbotpamam avicārāsahaṃ vicintya prakṛtiprabhāsvaram eva kevalaṃ pariśuddham ātmānaṃ bhāvayet /

Dharma Sankha Samadhi Manjushri 81:

tadabhyantare vartulaṃ
157ḷ15 śuklaikarekhāvṛtaṃ araṃ tanmadhye śuklapadmaṃ evaṃ likhitvā
157ḷ16 kārttikaphālgunavaiśākhādipaurṇamāsyāṃ pūjānaivedyādi-
157ḷ17 pūrvakaṃ baliṃ dattvā samāhito maṇḍalamadhye vajraparyaṅkenopaviṣṭo
157ḷ18 mañjuśrīrūpaparāvṛttam amitābhabuddharūpam ātmānaṃ
157ḷ19 dharmadhātusamaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ bhāvayet /

Astamabhaya Tara 99:

tasya madhye nunar bījaṃ vahniraśmiprabhāsvaram //

Sukla Kurukulla 180:

paścāt oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako 'habhityanena
mantreṇa śūnyatāṃ vibhāvya tritattvenādhiṣṭhāya punar ātmāna-
m ākāśe citralikhitam iva prabhāsvararūpaṃ cintayet /

Usnisa Vijaya 212:

caityāntargatamoṃkāraṃ trāmākāraṃ prabhāsvaram /

After the mandala formula of Vajravarahi 217:

tanmadhye raktapaṃkārajam aṣṭadalapadmaṃ tadvaraṭake ālikālipariṇatacandra-
sūryyasampuṭamadhye raktavajrāntargataṃ raktavaṃkāraṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ
paśyet /

and at the end of Vajravarahi 226:

traidhātukaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ mahā-
sukhākāraṃ paśyed iti /

It has a few more ordinary usages; but we see Prabhasvara is tied to Luminous Mind--Bodhi Citta, as it is also to Prakriti. Most of these excerpts are from the early parts of sadhanas in dealing with Voidness and Purity mantra before the main thing starts.

217 gives us the sense of Red Pam and Lotus, Vowels and Consonants, which is kind of the "workhorse" of spawn sequences, followed by the relation of Light to Matter.

Marici must be using her own vocabulary.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana begins by saluting Vajrasattva, so those should also work together.

Parasol is like a female Vajrosnisa as given in the male version where the Usnisas appear to be "of the Families":

namas te
śākyasiṃhāya dharmacakrapravartakaḥ||

traidhātukaṃ
jagatsarvaṃ śodhavet sarvadurgatim||

namas te
vajroṣṇīṣāya dharmadhātusvabhāvataḥ||

sarvasattvahitārthāya
ātmatattvapradarśakaḥ||

namas te
ratnoṣṇīṣāya samatātattvabhāvanaiḥ||

traidhātukaṃ
sthitaṃ sarvam abhiṣekapradāyakaḥ||

namas te
padmoṣṇīṣāya svabhāvapratyavekṣakaḥ||

āśvāsayati
sattveṣu dharmāṃṛtapravarṣaṇaiḥ||

namas te
viśvoṣṇīṣāya svabhāvakṛtyānuṣṭhitaḥ||

viśvakarmakaro
hy eṣāṃ sattvānāṃ duḥkhaśāntaye||

namas te
tejoṣṇīṣāya traidhātukam avabhāsayet||

sarvasattveṣv
apāyeṣu satyadṛṣṭvā kariṣyati||

namas te
dhvajoṣṇīṣāya cintāmaṇidhvajadharaḥ||

dānena
sarvasattvānāṃ sarvāśā paripūrayet||

namas te
tīkṣṇoṣṇīṣāya kleśopakleśachedakaḥ||

caturmārabalabhagnaṃ
sattvānāṃ bodhiḥ prāpyate||

namas te
chatroṣṇīṣāya sitātapatraśobhanam||

traidhātukaṃ
jagatsarvaṃ dharmarājatvam prāpyate||

īāsyā mālā
tathā gītā nṛtyā devyaś catuṣṭayāḥ||

puṣpā
dhūpā ca dīpā ca gandhā devī namo'stu te||

It deals with their Mudras:

prabhākāras tejorāśimudrā|

vajrabandhe
madhyame vajrākāreṇa tarjanyo ratnākārau kṛtvā śeṣāḥ prabhākārā jayoṣṇīṣamudrā|

which are still close to Bharava--Eyes, Yakshas, and Noose:

vajrabhairavanetramudrā| tasyādhastād

vajrayakṣeṇa
mudrāsahitena punar bandhaṃ kuryāt

oṃ
vajrayakṣa huṃ iti| vajrāñjaler aṅguṣṭhadvayam prasāritaṃ tarjanīdvayaṃ daṃṣṭrā|
vajrayakṣamudrā|

vajroṣṇīṣeṇa
mudrāyuktena pūrvāṃ diśaṃ bandhayet|

oṃ druṃ
bandha haṃ iti| druṃ iti vā|

vajramuṣṭidvayaṃ
kanyasāśṛṅkhalābandhena tarjanīdvayasūcīmukhaṃ parivartoṣṇīṣe sthāpayet| vajroṣṇiṣamudrā|

punar
vajrapāśena tām eva bandhayet|

huṃ
vajrapāśe hrīḥ iti| vajramuṣṭidvayena bāhugranthiṃ

kuryāt|
vajrapāśamudrā|

Old Student

1st January 2021, 00:44

Old Student

1st January 2021, 00:49

I think there is a reason that the basic Tara companions are Marici and Ekajati, and those two go on to become something far from basic.

I had a very strange shaking last night, I was "solidifying". Everything that normally would have been bliss was coming out ash and stone, and gradually, instead of filling up with bliss, I was filling up with stone. There was an abdominal contraction at the center of it, very hard to the point of pain, and by the near end of the night everything I did was contributing to either filling up with stone and ash or becoming heavier and more solid.

It reversed itself finally after hours of such 'solidification'.

shaberon

1st January 2021, 09:48

Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga, also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and also another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi).

But...

After the mandala formula of Vajravarahi 217:

tanmadhye raktapaṃkārajam aṣṭadalapadmaṃ tadvaraṭake ālikālipariṇatacandra-
sūryyasampuṭamadhye raktavajrāntargataṃ raktavaṃkāraṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ
paśyet /

...meaning 'innate' prabhasvara. So there must be another layer of complexity or simplicity depending on the point of view.

Well, by interpretation. Prakriti is undifferentiated matter, unless one goes to the extent to call that Mula Prakriti and then use Prakriti for the matter of ordinary nature.

The idea is very simple, which is that what we call consciousness is an inseparable attribute from matter, like mass. Just as an atom of Prithvi Dhatu has mass, an atom of Vijnana Dhatu "is aware".

In all cases, there are increasingly Subtle and increasingly Mental kinds of matter, imperceptible to terrestrial senses.

So then, yes, Light is an innate part of some kind of matter other than physical matter. If it is an innate part of mental matter, then this is what the inner meaning seems to be getting at.

Citta Prakriti Vishuddhi just means Mind (Nature or Matter) (Pure or Purified)

Mental layers may be called Vijnana, Manas, and Citta, wherein vijnana is any consciousness which may flow out the senses, manas is mentation or mental processes, and Citta is Luminous.

I am not aware of a correspondence from Cunda to Parasol.

What seems odd about Cunda is that she has a red samaya being related to Fruit Picker.

A few deities use a Parasol item.

But I am not aware of Cunda ever being called an Usnisa-class deity.

We said Parasol is Vajrosnisa which is like an Usnisa in Vajra Family, but, not quite. The Usnisas do appear to be the Tathagatas, however. Sarvadurgati has the following parental system:

i. Vairocana
i., Mahavairocana Sakyasimha

2. Mahavairocana
Vajrosnisa and three others (i, e, the main Usnisas)

3- Vajrosnisa
Eastern Deities
Deities in the Agni corner.

4, Ratnosnisa
1. Southern Deities
2. Deities in the Nairtta corner.

5. Padmosnisa
1. Western Deities
2. Deities in the Vayu corner,

6, Visvosnlsa
1. Northern Deities
2. Deities in the lsana corner,

So Vajrosnisa is an emanation of Maha Vairocana, and then performs as if Vajra Family by emanating the East. There is a ton of stuff in this mandala, but the Usnisas have laid it out in an easy fashion.

We know it expresses the Nine Planets in an outright bizarre manner, but what is even worse is how they confabulate the principal Hindu deities:

I* Principal Gods

1. Nilakantha , ..., Bull
2. Visnu and Vajrahema, Garuda
3. Vajraghanta and Kaumarl, Peacock
4. Maunavajra and Vajrasanti, Swan
5. Vajrayudha and Vajramusti, Elephant

Shiva is first on a Bull, and his Shakti is of course Sati...Lasya...Parvati...maybe they did not know it yet. Just a blank. Ayudha is Indra's personal weapon, and here he is with female Musti or Fist. Mars has a Ghanta or Bell. Mauna is "silence"--not sure who that is supposed to be--likely Brahma.

After the Planets comes some ad hoc Vajrasaunda group:

1. Vajrasaunda and Vajravinaya, Elephant
2. Vajramala and Vajrasana, Kokila chariot
3. Vajravamsa and Vajravamsa, White chariot
4. Vijayavajra and Vajrasena, Frog
5. Vajramusala and Vajraduti, Flower chariot

It is almost inscrutable except Vajrasena is a General, usually a Yaksha, usually male. Saunda is intoxicated or fond of it; whether this is with a female Vinayaki, we could only guess; Vinaya by itself would be a rather strange name. The couple could be Intoxicated and Disciplined. It is a strange group headed by Elephant power. I have no idea what this is.

In the quarters are Vajrabhairava and Vajravarahi (Mukhi):

3. Vajrankusa and Vajramukhi on Sesha Naga
6. Vajrabhairava and Vajravikata on Ghost

It looks much as if this was before/prior to Vetali and Varahi tantras.

Vikata is "Hideous", rarely used as a female name:

Vikaṭā (विकटा).—A giantess in the harem of Rāvaṇa. She tried to entice Sītā for Rāvaṇa.

However she is also a Wisdom in Vajramrita Tantra.

Since there are only six quarters, it may mean Vajrabhairava is in the Nadir.

After Vajravinayaka on a Rat, there is Putana on a Rat, Bhima, Sri, Sarasvati, and Simhadurga.

Putana is "Putrefaction" and has a complicated relationship with Vamana and Krishna.

Yes, this is Lion Buddha at the beginning and Lion Durga at the end.

And, those are Navosnisa and Nava Durga.

That may make it close to a widely-known "Nine Spaces", and it opens by invoking Vajrasattva. He is the first of Four Pranama (Obeisances), and he is Adhistitha (Consecration). He comes up over thirty times, appears to be involved with Vajra Nama or Name Initiation, with Krodhas as Mahabala, is with or is Samantabhadra Mahasukha, is not far from Vajra Daka and Vajrapani, seems to be a hypostasis of Vajrahumkara. Skimming through that makes it look as if the major aspect of this tantra is in Vajrasattva becoming Wrathful and handling the magic of mandalas.

Well, yes, if I put this in a room with Khasama, I don't think they're going to fight.

Prajnaparamita is always synonymous with the "central" Dharmadhatu or any of the rest of it. Other deities are therefor similar to her to the extent they express the whole or a portion. She is a hypostasis into Viswamata in Kalachakra Tantra, or, it has also been said that Prajnaparamita becomes Vajradhatvishvari by appropriating Marici and radiating light. Either of those is a way of cramming in the full tantric explanation, thereby elaborating the Sutras.

Here for instance is Kausika Prajnaparamita Sutra (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/69/589) wherein she becomes all skandhas and elements:

rūpāparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| evaṃ vedanāsaṃjñāsaṃskāravijñānāparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| pṛthivīdhātvaparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| evamabdhātu-tejodhātu-vāyudhātu-ākāśadhātu-vijñānadhātvaparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā|

It is very little Sutra, it is mostly Dharanis including her usual mantra.

Kausika usually has to do with a shed skin of Parvati.

That is different than most, by purveying her as the Elements rather than the senses; nevertheless, it gives a Sixth Skandha and a Sixth Element, both called Vijnana, while focusing the usual Six Paramitas. Overall, that is the best or most correct classification to say Prajnas = Elements. It does not mean in gross form, but, the Noumenal or mental idea of the element impressed into prakriti. Perhaps like an archetype. She "is" that refined material which "has or is" a form of awareness, particularly, Wisdom.

It is called a Sutra, but is not in "the Sutras" and is nothing but a batch of tantric and spellcasting tips. Very close to an equivalent of Sadaksari Mahavidya. Either of these gives us a Six Family view right off the bat, without evoluting from four to five to six. Therefor these are like female Vajrasattvas as the Sixth Tathagata. They are "like" him, but one uses Vajra Family and the other Lotus.

Although there are apparent differences, they are of One Taste:

sarvadharmaikarasatvāt prajñāpāramitā ekarasā|

So in this one place we can see her perform as a close energetic equivalent to Nairatma or Vajra Tara, having six principles. It is the same sixfold core, once showing itself as the darkness of selflessness, as the secrets of the sun, and as the Paramitas or Perfections.

Old Student

1st January 2021, 21:14

I am not aware of a correspondence from Cunda to Parasol.

What seems odd about Cunda is that she has a red samaya being related to Fruit Picker.

A few deities use a Parasol item.

But I am not aware of Cunda ever being called an Usnisa-class deity.

There are always the two explanations that the statue is misidentified, or that the creator of the statue was misinformed about how it should look.

I went back to look, and can't find the exact pic I saw, but did find multiple Cunda statues from Indonesia/Srivijaya showing her under a parasol:

https://media.britishmuseum.org/media/Repository/Documents/2014_9/30_8/fa089e66_7ee8_4cf9_8e24_a3b60091c393/preview_00184937_001.jpg

It may be as simple as that Srivijaya was in the hot sun, and they put parasols over their goddesses.

Here for instance is Kausika Prajnaparamita Sutra wherein she becomes all skandhas and elements:

Kausika also means, "seed" or "cell" (it's used to create new words related to cytology). Could it be that the name of the sutra reflects an abbreviation (in the mind of the creator) of Prajnaparamita? It wouldn't be the first such.

shaberon

2nd January 2021, 06:14

Kausika also means, "seed" or "cell" (it's used to create new words related to cytology). Could it be that the name of the sutra reflects an abbreviation (in the mind of the creator) of Prajnaparamita? It wouldn't be the first such.

Yes.

It is rather short and it is at least half Dharanis.

I would argue there are slightly different systems or examples of portraying Thirty-seven Point Enlightenment, such as Vajrasekhara which is a male-based version used in Shingon.

Further, I would argue the Preliminary Thirty-seven Points as used in Kriya-Charya are the esoteric instructions on how to get the more formal kind, shown in Sarvadurgati Parishodana and many other places, which is Mandala, to work.

Overall, Mandala is always a compound of multiple sub-systems, the most important of which are given right there with Kausika Prajnaparamita.

And so for instance if we look, we see that Sukla Tara has Grounds and Fence and that's it. The thing grows, and most of the rest of them have Vajra Panjara or Canopy, but, only a few also have Vitana which "is" canopy but it is Curtains, in a cosmetic, silky way. That is how it is like a formulaic progression.

The main subject in the Kriya-Charya instructions is "Devata".

So we could say Devata and Mandala are two different explanations entirely, and although there are different kinds of Mandalas, they are all based in the same stuff, and it is to focus Paramitas, Dhyanas, Skandhas, Ayatanas, and so on, in a fusion, at once.

I have not yet gone back to see what the translator came up with ca. 1983 for Sarvadurgati Parishodana. That one is a lot like Khasama Tantra, an almost completely Anglicized version of a Tibetan manuscript. The untranslated Sanskrit version has, I suppose, just never had that done to it.

So we do not yet know how closely it matches the other version, but, we can glean a lot of it, and, furthermore, we can say that NSP specifically uses the Navosnisa format, instead of Sarvavid Vairocana, which is the one probably any of the usual authorities are going to give.

Usnisa tells me it has flown from the Crown of Buddha and I am easily persuaded that this is not just desirable, but accessible.

It works with Vajrasattva and has a few instances of Luminescence.

We would expect to see Candra and Surya Prabha, but it also uses Amrtaprabha four times. For example, it is there shortly after Jnanaketu (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/jnanaketu) which is a Jewel Family Bodhisattva, whose symbol is Dhvaja or Banner, which, when added to his name, makes a deity from Lalita Vistara. This helps recall that Dhvajagrakeyura is also part of Jewel Family.

It appears to use an Initiation Vase of Jewel Family:

amṛtaprabhaś candravarṇavirājitaḥ||

amṛtakalaśaṃ
saṃdhārya mukuṭaṃ ratnapāṇinā||

vāmamuṣṭikaṭinyasto
vistīrṇam āyurdāyakaḥ||

That is close enough to a Ratna Paramita which corresponds to Ayur Discipline that it reminds me of Namasangiti. His Left Fist is Ayur Dayaka, which is a Patron of the Sangha, or perhaps the Donor of Life here.

The Usnisas have a noticeable role in Sarvadurgati, and, they are led by or derived from Vajrosnisa. He starts it, and then bonds with the Yakshas. After the Yaksha section, it is going to use Tathagata Vajrosnisa to distribute the Four Seals around Four Kinds of Women:

(27 )

tataś
caturmudrāḥ|

prathamaṃ
pūrvoktavidhimudrayā samayamudrā nibandhayet|

tataḥ
pūrvoktamantreṇa dharmamudrā vidhīyate| tataḥ karmamudrāmantreṇa

karmamudrāṃ
badhnīyāt| tato mahāmudrāmantreṇa mahāmudrāṃ badhnīyāt|

tato vajroṣṇīṣāditathāgataiḥ
sattvavajrīratnavajrīdharmavajrīkarmavajrīṃ sphārayitvā samāṇḍaleyadevatāśrīśākyarājapramukhavajrāveśaparyantam

abhiṣekaṃ
dadyāt|

pañcabhiṣekādhipatidaśaparyantaṃ
dadyāt| abhiṣekānantaram|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatadhūpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatapuṣpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatadīpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatagandhapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

tato
lāsyādicatuṣṭayena pūjayet|

The Families are unusual, since there is a Samaya or Sattva first, although it does not like like the Seals eaxctly match the Vajris.

And so it goes around making Offerings, and what are you doing, greeting Lasya.

Now, wait, hold on, it was as if she was a secret manifestation with Seven Syllable deity, but if we keep digging, that is strongly suggested here since in further Merit Clouds, there is Omniscience of the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment, followed by Omniscience of Lasya and some friends:

sarvavid bodhyaṅgaratnālaṃkāra

sarvavld hāsyalāsyaratikrīḍāsaukhyānuttara

And well, Lasya is mentioned many times, including the description of her Devis which says the last or Karma Family is Variegated Color:

lāsyādidevyaś
catasraḥ kulavarṇakadhāriṇyaḥ||

sitaṃ pītaṃ
raktaṃ viśvavarṇakam||

After various mantras up to Ghanta or Bell, you get:

vajralāsyādīnāṃ vajrāveśaparyantānām iti|

Vajra Possession by Lasya and others.

And so this is only a thin veneer away from the Highest Yoga Seven Syllable deity and even the special Gauris found in All Colors.

I am not sure that the female Usnisas of the Dharanis are necessarily a one-to-one equivalence to those found here. These male Usnisas are sitting on human beings and it has its own Parasol who is Chatra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/chatra) Usnisa who is conjured eighth and last in the Isana corner. He holds a White Parasol and appears related to Shrnkala or Chain:

saivañjaliḥ
prabhākāras tejorāśimudrā|

tām evoṣṇīṣasthāne
bhrāmayet sitātapatramudrā|

vajrabandhe
kanyasāṃguṣṭhadvayaṃ śṛṃkhalākāreṇa baddhvordhvaṃ

bhrāmayet|

He has an item which has cribbed the name from a deity in the older Shurangama Sutra. But he does not have this name. Sitatapatra has multiple aliases among whom is one of the weirdest deities, Aparajita. Firstly Aparajita has the same context of Jewel Family, Noose, Yakshas and Underworld that are shown in Sarvadurgati while in a unique Slapping pose trampling Ganapati, Parasol is never really shown partnered but Aparajita gets male Aparajita and they do Calat which is the Swing Recitation from Vajravilasini. Parasol does not appear to correspond to Chatrosnisa since she has the epithet Vajrosnisa. It is found within her long Dharani (https://bxbustagroove.blogspot.com/2016/08/2016_4.html):

bhagavan stathagatosnisa sitatapatra maha vajrosnisa ,
maha pratyangire maha sahasra bhuje sahasra-sirse ,

It also says that Ghora Aparajita is Pandara and Bhrkuti. I am not sure where there is another example of this. All of the Bhrkutis are Peaceful.

Lady Parasol is a 1,000 Arm and Head Vajrosnisa capable of destroying the strongest evil magic, which is why it is held to be essential for at least this Sutra to remain in the world.

Although her "category" most closely resembles Vajrosnisa, it also seems to say she is part of the Usnisa of any Tathagata.

It makes her sound interlocking.

Male Vajrosnisa is actually a Lokeshvara. That would make him not strictly or solely Vajra Family. It is in 108 Forms of Avalokiteshvara in Kathmandu.

But Seven Syllable deity also consists of a White Heruka, Vajra Family, and Avalokiteshvara.

Usnisa Vijaya and Cunda also appear to use Vairocana and Lotus Family. I would guess the pictured figurine is Cunda since it looks like she is holding a bowl. My next guess would be that her umbrella would be considered as invisibly supported by her attendants.

The Bowl however is also a Patra or like an Inverted Parasol.

shaberon

2nd January 2021, 09:37

I noticed something weird.

IWS Samputa Vajrasattva is Vajramrita in his heart mantra, and uses Vajra Ghanta's All-Purpose mantra.

That is not it, but that got my attention. What is a bit weird is Usnisa.

Usnisa Vijaya has a Nine Deity configuration, but it is a Tibetan inspired sadhana, just like Long Life Trinity, it is not Indian.

Buddhosnisa Vijaya (https://glorisunglobalnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/hualin1.2_shinohara.pdf) comes from Mahavairocana Sutra or is related to it, but does not give the deities. And yet Amoghavajra's translated version has them.

She emanates male deities. And then when his turn comes up, male Parasol actually is called Sitatapatra.

So I was wrong about that. But her original text doesn't identify her retinue; it has been fitted to her.

Her older version is Thirty-three deities, found in Vajravali and Mitra Gyatsa. However Himalayan Art cannot identify her inner ring:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/8/5/88540.jpg

This is the last deity in IWS, 506. It sources her from Vijaya Kalpa or Sarva Tathagatosnisa Vijaya Nama Dharani Kalpa. She is crowned by Vairocana. It, of course, does not mention the retinue, although it says all but four have nectar flasks. She is also 183 and 425, but these are her ordinary Nine Deity format.

She lacks Amoghasiddhi, her exercises deal with Five Families and Four Elements, is part of Kriya.

Parasol however has more mandalas:

Sixteen Deity Mandala (Three Faces, Eight Arms)
- Seventeen Deity Mandala (1000 Faces, 1000 Arms)
- Twenty-seven Deity Mandala (1000 Faces, 1000 Arms)
- Twenty-nine Deity Mandala, Mitra Gyatsa (Three Faces, Eight Arms)

Her Eight Arm form manages to acquire a Banner:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/9/0/79037.jpg

The mandalas of her Maha form are from Tantra Samuccaya:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/8/1/58145.jpg

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/8/1/58146.jpg

colorized Sakya version:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/1/6/9164.jpg

a symbolic view showing Amoghasiddhi is present and that she turns the East Blue:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/1/6/2/16222.jpg

Here is a somewhat nebulous statement that she can emit goddesses:

"The remaining 35 peaceful goddesses, in various colours, each have one face and two hands and hold a variety of objects and perform numerous mudras, seated on moon discs and lotus cushions. The 10 buddhas, Mahakala and the 35 goddesses form the mandala retinue of Sitatapatra."

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/2/8/8/288.jpg

Just like there, she is also often related to Usnisa Vijaya.

The only Sitatapatra in Sadhanamala is the six arm form which lets us know that she can lose or let go of the parasol.

We cannot say much about her mandalas or retinues, yet.

Old Student

3rd January 2021, 05:15

And so this is only a thin veneer away from the Highest Yoga Seven Syllable deity and even the special Gauris found in All Colors.

This seems it would be either Parasol or Usnisa, or somehow in the text, Lasya? Is Lasya here as a deity, or is lasya being used to describe that they are dancing?

Usnisa Vijaya and Cunda also appear to use Vairocana and Lotus Family. I would guess the pictured figurine is Cunda since it looks like she is holding a bowl. My next guess would be that her umbrella would be considered as invisibly supported by her attendants.

The Bowl however is also a Patra or like an Inverted Parasol.

I forgot to tell you that in addition to finding Cunda with a parasol over her -- in one instance definitely a parasol, in another something that seemed like a cross between a parasol or canopy and the upper parts of a stupa -- I also came across a bronze statue from Indonesia, probably Srivijaya, that was two deities sitting enthroned (not in conjoining) male and female, identified as Avalokitashvara and Vasudhara, arrayed as if king and queen.

Old Student

3rd January 2021, 05:32

shaberon

3rd January 2021, 09:38

It seems as far as I was able to ferret out, that Buddhosnisa Vijaya or Mahosnisa Vijaya has this ability because she is identified also with the mother of the Buddha.

This is a really nice form to have them emanating from a "mother", thank you.

Her Eight Arm form manages to acquire a Banner:

The Chinese on the bottom of the image directly after the above quote identifies her as the "Fomu" (female Buddha) Sri(mati) White Parasol (聖白傘蓋佛母). Is Buddhosnisa Vijaya then identical to Sitatapatra?

Buddha Mother is a spiritual concept not meaning a mother to him, personally, but verily to the Mother of Bodhi in all individuals.

That could rightly be called Prajnaparamita or Vasudhara, and in the tantras it is Buddha Dakini and Sarva Buddha Dakini.

The Chinese would just seem to equate Parasol to a Tathagata.

According to Himalayan Art, Buddha Mother is an important idea:

In the Tantric Buddhist religion the letter 'A' represents a number of different things depending on the Buddhist vehicle and the individual tradition. In Mahayana Buddhism, the letter 'A' relates to the shortest of all of the Prajnaparamita Sutras - the Prajnaparamita in a Single Letter (see below). Also in Tantra theory, the Prajnaparamita Sutras, as a group, can be personified as the female deity of the same name - Prajnaparamita, regarded as the Mother of all wisdom and the mother of all Buddhas.

As a deity represented in art, Prajnaparamita is relatively minor with only a few variations of iconographic form. With regard to the different religious traditions of Tantric Buddhism, it is the Cho (Severance) founded by Machig Labdron and the Drigung Kagyu founded by Jigten Sumgon that place a special emphasis on Prajnaparamita and subsequently depict the deity in their paintings and sculpture.

In general Tantric Buddhist theory the three letters om, a and hum represent the body, speech and mind of an individual. The three letters serve symbolically as a bridge between the individual and the Tantric practice of meditation on the form of a deity - Deity Yoga.

In the Nyingma Tradition the letter 'A' is highly symbolic and closely related to the teachings of the philosophical view known as Dzogchen. A physical yet still symbolic manifestation of the principal of the 'A' is a clear quartz crystal rock. During specific Nyingma initiation rituals an initiation card displaying the letter 'A' will be shown next to a length of clear quartz crystal, or drawn together on a single initiation card. The letter 'A' as an object of meditation can also be found in the Mahamudra traditions of the Sakya and Kagyu Schools but rarely depicted in art. The Bon religion, like the Buddhist Nyingma, place a great deal of emphasis on their form of the Dzogchen philosophy and the Tibetan letter 'A.'

In the Kriya classification, the Mother of Tathagata Family is Marici, Pratisara, and Grahamatrika.

It is the only family that has Usnisa deities:

. Ushnisha of the Family: (Vijaya, Sitatapatra, Vimala, Jvala)
- Arya Rasmivimala Vishuddhaprabhanama Dharani [Toh 510] mandala
- Arya Tatagataoshnisha Sitatapatra Nama Aparajita Pratyangira Mahavidyarajni [Toh 591] mandala
- Arya Tatagataoshnisha Sitatapatraparajita Maha Pratyangira Paramasiddhi Nama Dharani [Toh 590] mandala
- Samanta Mukha Pravesharashmi Vimaloshnisha Prabhasara Sarvathatagata hridayasamayavilokita Nama Dharani [Toh 599] mandala

5. Wrathful Deity of the Family:
- Krodhavijayakalpa [[p291]
- Chundidevi Dharani [p188]

6. Messengers of the Family: Parnashavari
- Parnashavarinama Dharani [p186]

Since Sitatapatra is called Vajrosnisa, it looks to me like she has relinquished the title Buddhosnisa to Vijaya; the roughly corresponding name if you look at the male Usnisas is Vijayosnisa. Saying that Parasol is Vajrosnia is reminiscent of her being Vajradakini, and we are reciprically going to find Vajradakini as a samaya to Varahi, who then further along becomes Buddhadakini, so we might be forced to conclude that Varahi has/is/uses both of the main female Usnisas. It says so in writing. By extension, any species of Dharmadhatu Ishvari is probably doing the same. And that could be Prajnaparamita or Parasol itself, depending when and how you are able to bundle the ideas together. If anything, Dharmadhatu is like the common ground in terminology of different names of deities and also of the Bodhisattva Bhumis. Once it is revealed it just keeps getting more powerful.

And so the Lady Usnisas--we see four named and can only say it is possible there are more--may be similar to the males but they work differently and if I ask Kriya Tantra it is going to give me Parasol as a female name and I had no idea until yesterday that there even was a male who was ever called Sitatapatra. I thought it was Chatrosnisa.

Outside of Navosnisa Sarvadurgati Parishodana, the males have no application that I am aware of, however, the females, do. All we can say is they are analogous. Same manner of production. Nothing says they directly interact that I know of.

Usnisa Vijaya and Sitatapatra are always classified separately, but closely.

Sitatapatra was a remedy for Indra as was Dhvajagrakeyura. I am not sure if anyone else has specifically done this. They were spells that worked for Indra, so, they should work for us. Although Dhvaja means Flag, her Dharani is written on fixed posts.

A few deities hold a Banner Item, it is interesting that Parasol gets this. Dhvaja does not have a nice outer Kriya presentation, other than temporarily being cleaned up as Ratnolka in Namasangiti.

It would be an unusual pairing of names to see Avalokiteshvara with Vasudhara, however, since the latter also implies Lakshmi and Tara, then it may not be too hard for that interpretation to be derived somehow.

Lasya appears to use a Murti or Form in Sarvadurgati Parishodana according to:

lāsyādidevyaś
catasraḥ kulavarṇakadhāriṇyaḥ||

sitaṃ pītaṃ
raktaṃ viśvavarṇakam||

I say this since we found for example "Locanadi" is a way of writing "Locana with or in the middle of others", like Locanadi Dasa Vilasinis or something close to that.

NSP says there are corner deities in the order, Lasya, Mala, Gita, Nrtya, the next set after the inner ring of Usnisas.

So we found a Dharani where Lasya is Vajra Possession; before this, however, she is in what I might call Flower Ceremony, which is a series of more formal mantras based on Puspa and the Tathagatas of the Ten Directions:

daśasu dikṣu
sarvabuddhān bhagavataḥ parinirvātukāmān yāce'parinirvāṇāya|

tataḥ puṣpamudrāṃ
baddhvaivaṃ vadet|

Lasya follows in a series of samaya mudras that depend on the following cumbersome phrase:

pūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye

Puja--Ritual Megha--Cloud Samudra--Ocean Spharana--Vibrating

And so the first one is for Puspa and there are several. You make a Puspa Mudra and:

oṃ
sarvavit puṣpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

The whole slew of those is followed by:

tato
lāsyādicatuṣṭayena pūjayet|

The subject "Puspa and others" along with "Lasya and others" is an established thing by the second half of the tantra:

punaḥ puṣpādibhir lāsyādyaṣṭavidhapūjayā ca pūjayet|

puṣpādibhir lāsyādibhiś cātmānaṃ saṃpūjya|

lāsyādīnāṃ
tu vajradhātu uktā eva huṃkṛtā|

So at this stage, Lasya is not "the consort", but has a leading role amongst Offerings.

Lasya is however a mantric outpouring from Nrrtya, which is the stem for "Narti" like in Padmanartesvara, the name of Amitabha in Dakini Jala:

oṃ
vajrasattvasaṃgrahād vajraratnam anuttaraṃ vajradharma gāyanair vajrakarmakaro
bhaved ity udīrayan| nṛtyaṃ kṛtvā vajralāsyādyaṣṭavidhapūjābhiḥ krodhamuṣṭidvayayuktakarmamudrābhiḥ
sarvamaṇḍalaṃ pūjayet| vajramuṣṭidvayaṃ baddhvā tarjanīdvayaṃ prasārya krodhamuṣṭidvayaṃ
bhavati|

santi ca
bhagavantaḥ sattvā nṛtyagītahāsyalāsyāhāravihārapriyatayā
sarvatathāgatamahāyānadharmatānavabodhād
anyadevakulamaṇḍalāni praviśanti|

So, yes, Lasya deity can be found as a dancer in many retinues, and then it is she that gets used as "the consort" in a big way, that is, in the explanatory Seven Syllable Vajradaka.

Musicians and Dancers are a considerable upgrade to the basic Offering Goddesses.

shaberon

3rd January 2021, 20:06

There is some similarity and confusion about Usnisa Vijaya and Sitatapatra; most of the discussions I have seen so far are an issue about whether you can use a mantra from a Sutra. Nobody has noticed that it is the only usage of Khasama or many things about it that we try to ask.

Usnisa Vijaya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U%E1%B9%A3%E1%B9%87%C4%AB%E1%B9%A3a_Vijaya_Dh%C4%81ra%E1%B9%87%C4%AB_S%C5%ABtra) was translated to Chinese ca. 679 and associated with Wu Tai Shan and Green Tara, without explanation. It was given by Buddha to Indra on behalf of another Deva. Includes a different short Usnia mantra:

oṃ amṛta-tejavati svāhā

Shurangama (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shurangama_Mantra) was translated to Chinese as early as ca. 170.

Most of what we have is Ven. Hsuan Hua's version, but, there is at least a Nepalese Sanskrit Sitatapatra Dharani (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/20/222) which is also used by Ayurveda Institute (https://www.ayurveda-institute.org/ayurvedic-medicine-online-course/doku.php?id=sitatapatra_dharani), which has Arya Tara Bhrkuti. It also mentions a White Pandara related to Shrnkala:

saumyarūpā mahāśvetā jvālā pāṇḍaravāsinī|

āryatārā mahābalā aparā vajraśṛṅkhalā||

Ayurveda also has the Chinese version showing what I was curious about:

H. Sages of the Seven Elements Section

Perfect Penetration Sages reveal 7 elements, 7 cognitive organs, 7 sense objects

137. mwo he bwo la jan chr, 138. mwo he dye dwo,

139. mwo he di she, 140. mwo he shwei dwo she pe la, 141. mwo he ba la pan two la, 142. pe syi ni,

143. e li ye dwo la,

144. pi li jyu jr, 145. shr pe pi she ye,

146. ba she la mwo li di,

It is in a kind of shuffle (https://www.ayurveda-institute.org/ayurvedic-medicine-online-course/doku.php?id=white_umbrella_deity_mantra) of multiple sources or commentaries.

I cannot read the Chinese and so far I have not gotten to where that is in a readable form of the Sutra.

Seven Elements appears in the contents (http://www.cttbusa.org/shurangama/shurangama_contents.asp.html) but then we find mis-numbered lines and nothing that corresponds.

I would like to be able to figure out what that part indicates.

Sitatapatra is considered both a female Avalokiteshvara, as well as an emanation of Vairocana.

As we see, Wrathful Cunda is considered part of Vairocana.

Usnisa, Sitatapatra, and Cunda all straddle some mix of Vairocana and Lotus Family. They are easy peasy when thought of in terms of their effects, and very difficult as to their origin and existence, and so we are just seeking some clarity about that.

Usnisa involves Trayastrimsa Heaven, and Sitatapatra even more so, emanated on that plane, viewed as important in the transformation of Indra from a lord of form to dharma.

Old Student

4th January 2021, 03:30

Buddha Mother is a spiritual concept not meaning a mother to him, personally, but verily to the Mother of Bodhi in all individuals.

That could rightly be called Prajnaparamita or Vasudhara, and in the tantras it is Buddha Dakini and Sarva Buddha Dakini.

Okay, that would work, it ends up being more close to prajna.

The Chinese would just seem to equate Parasol to a Tathagata.

I found a better explanation, I will put it in the response to your second post.

In the Tantric Buddhist religion the letter 'A' represents a number of different things depending on the Buddhist vehicle and the individual tradition. In Mahayana Buddhism, the letter 'A' relates to the shortest of all of the Prajnaparamita Sutras - the Prajnaparamita in a Single Letter (see below). Also in Tantra theory, the Prajnaparamita Sutras, as a group, can be personified as the female deity of the same name - Prajnaparamita, regarded as the Mother of all wisdom and the mother of all Buddhas.

This, I am aware of. Lama Yeshe puts the 'A' (it is specifically the short 'A' अ, I believe because it disappears entirely when used as a diacritic) as the bija of the junction of the three channels just below the waist (at dantian), and it is this 'A' which heats the prana to send it up to do blazing and dripping.

Usnisa Vijaya and Sitatapatra are always classified separately, but closely.

Again, see the response to the second post.

Musicians and Dancers are a considerable upgrade to the basic Offering Goddesses.

Why? I wonder.

Old Student

4th January 2021, 03:53

Shurangama was translated to Chinese as early as ca. 170.

Most of what we have is Ven. Hsuan Hua's version, but, there is at least a Nepalese Sanskrit Sitatapatra Dharani which is also used by Ayurveda Institute, which has Arya Tara Bhrkuti. It also mentions a White Pandara related to Shrnkala:

saumyarūpā mahāśvetā jvālā pāṇḍaravāsinī|

āryatārā mahābalā aparā vajraśṛṅkhalā||

Ayurveda also has the Chinese version showing what I was curious about:

H. Sages of the Seven Elements Section

Perfect Penetration Sages reveal 7 elements, 7 cognitive organs, 7 sense objects

137. mwo he bwo la jan chr, 138. mwo he dye dwo,

139. mwo he di she, 140. mwo he shwei dwo she pe la, 141. mwo he ba la pan two la, 142. pe syi ni,

143. e li ye dwo la,

144. pi li jyu jr, 145. shr pe pi she ye,

146. ba she la mwo li di,

It is in a kind of shuffle of multiple sources or commentaries.

I cannot read the Chinese and so far I have not gotten to where that is in a readable form of the Sutra.

Seven Elements appears in the contents but then we find mis-numbered lines and nothing that corresponds.

I would like to be able to figure out what that part indicates.

Okay, you may not figure out what that part indicates, at least some of it. From the page where you linked with the word "shuffle":

1. na mwo sa dan two (I, who is merely labeled, take refuge in the Three Jewels – Namo Statha),

“Returning our lives, bowing in reverence, is the meaning of Na mwo. All three karmas made pure is Sa Dan Two. Affliction and Bodhi appear only from the mind. Confused, one is a common person, enlightened, one is a Buddha.”

"Na mwo" as this reference says it, is 南無 which if read as standard Mandarin is "nan wu" and if it were translated character by character would mean something quite meaningless: "Southern Nothing". But for this particular combination, it is pronounced 'Namo' viz. the transliteration "Na mwo", and means exactly "namo" from Sanskrit. These characters are a transliteration of the mantra part of the dharani, and mean nothing in and of themselves, they are meant to be chanted, and the closer the chant to the original Sanskrit the better. There are books of these transliterations passed out in Buddhist temples in China that the congregation follows along with, they have a pronunciation guide in Ju yin fu hao (a.k.a. bo po mo fo, because the first four symbols are for bo po mo and fo). The Japanese versions have pronunciation guides in hiragana.

The dharani uses the Chinese characters foding (佛頂) instead of fomu (佛母) for the title. In a usual dictionary, the difference would be male instead of female. But apparently this means something different when discussing these particular deities, foding gets the translation "Buddhosnisa" because it is also Japanese "butcho" of which there are 8 for directions. The following passage in this paper (https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwiK4pDQp4HuAhVZPn0KHUsyBFIQFjANegQIFhAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Facademiccommons.columbia.edu%2Fdoi%2F10.7916%2FD8HM5M41%2Fdownload&usg=AOvVaw3z8WaXkxEApOdiX0tvT1mF) about Pan Gu explains:

An interesting example of combination of Chinese and Tantric notions is found in the Taizan Fukun saimon泰山府君祭文, a ritual text dedicated to a deity of the underworlds that controls human life, Taizan Fukun (Ch. Taishan fujun 泰山府君, the god of Mount Tai). During this ritual, the officiating priest invoked various sets of directional symbols: the eight Indian devas acting as pro-tectors of the directions, the eight butchô 佛頂 (Skt. Buddhosnisa), emanations of the crown (Skt. usnisa) of the Buddha Dainichi 大日 (Skt. Mahavairocana), the twelve Spirit-Commanders of the Buddha Yakushi, the eight Trigrams of the Yi jing易經, and the four directional emblems of ancient Chinese tradition — the so-called heraldic animals (Green Dragon, Red Bird, White Tiger, and Black Tortoise or Black Warrior).12

In a footnote on the next page he delineates:

The eight Butchô are: Sitatapatra (J. Byakusangai 白傘蓋), Jaya (Shô 勝), Vijaya (Saishô 最勝), Vikirna (Sonshô 尊勝), Tejorashi (Hôkô 放光), Mahosnisa (Kôshô 廣生), Abhyudgata (Hosshô 發生), and Anantasvaraghosa (Muhenjô 無邊聲).

So for this version of the Chinese/Japanese pantheon, there are eight Buddhosnisa, and Sitatapatra is one of them.

shaberon

4th January 2021, 10:54

Okay, that would work, it ends up being more close to prajna.

Also, Yasodhara and Mahamaya, and, I believe, Locana.

Yes, the inner meaning of each is closer to Prajna.

And since this is part of Prajna--Upaya, that:

Lama Yeshe puts the 'A' (it is specifically the short 'A' अ, I believe because it disappears entirely when used as a diacritic) as the bija of the junction of the three channels just below the waist (at dantian), and it is this 'A' which heats the prana to send it up to do blazing and dripping.

is Shangpa Vajrasattva.

To be fair, I think we could say either dantian or solar plexus will work for this.

This type of Vajrasattva is like a crash course in what is more elaborately taught as E Vam.

Musicians and Dancers are a considerable upgrade to the basic Offering Goddesses.

Why? I wonder.

Because Offerings are the transition from outer symbols to inner Yoga.

In a standard temple setting there are Seven Offerings, water and incense and so forth. The Eighth Offering is "invisible" much as we might say the Eighth or Alaya Consciousness is not exactly within the human individual, and in the system of Asta Vijnana then eight is perhaps like a potential future state.

An eighth offering is invisible, because it is not an object, it is a person playing an instrument or singing. But this is not represented in Seven Limb Offering.

So the musical aspect is marked off as a bit different from the others.

And so if we sense that there is already something esoteric to the familiar, outer Offerings, then, in Yoga, related to Homa, there is performed a second round of Inner Offerings, which are a little different, and culminate at five with Vajra Navediye, Food. And so this second series matches up with the tantric teachings in terms of the fusion at A or E Vam and Pranayama.

And so in the tantric mandalas and thangkas, there will be increasingly large amounts of Musicians and Dancers.

Of course, each instrument is like its own power or realm, and different dances are like Moods, and so we know this is getting into a lived tantric experience rather than the first heat or even melting.

I just put my foot right in my mouth by believing that Samputa must be doing a rite which pacifies something extreme, "Raudri", but really it plainly says they are already pleasant.

And this is with having some music and so forth.

Because Raudra Krama is about the Maruts, the state of being in Samputa has tranquilized something that is usually incredibly disturbed in the average being. And we can already back this up with what we have found with Ganapati and the weird Pancha Raksa 206.

Because Ganapati is already about Gandharvas, we can see how this traces down through music and the Yaksha realm and so on.

The oriental languages do not seem specific whether Sitatapatra is male or female. Ven. Hsuan Hua just uses Guan Yin.

We see the similar pattern that it is mind-born but it "controls the underworlds".

Ananta Svara Ghosha would be Endless Music Singing.

Buddhosnisa is equivalent to a Tathagata, Buddha is projecting more Buddhas.

It would not necessarily matter if these are all males or if it is a female Sitatapatra leading males.

We expect the secondary females to be named Vimala and Jvala.

I do not see those in the roster, but we do know a considerable amount about Jvala Mukhi as well as Vimala, these are legendary. Even if only a snippet appears in writing there, it already holds vast meaning outside of and prior to Buddhism.

And then if we read the Chinese animals, we get a version of Wind Horse.

In Japan, Usnisa is still a class (http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/butchou.htm) of deity:

Strictly speaking, these deities are personifications of dharanis (Jp: darani 陀羅尼) or mystic formulae believed to embody the power of the light rays emitted from the crown of the Buddha's head, and because these dharanis were considered to be especially efficacious for purifying evil karma and liberating people from hell, the cult of the Butchou is associated especially with rites for the dead. The Butchou usually assume the form of bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩, and there are both male and female Butchou.

The same Butchou may, however, be known by various names, and different enumerations of Eight, Nine, and Ten Butchou are also mentioned. Another important Butchou is Shijoukou Butchou 熾盛光仏頂, and some Butchou became the object of popular individual cults, e.g., Butchou Sonshou 仏頂尊勝 (Sk: Vijayosnisa) and Byakusangai 白傘蓋 (Sk: Sitatapatra), both popular goddesses in Indo-Tibetan Tantrism.

This confirms that they do mean female Sitatapatra.

One article (https://books.google.com/books?id=o0aQMlFX8ugC&lpg=PA93&ots=i0QF22DoOF&dq=eight%20butcho%20usnisa&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q=eight%20butcho%20usnisa&f=false) on oriental Usnisas describes them as possessing Seven Jewels plus Locana in the Golden Wheel Mandala on a Seven Lion Throne.

There is a whole website (https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/mandala-deities.html) for the Japanese pantheon including this.

Seven Jewels plus Buddha Eye means Seven Jewels and Dharmadhatu.

If you see how that works, then, you have a Sutra-based Usnisa Vijaya in the effective role of tantric Vajradaka.

Locana is intended to morph and become things like Amrita Locana, which perhaps is able to see the Amrita Prabha which is mentioned a few times in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. We would expect to see Candra and Surya Prabha, which are there, accompanied by Amrita. Locana is, as mentioned, also complicit with Vilasini.

In terms of primacy, what we might call Mantrayana appears in written form ca. 150-200 in Shurangama and Prajnaparamita Sutras, which is also the same era as the first Yogacara document, Samdhinirmocana Sutra (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandhinirmocana_Sutra):

Étienne Lamotte considered this sutra "the link between the Prajñaparamita literature and the Yogācāra Vijñanavada school".

And so it was this which was, I suppose, codified by Asanga and Maitreya, ca. 300. They did not invent Yogacara but taught it. It is correct that there is a kind of "Secret Book of Maitreya", which is found in Shentong. They also of course promoted Guhyasamaja Tantra, and so this is approximately when its first writing is known, they did not necessarily start the Esoteric Community per se.

Here is a 2000 Samdhinirmocana translation (http://bibleoteca.narod.ru/Samdhinirmocana-sutra.pdf) from Chinese.

English Sarvadurgati (http://abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Durgatiparisodhana/0001.pdf) informs us that it was first brought to Tibet around the end of the eighth century by Santigarbha and Jayaraksita. No way to determine how long it may have been in circulation prior to that.

The "section H" thing is grinding me, we have a bit too much historical review of the 2000-to-now revisions of the Shurangama Sutra, and that has been lifted off one where I think it was all on one page.

I, of course, want to see the original thing where they claim it makes a System of Seven. This was also said, by, I believe it was David Verdesi, of Cunda, but there again no kind of reference was given.

I am not sure that Section H is in the Sanskrit recording, which may not be the whole Sutra, but the main Five Assemblies.

An internal site search (https://www.google.com/search?q=seven+site:cttbusa.org&ei=CsHyX77xGO7v5gLJ4qyoDw&start=0&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwi-nsSQ3oHuAhXut1kKHUkxC_U4HhDy0wN6BAgFEDQ&biw=1024&bih=625) of City of Ten Thousand Buddhas for "Seven" brings it up a bunch of times as the Seven Jewels and other synonyms, which is prominent in Amitabha Sutra, Avatamsaka Sutra, and Earth Store (Ksiti Garbha?) Sutra. But for Shurangama, it mostly appears in the table of contents, which is elusive.

Their commentary on Eight Consciousneeses (http://www.cttbusa.org/8consciousnesses/eight_c7.asp) mentions:

The Unmoving Ground is the Eighth Ground. Prior to the eighth ground, that is, on the seventh ground, the seventh consciousness relinquishes its innate attachment to the eighth or storehouse consciousness being the self. This takes place as the seventh consciousness transforms itself into the Wisdom Whose Nature is Equality.

So the group of consciousnesses does correspond to the Bhumis or Paramitas. We said the flaw of the Seventh Consciousness, Addicted Mind or Klista Manas, is Drsti, which is any self-view, and this quote is telling us that the seventh or Upaya Paramita is the killing of Drsti versus Alaya. We said the sixth flaw was Sakkaya Ditthi which is identification with or belief in a self in any of the Skandhas, and so we see how these sins are similar, one having to do with the gross or more obvious aspects of personality, the other is more subtle on a scale described as smaller than a billionth of a second. That is how fast I can sin against Vajradhara as soon as I wake up. He must be very patient.

Ven. Hsuan Hua appears to cough up the answer in another Alaya (http://www.cttbusa.org/prologue/prologue_door2_p3_5.asp) commentary:

Someone wants to know what the seven great elements are that are the Treasury of the Thus Come One, as discussed in the Shurangama Sutra. They are “great” because they fill every place and pervade the Dharma Realm. They aren’t just in one place, nor is there any one place where they are not present. There is no place they are, and no place where they are not. All seven are that way, but people only see a small amount of them, and are unaware of their filling the Dharma Realm. Instead, people feel they themselves are the great element, far greater than the other seven.

The Seven Great Elements

The element of Earth
The element of Water
The element of Fire
The element of Air (wind)
The element of Space
The element of Vision
The element of Consciousness

People fail to recognize the seven as great and either don’t know about them, or add themselves as the eighth great. Their reasoning then goes that since the other seven greats need the eighth great to know them so they won’t remain unknown, the eighth must therefore be the greatest.

However we have also said since the Pali canon that nothing exists without Seven Cetasikas:

There are seven cetasikas which have to arise with every citta; they are called the "universals" (sabbacitta-sadharana). Some cittas are accompanied only by the universals, others are accompanied by several more cetasikas in addition. Thus, every citta is accompanied by at least the seven universals.

Sometimes translated as: Kaya (because Kaya also means 'mental body', which are the Cetasikas).

A Citta may have up to fifty-two compositional Cetasikas, but the Universal or Sabba ones are:

Phassa - contact
Vedanā - feeling
Saññā - perception
Cetanā - volition
Ekaggata - one-pointedness
Jīvitindriya - life faculty
Manasikāra - attention

A Citta (https://puredhamma.net/abhidhamma/citta-and-cetasika-how-vinnana-consciousness-arises/) is far less than a billionth of a second and is a type of quantum statement that the universe exists as a series of instantaneous static frames.

The corresponding breakdown (https://puredhamma.net/tables-and-summaries/cetasika-mental-factors/) of compositional factors has a strange use of Canda:

Viriya (effort) can become Sammā Vayāma; piti (joy); chanda (desire, not greed).

In Seven Cetasikas, we immediately recognize four skandhas.

Are Ekaggata, Jivitindriya, and Manasikara operable via Space, Vision, and Consciousness?

Are those like our stamp of Space, Mind, and Very Subtle Mind?

Vision is a word that could have multiple meanings, like Phassa, which is Sparsha. "Contact" can either be plain, as sense of touch, or, it can become any type of mental contact between subject and object, and, ultimately, it is Contact or Touch a deity. "Vision Element", may be Light, or Luminosity? Often, Sight means Form or Rupa Skandha, instead of the visual sense. "Form" might be "visible form", or "one's physical form", or even Mayavi Rupa. This is, of course, why further breakdowns and commentaries are valued.

Manasikara is sometimes called "Attention" or "Reflection"; Cetana is Iccha or Desire or Will, Samsara:

The difference between cetanā and manasikara is that cetanā brings the mind towards the object in a general move, while manasikara makes the mind fixate upon this particular objective reference.

We have a lot of samsaras about "getting" something, some desired resource--but then once it is in my hand, I am no longer driven by desire, my mental state changes to "having" it, and Manasikara would work more through Perception and Feeling, which I could not do when the resource was absent. Samsara recedes into the root muscle movements.

H. H. Ranjung Dorje says:

This freedom from mental engagement [manaskāra] is Mahamudra.

So Manasikara seems really to have more to do with the Sixth Element of Mind, whereas a Jiva faculty would look to have more to do with the Seventh Consciousness, which is especially sensitive to Life or Prana.

Jivitindriya is described as the vitality of the citta, cetasikas, and dharmas, without which they would expire.

According to Prof. Ko Lay of Rangoon,

All cittas and cetasikas are collectively classified as name. The life force or life principle of name is called jivitindriya. All cittas and cetasikas can function actively because of this life force or principle. If this jivitindriya is absent, mind cannot function at all. In short it is jivitindriya that prompts cittas and cetasika to continue arising according to kamma. There is also a living part called rupa jivitindriya in the material element. The vital force of mind and matter therefore termed nama jivitindriya and rupa jivintindriya respectively. These two in combination forms the “life” of a being. Apart from this two, there is no such thing as eternal soul, or ego. There is no attá (self) at all.

Jiva or Prana is the agent within the body, whereas Ayus is probably a better term for transcendental life.

Ekaggata or "one-pointedness" is really like an origin or basic starting point for the view of Emptiness, so it is like Space. I would tend to think Manasikara is more like the sixth principle and Jivitindriya the seventh, but, due to the adjustment of vocabulary from Pali to Sanskrit, it is possible those are both swept into the seventh, leaving the sixth as Vijnana.

We are more or less taking Seven Consciousnesses and enumerating a Skandha or Obstruction as well as a Prajna or Wisdom, which is strewn in the Sarma system even if scarcely explained until Dakarnava Tantra.

It makes sense, there are reams of outer representations of the Seven Jewels until we get the tantric point that those basically are the Path, which is why there should be Seven Wisdoms behind them in the Dharma realm, which would be the progression from Vajradaka to Dakarnava. Again, it is because this is a "main group" who is critical to anyone who is not a Bodhisattva, that is why it trains and practices almost everything that is relevant to us, while it has not exhaustively said that it is all Seven Planes of Existence, it is not denying there are higher numbers and more intricate awarenesses, more subtle planes that are almost only described in the higher Dhyanas, it just accurately moves most of that to the Cosmic plane and the career of a Bodhisattva.

One can almost ignore the Alaya, since what we are doing is changing our behavior to it, as and within the Seven Consciousnesses.

What we would have to say are that we have different systems. Ven. Hsuan Hua is, as far as I know, not a Shentong pa, and the closest thing in China was the Southern Ti Lun school which did not remain in operation. In the Chinese, it looks for example like they have pushed Mirror Wisdom to the final, seventh position, whereas we have a tantric definition related to the Most Subtle Energy Wind, and do not really need to move Mirror Wisdom from fourth or the middle, similar to Kama Loka, which is a bit like saying the more subtle stages are inside the mirror.

Shentong however is Parasunya, which has exactly the same inner meaning as it does in Nath or Shaivite tantra. It is almost the same, operationally, although again when they use Seven, it is what we might call a Divine model such as can be found through a Yidam, but they are not the same as Seven Operative Principles, at least the final two.

Buddhism has almost no traceable use of Buddhi, unless we pay close attention to the Kriya-Charya teaching, we find that a Moon Disk or Mirror is Manas on one side and Buddhi on the other. As if Mind has forgotten form, and seeks for its Seven Compositional Factors to reflect Buddhi, which is Luminous, thereby revealing Luminous Mind.

If we think about Mirror this way, yes, you can get a glimpse of it without much special training, yes, it may take off quickly and drive deeper than expected, and then yes, the advanced stages are somewhat of a hypostasis from Vajra Family anyway. The fact that Vajrasattva and Vajradhara are named for their main item, Vajra, like Vajra Tara, means they hold something that Akshobya must have had something to do with it, but they do their own peculiar things with it.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana is like a forced collision of Vajrasattva to Vajrahumkara, and so it makes you deal with Wrathful Ones and Kama Loka, which again says Akshobya or Vajra Family starts in a sort of middling role. It is unlikely anyone gets them first or communes with Vajrapani during their early days of Buddhism. Possible, but rare. You could kind of ignore them for a little while. But eventually, this condition will interpose itself.

Usnisa is like a Buddhist way of saying Prajapati, except these come from Buddha, not Brahma.

In the Parasol dharani, we have to put on the brakes again for another identity:

vajraśṛṅkhalāya mahāpratyaṅgirāya phaṭ|

which appears to exactly correspond to the male version in Sarvadurgati:

tām evoṣṇīṣasthāne
bhrāmayet sitātapatramudrā|

vajrabandhe
kanyasāṃguṣṭhadvayaṃ śṛṃkhalākāreṇa baddhvordhvaṃ

bhrāmayet|

So, hang on. We know it is not a male Shrnkala who jumps in as a Hevajra consort. We have hardly found much about the female deity in her own regard other than the one sadhana and a few mystical retinue appearances.

Parasol has self-identified or revealed herself to us as Vajrosnisa, Vajradakini, and Vajrashrnkala, and even Lady Khasama, just by persistently looking and asking about these things.

We know she is supposed to be highly in league with Yakshas which is Vasudhara which speaks volumes towards these two being Adi Prajnas. As to Guhyeshvari, she must be Accomplishment, of all of that.

If I poke Parasol's dharani just past Shrnkala, she has a couple more names:

kālāya phaṭ| mahākālāya phaṭ|

And then she is like the Family of Mothers' Circle:

mātṛgaṇebhyaḥ phaṭ| mahāmātṛgaṇanamaskṛtāya phaṭ|

which would probably be her retinue, and is somewhat familiar, though unusually large:

vaiṣṇavīye phaṭ| māheśvarīye phaṭ| brahmāyaṇīye phaṭ| agnīye phaṭ| mahākālīye phaṭ| kāladaṇḍīye phaṭ| aindrīye phaṭ| raudrīye phaṭ| cāmuṇḍīye phaṭ| vārāhīye phat| mahāvārāhīye phaṭ| kālarātrīye phaṭ| rātrīye phaṭ| yamadāḍhīye phaṭ| kāpālīye phaṭ| mahākāpālīye phaṭ| kaumārīye phaṭ| yāmīye phaṭ| vāyave phaṭ| nairṛtīye phaṭ| vāruṇīye phaṭ| mārūtīye phaṭ| mahāmārutīye phaṭ| saumyāye phaṭ| aiśānīye phaṭ| pukkasīye phaṭ| artharvaṇīye phaṭ| śabarīye phaṭ| kṛṣṇaśabarīye phaṭ| yamadūtīye phaṭ| niśīdivācarebhyaḥ phaṭ| trisandhyācarebhyaḥ phaṭ| dharaṇīye phaṭ| adhimuktikakāśmīramahāśmaśānavāsinīye phaṭ| ebhyaḥ sarvabhayebhyaḥ phaṭ|

The syllable Bhyah is a bit like saying "Family", as in the opening salutation:

om namaḥ śrīsarvabuddhabodhisattvebhyaḥ|

she also says:

sarvadurgatibhayottaraṇīm|

Sarvadurgati Parishodana is really an epithet of Buddha, which is why it is a fitting title for a tantra with him as principal.

After Parasol does that is where she is called Pandara and Bhrkuti.

That would constitute her as being female Avalokiteshvara and Amitayus, whereas, if she was emanated into our world by Buddha personally, that would make her a Vairocana emanation.

That is a bit like saying Tara is female Amoghasiddhi, but, she was emanated into our world by Avalokiteshvara.

I think that is how "dual Families" usually work. There are extremely rare examples of someone being emanated by two Dhyanis at once.

And so if you want a very straight Lotus Family feel then maybe you get a normal Bhrkuti and outfit her accordingly. But when taken this way, you are getting some kind of shift or Quintessence or a slight change from all-Lotus or Lotus-centered Pancha Jina to whatever Parasol is doing. It looks like thirty-two deities ending in "ye", so, this is probably a Thirty-three deity mandala appropriate for Trayastrimsa Heaven where she was, so to speak, born.

If we overlook Usnisa Vijaya and maybe something else, that would explain her crowded thangka posted above. It is a few more than are in Mitra's version.

Her list has knocked Varuni way out of position to be considered as a regular Varuna quarter guardian, and right after her is a female Marut, and oh my, she has Pukkasi followed by a female Atharvan, winding up with Adhimuktika (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/adhimuktika) (Mahakala), Queen of the Cemetery of Kashmir.

E Bhyah! Invoke the Family of "E"?

Shrnkala, or, the Chain power that is supposed to belong to Lotus Family, really is Pandara, when emanated by Amoghasiddhi, which appears to happen on Ten Arm Parasol.

Maybe that is why so many things in Sadhanamala look like they spring from Red Pam--Pandara even if the exercise does not involve Lotus Family.

Vairocana is maybe a bit more like revelation and use of the Dharmadhatu, whereas it may be that Pandara is the "thing revealed" or the Dharmadhatu itself, or, Dharmodaya as stabilized in sadhanas.

I can't say for sure. This is almost baffling. Bewildering. Parasol does not kick around in some basic easy Quintessence like Pancha Raksa. She is both an input into Vajravarahi, but, then remains as somewhat of a rival to her, Vajrashrnkala.

This is all so behind-the-scenes that no one has ever said anything about it, but, this chick has covered a very wide ground with some extremely precise steps.

It would be almost indecipherable gibberish unless you ask it the right questions.

Locana, Mamaki, Pandara, and Tara, move in some really strange way, which is counter-intuitive because they are Elements, but again this was the Method of the proto-tantric Vishuddhimagga. It just used basic symbols, Kasina disks, which you learned in a standard sequence, but then you ran them backwards, and then in criss-cross and alternating patterns and so on. More like abstract geometry than a palpable inner meaning. The deity system manages to combine this with the intent of the Sutras, so then for instance when we find Samputa Vajrasattva is Vajramrita Mahasukha, then it immediately wraps tentacles around the Jewel Family tantra and Bharati. If we follow along, it is like changing the order of Kasinas, except they get names, personalites, mindsets, emotions, and sensations.

Parasol, oddly, does not seem to surface by name in the Namasangiti Dharanis, but, her retinue includes Dharani, and, if she is older, this suggests that it is she who requests or provides systems of Dharanis. Namasangiti may have structured the first such "system".

Old Student

4th January 2021, 19:00

To be fair, I think we could say either dantian or solar plexus will work for this.

I don't know whether there are methods 'tailored' to each student, but for me it is behind where I usually focus for dantian, in a place sometimes called "Real Dantian" as a reference to an inscription in the Neijing Tu closer back almost against the spine.

Is Shangpa Vajrasattva derived from Je Tsongkhapa? Lama Yeshe mostly talks about other things, but he structured each part of his book to follow the treatise of Tsongkhapa.

...And so in the tantric mandalas and thangkas, there will be increasingly large amounts of Musicians and Dancers.

Of course, each instrument is like its own power or realm, and different dances are like Moods, and so we know this is getting into a lived tantric experience rather than the first heat or even melting.

Thank you for that. I was 'wondering' both because I wanted your explanation and also because in my shaking, they have been teaching me 'action', which is somehow sharply delineated from 'vision', to the point that they for many nights 'greyed-out' my vision during shaking because they said I was not capable of doing both at the same time yet.

The core of action, or at least the thing that pulls it all together and generates everything (and everything is a lot, apparently) is a dancing 'undulation' that is an extremely muscular version of the dancing pose you see on most statues of Dakinis, or alternatively of some standing Buddhas or of Nataraja, with hips and waist roughly parallel but moving in opposite directions.

So I was also wondering why dance was so important, and why it seems to have such a huge creative force. Thank you.

The oriental languages do not seem specific whether Sitatapatra is male or female. Ven. Hsuan Hua just uses Guan Yin.

Ha! Chinese, up until the Baihua movement (which attempts popular literacy, in part by simplifying characters), had one word 他 which meant he, she, and it. They now have three, but two of them are 'invented' and did not exist until at least the 1950s.

The Chinese famously gender shifted Guan Yin. Her name is short for Guan Shi Yin 觀世音, literally (he/she) who listens to the sounds of the world, a direct translation of Avalokitashvara.

We see the similar pattern that it is mind-born but it "controls the underworlds".

I would take the term "underworlds" with a grain of salt as used by the previous author. Here is a complete explanation (https://www.academia.edu/24912413/2016a_Citragupta_%E6%B3%B0%E5%B1%B1%E5%BA%9C%E5%90%9B) of who and what Taizan Fukun (Tai Shan Fujun) is (the four characters at the top are Tai Shan Fu Jun). A better term, used in the dictionary, would be 'netherworld' -- the Bardo maybe.

In Japan, Usnisa is still a class of deity:

Strictly speaking, these deities are personifications of dharanis (Jp: darani 陀羅尼) or mystic formulae believed to embody the power of the light rays emitted from the crown of the Buddha's head, and because these dharanis were considered to be especially efficacious for purifying evil karma and liberating people from hell, the cult of the Butchou is associated especially with rites for the dead. The Butchou usually assume the form of bodhisattvas *bosatsu 菩薩, and there are both male and female Butchou.

I think strictly speaking the term Butchou ought to be translated as Buddhosnisa, unless Usnisa always implies Buddha, the term in both Chinese and Japanese literally translates as Buddha Crown, not just Crown (of the head, not a head dress).

A Citta may have up to fifty-two compositional Cetasikas, but the Universal or Sabba ones are:

Phassa - contact
Vedanā - feeling
Saññā - perception
Cetanā - volition
Ekaggata - one-pointedness
Jīvitindriya - life faculty
Manasikāra - attention

A Citta is far less than a billionth of a second and is a type of quantum statement that the universe exists as a series of instantaneous static frames.

This is an interesting breakdown of an instant as a painting. One could do a similar breakdown by brain function of an instant of cognition and have a very similar list.

More like abstract geometry than a palpable inner meaning.

Okay, I know what you mean, but as a kind of 'applied geometer' I would have to take issue that abstract geometry doesn't have palpable inner meaning. One can do a very useful layout of how a series of instants make up experience that would need to use category theory, often characterized as the 'most abstract' part of mathematics.

shaberon

5th January 2021, 10:43

Is Shangpa Vajrasattva derived from Je Tsongkhapa? Lama Yeshe mostly talks about other things, but he structured each part of his book to follow the treatise of Tsongkhapa.

No, Shangpa is not really a school but a bundle of lineages which are in Kagyu, it is the female fronted stuff with Sukhasiddhi, also closely tied to Rechung, and the Geulg school does have some of the Rechung material I believe, it is how they base their Guru Yoga, which, so to speak, has the Long Life practice built into it, Lama Chopa.

The Chinese famously gender shifted Guan Yin. Her name is short for Guan Shi Yin 觀世音, literally (he/she) who listens to the sounds of the world, a direct translation of Avalokitashvara.

Yes, that is more or less what HPB said. There, the Chinese have taken Svara as sound, rather than a combined form of Ishvara. Because Koothoomi said the sense of Ishvara was backwards, not a noun, lord, but more of a quality, lordliness, which is seen, not which does the seeing. Lordliness which is seen (i. e. Prabhasvara), if we go with Sound instead of Lordliness, it may be Sound which is Heard, i. e. the samadhi whereby Avalokiteshvara was liberated. I am willing to take it both ways. I think it is exactly backwards of the usual translation of a Lord on High looking over the sangha. It is more like the Prabhasvara and the Pranava.

We see the similar pattern that it is mind-born but it "controls the underworlds".

I would take the term "underworlds" with a grain of salt as used by the previous author. Here is a complete explanation (https://www.academia.edu/24912413/2016a_Citragupta_%E6%B3%B0%E5%B1%B1%E5%BA%9C%E5%90%9B) of who and what Taizan Fukun (Tai Shan Fujun) is (the four characters at the top are Tai Shan Fu Jun). A better term, used in the dictionary, would be 'netherworld' -- the Bardo maybe.

Yes, it could be internal to the body, or it could be the Bardo or Talas, so actually both.

Spharana or Vibration occurs because Usnisa mantras make all the worlds tremble. When one gives mantras, demons give their mantras, but Parasol overwhelms those.

I think strictly speaking the term Butchou ought to be translated as Buddhosnisa, unless Usnisa always implies Buddha, the term in both Chinese and Japanese literally translates as Buddha Crown, not just Crown (of the head, not a head dress).

In the sense of Usnisa deities, it does seem to equate to Buddha or Tathagata, and it just means they arose via the power of the Buddha, not that they, themselves, are restricted or confined to the Usnisa center.

Usnisa is one of the "special, peculiar" words of Buddhism that does not have this degree of meaning elsewhere. So even though it literally means hair top-knot, to us, it is commonly understood as Buddha Crown.

It turns out there is a Paramartha (https://www.academia.edu/42228143/Parama_rthana_ma_Vinirgata_Maha_pratyan_gi_ra_Maha_vidya_ra_jn_i_NS_1026_draft_text) version of Parasol, which is massive, with numerous references to Prajnaparamita and some to Pratisara. Haven't gotten into it yet, but there it is.

I was trying to get a closer look at the one we already have. Its subject that is being taught within the mantric sounds is:

uṣṇīṣamavalokitaṃ nāma samādhiṃ

So, perhaps, it has something to do with Usnisa which is Seen. "You seeing it" is the Lord of the World. There could be untold quintillions of Usnisas and Saviors drifting around out there, wasting their time unless "you see them". It has no objective existence. I would never re-ify it and say Parasol is the Lord of the World in some spectacular manner like in the movies about to be elected President.. When "you" get the samadhi as expressed in this Dharani, then Parasol is Lord of the World. Until then, it is like we are asking her to lead.

I had thought the following was an appellation of female Parasol, but, I am not sure. It comes before the Three Jewels:

namo bhagavate uṣṇīṣāya śuddhe viraje vimale svāhā / namo bhagavate apraṇihato uṣṇīṣāya /

Buddha does refer to himself one time as Viraja.

Usnisaya is a very rare term, I think this is the Chinese:

Usnisaya: (向)髻

It is also the name for the diadem on this (http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/object/1640958) Naga Kanya Mask:

http://collections.smvk.se/carlotta-em/web/image/zoom/1493579/1916.09.0266.jpg

The spelling appears to be used in Japan (https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q14143521109):

Namo bhagavate usnisaya, om ru ru sphuru jvala tistha siddha-locane sarvartha-sadhaniye svaha

It perhaps comes from a Vietnamese Shurangama Sutra (https://archive.org/stream/mattang/Suramgama_djvu.txt) where interestingly it is before Viraji--Trayi.

It seems to me that Usnisaya means female Usnisa here; with its second utterance, Apranihita (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/apranihita) is Wishless, Desireless, not searching for existence, mainly meaningful in Prajnaparamita Sutra.

After the Three Jewels is the following, reminiscent of Cunda:

namaḥ saptānāṃ samyaksaṃbuddhakoṭīnāṃ namo maitreyapramukhānāṃ sarvabuddhabodhisattvānāṃ saśrāvakasaṃghānām /

Again I think it is the same phrase "koti" that would say here in Trayastrimsa are Thirty-three millions of devas, like this example here is sais to mean seven millions of Buddhas, but, in both cases, instead of "millions", it could mean "kinds", like Families, as would be portrayed if this is indeed a Thirty-three deity roster representing, perhaps, classes or kinds.

There is then an odd combination of salutations to the ranks of Disciples and then to Hindu deities like Shiva and Vishnu, up to Mahakala.

Then it specifically names Ten Families apparently in relation to Mothers' Circle:

namo mātṛgaṇasahitāya / namo bhagavate tathāgatakulasya / namo bhagavate padmakulasya / namo bhagavate vajrakulasya / namo bhagavate maṇikulasya / namo bhagavate gajakulasya / namo bhagavate karmakulasya / namo bhagavate ratnakulasya / namo bhagavate kumārakulasya / namo bhagavate nāgakulasya / namo bhagavate rāgakulasya /

One would think it is in reference to Ten Directions, however, we see Kumara and Naga, which seemed to be the suggestions from Sarvadurgati Parishidana for the sixth and seventh Families of Vajrasattva and Vajradhara.

The others are somewhat dual: Padma <--> Raga, Vajra <--> Gaja, Mani <--> Ratna.

Often, there is only minor to no distinction between a deity in a Cardinal direction and the one in the corresponding corner. Or, if expressed as the Ten Winds, it is more like two sets of Five. So even if it says Ten Families, these do not have as much distinguishing identities from each other, as in the definitions of Five, Six, or Seven Families. Also, if we look as the Three Adi Prajnas, these also do not quite appear to be making totally new individual Families, but are a blend, and re-use terms such as Karma and Dharma.

There is then a great pile of Tathagatas even more difficult to arrange in the framework of Families:

namo bhagavate dṛḍhaśūraraṇasenapraharaṇarājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate amitābhāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate akṣobhyāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate vajradharasāgaragarjine tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate bhaiṣajyaguruvaidūryaprabharājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate amoghasiddhaye tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate supuṣpitasālendrarājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate padmottararājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddāya /

Historical or Heroic Buddhas show up in the middle:

namo bhagavate vipaśyine tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / (Sitā 148) namo bhagavate śikhine tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate viśvabhuve tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate krakucchandāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate kanakamunaye tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate kāśyapāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate śākyamunaye tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya /

and more Tathagatas:

namo bhagavate ratnacandrāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate ratnaketurājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate samantabhadrāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate vairocanāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya / namo bhagavate vikasitakamalottaragandhaketurājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksaṃbuddhāya /

and then unmistakably her name:

ebhyo namaskṛtvā imāṃ bhagavatīṃ sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatrānāmāparājitāṃ pratyaṅgirāṃ pravakṣyāmi /

I guess it is saying All Tathagatas emanate her mentally. If she is also Tathagata, she would be emanating herself. I am not sure how that works.

There are Lights related to Families:

kusuṃbharatnā (radanā) caiva vairocanakulaprabhā /
tathāgatakuloṣṇīṣaviśrutā vijṛmbhamānikā //

vajrā kanakaprabhā locanā vajratuṇḍikā /
tathā śvetā ca kamalākṣiṇī buddhalocanā //

tathā vajraprabhā candrā tathā vajradharāpi ca /
vajramālā mahāmāyā devī ca kanakaprabhā //

sulocanātathā caivaśvetā ca kamalekṣaṇā /
vinītā śāntacittā ca ātmaguṇajñā śaśiprabhā /

She has a strand of Vidyas of Vishnu and others expressed in the following manner;

chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / ḍākaḍākinīkṛtāṃ vidyāṃ chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / brahmakṛtāṃ vidyāṃ

Whatever she is doing, it has Dakas and Dakinis related to Brahma.

Chinda means a thing that is chopped, mangled, or mutilated, perhaps by the Kila that follows it.

So although it also means "looks down":

Source: DDSA: The Molesworth Marathi and English Dictionary
avalōkita (अवलोकित).—p (S) Contemplated, beheld, viewed: also seen.

Source: Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries: Shabda-Sagara Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Avalokita (अवलोकित).—mfn.

(-taḥ-tā-taṃ) Seen. m.

Usnisamavalokitam could mean the Crown Center is seen, or the deity is seen. I am not sure what samadhi you would get if it is Usnisa Looks Down. One of the distinguishing features of Samadhi is Visualization, so, if this is talking about what we see, I would understand it.

It could just mean a samadhi about a female Avalokiteshvara, which would still be true since she is Pandara and Bhrkuti. But still if it worked it would mean we see her or them.

This is, of course, quite fuzzy in terms of doctrine, nothing plain like Nairatma is Vijnana or anything like that.

In some cases, we have to go with the best guess, although it is crystal clear that Vajrashrnkala comes out of this, which is very helpful, and then we find Ghanta or Bell in the related Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

The Chain is virtually absent on all the Red Lotus Family deities, whereas Parasol is actually handling it, terribly incognito, and I guess when she has it which is perhaps this Samadhi, you have the Vajrashrnkala deity which works in Hevajra Tantra.

Old Student

6th January 2021, 00:33

So, perhaps, it has something to do with Usnisa which is Seen. "You seeing it" is the Lord of the World. There could be untold quintillions of Usnisas and Saviors drifting around out there, wasting their time unless "you see them".

In which case perhaps this particular phrase is using Usnisa to indicate the actual topknot and not the deity, since when one is close enough to buddhahood to begin manifesting signs, one of them is that you start to develop an usnisa. The other possibility, also referring to the actual topknot is that those of fully developed buddhas and bodhisattvas shine -- they emanate light rays.

Usnisaya is a very rare term, I think this is the Chinese:

Usnisaya: (向)髻

It is also the name for the diadem on this Naga Kanya Mask:

UsnisAya can mean "resembling or representing" Usnisa, the way Chandraya means resembling or representing the moon. Or not. The Chinese you have there, the part in parenthesis is a dictionary cue (meaning similar to or meaning formerly, it's used for both). The second character, ji, means 'topknot or bun'. Not sure why it is being used for the diadem unless the writer believes it resembles or represents an usnisa.

sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatrānāmāparājitāṃ

Which should break:
Sarva Tathagata Usnisa SitatApatra Anamaparajitam?
All Tathagata Usnisa Sitatapatra unconquerable?

shaberon

6th January 2021, 00:47

So far in looking at Parasol, I bumped into an instance where it looked to me like she was equated to Ganesh, but, this turns out not to be the case, due to a specifically-guided use of a rare or minor definition.

"Tunda" is usually a beak or snout, so, Vakra Tunda or Face Snout or Face Beak, or, Vajratunda, is a name for Ganesh or Garuda.

So at first glance, it looks like she is addressed as female Ganesh. Tunda only rarely means "navel", but for two phrases in Parasol Dharani, Vajratundi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajratundi) means:

Vajratuṇḍī (वज्रतुण्डी).—epithet of Tārā: Hoernle [Manuscript Remains of Buddhist literature found in Eastern Turkestan] 54.2; said (see n. 14) to mean vajra-navel; compare Vajranābhi.

padmā bhāvajacinhā ca mālā caivāparājitā /
vajratuṇḍī viśālī ca śāntā vaidehapūjitā //

vajrā kanakaprabhā locanā vajratuṇḍikā /
tathā śvetā ca kamalākṣiṇī buddhalocanā //

Locana does, at least for a while, function as the Gold Goddess of Nirmana Chakra. So that seems to be fairly straightforward for the Navel at a Yoga level.

The first one is rather abstruse; Padma Bhavaja (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhavaja) (Heart-born) Symbol or Seal is the Rosary of Aparajita. Vajratundi Visali (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vaishali) is difficult--an ancient place visited by Buddha in Bihar, considered one of the first republics. It does not seem like a verb, but could be another noun for the daughter of the king. That is a tempting thought since it is followed by Vaideha (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vaideha) Puja, which refers to Janaka and Sita and the Mathila border region, including parts of Bihar, and to their "Body-less" practice of Agni Vaisvanara, plain as a nose:

At the time of the Buddha, Videha formed one of the two important principalities of the Vajjian confederacy. Its capital was Mithila. The kingdom bordered on the Ganges, on one side of which was Magadha and on the other Videha (See, e.g., M.i.225; MA.i.448). Adjacent to it were Kasi and Kosala.

Source: DDSA: The practical Sanskrit-English dictionary
Videha (विदेह).—a.

1) Bodiless, incorporeal.

There is a break between Parasol's Arya Tara lines and the ones involving Prabha:

tathā cavajrakaumārī kulaṃdarītathaiva ca / vajrahastā vajravidyā tathā kāñcanamālikā //

Vajrakumari is not a proper name that I am aware of, Darita (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/darita) "split, burst open" seems to be what she is doing to the Kula or Families.

The first part is obviously about a girl, but then we get a form of Hasta, which may be Hand or a male elephant. In this case, it is likely closer to Hand, since Vajrahasta (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajrahasta) is a synonym for Vajrapani. From Shurangama Sutra, there is also a mantra which people present as Parasol, although it uses the name Vajrapani. And so I am not sure if this is "to" Vajrapani, as the frequent deliverer of amazing secrets, or if it is trying to say Parasol functions as female Vajrapani. It seems to me he is probably himself, since he is mentioned as a male or as an object of locking:

vajrapāṇi guhyakādhipatikṛtāṃ vidyāṃ cīndayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa /
vajradhara bandhabandhani vajrapāṇe phaṭ /

In the early section of the article were a bunch of "Namo" mantras or salutations, and after the break with Kumari and Hasta, we start getting "Om" mantras which are more like the Dharanis. This article is a Dharani Samaptam, i. e., the whole thing is not the Dharani, it is mixed with summaries of what it does.

It is then going to do a jvalitaṭaṃkāri mahavajrodāre tribhuvanamaṇḍale, where there is a group of "Bhayats", "Grahats", and twenty-seven "Harinyas", then what appears to be her retinue follows, and then those three groups are somewhat repeating themselves after

ye kecidyakṣagrahāḥ,

starting with many "Bhyahs", and then, I think, "thieves", not Hara--Shiva, but, probably:

hara (हर).—a S That seizes, takes away, carries off. In comp as dhanahara, kīrttihara, sukhahara, duḥkhahara, yaśōhara, kaphahara, pittahara, vātahara, jvarahara Thief, robber, rogue &c. 2 In arithmetic. That divides, the divisor: also the denominator of a fraction.

vratāhārāḥ, garbhāhārāḥ, rudhirāhārāḥ, baṃśāhārāḥ {vasāhārāḥ}, māṃsāhāraḥ, medāhārāḥ, majjāhārāḥ, jātāhārāḥ, jīvitāhārāḥ, valyāhārāḥ, mālyāhārāḥ, gandhāhārāḥ, puṣpāhārāḥ, dhūpāhārāḥ, phalāhārāḥ, āhutyāhārāḥ, vittāhārāḥ, cittāhārāḥ, pūjāhārāḥ, mudrāhārāḥ, śleṣmāhārāḥ, kheṭāhārāḥ, siṃghāṇakāhārāḥ, vātāhārāḥ, viriktāhārāḥ, aśucyāhārāḥ, spandanikāhārāḥ

they may be out of order, but, "Harahs" seem to refelct the "Harinyahs" from before.

Then followed by--Three Minds?--

pāpacittāḥ, duṣṭacittāḥ, raudracittāḥ,

and then a type that is at least more common:

"Graha" is of course "Planet", or Nine, but:

Graha (ग्रह) refers to a group of deities summoned by the Yamāntaka-mantra and mentioned as attending the teachings in the 6th century Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa.

Parasol has:

devagrahāḥ, nāgagrahāḥ, yakṣagrahāḥ, rākṣasagrahāḥ, gandharvagrahāḥ, asuragrahāḥ, garuḍagrahāḥ, kinnaragrahāḥ, mahoragagrahāḥ, manuṣyagrahāḥ, amanuṣyagrahāḥ, marutagrahāḥ, piśācagrahāḥ, bhūtagrahāḥ, kumbhāṇḍagrahāḥ, pūtanagrahāḥ, kaṭapūtanagrahāḥ, skandagrahāḥ, unmādagrahāḥ, chāyāgrahāḥ, apasmāragrahāḥ, ostāḍakagrahāḥ, ḍākinīgrahāḥ, revatīgrahāḥ, śamikāgrahāḥ, jāmakagrahāḥ {yāmakagrahāḥ}, śakunigrahāḥ, mātṛnandigrahāḥ, kambukāminīgrahāḥ, alambanagrahāḥ, kaṭaḍākinīgrahāḥ, kaṃṭakamālinīgrahāḥ, sarvagrahāḥ /

Those are not Planets since Revati is a star. So this sounds a bit like "protection from seizure by..." and then, for instance, Sakuni, I am not sure if I have ever seen a mantra that specifically dismisses this bastard, or whatever you would like to call him.

So this portion seems repetitive or reflective of the similar part prior to the "Chinda" section, then followed by "Jvaras" or "Fevers".

Then, after subduing the Preatas, Vetalas, etc., in possibly the longest word ever, and then the stated Accomplishments are:

vidyābandhaṃ karomi tejobandhanaṃ karomi sarvavidyābandhanaṃ karomi paravidyābandhanaṃ karomi sīmābandhanaṃ karomi dharaṇībandhanaṃ karomi daśadigbandhanaṃ karomi parasainyastambhanaṃ karomi /

the common word for Skullcup is "Karota":

E. ka the head, ruṭ to oppose, to defend,

Since Ka (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ka) is the first consonant, it can be interpreted as any kind of "head" or "leader". So the "head defender" = Skull.

Feminized, for instance, Karoti could still be a Skullcup, but, it is also commonly based on "Kara" or Hand:

Source: BuddhaSasana: Concise Pali-English Dictionary
karoti : (kar + o) does; acts; makes; builds.

Karomi is then something like a present participle of Karoti.

And so in the vast majority of cases, -kara or -kari comes out as the hand, maker, or doer of, and so above, it will make a Bandha or Lock with Dharani, and even Parasainya, the final crushing samadhi as with the Raksa Sahasra Pramardani.

There are exactly these eight Karomis, no more, and no alternative karoti or such. Most simply it perhaps is I do (https://www.khandbahale.com/sanskrit-dictionary-translation-of-%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BF). If she locks me in to some "doings", these are:

Vidya
Tejo
Sarvavidya
Paravidya
Sima (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sima)
Dharani
Dasadika
Parasainya Stambhana

which looks very simple to me.

Vidya--Mantra plus Tejo--Fire or Heat is what we are trying to feed into practice, which, here, glides through a few grades of higher knowledge until you get to Dharani, which is pure spellcasting or Mahavidya.

After that, it crushes everything in the Ten Directions, so, i. e., same as Vajrasattva becoming Vajrahumkara in Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

Parasol sounds like an easy way to get whatever is needed from the Tathagatas of the Ten Directions, Peaceful or Wrathful.

It is like easy access, since their detailed elaborations will still be in Vajrahumkara or other methods.

I think that is what she is--easy. She will help us, even if, like the old woman who mispronounced a basic Parasol mantra, she could still cook stones into food.

Now if you take that literally, I am not responsible for the dental bills, but, read as symbols, we know about stones and Earth Element or a "solidified" deposit in some strange state of being, and yet, these become Food, which is a semi-secret central definition of the whole Homa.

She may be Sutra-based and not personally contain all the esoteric instructions, but, I think she will help you figure them out, and then for instance if you want a closer look at Jewel Family, something like Ila or Cintamani will be easier to bring in if Parasol is "pushing" them. She is a lot more like a Universal who simply passes off the "particulars" to someone who is strong in that suit.

Ven. Hsuan Hua believes the Sutra was found by Nagarjuna in the Naga realm, and the academic (http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/Shurangama_Mantra#Shurangama_in_romanized_Sanskrit) view of what is probably her retinue says:

Shurangama Mantra contains all of the major 32 Tantric deities of the Nagarjuna introduced practice of the Guhyasamaja Highest Yoga Tantra Sadhana contained in the Geluk tradition of Tibetan Vajrayana Tantric Buddhism Buddhism. Thus, in many ways one could say the Shurangama Mantra is Highest Yoga Tantra Vajrayana Buddhism buried within the Chinese Chan and Pure Land traditions including references to many Iṣṭha-devatās Avalokiteshvara as Mahakala, Ganapati, Vajrayogini and Heruka Chakrasamvara in the form of Umapati and Rudra. Because of its vastness of deities including Brahma, Indra, Rudraya and his consort Uma, Narayana, Varuna, and Ganesh as Ganapati the Shurangama Mantra acts as a Buddhist bridge to devotional Hinduism.

But in the available commentary (https://archive.org/details/Shurangama_Mantra_005_Devanagari_Version), again, it is very patchwork and he does not address a lot of the points such as Viraja or Saptanam.

It is so big, if we take a 314 page pdf (http://online.sfsu.edu/rone/Buddhism/Shurangama/ps.ss.02.v1.020526.screen.pdf), it is only volume one of eight, with all his commentaries like that built in.

And--I don't want to detract from his work, I just chisel it the same way as Sadhanamala or anything--since he did not really invent it, there have been a couple other published Shurangama Sutras:

Charles Luk (https://archive.org/details/ShurangamaSutra_201407) translation

Lu Kuan Yu (https://archive.org/details/TheSurangamaSutra_201806) translation

The Secret of the Sutra poster (https://archive.org/details/shurangamatreatise) drives at the same point, it is up to "you" to make the thing work.

They have also archived the Sanskrit video (https://archive.org/details/Shurangama.mp4), which is the Malaysian reconstruction.

I do not believe the Sutra is in Nepal, only the Dharani, but it is the one that everyone else is using.

Vimalosnisa (https://www.himalayanart.org/pages/srott.cfm) is heavily attested in Secrets of Tibetan Thangkas, three manuscripts (https://books.google.com/books?id=P1G9PwC49rkC&lpg=PA350&ots=_C7yvepwGp&dq=vimalosnisa&pg=PA350#v=onepage&q=vimalosnisa&f=false), a Pancha Jina (https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=T992), and quoted from and found at Ratnagiri (http://pluto.huji.ac.il/~msyben/9_%20On-the-Indian-Origins.pdf) on the back of a Lokeshvara, on Chinese funeral blankets (https://www.airitilibrary.com/Publication/alDetailedMesh?docid=P20160922001-201812-201901100012-201901100012-149-178), as part of the two dri me (https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:T1013), and in Sadhanamala vol. ii (https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.495240/2015.495240.SADHANAMALA_djvu.txt).

As far as actually seeing it, I think we are still empty-handed.

shaberon

6th January 2021, 00:56

In which case perhaps this particular phrase is using Usnisa to indicate the actual topknot and not the deity, since when one is close enough to buddhahood to begin manifesting signs, one of them is that you start to develop an usnisa. The other possibility, also referring to the actual topknot is that those of fully developed buddhas and bodhisattvas shine -- they emanate light rays.

I think so, but, not not "growth of hair" but the Exalted Corona Dome or development of Crown Center.

UsnisAya can mean "resembling or representing" Usnisa, the way Chandraya means resembling or representing the moon. Or not. The Chinese you have there, the part in parenthesis is a dictionary cue (meaning similar to or meaning formerly, it's used for both). The second character, ji, means 'topknot or bun'. Not sure why it is being used for the diadem unless the writer believes it resembles or represents an usnisa.

Ok. I guess the comparison would be if "Candraya" is a personal name or how it is used.

In most of India, Usnisa would not be used for the head chakra, so an adjectival form would be expected to mean something that is only close or similar, such as a diadem.

sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatrānāmāparājitāṃ

Which should break:
Sarva Tathagata Usnisa SitatApatra Anamaparajitam?
All Tathagata Usnisa Sitatapatra unconquerable?

Quite close: Sitatapatra Nama Aparajita, like so-and-so Nama Dharani.

shaberon

6th January 2021, 07:52

I still do not see an actual Vimalosnisa Dharani.

As far as its main text, the complete name of this sutra is Samanta-mukhapravesa-rasmi-vimalosnisa-prabhasa-sarva-tathagata-hrdayasamaya-vilokita-nama-dharani.

Samaya to the Hearts of All Tathagatas.

We did see that Vimalosnisa is one of the "two dri me" along with Rasmivimala. This is actually a common Tibetan title such as Lonchenpa (https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Longchenpa) being called Drime Ozer. He is a Nyingma who was trained extensively in childhood by H. H. Ranjung Dorje. And so easily enough from his page on Lotsawa House (https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/longchen-rabjam/), Drime Ozer is Stainless Light, same as Vimala Prabha, and so, circularly, it is nothing new, Vimalosnisa Dharani is one of the two Vimalas.

Parasol is like a Samaya to All Buddhas' Consecration, whereas Vimala is to their hearts. In Parasol's dharani, hrdaya only comes up one time, as a body part vulnerable to Jvara. So, she sends you to another deity whose dharani is based on ksa, whereas Jvalosnisa uses kha.

According to their titles, it is Buddhosnisa Vijaya and Sitataptra Vajrosnisa.

Vajrosnisa (https://books.google.com/books?id=P1G9PwC49rkC&lpg=PA165&ots=_C7yw6oxJk&dq=vajrosnisa&pg=PA165#v=onepage&q=vajrosnisa&f=false) is its own tantra which is about contemplation of the Six Gods of Kriya. It may well be the male version.

It is also called the lost Vajrosnisa tantra (https://dokumen.pub/a-dictionary-of-buddhism-0198605609-9780198605607.html), and that Dhyanottara (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Systems_of_Buddhist_Tantra) is the "surviving chapter", explained there in The Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra by Jamgon Kongtrul, or, in Yoga Nidra (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Systems_of_Buddhist_Tantra), either of which is the Kriya--Charya outline of Yoga and Divinity.

So that is virtually the "subject" of Vajrosnisa. Divinity.

Here is a corollary of how Parasol may be Pandara yet also Vajrosnisa:

Male Vajrosnisa (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajroshnisha) is the specific re-naming of Padmantaka by Vajrahumkara.

Humkara arbitrarily re-names the Ten Wrathful Ones, and, I am not sure of the reason, but, maybe that. Lotus Family pertains to Vajrosnisa. In Sarvadurgati Parishodana, Vajrosnisa is simply Vajra Family, but, he is the name of this specific change, which would amount to about the same thing as Vajrosnisa Lokeshvara (35 of 108). The name has moved from East to West, in different mandalas indicated by Sarvadurgati Parishodana, the Navosnisa Body Mandala and Vajrahumkara. It also comes up as a name for Ragaraja Vajrasattva (http://chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Highest_Yoga_Tantra_and_Mahamudra_By_Master_Sheng-yen_Lu).

By way of association, you would ten to think Lotus Family would have Vimalosnisa, but, that is a different entity other than Parasol, who is more like Lotus Family somehow claims Vajrosnisa.

Towards the end of Dharma Samgraha is where Shurangama Samadhi is a subject, and, then, the last thing in the whole book is Adi Prajna:

136. Four Concentrations

Catvāraḥ samādhayaḥ, tad-yathā:
There are four concentrations, they are:

{1} Śūraṅgamo,
{1} Heroic march,

{2} gagaṇa-gañjo,
{2} sky-jewel,

{3} vimala-prabhaḥ,
{3} pure light,

{4} siṁha-vikrīḍitaś-ceti.
{4} and lion’s sport.

140. Three Trainings

Tisraḥ śikṣāḥ, tad-yathā:
There are three trainings, they are:

{1} Adhicitta-śikṣā-
{1} Training in the higher mind,

{2} ’dhiśīla-śikṣā-
{2} training in the higher virtue,

{3} ’dhiprajñā-śikṣā ceti.
{3} and training in the higher wisdom.

Samadhi one is "synonymous" with Prajnaparamita, two, with Khasama, Vyomana, Vaideha, and the like, three, with the claims of Lotus Family on Vimala and Viraj and Vajrosnisa and so forth, and finally Lion's Roar is the Tathagata Garbha.

There are multitudes of names of samadhis that are not too hard to find, but, these are something like "four main classes".

And so you could probably say the Shurangama Sutra is the Heroic March, and then Parasol Dharani is about Usnisa Avalokita samadhi, which, arguably has something to do with how Padmataka is converted into Vajrosnisa, in a feminine correspondence, and is more like Vimala. And so the majority of our Yoga practices aimed at the Throat center and Pranayama concatenate here. The last is like penetrating the Dharma Realm of Seven Elements, the subject of RGV.

I was slightly mistaken that if we de-constructed Avalokita Svara, it would really be Sound which is Seen, which has already been described as a function of Ganapati, who has been claimed as a type of Avalokiteshvara.

That would be Prabhasvara plus Pranava.

Old Student

7th January 2021, 00:34

Okay. The reason I thought it broke down the way I did was that "aparajita" means "vanquished".

Agreed that usnisa in this case refers to the special one.

Old Student

7th January 2021, 02:27

Samadhi one is "synonymous" with Prajnaparamita, two, with Khasama, Vyomana, Vaideha, and the like, three, with the claims of Lotus Family on Vimala and Viraj and Vajrosnisa and so forth, and finally Lion's Roar is the Tathagata Garbha.

There are multitudes of names of samadhis that are not too hard to find, but, these are something like "four main classes".

I don't know what defines samadhi, it is a state arrived at traditionally, and famously in the eightfold path, by dhyana.

There is no similar two millenia of writings about ecstatic shaking or shaman practices. What I have taken as notes comprises 450+ pages last year but it would be just anecdotal. The relationship between the place in my shaking and the place in my standing, which can be and should easily be characterized as dhyana, is very close, so I personally would regard the state created by the dhyana of my standing, when it happens, as samadhi, and I would regard likewise the state that happens, when it happens, as such.

I do have a lot of degrees and ways that these would be classified, either by me, or having been classified by the Dakinis. I don't know how they would match up.

shaberon

7th January 2021, 02:59

This is intense and someone should have posted it on a more obvious internet a thousand years ago. It makes it seem like a lot of modern practitioners are scratching in the dust. I would not be able to do this on any Buddhist site, they would ask about your teacher and empowerment and tell you to stick to whatever is written in the most literal sense. That is why I do not do that. This is a Sutra and a Dharani and a Shakti. That means we should ride the vehicle as hard as we can and we are free to question it--I don't doubt it, I just ask it for the inner meaning, which slowly chips away the errors I make and leaves standing what it wants to say.

The Paramartha Pratyangira found on Academia (https://www.academia.edu/42228143/Parama_rthana_ma_Vinirgata_Maha_pratyan_gi_ra_Maha_vidya_ra_jn_i_NS_1026_draft_text) is a translation of an original manuscript shown here (https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP676-16-2) along with a couple more.

The Academia download makes a run-on text file which I re-saved as rich text, which makes it look right.

Here, Pratyangira or Sitatapatra Parasol is the next thing to a full tantric deity, who has personally collected almost everything in the lore. She "is" Pandara, but, then, perhaps in descending order, she is also Locana, Tara, and Mamaki.

It has a lengthy table of contents starting with the subject of Samudaya (Arising).

This Dharani Sutra begins by saluting Pratyangira, and, it is similar to the Dharani we already have, but, its subject is:

uṣṇīṣavyavalokitaṃ nāma samādhi

Although it does have "usnisaya" on the next line, Vyavalokita is a conjugation of Vyava Locana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vyavalokana), examining, taking a good look at.

I would get the sense that Pratyangira is Arising, and we are taking a look at her.

Two things emphasize themselves quickly, the use of "kausika" and that the Buddhist "sattva" probably only has one "t", so there is a lot of Kausika Mahasatva Bodhisatva and the like.

Now this Paramartha is massive, it is like or contains the shorter Parasol Dharani Sutra, except it has a lot more details and categories and probably more Samapta or explanation strewn in, and some spelling variations, such as on the main Samadhi itself. It was on 145 manuscript pages. Unfortunately, rich text is hard to search because of diacritics.

It has always seemed to me that the incipience of Death Conquering is Yamantaka, Yamari, and then Buffalo-headed Vajrabhairava. What I mean by that is that Manjushri Yamantaka is a Bodhisattva, and is more primordially or genericly-available; Yamari is more tantricly-complex; and then Vajrabhairava moreso and more of a sealed lineage. And so this Sutra does attach Yamantaka. The contents seem to say it uses twelve chapters of Krsna Yamari Tantra (https://archive.org/details/KrishnayamariTantramWithRatnavaliPanjikaOfKumarChandraEditedBySambhongRinpocheAndVrajvallabhaDwivedi ). If so, Parnasabari and Janguli remain valid towards this.

As in the first version, Usnisa is in the middle of Mantrapada (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/mantrapada), spells.

It looks like the main seed syllables are Hrim and Strim, like Lakshmi.

The first version only mentions Yoni as a body part susceptible to Jvara or fever, but, this one has near the beginning:

yonisomanasikariṣyaṃti mahāpratyaṃgirā cittenāvirahitā

This tie of Yoni to Manasikara happens several times, about the same amount as Yonisasca, which probably uses:

Saśc (सश्च्).—1 U. (saścati-te) Ved.

1) To cling or stick to, follow.

2) To serve; worship, honour.

3) To pervade; see सच् (sac).

The Sutra does Svadhisthana blessings on the skandhas and then:

sarvaśūnyatā sarvasamādhiḥ sarvadhāraṇīmukha smṛtyupasthānasaṃmyakprahāṇaṛddhipādendriyabalabodhyaṃgamārga

which includes all Dharanis and Bodhyanga Marga, i. e., the Seven Jewels are the Path.

Then you reach stage one:

iti mahāpratyaṃgirāyāṃ samudayeprajñāpārakṣāṃtiḥ

Arising of Prajna and Para Ksanti.

It gets a Kausika Kulaputro and Kuladuhita:

Duhitā (दुहिता) or Duhitṛ.—A daughter. E. duh to milk, (the mother,) Unadi affix tṛc, and iṭ inserted.

which may be like, how should a son or daughter of noble family train?

and it aims at Seven planes of Kamaloka:

ka cāturmahārājakāyikairdevaputrairiha trisāhasra mahāsāhasralokadhātau trāyatriṃśe vā yāmairvā tuṣitairvā niryāṇaratirvā paranirmitavasavarttirvā brahmakāyikairvā

The seventh plane or Akanistha is sometimes called Brahma Kaya.

at the end of the section:

yoniśaśca manasikartavyā sarvajñatācittenāvirahitaiḥ ||

Attention clinging to a pervasive yoni brings all knowledge and a heroic mind, it looks like.

It refers to Six Paramitas and then goes to Ten Directions, as if the full Ten Paramitas are irrelevant until you can handle the Directions. There appears to be a major barrier of installing Ten Wrathful Ones and then exactly whatever it is they are doing. It is like this is assembling in Trayastrimsa Heaven and making bonds with everybody, and using this as a platform to defeat Yama Heaven. This is like a precursor to standing in Akanistha to penetrate the Akash.

Then she perhaps will explain her phrase:

vācayaṃtaḥ yoniśaśca manasikurvaṃtaḥ

I cannot read all the prose, but, Vacaya should mean explaining it.

There is a closeness of Rddhi to Bodhyanga and Marga noticeable a few times.

Yoni stays close to Manasikara:

punaraparaṃ kauśika mahābodhisatvo pratyaṃgirāyā udgrahītā dhāritā vācitā paryyavāptā likhitā yoniśomanasikṛtayāḥ sa kulaputro vā kuladuhitā vā pratilabhate || dṛṣṭadhārmikameva śṛṇu sādhu ca suṣṭhu ca manasikuru bhāṣiṣyaṃte ||

Before it lists twelve Kulas, it has, I don't know, around a hundred samadhis.

Then there are about a hundred Tathagatas.

We do not see "Bhavaja Cinha" as in the first version, but:

padmābhā vajracihnā ca mālāṃ caivāparājitā ||

which sounds a bit more like Lotus-born Vajra Symbol.

The girl is also an important character:

vajrakaumārikā caiva tathaivāmṛtakuṃḍalī ||

It was unclear in the prior manuscript, but, here, you cannot miss Kubjika or Guhawati devi, Kamakshi or Kamala Akshi:

kamalākṣiṇyai svāhā ||

kāmarūpiṇīye svāhā ||

That is as Assamese as it needs to be. Then, Tara is apparently powerful here:

tā re svāhā || tutāre svāhā || siddhe svāhā ||

is an Increaser:

buddhivarddhanīye svāhā ||

and has many more Tara epithets probably not in the first version, such as Kalyani, Dundubhi, Sankhini, Mahagauri.

She blesses the Ayatanas and Elements up to Akasa Dhatu and Vijnana Dhatu, and then probably Sixteen Voids.

She appears to take a grab at the tantric Gauris:

namo gaurīye || namo gaṃdhārīye || namo jaṃgulīye ||

and they come round again in a dharani:

caṃḍāli mātaṃgi rūndhasi karasi sarasi || varcasi || sumati puṣkasi śavari śāvari śaṃkari śā[ṃ]kari sumati sāmati damidi dāmidi pacani pācani ḍamini ḍāmini ||

which doesn't miss Cunda:

culi 2 cuṃḍinī || mahācuṃḍinī ||

or Hariti or Harikesha, the Ray of Vishnu:

kamalākṣiṇīye phaṭ || hārītīye phaṭ || harikeśīye phaṭ ||

Tantricly Fat and iterations of Manasa Devi:

laṃbodarīye phaṭ ||

manasiye svāhā ||

and herself as Viraj:

viraje svāhā || amale svāhā || vimale svāhā || amṛtavarṣaṇīye svāhā

So she does not quite deliver the instructions on the Gauris and Vajraraudris, she just has the ability to render them manifest to you. Nothing changes if, for instance, I am contemplating the Matangi aspect of Janguli which mostly means I do some Ganapati Puja, then in that way I am mantrifying Gam syllable, which is very different and not going to be done much in any other context. That vein and that corpus are off to the side and not named Parasol, but, it means if I am able to develop whatever is under the Ganapati--Matangi Hood, Parasol can accept it and place in on her table of assets. She has Maruts, Rudras, and Gandharvas, but again it is not so much the point that "she" has them, but that we get to know them so they work properly for her.

She does appear to use a Six Arm Indranila Yamantaka with retinue, which appears to give the following familiar power:

kāyavākcittastaṃbhanādhikāraḥ ||

and there is a weird relation of Yamaraja, Varuna, Yoni, and Yaksa:

siddhyate śeṣaniśeṣatrailokya sacarācaraṃ || ya ma rā jā sa dā mu ya me do va ru ṇa yo da yaḥ || ya da yo ni rkṣa yo ya kṣa ya kṣa ya cca ni rā ma yaḥ [||]

Then in another mantra instead of "Khasame" we see "Khakhame", which sounds closer to Jvalosnisa saying "Kha Kha Khahi".

She then appears to cast Six Arm self with Chakra, Six arm Varahi with Vajra, Six arm Sarasvati with Lotus, and then does a mantra including:

vajraghoṣe sughoṣe vajramāmakī

into "akarsaya Jah".

Then there is Vajrasarasvati with Picu Vardhani mantra.

Then shortly there is:

yamamathanavajraṃ nāmaṃ samādhi samāpadyemaṃ vajragauryādi maṃtramudājahāra

Yama and Mathana seemingly combined in a Vajra, explained by the First Gauri.

It brings infinite initiation into the Tri-kaya:

paramābhiṣeka samayaṃ svakāyavākcittavajrebhyo niścārayāmāsa ||

and oneself as non-dual Prajna--Upaya is Ghanta or Bell:

prajñopāya svabhāvaṃ tu vajraghaṃṭhā ca siddhayet ||

The common Sunyata or Emptiness Mantra is slightly changed and fuses into one's self-identity as Parasol:

śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako hūṃ || oṃ sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasvabhāvātmako haṃ ||

Her form is the Vajra Ladies of the Heart, the Yosid or Yosita:

mahāpratyaṃgirārūpakāmyaṃte sarvayoṣitāḥ ||

and there is Puja for Padmabandha to the Yosita.

That is the only one of these Padmabandha in the book, it arises from Jam and Hrih, uses a Red Flower Offering, and then possibly Red Bhu or Bharati:

raktam ātmānaṃ bhu ciṃtayet ||

It then seems to call for a Mahendra Mandala, and, this is the area of the bijas, which are not exactly the common Lakshmi ones:

Hrim Strim

applied to Vikrtanana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vikritanana), a leader of Ganas. The root Vikrita (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vikrita) has to do with "changed". Lakshmi's Lunar syllable is Srim. By adding "t", we get "woman":

Strī (स्त्री) is the ordinary word in poetry and prose for ‘woman’, without special reference to her as a wife or as a maiden. Nārī has the same sense, but disappears in later prose, while Gnā refers only to the wives of the gods, and Yoṣit, with its cognate words, denotes the young woman as ripe for marriage.

Stri is the Queen in the Seven Precious Items of a Chakravartin, which are like a more formal, exoteric format of the Seven Jewels:

Saptaratna (सप्तरत्न) refers to the “the seven emblems of royalty” (Tib. རྒྱལ་སྲིད་སྣ་བདུན་, gyal si na dün, Wyl. rgyal srid sna bdun) are the seven possessions of a universal monarch (Skt. cakravartin). They are:

the precious golden wheel (Skt. cakraratna; Wyl. 'khor lo rin po che),
the precious wish-fulfilling jewel (Skt. maṇiratna; Wyl. nor bu rin po che),
the precious queen (Skt. strīratna; Wyl. btsun mo rin po che),
the precious minister (Skt. puruṣaratna or pariṇāyakaratna; Wyl. blon po rin po che),
the precious elephant (Skt. hastiratna; Wyl. glang po rin po che),
the precious horse (Skt. aśvaratna; Wyl. rta mchog rin po che), and
the precious general (Skt. khaḍgaratna or senāpatiratna; Wyl. dmag dpon rin po che).

These symbolize “the seven noble riches”. In the Thirty-seven Point Mandala Offering, the vase of great treasure is added as an eighth emblem.

Strim (https://www.yogapedia.com/definition/9549/streem) is a "stronger" Srim, associated with Santi and Stability and Eloquence. It is used by Mahavidya Tara (http://paratan.com/mahavidya_mantras.html), where:

Strim is the feminine nature (stri) and provides the power to give birth to substance.

This Padmabandha is mantricly identical to Mahavidya Tara without even the interference of Trim syllable. So, this one is probably quite high in the ranks of Assamese Tara and so far, Parasol is the only place I notice the identity.

You then get two rosaries of 108 elements, and 147 Nagarajas, and tidal waves of Ocean Clouds. Then it mentions the rare:

śīghraṃ nāgakanyāyā śarīredakṣamānaṃ gachati ||

which then appears to say, recite Nagakanyaya Gachati.

There is a Yakshini section with Nagaraja and a handful of Serpent Kings similar, but not identical, to those in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. There are even a few Nagini Samayas before Vajrapani shows up.

After that it returns to Voids and the goal of Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi.

It dates itself to Samvat 1026, which is usually about 57 years ahead of the western calendar, so, around ca. 970.

If we look where it says it has things from or refers to Krsna Yamari, we find:

yamadhyā kṣa sa me da yā ca ni rā jā su dā ru ṇā || rephasyādiyamaghna svāta kṣa
kāre moha ucyate || makāra piśunaṃ mevākṣa mekāre rāgameva ca || nikāre padmapāṇiśca rākāre khaḍgavānapi ||

He made Ksa into Moha--Ignorance, his Family, and casts some things out of Ma, Me, Ni, and Ra, and then his obvious retinue from unusual seeds:

jāṃkāre carcikā proktā vārāhi ca sakārake || sarasvatī ca dokāre rukāre gaurikā smṛtā ||

and then something about Yamantaka in the middle of things:

nayoniracaturkoṇe catvāraḥ kanakāmatā || madhyavajragataṃ cinte viśvavajra bhayānakaṃ || yamāṃtakasya madhyasthaṃ bhāvayet kāradāruṇāṃ || pūrvāre mohavajraṃ tu dakṣiṇe piśunamevaca || padmamaṃḍalavajraṃ tu īrṣyāsyamuttare tathā || koṇe vajra caturśūle carcikādvibhāvayet || dvāravajracaturśūle mudgarādyā vibhāvayet ||

which, in reference to Parasol, seems to be her Eye:

cakṣurādyadhiṣṭhāna samayādhikāraḥ ||

which the next section uses to see Mandala:

maṃḍalādhikāra ||

Then there is the Hrim Strim mantra with multiple instances of Krodha and Yamantaka until it get to the strand of "Karomis".

This material runs to p. 87 where there is an obvious break to a Dharani.

Towards its end are instances of "Yamari" and then:

|| jananī bhaginī cāpi bhāgineyai tathaiva ca || vastraṃ nānāvidhiṃ caiva chatraṃ vā cānucāmuraṃ || gṛhaṃ pīṭha sugaṃdhaṃ ca geyaṃ vādya tathaiva ca || khaḍga vābharaṇai caiva pradadyāṃ guravege vrati ||

which is notable because it refers back to "her" and mentions her Chatra or Parasol.

This gets loopy when you pluck out the salient points, and get "then", "next", "and before that", so, I cleaned up a rare thing it has for itself which is its own table of contents. That way we can re-arrange our notes and stick in comparisons from the first version and from the Shurangama Sutra.

Krsna Yamari Tantra comprises the majority of pp. 69 to 81, and, when we extract this list, there is an unusual Sat Kimnari (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kimnari) Sadhana at p. 135.

samudayeprajñāpārakṣāṃtiḥ || p6.2 ||

samudayānvayajñānaṃ || p7.2 ||

nirodhadharmājñānaṃkṣāṃti || p11.2

nirodhadharmajñānaṃ || p13.1 ||

nirodhānvayajñānakṣāṃti || 15.2 ||

nirodhānvayajñānaṃ || 16.2 ||

nirodhajñānabhāvanā || 18.1 ||

sādhānvayajñānaṃ || p36.1 ||

pūrvābhisamayādhikāraḥ || p45.1 ||

dharmmopadeśādhikāraḥ || p48.2

rakṣānvayajñānaṃ || p54.2

maṃtrānvayajñānaṃ || p60.1 ||

rūpādiḥsamayādhikāraḥ || p66.2 ||

abhisamayādhikāraḥ || p70.1

cakṣurādyadhiṣṭhānasamayādhikāraḥ || p70.2

maṃḍalādhikāra || p71.1

karmayogādhikāra || p72.1

kāyavākcittastaṃbhanādhikāraḥ || p75.1

sarvamārasainyatāḍanabaṃdhanādisādhanādhikāraḥ || p76.2

cakrānupūrvādhikāraḥ || p77.1

cakrāvalokanonāmādhikāraḥ || p78.1

mārakarṣaṇādhikāraḥ || p81.2

homādhikāraḥ || p82.2

bhīmonāmādhikāraḥ || p83.2

pretasādhanādhikāraḥ || p84.2

caryāsamayāsādhanonāmādhikāraḥ || p86.1

sarvāpayikaviśeṣādhikāraḥ || p87.1

dharmādhikāraḥ || p99.1-2

ṣaṭkiṃnarīsādhanavidhivistaronāmajñānasaṃbhāraḥ || p135.1-2

mārganiryāṇapratipattinityuktyaḥsarvākārajñatāṣikāraḥ || p135.2

dhyāmīkaraṇabhādevānāṃ || p136.2

kāritramṛtyuktāniyama || p137.2

|| || ityāryaḥ sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatrā nāmāparājitāyāṃ lokānalokāyāṃ mahāpratyaṃgirāyāṃ dharmopadeśaśāstra supariśuddhadharmakāyajñānamūrttimanuttarāyā dharmadeśanādhiṣṭhitaḥ śrī śākyamuninā bhāṣita paramārthānāma vinirgata mahāpratyaṃgirāyā mahāvidyārajñī sapādalakṣā buddhabhāṣita parisamāptaḥ || p145.1

The whole thing comes out as around sixty-four typed pages and I left the full name on the last part because I think that is the actual Paramartha of it.

Offhand, I would guess this uses Sitatapatra and Krsna Yamari as an energetic parallel of Usnisa Vijaya and Sarvadurgati Parishodana, each, at the very least, seeming to mean Tri-Samadhi of the relevant Yidam.

Now when we sift through it and our attention is drawn to her Jnana Sambhara of Six Kinnara Women around p. 135, and we would have no clue about this unless we selected this single article about her, read in a Nepali accent so we know "m" is really an "n" half the time, such as Vajrapamdaravasini, and went back through to see if she would say anything interesting, it would be:

Vajrapani, Master of Secrets, does something mantricly with an Amuka Naginimakarsaya, and:

athāha bhagavān vajradharaḥ parṣanmaṃḍale ṣaṭkinnarīrājñādhipatirutthāya bhagavaṃtaḥ śrīvajradharasya pādauśirasā vaṃditvā svahṛdayamudrāharet || oṃ manohāriṇīye svāhā || oṃ subhāge svāhā || oṃ viśālanetrāye svāhā || oṃ sucetapriye svāhā || oṃ sumukhe svāhā || oṃ divākaramukhīye svāhā || || atha kinnarīrājñā sādhanavidhivistaro bhavati ||

Vajradhara emanates Manohara, Subhaga, Visala Netre, Suceta Priya, Sumukhi, and Divakara Mukhi.

Well, those are a special class of Gandharva related to Amoghasiddhi, these are not like some pesky male Gandharva sitting in a tree with an Aeolian harp to make our dogs bark. No, these are a bit more finely-tuned, and, they are very good-looking, and, wait, one of them is Manohara, and, well, she is the first one, and, oh, that is easy because she is a Vasudhara Samaya and the first temptress in the Red System of Sakya. This is already titilating. My toes tingle! Subhaga is already such a famous name, we could hardly add anything, except she is an attendant to Buddha Kapala:

Subhagā is the northern gate-guardian. She has a blue colour two arms, one face, ornaments of bones, brown hair rising upwards but no garlands of heads. She carries the kapāla in the left and the kartri in the right, and dances in the ardhaparyaṅka attitude.

Visalanetre "Wide Eyed" is a "mark", but, in sadhanas, we regularly employ the obscure meaning:

Viṣala (विषल).—m.

(-laḥ) Poison, venom. E. viṣa poison, lac aff.

So, just, maybe, is Janguli there.

"Suceta" just means Bliss-Minded which she is the "Priya", or beloved of, which is kind of like calling her "the consort" to Mahasukha Vajrasattva.

Sumukhi is, well, I don't know why she is a deity hardly found except for here, but, there she is, where it seems like she may belong.

The last has the face of:

1a) Divākara (दिवाकर).—The Sun god, king of the planets;1 is Agni;2 different positions of, in the sky in different lands;3 struck by Svabhānu, fell on the earth;4 addressed by Kārttikeya to whom he went as a Brahmana;5 at a distance of 1000×100 yojanas from the earth.6

1b) A son of Prativyoma (Prativyūha vā. p.); his capital Ayodhyā; (vā. p.).1 Father of Sahadeva.

1c) Divided the earth into ten political divisions and distributed them among Iksvāku and other cognates. Sudyumna in woman's disguise did not get any share; Vasiṣṭha got him Pratiṣṭā and he in turn offered it to Pururavas.*

* Vāyu-purāṇa 85. 20-23.

Sat Kinnari Rajni Adhipati is Parasol's System of Six, which, briefly mentioning its effects, says:

nadikulaṃ gatvā ayutaṃ japet || punasakalārātrī japet prabhā te niyatamāgachati ||

The reason Vajrapani was playing with some Naginis is because the contents are "retro", it refers to the stuff above it, and so this one section starts on p. 99, it is about 35 pages, three times the size of Krishna Yamari. This sadhana is therefor rather lengthy since he has done the Nagini Samayas and other stuff until "Kinnari Japa" is the climax of it. On p. 100 it calls itself the Shurangama Samadhi, followed by 108 samadhis and 147 Nagarajas, which occupy half of its pages. Then is the giant cluster of Ocean Clouds and some stuff I don't understand which does however get to a Bodhyanga Adhipati Dharani. It cycles a few times, works on Nagas, Naginis, and Naga Diseases, and arises in Maha form. It does this in a Maitri Kaya whose output is Mahakarunika. It then has one of the longest Dharanis ever, and Vajrapani does not show up until p. 131, so this end segment is rather small.

Towards the conclusion of the Sutra, there is some Manasikaroti which seems to be aimed at Suffering, you get used to the title Kausika Mahasatva Bodhisatva Mahapratyangira, and several iterations of Six elements, senses, Paramitas, and the like.

The name Parasol or Sitatapatra is not really directly used, she is mainly called Pratyangira, and, if said like the above, starts to ring out the way Avalokiteshvara does in Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra. In that Sutra, Buddha regularly calls Indra by the name Kausika, which is also said to be the family name (http://online.sfsu.edu/rone/Buddhism/Yogacara/Basicasanga.htm) of Asanga and Vasubandhu.

I am not quite sure why she has an Ucchista Chandalini Murti which I, at least, have gotten accustomed to recently, Sumukhi Matangi. I know why I have it. I did not expect Buddha to boomerang her to me in Kinnara form. That is different. How did he know?

Of course he did, I, didn't, but, there it is.

Vasudhara is like the door of the Yaksha Realm but this one goes to the Gandharvas and Indra Heaven, and looks like it cleans out the Kama Loka so you can meditate in Akanistha. It seems around the same size and practice as Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

It strongly suggests to me the Kinnari would be in the same order as the textual examples, so, they correspond to Paramitas One to Six, the Elements starting with Prithvi, and so on. These however are among the highest-energy beings. So although these "categories" would be the same if you learned them on Sadaksari Mahavidya, her effect or her potency is not like this, I am not sure what is.

shaberon

7th January 2021, 08:11

I don't know what defines samadhi, it is a state arrived at traditionally, and famously in the eightfold path, by dhyana.

I would say this grey area is exactly what we are trying to illumine by focusing on lower tantras and basic deities.

When we crack this oyster, we have System of Six with samadhi being the sixth, and it is pretty difficult since it is in the Smoke of Amoghasiddhi Family and Candika and Vajrashrnkala. The answer is like a complete Sutra-to-Tantra conversion. Novice to Bodhisattva. If you can see what is going on, it is like a pyramid scheme on divinity, when someone gets in, they have to pull in more people, and to be able to say what we mean by Samadhi is the A B C of the whole thing.

According to the Pali sources, samadhi is a stem of Ekaggata, which is omnipresent, a universal cetasika.

Samadhi actually is "the Dhyanas" or "the Janas", as enumerated definitions, but it is not Dhyana, which is a preliminary yogic stage of concentration.

As tantra, it would pertain to "meditative stability with respect to a visualization". The closest thing to a precise distinction about it is just shown by its place in Sadanga Yoga:

Uttamasevā (उत्तमसेवा) refers to “excellent worship” and represents one of the two types of Sevā (worship) which is the first of the four upāyas (“means”) through which the Sādhaka has to pass before the deity is realised and visualised according to the Guhyasamāja chapter 18.—Sevā (worship) is again sub-divided into two, namely, Sāmānya (ordinary) and Uttama (excellent). Of these two, the Sāmānya-sevā consists of four Vajras: first, the conception of Śūnyatā; second, its transformation into the germ-syllable; third, its evolution in the form of a deity, and the fourth, the external representation of the deity.

In the Uttamasevā (excellent worship), Yoga with its six limbs should be employed. These six limbs are:

Pratyāhāra,
Dhyāna,
Pāṇāyāma,
Dhāraṇā,
Anusmṛti,
Samādhi.

This is, as far as I know, Buddhist, although Shiva has something similar, it is in a different order.

The order is what makes it different from Patanjali's Eight Limb Yoga.

That is chiefly because we moved Pranayama into the middle, and explain it differently.

Anyone who can do the Yoga in its least definition of relaxation and concentration is more or less doing some amount of Pratyahara and Dhyana. It is because we infuse this with Buddhist Pranayama that the definitions from other philosophies cease to apply. Then we develop samadhi in the peculiar way of this system.

Vajrosnisa says that Yoga Tantra is for those who find enjoyment in samadhi as expressed in Kriya-Charya Tantra. So this Kriya-Charya material is the core about how Buddhist Pranayama makes the intended Samadhi. So here are some snippets about Samadhi, in order.

Samapatti Yoginis are the tantric Gauris:

...the Nirmanakaya is the gods born by transforma¬
tion. The Dharmakaya is the set of planets, asterisms (naksatra),
etc. The Sambhogakaya is the two-footed (divinities); and the
Nirmanakaya is like the Sambhogakaya in this respect.

The Nirmanakaya is the gods who range in the palace. The
Sambhogakaya is those (yogins) with samapatti in the initial
samadhi (prathamasamadhi). The Dharmakaya is those who
have transcended the ecstasy.

Besides, it is explained by the Dharmakaya: Whatever the gods
dwelling in the wind and vijnana (i.e. vijnana riding on the winds),
their non-apperception is the Dharmakaya. Moreover, those with
samapatti (meditational equipoise) in the three samadhis are
the Sambhogakaya. Those who mutually gaze by reason of
habit-energy of adhering to the idea of “mine”, are the
Nirmanakaya.

Translating outer symbols to inner:

Tson-kha-pa makes a distinction between
the initial reflected image in the mind of the external replica such
as a painting or metal casting; and the advanced vivid recollection
of that body as naturally present in the mind. The latter attainment
involves what is called the “basis of the meditative object" He
states: 'Some place an icon in front, and viewing it with the eye.
make a quick contemplation. This has been elegantly refuted by
the teacher Ye-ses-sde: samadhi is not accomplished by what the
sense are aware of; rather it is accomplished by what the mind is
aware of. Tson-kha-pa means that the measure of success in his
kind of meditation is in the degree to which the meditative object
is completely transferred to the mind, so that both the subtle and
rough parts of the body appear vividly in the mind as though alive
there. Such a “basis of meditative object" is divorced from the
physical characteristics of the particular medium of the replica
such as the painting ingredients and the particular features
brought in by reason of a metal casting.

during initiation:

The mirror is incanted with an AH, which suggests breath
come to a stop on the mirror and thereby creating insubstantial
shapes. The guru recites the first verse, “All dharmas are like
reflected images...” to show that all mundane dharmas are without
intrinsic nature, yet truly arisen from cause and action, i.e., in
Dependent Origination (pratitya-samutpkda). This is the scope of
conventional truth, or samsara.

Then the guru recites the second verse to show that when the
mind is smooth and clear like a mirror, i.e. when it is plunged in
samadhi, it can reflect the form of Vajrasattva, treasured in the
disciples heart, But also in this case the Buddhas dwell in the
heart, meaning that there is no limitation to their dwelling—
whether in this person’s or that person’s heart, or elsewhere—
and so this refers to the supramundane dharmas that are without
location. This is the scope of supreme truth, or “ Nirvana of no
fixed abode," not limited to either samsara or nirvana, but both.

Pranayama:

Moreover, one destroys the five atmaka-skandha in Voidness
(sunyata). and also destroys the forms of sense objects ( visaya),
such as the external "hearth" (agnikunda), in Voidness. In the
same way one individually destroys the issuances of six-doored
perception (vijnana); and when they do not issue and are stopped,
in the same way the “thought of enlightenment" (bodhicitta) which
destroys and stops those is itself stopped by the non-issuing
Insight (prajna}. and that abiding in the non-discursive (avikalpa)
samadhi is the Inner Burnt Offering. Hence, one stops the “fire
of wind" ( vayu-agni ) by the non-issuing Insight, and “One makes
the burnt offering to fire with the mind ( manas ).” “Stops the fire
of wind" means “restrains the prana and ayama" “One makes
the burnt offering to fire with the mind" means "one burns thought
immobile (aninjya or aninjya)” .

So if we see how a Deity Yoga or Homa works, then, samadhi is built into it, when the symbols are transferred into the mind and used to burn its thoughts, or, particularly, to burn Discursive Thought.

Awareness at the center reflects in the Outer Mandala which has:

The Northern Gate has one-pointed samadhi
which implies the five faculties ( indriya ) and five powers (bala).

The four arches are the four Dhyanas; and these are encircled by the
four-part perimeter ( nemi ) of samadhis, the four called Suramqama ,
Gaganaganja, Vimala, and Simha-vikrhita.

Slightly differently with Nine Nets like Lakshmi's back:

Then there is a passage in Vajravarman’s commentary, the
11 Sundaralamkara ”, on the tantra Sarvadurgati-parisodhana, PTT Vol.
76, P- 133 . which is worthwhile presenting to show a somewhat
unorthodox way of interpreting the same parts of the palace, and in
particular to introduce the obscure Tibetan term pha-khu (=pha-gu):
•The four boundless states of friendliness, etc., are the four gates.
The four samadhis are the four arches. The eight liberations are the
eight posts. The four noble Truths are the four sides (logs). The four
Dhyanas are the jewelled pha-khu. Finally, the nine samapattis are
the nets and half-nets".

“Garland" is a pearl gar¬
land surrounding the circular necklace; this means the set of
requirements for samadhi.

On a Wheel:

Right samadhi (i.e. the aggregate of samadhi) is the pacification
of all prapanca (expansion of sense attachment) hence
like the rim.

In Seven Precious Items:

mindfulness is comparable to the jewel of wheel
joy to the jewel of gem. the cathartic to the jewel of woman, samadhi
to the jewel of the minister (or treasure), analysis of the doctrine to
the jewel of the elephant, striving to the jewel of the excellent horse,
equanimity to the jewel of the general.

For realizing the rank of Vairocana, one considers that in
each of the four sections there are there types of candidates,
namely, those who delight in the extended, in the average, or in
the concise. Consequently, the three samadhis called initial training,
triumphant mandala. and triumphant ritual act, each have three
modes of development, namely, extended, average, and concise.

I am not quite sure I have actually had a Buddhist samadhi. I have had many that other schools would tell me that was it.

The Nine Nets or Samapattis are in the root of Yogacara (http://www.originalpurity.org/cw/cw31/bk063.html):

Before one gains Samatha one cannot get Samapatti, as the latter is only gained through the force of the former. It is written in the Sandhinirmocana Sutra: "If you do not get the attainment of ease and lightness, then you cannot get the mystic Samapatti."

Characteristics of Calming--Samata were given in Kriya-Charya.

The Samapattis are exactly the same categories as the Dhyanas or Janas:

(Sanskrit; Pāli). Attainment or equipoise; a state where the body and mind abide in a state of tranquil composure. Often, samāpatti refers to the four trances (dhyānas), the four levels of the Formless Realm (ārūpya-dhātu), and the state of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti). It is also used as an equivalent to samādhi.

But they are not the same as the Janas:

The main difference between any samāpatti and jhānā is that jhānā citta do not run continuously. When one is in a jhānā, jhānā citta vithi are interrupted by pancadvāra citta vithi running in between. Pancadvāra citta vithi are those coming through the five physical senses. Therefore, when one is in jhānā, one can see, hear, etc.

But when one is in any type of samāpatti, the corresponding manōdvāra citta vithi run continuously. Therefore, there is no opportunity for pancadvāra citta vithi to run, and thus one in a samāpatti is totally unaware of the external environment.

By transcending the ecstasy, it ceases talking about a Good Feeling which would be Vedana Skandha, it is utter loss of the bodily senses (Nisprapanca), as if relief from an illness.

The Sambhogakaya is those who have "this" in Shurangama Samadhi, unless one uses another "initial samadhi". Here is a good Theravada (https://www.vipassana.com/resources/8fp7.php) article mostly on the first Jana, which also describes a first mental object and a purified mental object. The Buddha as Body Mandala is a valid object for samadhi and so it is the first thing in Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

Discursive Thought and Wind flowing out the Senses are evil twins and Pranayama gets rid of them both. But Pranayama has almost everything to do with Manasa Japa, and, if there is no first samadhi without sampatti, that would require us to shift into a purely mental environment. So the Pranayama is making the environment for samadhi. Pranayama is called Threading a Needle and then Dharana is the thread not coming out. That means wind and heat are reversed from the senses and going into the channels and the Dharana or Retention is going on with it for a long time.

Anupamaraksita (https://www.yumpu.com/xx/document/view/20505657/the-sadanga-yoga) Sadanga Yoga e-book or a clumsy scan (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/The_Sadanga_Yoga_by_Anupamaraksita) is one of the only ways that you will see that Buddhist Smrti is not the same thing as Shiva's Tarka and that is not only "the Anusmrtis" in Prajnaparamita Sutra. The book says the purpose of this yoga is to produce luminous appearances. And it talks about the Dissolutions of Death up to Sky and says at that point:

[The yogin) should expand [his] motionless [mind/great jewel) in the elements of the ether (khadhatu~u) through the adamantine way. Having meditated on this [[[mind]]), he should diffuse it according to the aspect reached thmugh recollection. This [moment] is recollection. In it the apparition occurs [152-153].

GBh: '[The yogin) should expand', [viz., meditate on] (GSPU), '[his] motionless', pure 'mind in the elements of the ether', that is, in the worldelements, 'through the adamantine way', i.e., through absorption into the radiance that inconceivably follows the five signs, according to the nature of the Dharmakaya. Thus, 'having meditated on', that is, having directly experienced his own radiance, [the yogin) 'should diffuse' [his mind) 'according to the aspect' previously reached 'through recollection'; in other words, through the appearance of the mirage, etc. he reached the limit of beings (bhutakO!l)' He should diffuse [his mind) according to the same process. The fifth limb, that is, recollection, has been described. [The apparition or the consciousness occurs in this limb, anusmrti, not in another one] (GSPU).

I do not have a lighter way to describe it. Buddhist Smrti is equal to Death by most normal conventions. It is at the plane of Akash where the only possible motion is Dissolving the Voids or the Subtle Minds. This already is like sitting in the Akanistha. You have some ability to probe within the Voids or Formless Janas, but, you are also under an oath not to commit your whole being into that and disappear forever. You are supposed to come back out and manifest Maha Vairocana.

So this Smrti is that type of remaining male seed that would not be there without an extreme degree of Sati or Mindfulness. In the ordinary definition, you have lost your sense faculties and your mental processes (Skandhas). Form as a whole has vanished. So this is rather dead--inert according to the average understanding. But that Sati or Mindfulness is the Smrti which outlasts the seeming end of the body, world, and self. And then it applies itself to an appropriate symbol such as a Vajra, which, hopefully, survives the potential knockout if you hit the Black Void, and becomes the base for Luminous Appearance caused by knowledge of the rites of the families when re-creating the Form World.

That is the Buddhist Smrti and the resultant Samadhi is characterized by the type and quality of Symbol.

That is the Guhyasamaja or Esoteric Community tradition.

Vajradaka is that Smrti who translates the Six Families into System of Seven, is the key to Completion Stage using Purified deities, similar to the purified mental objects described in Theravada. Then Vajraraudri is Samadhi and Vajradakini is Upeksa and you become the Path, you "have" the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment.

I cannot get that genie back in the bottle. Buddhist Smrti is like Death which is why we clean the Kama Loka at a Yoga level before we think we can do this. I personally cannot revoke it and tell you that there is any such thing as samadhi without it. I have experienced it many times, but, without the benefits of a properly-made Symbol. I had impure Mercury and no real guide or praxis of handling the Voids so that Maha Sambhogakaya results. Aside from that, it is a physiological process which does just about exactly what it says.

This runs concurrent with Abhisambodhis and why the advanced training is like a fusion of two processes, Abhisambodhi and Sadanga Yoga. Or, those are two minorly different explanations of the same process. Once you get how Smrti works, Samadhi is a reflex of it.

We can look at a few general classifications of samadhi that do not explain this:

1) Samādhi (समाधि) refers to a set of “three concentrations”, representing qualities acquired by the Bodhisattvas accompanying the Buddha at Rājagṛha on the Gṛdhrakūṭaparvata, according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter X.

The three concentrations (samādhi) are those of:

emptiness (śūnyatā),
wishlessness (apraṇihita),
signlessness (ānimitta).

Some say that there are twenty-three kinds of samādhi; others say sixty-five, still others say five hundred. But as the Mahāyāna is great, there are innumerable samādhis.

According to Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter 13, “producing and playing with a hundred thousand samādhis” is another quality of the Bodhisattvas. Samādhi is the “fixing on one point of a good mind, the immobility of the mind”.

There are three kinds of samādhis:

samādhi with vitarka (investigation) and vicāra (analysis);
samādhi without vitarka but with vicāra;
samādhi with neither vitarka nor vicāra.

There are four other kinds of samādhi:

samādhi connected with the world of desire (kāmadhātu-avacara);
samādhi connected with the world of form (rūpadhātu-avacara),
samādhi connected with the formless world (ārūpyadhātu-avacara);
samādhi not connected with anything.

2) Samādhi (समाधि) refers to one of ten constituents (dravya) of the thirty-seven auxiliaries to enlightenment (bodhipākṣika), according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter XXXI.—Accordingly, “these thirty-seven auxiliaries (bodhipākṣika) have ten things (dravya) as roots (mūla). Concentration (samādhi) constitutes: a. the four foundations of magical power (ṛddhipāda); b. the faculty of concentration (samādhīndriya); c. the power of concentration (samādhibala); d. the factor-of-enlightenment called concentration (samādhi-saṃbodhyaṅga); e. the [factor-of-the-path] called right concentration (samyaksamādhi)”.

2) Samādhi (समाधि) refers to the “four concentrations” as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 101):

āloka-samādhi (concentration on light),
vṛtāloka-samādhi ((concentration on enclosed light),
ekādaśa-pratiṣṭha-samādhi (the eleven establishments of concentration),
ānantarya-samādhi (the concentration giving immediate result).

3) Samādhi (समाधि) also refers to the “four concentrations” as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 136):

śūraṅgama (heroic march),
gagaṇa-gañja (sky-jewel),
vimala-prabha (pure light),
siṃha-vikrīḍita (lion’s sport).

As we see, the last group is used in Guhyasamaja and in the related sadhanas.

As for Sadhana, Anupamaraksita says:

In some texts we find another subdivision of the yoga limbs. They are disposed in four groups, each one of which is equivalent to a different phase of yoga practice. The technical terms used (seva, upasadhana, sfidhana and mahasadhana) for these levels first appear in the GSU, in Vajrapfu.J.i.'s LTT, in the HTPT (Section Nine, stt. 50-51), and then in the LKC77. Vajrapfu:J.i and PUlfc;larika, commenting on GSU, 173cd-175ab and LKC IV, 120 respectively, explain that seva (practice) corresponds to pratyahara and dhyana, upasadhana (near-realization) to pranayama and dharana, and sadhana (realization) to anusmrti. Implicitly mahasadhana (great realization) is related to samadhi.

He does raise the conflict about whether Smoke or Mirage is the first sign.

There is a Day--Night Tara, and, it has a Yoga explanation. Again the minor difference is that Yoga ends the Dissolutions at Sky, whereas Highest Yoga describes the Voids. And so we see the deathlike yoga is half of this:

This practice can be performed either in a open space or in a closed space. In the former case it is called day-yoga, in the latter case night-yoga. During the night-yoga, that is, during the yoga performed in darkness (see below pp. 276-77, 292), four signs appear from a cloudless sky: smoke (dhUma), mirage (marIcl), firefly (khadyota) and lamp (pradipa). During the dayyoga (see below pp. 276-78, 292) six signs appear: flame (jviillf), moon (cancb:a), sun (arka), Riihu, lightning (vidyut) and bindu, which is similar to a blue lunar disc that illuminates all things. According to the SU (st. 26), when this last sign has arisen the yogin can see and then meditate on a last apparition in the middle of it, which is technically called the 'universal image' (visvabimba; Tib., sna tshogs gzugs). This text does not mention a 'Buddha's image' (buddhabimba; Tib., sangs rgyas gzugs) and 'void image' or 'image of the void' (sunyabimba; Tib., stong pa'j gzugs), which appear in the same context in other sources, such as the LKC and the LTT26.

So by Day Yoga, it is a bit more like Abhisambodhi with sun and moon, or the dissipation of a syllable into a bindu.

Night means darkness, you could do it in a cave any time. That is the one we are more familiar with which is used with Guhyasamaja and then extended to become Eight Dissolutions.

For Yoga purposes, that is why the second round of Inner Offerings which culminate at five with Food, when corresponded to Five here, it is Sky--Akash and Smrti, which is why this is the apex or culminating point of what we are dealing with as Generation Stage material.

shaberon

7th January 2021, 19:59

In finding the Paramartha version of Parasol, it has as a far goal the use of Vajradhara to summon some Kinnaris.

This is not even Buddhist, the exact same group is given by Tarapith Temple (https://tarapithtemple.blogspot.com/2014/10/yaksha-yoginis.html) who just says there are six kinnaris. They are shapeshifters who have been propitiated by sages since time immemorial. It is easy to get their boons.

You can buy a rosary (https://www.astromantra.com/products/rosary/kinnari-mala/) for them right now. They increase one's power of attraction, beauty, and musical ability. It says that Pushp Kinnari is even more powerful than the group, and there is a Hindi Pushp Kinnari sadhana all over the internet.

It shows in a preview of Buddhist Deities and Mantras in the Hindu Tantras (https://www.scribd.com/doc/290615117/deities-buddhist-pdf) by G. Buhnemann, who mainly pursued Vasudhara, Jambhala, and Yamantaka. But it is free at her U-Wisc (http://lca.wisc.edu/~gbuhnema/deities1.pdf) where for example there is a Vajragandhari dharani using Subhaga. She is also on p. 325 related to Shrnkala.

I cannot remember what linked me to it and I do not see anything about Kinnari. But she was a good girl in dissecting the Yamantaka mantra which is broken up like Ya Ma Ra Ja--it is a mirror or if you start reading it backwards, you get the feminine reversal, Ya Ma Ra Ni.

In that there is an unlisted Puspa Kinnari, recall from Sarvadurgati Parishodana, Lasya is in what we might call Flower Ceremony, which is a series of more formal mantras based on Puspa and the Tathagatas of the Ten Directions:

daśasu dikṣu
sarvabuddhān bhagavataḥ parinirvātukāmān yāce'parinirvāṇāya|

tataḥ puṣpamudrāṃ
baddhvaivaṃ vadet|

And that the Bharati Sadhana is clearly a red flower offering, usually twenty-one.

Puspa Kinnari is perhaps a missing central figure who has been over-written by Vajradhara and therefor could be perhaps called an invisible consort.

Their character is clarified in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, where they say:

We are everlasting lover and beloved. We never separate. We are eternally husband and wife; never do we become mother and father. No offspring is seen in our lap. We are lover and beloved ever-embracing. In between us we do not permit any third creature demanding affection. Our life is a life of perpetual pleasures.

Manohara as usually the first one given means "mind swept away by beauty", which is, again, much the same as the tantric evolution of Vajrasattva from Paramadya Tantra. His first goddess is pleasant and attractive so his mind will not swerve from the thought of enlightenment. Again also similar to Suceta Priya.

There is a Priya Vallabha Kinnari (https://www.divyayogashop.com/sadhana/sadhana-for-vashikaran/kinnari-sadhana-for-pleasures-/) mantra which uses a form of Dhanya Samrddhi. There it is classed as a Soundarya sadhana along with those of Apsaras and Yakshinis.

The Yaksha-to-Gandharva realm as a whole is the Asuras (Daityas, Ditis).

Kinnaris are in what is called a Harpy Throne, and, Kinnari Mantras (http://www.gogisarojpal.com/kinnari%20&%20kinnari%20mantras/B2_PA3.html) seems like it would be explicative, but, is actually a career of Harpy art.

To Parasol, it is her Jnana Sambhara, the Requisite of Wisdom, which is the companion of Punya Sambhara, Requisite of Merit, these two being a basic pair in Prajnaparamita philosophy.

Because an m is an n, what Vahradhara does to the Kinnaris is, padausirasa, feet to head:

vanditvā : (abs. of vandati) having saluted; paid homage; having honoured; having adored.

sva hrdaya mudra haret.

Haret is an extension of the root Hr (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/hri), like the name Harati, seizer, stealer, takes you away.

6) To attract, captivate, win over, influence, subdue, enchant; चेतो न कस्य हरते गतिरङ्गनायाः (ceto na kasya harate gatiraṅganāyāḥ) Bv.2.15

7) To gain, acquire, obtain; ततो विंशं नृपो हरेत् (tato viṃśaṃ nṛpo haret) Ms.8.391,153

As "Hri", it is more like Lajja, modesty, shame, to blush, but, here, it is like his Heart Seal works like Manohara on Manohara.

It seems rather simple, but, any clarification is wrapped up in Hindi, like the Krsna Yamari tantra is Hindi and Tibetan; currently we can go only so far. Parasol appears to tell you to use Kinnari Sadhana and then Mutter the Kinnaris. So when the thing was penned, it would not have needed to explain this, even though there is hardly any trace of it in our language now.

Although part bird, they may also be Centaurs or part horse:

They are called Aśvamukhas, Turaṅgavaktras, “horse-faced” and Mayus.

So that is a bit of a mix of Jewel Family Vehicle into Karma Family.

But at least some of them are red and the whole thing is close to Lotus Family and usually given as Vasikaran in India.

It looks to me like the extensive Parasol is a continuum from the relatively ancient Shurangama Sutra into tantric Manohara and Bharati much as we know them.

Old Student

7th January 2021, 20:06

In the Uttamasevā (excellent worship), Yoga with its six limbs should be employed. These six limbs are:

Pratyāhāra,
Dhyāna,
Pāṇāyāma,
Dhāraṇā,
Anusmṛti,
Samādhi.

When I looked up "Panayama" because I couldn't understand it, the only place it occurs on the internet is in the text you quoted from. Believe it should be "pranayama" and your further explanation seems to bear this out. Panayama would be restraining drinking instead of restraining prana, while it is a Buddhist precept not to drink alcohol, it seems hilarious to think of that as a yogic practice. ;-)

Why is Uttamaseva "excellent worship" when it seems to be "higher service"? Are they considered synonymous?

It is because we infuse this with Buddhist Pranayama that the definitions from other philosophies cease to apply. Then we develop samadhi in the peculiar way of this system.

This is what I'm trying to figure out. It does seem that states attained during my shaking should properly be called samadhi by most definitions, including this one.

Tson-kha-pa means that the measure of success in his
kind of meditation is in the degree to which the meditative object
is completely transferred to the mind, so that both the subtle and
rough parts of the body appear vividly in the mind as though alive
there.

By this measure some, not all, of the states of mind of my shakings amply qualify as samadhi.

I am not quite sure I have actually had a Buddhist samadhi. I have had many that other schools would tell me that was it.

At least in Zen/Chan, they do make a distinction between satori and samadhi, and between satori and nirvana. I don't think samadhi is supposed to be thought of as an endpoint, it is the place where the endpoint occurs, isn't it?

The three concentrations (samādhi) are those of:

emptiness (śūnyatā),
wishlessness (apraṇihita),
signlessness (ānimitta).

These here make the most sense with respect to shaking. Transcending ecstasy has a meaning as well, not the meaning that 'seems right', but another one. I told you I have to be non-reactive to bliss in my shaking. I actually have to be very close to non-existent, if that makes any sense. Otherwise, the bliss just turns into some kind of gratification. But if I do become selfless, and become nothing but a sort of passive awe, then the boundaries become non-existent and the state becomes -- I guess awesome or infinite or transformative or something like that.

By transcending the ecstasy, it ceases talking about a Good Feeling which would be Vedana Skandha, it is utter loss of the bodily senses (Nisprapanca), as if relief from an illness.

See, to me this means relinquishing of the bodily senses (okay, utterly is a reasonable adverb), not 'loss'.

Discursive Thought and Wind flowing out the Senses are evil twins and Pranayama gets rid of them both. But Pranayama has almost everything to do with Manasa Japa, and, if there is no first samadhi without sampatti, that would require us to shift into a purely mental environment. So the Pranayama is making the environment for samadhi. Pranayama is called Threading a Needle and then Dharana is the thread not coming out. That means wind and heat are reversed from the senses and going into the channels and the Dharana or Retention is going on with it for a long time.

Discursive thought in my shaking notes is called, "my chatterer". It may be going on but I generally leave it behind, it is not capable of comprehending what happens, and at times I get forceful and kind of throw it out.

It is at the plane of Akash where the only possible motion is Dissolving the Voids or the Subtle Minds. This already is like sitting in the Akanistha. You have some ability to probe within the Voids or Formless Janas, but, you are also under an oath not to commit your whole being into that and disappear forever.

None of this sounds like 'death' in the shaking context. It sounds like shedding one's self. Death in the shaking context usually takes the form of having a funeral and going to where dead people go. Or being the corpse in some form. Or turning to ash and stone.

shaberon

8th January 2021, 10:16

Why is Uttamaseva "excellent worship" when it seems to be "higher service"? Are they considered synonymous?

Should be an "r" in Pranayama. When I copy stuff, sometimes I leave the garbage, depends on how much time I have.

Now as far as "synonyms", depends on your mindset. I do not think of myself as having a religion, but, such terms are so frequently used by translators, going back to Bhagavad Gita, probably the first Sanskrit rendered into English. If Bhagavad = Lord, what am I going to get? Nothing that would explain six transcendental virtues, or anything along those lines. Do the Ten Commandments sound like Paramitas? Not to me. "Thou shalt not steal" is not quite the same as Generosity Paramita being the first one, in fact, especially in China and Japan, you would be considered generous to steal from the rich and give to the poor,
aside from the fact it has other philosophical and tantric meanings.

Uttama = "Finest", as in Tilottama. Finest sesame seeds? Tahini? Re-fined?

Seva means service to me; it is "worship" only in the crudest of allusions.

We will find the same vocabulary in the popular Durga and Ganesh temples, and, as with most everything else, the attendees seem to follow the most mundane meanings, so it probably literally is "worship" for them.

To me, the finest service would be found by training in the subtle capabilities of mind and applying them with Karuna. It is just training, it is just practice, like dentistry, the xylophone, or shoe sales. If done properly, any of those become filled with deities and the mundane version disappears.

I don't think samadhi is supposed to be thought of as an endpoint, it is the place where the endpoint occurs, isn't it?

Endpoint?

Never heard of one.

But, yes, there is the "final" samadhi of the initiation to full Buddhahood. That does not mean he never took another samadhi, it means he pushed it to the point where there were no imperfections left, at that time. According to the Tathagatas, no way to improve it any more.

It seems to me that when we get samadhi, it is running at twelve watts like the brain, and the meditative path is like an exponential or infinite power-up. Not literally true, but close. Maybe a machine can read you at .13 watts higher, but, to you, it is experienced a thousand-fold.

Otherwise, the bliss just turns into some kind of gratification. But if I do become selfless, and become nothing but a sort of passive awe, then the boundaries become non-existent and the state becomes -- I guess awesome or infinite or transformative or something like that.

It definitely became a gratification to me. That is why Buddha says we might attain the first one or two Janas on our own, but, without guidance, we will probably trash it and have a hard time re-starting.

I don't think I have ever had non-existent boundaries--psychologically, in terms of attitude, sure, but I think this is supposed to be something more profound than "mi casa su casa".

By transcending the ecstasy, it ceases talking about a Good Feeling which would be Vedana Skandha, it is utter loss of the bodily senses (Nisprapanca), as if relief from an illness.

See, to me this means relinquishing of the bodily senses (okay, utterly is a reasonable adverb), not 'loss'.

Yes, relinquish would be better there. Nisprapanca is Non-elaboration or Non-expansion (into thought constructs or senses). Panca is the Five Elements, and:

Source: archive.org: Mandukya Upanishad & Karika with Shankara Bhashya

Prapañca (प्रपञ्च, “phenomenal world”).—From the standpoint of Truth, prapañca or the phenomenal world or even the idea of perceiving them does not exist as separate from Brahman. Therefore no birth or death can be predicated of what exists ultimately.

Because the phenomena are self-created from one's own consciousness. We have a different view than saying the world was given to you by a creator god.

Discursive thought in my shaking notes is called, "my chatterer". It may be going on but I generally leave it behind, it is not capable of comprehending what happens, and at times I get forceful and kind of throw it out.

How can it be thrown out?

I believe it was probably the main thing that enabled me to experience the transcendental realm. I gained the ability to silence the mind. By the Nirodha or Cessation of Citta Vrittis, physical and mental things happened which were almost the complete reverse of ordinary life, such as nothingness of nothingness, brilliant radiance, and luminous glow. That is all I really know about, different aspects of Light.

Mantra and Bliss are supposed to be the dispellers of agitated thoughts and feelings.

Since I am not in the same condition I was when younger, I go through plenty of agitation all the time, and at this point I am positive it can be quashed by Mantra. I have only had tiny little trickles of Bliss any time recently. And, so, I am doing it differently, I am not really setting up a sanctuary to get Bliss and call it a day, which is what I did for many years. I hardly knew or used mantra until...well...it is hard to say, since I have attempted magic words of many cultures. Probably the only thing I ever did that would even count would be Tara.

That is because I got a quiet mind and Bliss, for a while, but in Mahayana we ask to ripen our karmic seeds quickly, and, that started happening, and it tested my resolve, of which I had little. Went almost insane. Actually requested a psychologist just for the opportunity to say, "I am insane, this is what it is like". But the resolution for my Pandora's Box was Tara. After she made my mind quit being such an idiot, I threw Yoga practice onto the backburner, and turned off my "jeweled" senses, and tried to live like an ordinary person. I have had wayyyy too much of that at this point.

None of this sounds like 'death' in the shaking context. It sounds like shedding one's self. Death in the shaking context usually takes the form of having a funeral and going to where dead people go. Or being the corpse in some form. Or turning to ash and stone.

It is basically the same thing that happens at death, sleep, or in meditative states. It is not really the way you would die, if shot in the head, but, if you go peacefully at home.

The Death you are talking about is like the Nine Notions of Prajnaparamita, or, i. e. Wrathful Practice, which tells you to examine and visualize yourself as different kinds of corpses.

What I am talking about is sometimes called "the Signs", sometimes "Dissolutions", and they are very specific, give or take whether Smoke or Mirage is first, which would hardly affect it.

I could, at one point, make the First Joy happen at will in one breath, which is awesome, but, it still takes a whole Suksma cycle to trigger these Dissolutions.

"Self" is such a devious word--even in a Sampatti where there is no awareness of the environment, you are still some kind of "unit", it just happens to lack human mind. To call it a Higher Self sounds outright misleading. The terms from the sadhanas, "sva", or even "atma", again are something like "own-nature", having no nature of anything we can normally name or relate to, but they are not really no-self as in nothing is there, they certainly are Nairatma or No Ego.

Sadhanas produce Vajra Gharvi or Divine Ego.

Well, that is tricky, when you get No Ego = No Atma, and then turn around and use Gharvi for Ego, it may seem confusing.

There is no Atma expressible in words or concepts, so, to the extent you conceive of the Atma, you are making it into an Ego, which it is not.

The real one is the Dhatu, the One Element, Tathagata Garbha.

When all the words and concepts are denied and refuted, and, Buddha is finally asked, is there an Atma? The answer is Smile, and, if we look in Prajnaparamita Sutra, it will tell us about Buddha Smile.

Even if we are not familiar with that, a smile is not a word or a concept. We can make words or concepts about it, but, the thing itself has neither of these.

It could be said that Subtle Yoga turns off the Skandhas, but, these are not "self", there was not one to get rid of, there is no self in the Skandhas. I have turned them off for a few minutes to maybe a few hours at a time, whereas an Irreversible Bodhisattva has turned them off.

The Skandhas are the Adventitious Stains, of which the Stainless or Vimala has none.

If I go into a sensory deprivation tank, that will not affect the Skandhas whatsoever. There is no similar device that deprives them. They can arise in any plane, so even if I lived by astral projection, they could still be there. The Sixth Skandha is the one which believes Skandhas are a self, Sakkaya Ditthi, and so here it is those champions of the sixth principle such as Vajrasattva and Nairatma that are helpful. Sakkaya is a weird term for "the Skandhas", and, in Buddhism, Ditthi is "Wrong View" unless described as Samma Ditthi.

Or, rather, Sakkaya is four ways of relating to Skandhas: as identity, contained in them, independent of them, or owner of them. Those are Wrong Views about the Skandhas, since, according to the Pali Canon site:

"Now, The Buddha neither teaches a personality which will continue after Death, nor does he teach a personality which will be annihilated at Death, but he shows us that 'personality', 'ego', 'individual', 'man', etc., are nothing but mere conventional designations (vohāra-vacana) and that in the ultimate sense (s. Paramattha-Sacca) there is only this self-consuming process of physical and Mental Phenomena which continually arise and again disappear immediately."

The only more subtle sin is Drsti which is also "View" in the sense of any kind of self-view, such as subject-object, any form of duality, where anything would be separate or "other" from anything else.

I am still plinking at Paramartha Parasol, and, there is no etymology on it, but this is a word:

yonisomanasikāra : (m.) proper consideration.

I looked around for any more unusual titles for her, and, just found a few, such as this that seems to be lifted from the Lalita:

śiroṣṇīṣa avalokitamūrddhni tejorāśi

Mūrdhni (मूर्ध्नि).—(-mūrdhni) or °na, ifc. = Sanskrit mūrdhan, head: -uṣṇī-ṣaśīrṣānavalokita-mūrdhnir (v.l. °na; both edd. em. °dha) ity ucyate Lalitavistara 432.1

Or this, which actually does mean "looking at the world":

lokānalokāyāṃ

She has Atma of Five Buddhas:

bhagavatīṃ paṃcādibuddhātmikāḥ

also:

ākāśavati

She is called a Messenger, which is a different deity class:

duta mahāpratyaṃgirā

Now I am not sure how they made this Paramartha version since they have only one Pratyangira original source, which seems to be the same one we have.

Most of it appears to be Prajnaparamita literature--there is a lot of Gambhira "profound" and Subhuti (the disciple).

When the sources are broken down, it looks like the Naga Kings are from Maha Mayuri, and then the Ocean Clouds are from Megha Sutra.

I posted a bit more about the Kinnaris at the bottom of the previous page, and, here, Kinnari Sadhana is evidently a copy of Bhutadamara Tantra starting with the appearance of Vajrapani.

In the original Parasol Dharani, we get this:

sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣasitātapatrānāmāparājitāṃ dhvajāgrāvaropitāṃ kṛtvā mahatā pūjāsatkāreṇa mahatīṃ pūjāṃ kṛtvā sarvanagaradvāreṣu praveśayet vihāre vā grāme vā nagare vā janapade vā nigame vā śmaśāne vā parvate vā araṇyāyatane vā imāmaparājitāṃ pratyaṅgirāṃ vidyārājñīṃ mahatā satkāreṇa praveśayet / praveśitamātreṇa praśāntikṛto bhaviṣyati / sarve 'pyupadravopasargopāyāsāḥ paracakrāṇi praśāmyanti /

followed by the names of Ananta and other Nagas.

In the Paramartha, this block is on p. 100, followed by Shurangama Samadhi and 108 Samadhis, which is her Punya Sambhara. Then it gives 147 Nagas apparently from Maha Mayuri, then the Ocean Clouds from Megha Sutra, until reaching the Vajrapani section from Bhutadamara.

In the original, the next line was:

ananto nāgarājā śaṅkhapālo nāgarājā mahākṛṣṇo nāgarājā nandyupanaṃdau nāgarājānau anye ca sarve te nāgarājānaḥ kāle ca kālaṃ varṣayiṣyanti kālena kālaṃ autsukyamāpatsyate / kālena kālaṃ garjayiṣyanti sarvarogopadravāṃścopaśamayiṣyanti /

followed by a couple of regular dharanis, and then it ends. It does not quite match her nifty title:

sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣa avalokitamūrdhni tejorāśi

Now, they are handy enough to show us the original Bhutadamara, which is at the end of this massive dissertation (https://alexandria.ucsb.edu/downloads/3t945r069) starting on p. 745. As usual, it lets us know it is based on five manuscripts, and so half of it is footnotes showing the variances.

The Bhutadamara does use Eight Sundaris classed as:

aṣṭabhūtānirājñīkanyaḥ

and also Eight Cemetery or Smasana Vasinis.

Nothing at all matches from Bhutadamara Tantra to Paramartha Parasol.

Paramartha Parasol has Vajrapani showing a bond to Yakshinis and/or Naginis:

sarvayakṣiṇīnāmābhimukhīkarmamudrā || oṃ mahāyakṣiṇīnāṃ maithunapriyāya hūṃ phaṭ svāhā || sarvayakṣiṇī sāṃnidhyāṃkaraṇīya svāhā || oṃ kāmabhogeśvarīya svāhā || sarvayakṣiṇīnāṃ hṛdayamudrā || oṃ sarvamanohāriṇīye svāhā || || atha nāgarājā utthāya tasminparṣanmaṃḍalaḥ śrīvajradharasya pādau śirasābhivaṃditvā svahṛdayamudrā japet || oṃ phaḥ anaṃtamukhī || oṃ pha graḥ karkkoṭakamukhī || oṃ phuḥ gaṃ phuḥ padmamukhī || oṃ phuḥ ā phuḥ mahāpadmamukhī || oṃ phuḥ dhīḥ phu {||} vāsukimukhī || oṃ phuḥ mlaḥ phuḥ jvālāmukhī || oṃ phuḥ kaṃ phuḥ dhūpamukhī || oṃ phuḥ sāṃ phuḥ {||} śaṃkhapāramukhī || athāṣṭau mahānāginīsādhanavidhivistaro bhavati ||

Apparently, Vajradhara comes to Mutter the Naginis, and then again to the Kinnaris.

If I look at Mayuri's Nagarajas (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/mmayuvru.htm), it is similar to, but obviously not copied to, Parasol's version.

I am a bit lost here.

It is the type of thing that should "internet" very well, i. e. if we look at a Sutra and it said "do Kinnari Puja", then, we would be happy to have one inserted into the blank.

However if it does not say this in the original Parasol, and the Kinnari sadhana we get cannot be found in the place where it says it comes from, I do not know how such an elaborate piece just shows up. I am not sure why the names of three Nagas from the firt Parasol Dharani would suggest to copy the Bhutadamara Tantra anyway. It is, no doubt, similar, since he deals with Trayastrimsa Heaven, but I never saw Kinnari or anything like that come up for him.

There is a Shiva Bhuta Damara Tantra (https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/bhuta-damara-tantra-authoritative-tantra-of-sri-krodha-bhairava-along-with-his-mantras-mandal-worship-rituals-and-accomplishment-rituals-of-bhutinis-yakshinis-snake-girls-etc-NAK836/) which has Vajrapani and tons of commitments to female beings using Nagini names like Anantamukhi and has Kinnaris. That is interesting that there is a Hindu one that means Ananta Face, whereas the Buddhist Ananta Mukhi Dharani is called Endless Door and seems to have nothing to do with that.

Shiva's tantra wants to make the point that Bhuts are not ghosts. See Eight Sundaris above--Bhutani Rajni.

Perhaps this is where the material came from.

I may try to ask the compiler, Mr. Rawlins (https://independent.academia.edu/RawlinsThomas). The only thing that makes sense is that he did not copy Parasol off the web, he worked the original manuscript. A few variations from the web page would be understandable; as to whether it says, get the Kinnari sadhana from Shiva, I am not sure.

Whether it says to just replace any of his names with Vajradhara, I am not sure.

Usually, this is just difficult due to spelling problems and the like. But all this stuff he has added in has no indications as to why it is there, and it does not come from his citations. I am not going to rake five copies of 8,000 verse Prajnaparamita Sutras to try to find any other dings. Something strange has happened with Mayuri and Bhutadamara. The original Parasol does not have those breaks of different subjects like the "table of contents".

Where it does identify her as Pandara and Shrnkala, that kind of thing is very informative. How they can repetitively name her "Pratyangira" and not say anything about it, is slick. By looking at her fairly definitive epithets, we get a structure of associations.

Pratyangira is a similar name to Pratisara, who is Amulet, because she is Prati (against, opposing, returning) Sr (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shra), in the sense of being exhausted or distressed. Pratyangira is often called "the repeller", I suppose because of Prati-, which is to entirely overlook Angira, which is to lose the sense of it. With the prefix, you get into a mess quick:

2) As a prefix to nouns not directly derived from verbs it means (a) likeness, resemblance, equality; (b) opposite, of the opposite side.

If we just ignore whatever it may be, Angira is not a noun, like some object. It is specifically the Jupiterian Sage, and his name is thought of as also being "Agni", and the word is only him or his desecndants:

Agni himself who is called the first of the Aṅgirasas. Like Aṅgiras they occur in hymns addressed to luminous objects, and at a later period they became for the most part personifications of light, of luminous bodies, of divisions of time, celestial phenomena and fires adapted to peculiar occasions, as the full moon and change of the moon, or to particular rites, as the अश्वमेध, राजसूय (aśvamedha, rājasūya) &c.]

It is not like a Volkswagen cantaloupe, it does not revert or reduce to some basic object, as in Prati--Sr, or Annapurna, or Raudri, Smasana Vasini, or most names which can equate to something tangible. If anything, it is just a type of being.

I can understand for Vasikaran, you might want Kinnari, but Parasol does not have this emphasis. Pandara does, but, it is with Red Power deities, not Bhrkuti. I don't know what is going on with the "compilation".

shaberon

8th January 2021, 20:08

This may help, and it is hard to see, since Phurba is a major Nyingma practice that looks different.

It is used by Vajrasattva in Extremely Wrathful form, where he has a consort called "the consort".

The Phurba itself is Ekaggata, which is a non-removable universal cetasika in which samadhi develops.

The Tibetan lore is difficult, since an older name for the deity is Vajrakumara.

Who is the consort?

From a large Vajrakila (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/images/8/8c/0003.pdf) book:

With regard to the Vajrakumara spoken of in the Chinese sources, he is often referred to as
Kanikrodha, the exact meaning of which is unclear. Monier-Williams includes the glosses "an
enemy" and "a purificatory ceremony" under kO{lika but Lokesh Chandra seems to read the
word as kani (girl) because he Sanskritizes the name into the feminine form Vajrakumari.

Well, it doesn't say Vajrakumari is the femnine half of or consort to Vajrakumara, but there are really only a couple of possibilities for Vajrakumari.

Circle of Bliss (https://books.google.com/books?id=l3KmWbcq5foC&pg=PA538&lpg=PA538&dq=vajrakumari&source=bl&ots=LzuSp3CM0T&sig=ACfU3U3yGxGYK8jsAxOdisIU4FrluuUWEQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyo_6jjY3uAhWxp1kKHaGsAT04FBDoATAHegQIBhAC#v=onepage&q=vajrakumari&f=false) knows that the Newari one is "the Kumari" of Vajravarahi et al.

Even Russians copied Parasol (https://nandzed.livejournal.com/1612612.html), who is also Vajrakumari in the original dharani.

Kila is related to Amoghasiddhi Family, and, so, must be the progression of Ekaggata to Samadhi.

It is made of some kind of element and power, which would be the female half, or, Parasol starting from the outer or Kriya--Charya level.

That makes sense even if I largely ignore the common, intricate Phurba--Kila tantra.

Its basic element runs from the universal cetasika, through Yoga as Parasol and Highest Yoga as Vajravarahi.

That talks about Samadhi as ultimately spawned from Smrti.

Yoniso is "wisely" and is a Pali Sutra:

1. Yoniso Sutta. Just as the dawn is harbinger of the sun, so is yoniso manasikara the harbinger of the Noble Eightfold Path. S.v.31f.

2. Yoniso Sutta. Mindfulness [Sati--Smrti] comes by yoniso manasikara and goes through it to fulfilment. S.v.93f.

So, if we follow the symbolic closeness, Smrti is really the male seed, Vajrasattva in various iterations; Samadhi being Parasol in hers.

Smrti is also equivalent to Sadhana, which could be described as the Method of Luminous Mind, which is Vajrasattva as described in Khasama Tantra.

Since the Kila is Ekaggata, and Parasol is definitely doing something with Kila, the thing itself is held to transmute into four substances, i. e. Ekagatta is going to Samadhi in stages made of some kind of mental substance. More information from Vajrakilaya is very telling. I noticed it uses a "Gha" mantra which put me on the scent:

"Early versions of the GST and the Jnanasiddhi of IndrabhUti (both of which feasibly
arose around the close of the seventh century) list a circle of four krodharajas 225 whereas the later versions of the GST list ten. The earliest Mayajala (as translated into Chinese) on the other hand, lists two groups of four krodha kings and thus would seem, in all probability, to represent a transitional stage between the Yogatantra as represented by the STTS and the Anuttarayogatantra such as the later GST. Those krodha kings are assigned bijamantras in the Mayajala that are found unchanged in the Vajrakila cycle today.

The Chinese Buddhist canon contains two Vajrakumara (= Vajrakfla?) tantras which
are said to be derived from the Susiddhi-tantra and within which are to be found a
collection of rites engaging both Kila and Amrta. Vajrakila and Vajramrta, later to emerge as quite distinct deities, are regarded as one in the Sino-Japanese traditions stemming from this period.

225. Yamantaka (E), Prajnantaka (S), Padmantaka (W) and Vighnantaka (N). The later SekodddariM, 36-7, also specifically equates Vighnantaka with Amrtakundalin."

Vighnantaka arose out of Ganapati, q. v.

Vajrakumara arises from the sea, wreathed in Nagas.

"The Vajramala-tantra, an early Indian commentary on the GST, adds that the ritual kila should be made of acacia wood, thirteen inches in length and three-sided in shape. It is to be marked with 'the three words' (Om Ah Hum), blessed with one hundred syllables and purified by the rite of Amrtakundalin. The samayasattva whose form comprises the upper half of the peg is, according to Candrakirti,
the triple-faced, six-armed Amrtakundalin.240

240. Thus Amrtakundalin's identification with Vajrakila remains, notwithstanding the introduction of Vairocana and Yamantaka. "

"The Guhyasamiija-tantra (GST) describes the procedure for blessing the yogin's meditation area thus: "(Imagine) VajrakIla as an embodiment of the great king Vajramrta...

...Note the continuing identification of
Vajrakila with Vajramrta (Amrtakundalin)."

Ganapati's name and identity have been erased, while his function is carried forward by something specifically Buddhist, Vajrasattva. Whatever he is doing in Wrathful mode is certainly related to Jewel Family/Vajramrita Tantra.

"A single kila of acacia wood (khadira) is mentioned within a long ritual in the
MMK. The passage in question concerns solicitation of the beautiful Manojna in order to gain her wealth and sexual favours. This charming nymph195 bestows the elixir
(rasayana) granting long life to the sadhaka who may chose to live in a palace of the gods so long as he meditates upon the kila stuck into the ground.

195. F. Edgerton, BHS Dictionary, 418, describes her as a yakshini. She also occurs in the retinue of Vajramrta (Nispannayogovali, mandaIa no. 7)."

She is really a Wisdom to be realized by Vajramrita Tantra.

Manojña (मनोज्ञ) is also the name of a Kinnara mentioned as attending the teachings in the 6th century Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa.

Manojña is a Sanskrit compound consisting of the terms manas and jña (ज्ञ).

Jña (ज्ञ).—A compound letter, considered to be composed of ja and ña; it is usually expressed by jn or gn, but its peculiar nasal sound is not well conveyed by any combination of the Roman alphabet.

As we have just seen, as a suffix, it may also mean "wife of the gods", so, i. e. Mind Wife in the Divine sense.

It is almost the same as Manohara, so close, I cannot say they are identical, but strongly suggestive.

"The mandala as it is described in the Kila manuals, however, is generally far more
complex than this simple paradigm of the emperor Kila and his court of ten wrathful
kings. Vajrakila and Trptacakra in the centre may be accompanied by the one-eyed queen of the matrs, Ekajati, and the king of the oath-bound protectors, Vajrasadhu. They in tum are surrounded by three, four or five kulakilas and then, around them, the dasa-krodharajas with their queens and animal-headed assistants. Outside that circle stand the twentyone supreme sons (an epithet regularly applied to any important subordinate of the chief Kila) consisting of the groups of body, speech and mind manifestations (seven in each). In the four directions there are then the four guardians of the gates.321

321. In the east is the goddess Vajrayaksa with the head of a hoopoe bird holding in her hand an iron hook. In the south is Vajrabhairavi with the head of a magpie, holding a noose. In the west is Vajramrta with the head of an owl holding fetters in her hand and in the north is *Ghataka (gSod-byed) with the head of a hawk holding in her hand a bell."

There is a sudden appearance of Female Vajramrita as Ulukha Mukhi.

During initiation:

"Then, as the disciple accepts from him a few drops of nectar, the acarya recites:
"HUM. This sacred substance of swirling nectar is greatly enjoyed by those
who have gathered the three worlds under their sway. This fivefold
powerful nectar arising from desire annihilates the five families and renders
them free of birth and death. The empowerment of this swirling nectar is
now bestowed upon you. OM AH HUM VAJRAMRTA-ABHISIN"CA AM OM AH
HUM SVAHA."

Next is the consecration of the five-lobed crown which is bestowed with the same verse as found in the empowerment rite of the mahottara cycle above but for which the mantra given here is RATNAMUKUTA-ABI-IISIN"CA MAM TRAM TRAM TRAM TRAM TRAM."

Mahottara refers to Jewel Family.

Kumar is such a common word that only around 675 quadrillion people have it as a name today, but, on Buddhist deities, it proves to be conspicuously absent except for Vajrasattva and Parasol. Kumara Kula plausibly appears to be a useful name for the Sixth Family in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, and show up similarly with Parasol. That is just how it seems to me.

Even if nothing is mentioned about it, there is a Vedic Kumara Kula (https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/the-vaidika-kaumara-kula-vidya/):

In this reading the kumAra kula consists of only 12 mAtR^i-s. These are: 1) AveshinI (the possessor); 2) ashrumukhI (bloody faced); 3) kutuhalI (the eager one); 4) hastinI (the elephant headed one); 5) jR^imbhiNI (the stretching one); 6) staMbhinI (the paralyzer); 7) mohinI (the deluder); 8) kR^iShNA (the black one); 9) viShAkhA (having the form of vishAkha, one of the 4 kaumAra mUrti-s); 10) vimalA (the unblemished one); 11) brahmarAtrI (the epoch of universal dissolution); 12) bhrAtR^ivya-saMgeShu-patanti (one who falls upon the enemy hordes).

The family is ostensibly about Avesa and just happens to have Hastini in the middle of it. If Kumara Kula = Vajrasattva, but, Avesa = Amoghasiddhi, these are not generally related until the point of Vajra Kila; Vajrasattva has been semi-wrathful as Vajravidarana, wrathful as Vajrapani, and by the point of Extremely Wrathful, Kila is Amoghasiddhi Family.

Samadhi is Amoghasiddhi Family; Vajrashrnkala and Candika. If this is the sixth yoga, it is because we stuffed Vajrasattva at the beginning, and progressed him through stages.

The "Stages of Wrath" culminating in Kila which is Ekaggata is therefor strongly similar to the Six Yogas culminating in Samadhi, and samadhi is nothing but a transmuted ekaggata.

Going back to the original Dharani, whatever Parasol is doing with Kila frequently, but not always, gives a related Vidya:

chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / atharvaṇakṛtāṃ vidyāṃ chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / vajrakaumārīkṛtāṃ vidyāṃ

chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / vināyakakṛtāṃ vidyāṃ chindayāmyasinā kīlayāmi vajreṇa / kumārakṛtāṃ vidyāṃ

Atharvana Bhadrakali is Pratyangira, related to Vajrakaumari.

In the second, Vinayaka is related to Kumara, which is not only a male but a different spelling, suggesting the firt is a Youth and this one perhaps is Mars (Sanatkumara).

Her repetitive action is something like:

chinda (छिंद).—f C (chida S To cut, split &c.) A thing chopped or mineed. 2 Chopped, minced, hacked, hewn, mangled, mutilated state

Yāmyā (याम्या).—name of a mātar (śakti of Yama): Mahā-Māyūrī 242.18.

sīna : (pp. of sīdati) sunk; subsided; yielded.

Kila Yami Vajrena "by or with the Vajra".

The Dharani's inclusion with the Sutra is attested this far:

Mahā-praty-angirā Dhāraṇī , is also known by the full name Tathāgatoṣnīṣaṃ Sita-ā-tapatraṃ Aparājitaṃ Praty-angiraṃ Dhāraṇī 如來頂髻白傘蓋無能勝對治惡魔陀羅尼. Śhūrangama dhāranī 楞嚴咒 is referred to the Tathāgatoṣnīṣaṃ Sita-ā-tapatraṃ dhāraṇī in the Paramiti's version (705 CE) of the Śhūrangama Sūtra (Taishō T19 No. 945)

The Dharani, perhaps, is simply the "Five Families" section of the Sutra. Or, it is supposed to have these breaks:

SECTION 1: THE VAJRA DIVISION (EASTERN DIRECTION)

NAMO SARVA TATHAGATA SUGATAYA ARHATE SAMYAK-SAMBUDDHAYA.
NAMO SARVA TATHAGATA KOTI USHNISHA. NAMO SARVA BUDDHA BODHISATTVEBHYAH.
NAMO SAPTANAM SAMYAK-SAMBUDDHA KOTINAM...

SECTION 2: THE JEWELS DIVISION (SOUTHERN DIRECTION)

OM! RISHI-GANA PRA-SASTA TATHAGATOSHNISHA SITATAPATRAM HUM BHRUM...

SECTION 3: THE LOTUS DIVISION (WESTERN DIRECTION)

RAJA-BHAYA, CORA-BHAYA, AGNI-BHAYA...

SECTION 4: THE BUDDHA DIVISION (CENTRAL DIRECTION)

BHAGAVAN SITATAPATRA NAMO STUTE.
ASITA NARAKAH PRABHA SPHUTA VI-KAS SITATAPATREH...

SECTION 5: THE KARMA DIVISION (NORTHERN DIRECTION)

DUSHTA-CITTA, PAPA-CITTA, RAUDRA-CITTA, VI-DVE-SHA-CITTA, AMITRA-CITTA...

If that is the casting order, it is strange that Amoghasiddhi has been lifted above and beyond the central deity.

The Cusp of Wrath and Jewel Family may have something to do with Yama's traditional direction is South.

I did not understand Messengers:

Source: Pali Kanon: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines

'divine messengers', is a symbolic name for old age, disease and death, since these three things remind man of his future and rouse him to earnest striving.

Old Student

9th January 2021, 05:43

Seva means service to me; it is "worship" only in the crudest of allusions.

Indeed. As in the name of the RSS.

To me, the finest service would be found by training in the subtle capabilities of mind and applying them with Karuna.

Agreed.

I don't think I have ever had non-existent boundaries--psychologically, in terms of attitude, sure, but I think this is supposed to be something more profound than "mi casa su casa".

Quite so. I meant boundaries disappearing, becoming unbounded, but also becoming not differentiated from what is around one.

"Quote Discursive thought in my shaking notes is called, "my chatterer". It may be going on but I generally leave it behind, it is not capable of comprehending what happens, and at times I get forceful and kind of throw it out."

How can it be thrown out?

Well, like I said, I don't usually do that. I usually proceed on a different track or in a different space from it and so I don't actually care whether it is there or not. But there are times when that either isn't sufficient -- it insists on coming back and being distracting -- or I need complete silence from it because of what is being taught or practiced. In such times, I just kind of forcefully stop it, or I tell it to go forcefully, or I just kind of 'grab' it and toss it out. Forcefully stopping it is like silencing one's stream of consciousness during, say, martial arts. Telling it to go is just what it sounds like, personifying it and then telling it to go. Grabbing it and tossing it out is grabbing it with the same grabbing method that one uses to grab an inner switch or a muscle or a stream of bliss or something, and tossing is just tossing -- flinging it somewhere else.

The Death you are talking about is like the Nine Notions of Prajnaparamita, or, i. e. Wrathful Practice, which tells you to examine and visualize yourself as different kinds of corpses.

What I am talking about is sometimes called "the Signs", sometimes "Dissolutions", and they are very specific, give or take whether Smoke or Mirage is first, which would hardly affect it.

Yes and no. I do have a lot of being corpses, but I also have several Phowa sequences, and one very cold place that I don't go to because it is pretty much death incarnate, and if I went there I would die.

"Self" is such a devious word--even in a Sampatti where there is no awareness of the environment, you are still some kind of "unit", it just happens to lack human mind. To call it a Higher Self sounds outright misleading. The terms from the sadhanas, "sva", or even "atma", again are something like "own-nature", having no nature of anything we can normally name or relate to, but they are not really no-self as in nothing is there, they certainly are Nairatma or No Ego.

Sadhanas produce Vajra Gharvi or Divine Ego.

Well, that is tricky, when you get No Ego = No Atma, and then turn around and use Gharvi for Ego, it may seem confusing.

There is no Atma expressible in words or concepts, so, to the extent you conceive of the Atma, you are making it into an Ego, which it is not.

Now it's my turn to not know quite what to do with this.

I could get very biological and say that no-self means that the inner response to either real (external, physical) or imagined (internal) stimulus does not happen. I think I already did tell you about experiments that show that the incoming sensory information moving into the brain is met right from the beginning with outgoing information with which it matches in uncoded form, allowing recognition and cognition (I do remember writing to you about blind-sight). Without that meeting, nothing is categorized, recognized, dismissed as known, or anything. There are actually people (neuroscientists) who believe that if such an experience happens, it will be negated, you 'won't see it' because it isn't in your reality. That's actually probably true if one is rooted enough to their existence to believe in only things they recognize.

So lack of self means lack of recognition and receipt of world information, regardless of whether that world information comes from the outside physical world or not. I would argue that it isn't invisible, it's limitless.

That's a sensory version. You say you are still a "unit", I would reply that there isn't a "you" to be a unit. I can be the breeze if I don't insist on being a self, the breeze doesn't have a self. I spent last night practicing being city blocks and small towns at night. I have no idea why that was something to learn or why I practiced it, but I did practice it for 4 hours. You can say I left behind my "unit" and I can agree, but really it was a tree falling in a forest with nobody listening.

I sometimes think I must be supposed to teach about my shaking. If I were to do that, other than specific techniques, move your breath this way, tighten that muscle, direct your mind to this place, activate your listening, I would teach exactly that thing:

Both the world and your mind are limitless as long as you end your self because that's what limits them. You can see anything you can or even can't imagine as long as you stop trying to answer the question, "Where have I seen that before?"

I think there is a real problem with using the word Ego for these things, because by its original psychological definition, Ego is very limited, and Self is not. But the translators came upon this word once upon a time, and it fit with their philosophy classes so they started using it.

The only more subtle sin is Drsti which is also "View" in the sense of any kind of self-view, such as subject-object, any form of duality, where anything would be separate or "other" from anything else.

And if it is not, then it's the proper view. But that is like what I said about self.

Old Student

9th January 2021, 05:59

Kumar is such a common word that only around 675 quadrillion people have it as a name today, but, on Buddhist deities, it proves to be conspicuously absent except for Vajrasattva and Parasol.

Because it means "prince". Similarly, in some parts of India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, you see the name Chowdury, which means chieftain. There are lots of surnames that indicate current or former rank.

Samadhi is Amoghasiddhi Family; Vajrashrnkala and Candika. If this is the sixth yoga, it is because we stuffed Vajrasattva at the beginning, and progressed him through stages.

This I am not understanding. How is Samadhi in a family?

shaberon

9th January 2021, 12:32

Forcefully stopping it is like silencing one's stream of consciousness during, say, martial arts.

Maybe that is not too far from Kila, or Ganapati, or the powerful Obstacle Removers, which I personally have only recently begun to see.

I put a little more into the Kila post above.

I also have several Phowa sequences, and one very cold place that I don't go to because it is pretty much death incarnate, and if I went there I would die.

I am just not that good at Tibetan. But from what I recall it is like the Voids and Prabhasvara, with the intention of Transference, which is the Seventh Dharma usually just involved with Jnana Dakini.

I may be talking about the cold thing. Maybe that is the difference. Maybe that is it and you just don't die.

So lack of self means lack of recognition and receipt of world information, regardless of whether that world information comes from the outside physical world or not. I would argue that it isn't invisible, it's limitless.

That's a sensory version. You say you are still a "unit", I would reply that there isn't a "you" to be a unit.

Both the world and your mind are limitless as long as you end your self because that's what limits them. You can see anything you can or even can't imagine as long as you stop trying to answer the question, "Where have I seen that before?"

In Abhidharma it seems there is not exactly any definition for self to be present or lacking.

So, no, there isn't a "you" to be a "unit", there is just the "unit", mental processes.

The part that is important for Samadhi is *only* what is in the mind, i. e. Dharmadhatu Vajra, Mental Object.

And so it is like the "one" or "first" Samadhi is like multiple attempts at Dhyana and you have to build towards it with Pranayama and so on, until, eventually, when it "hits" is Amoghasiddhi Family, meaning, perhaps, a peak of intensity. Accomplishment of the initial meditative process. And the family has this same final sealing of realization in all of the rites, generally speaking.

But it is also Kusuma or Blossoming.

From that point, samadhi could, I suppose, be said to convey or focus through other Families.

And so if I focus on Yoga Tantra or Generation Stage with mainly a System of Six, I am not forced to tamper with Tantric Union and restricted deities and so forth, and so some female will hold the potentially-male role of Upaya, and so there can be a female placeholder for Smrti for as long as desired. Following the symbolism, it would be the one in Buddha Family, if one follows the counting order as used with Namasangiti or in classifying the Paramitas with Dhyani Buddhas, it goes:

Vajrasattva, Ratna, Lotus, Akshobya, Vairocana--Buddha, Amoghasiddhi, Vajradhara.

Similarly, in Kila which is Ekagatta growing to Samadhi, it is an increase of Vajrasattva until attaching Amoghasiddhi or Karma Family, corresponding to additional use of the Muladhara Chakra.

Because it works like that, it is the sole Yidam of many of the Nyingma.

From what I can tell, Parasol is Pandara, who has been emanated by Buddha, but really acts a lot like a female Vajrasattva.

As noted in the above post, although she only directly deals with Five Families, she has moved Amoghasiddhi above and beyond the central deity. She has made Five match the middle part of Seven.

She is easily accessible, unlike the seventh principle, or deities that only arise at the stage of Tantric Union. She just happens to be the seventh principle as Vajradakini, Upeksa, which is, so to speak, above and beyond Tantric Union. So by following her as she is unveiled to us in her progressive stages, is a sure road to the final crucial kind.

That is why she seems to be such a tremendous bridge from Six to Seven. I think Sarvadurgati Parishodana has managed to do the same thing by involving Lasya. Parasol is also a bridge from Five to Six if this part has not made sense to you yet.

So it is just a result from the fact that Pranayama, the third Yoga, is characterized by Lotus, the Third Family, that further along, Samadhi is Accomplishment, characterized by Amoghasiddhi Family. Smrti is the Fifth Yoga, and the syllable for the Fifth Element Akash, is Kha, which in turn becomes the seed for Amoghasiddhi, which is like placing him after Buddha Family as in Shurangama.

That is why Amoghasiddhi Tara of the Akanistha is such a viable vision for Samadhi. Candika is the Wrathful Equivalent. Vajrashrnkala is like a can't stop, can't quit, which is why she drives even harder and enters Union.

Also, the symbolism of moving Sense of Touch off of Amoghasiddhi (Air--Entire Surface) and into Akash, as done in Guhyasamaja, is close to the same meaning or attainment.

So when we speak of Akash, it really means something like the related fifth principle is becoming aware in our bodies. It does not mean we are wholly transported into the plane of Akash. That is what you are doing once you are actually established in the Akanistha.

Amoghasiddhi is not...easy whatsoever. Difficult to experience. Hard to understand. That is why Tara is so effective. She will bring us to his level. She achieved enlightenment under him in the previous universe when she was Yeshe Dawa Jnana Chandra. Most of her are not his consort. But they will bring you to her.

He has no particular male emanation aside from whenever someone makes their own Five Families representation, he governs the northern quadrant.

He has Kubera which is not really a Yidam.

Bhattacharya thinks Vajramrita is part of him, because he is Green, but this is wrong.

About all you get is Visvapani Bodhisattva and then you can go around looking for a Visvavajra and it is hard to find because it is really the Vajra Bhumi or Ground of a mandala,

He doesn't have goofy stumble bunnies traipzing through the Sutras asking questions.

He doesn't have much by way of public dharanis except his wife is Dharani.

He is married to Dharani and tons of goddesses are happy to wear his badge. For instance, with Kurukulla:

In the northern gate is Vajragandhari, golden in complexion, who bears the image of Amoghasiddhi on her crown, has a distorted face and protruding belly, and carries in her two right hands the sword and the goad, and in the two left the bell and the noose.

Gandhari happens to be holding all Four Activities since Sword is the symbol of Amoghasiddhi Family, it is a Visvavajra.

That is why Sword Dakini--Guhyajnana Dakini and Mahacina Krama Tara, are particularly esoteric, like Khadga Yogini of Sri Yantra.

If we follow exoteric male symbolism, we will not get much about the real nature of this family what-so-ever.

With Tara and the Dakinis and a very stringent notion of Samadhi, we do.

It is along the lines of "only to be found in the most sublime states of consciousness".

Its common enemy is Fear, which his mudra dispels, but, if you are not really afraid of that and you are just puzzled as to what is so occult about this guy, his mudra means Assurance.

He does not really have his own male deities, but, it can be easily shown that Vajrasattva "approaches" him, and so you have white at the beginning and green at the end this way.

This is similar to the two most common Taras, or, the combined Day--Night Tara.

Color-wise, white is the most undifferentiated, and green is the most compounded or materialized.

Tantric Samadhis are in order to split the green color into blue, yellow, and white, which is like melting the material world.

Hevajra practitioners report what they call a "Green-White flash" or "Dance of Wisdom" that occurs amongst mandala deities which begin doing a captivating exchange of colored lights.

Even further, I would say Buddha Kapala uses what we call Occult Color, as he works with Citrasena "painter or artist". He is, so to speak, the ne plus ultra of Mahamaya training.

Well it is his skull which is or was an Usnisa but now even this is rendered to Emptiness.

It is Inversion. This is what I would automatically get if I "used" a color, I would get its opposite. Like on an axis. Since there is Orange--Turquoise as with Dharma Tara Achi Chokyi, I know, that, for example, if I stare at an Orange Sun Disk, then I get a Turquoise after-impression. And so that Turquoise is the Occult Light, it is only in the mind, like if I turn and face the opposite wall, there is no turquoise disk there, but I can see it.

Then for those who argue it is made of fatigued rods and cones, if I keep doing it, eventually I don't even need the disk and can find the light at will. Then it could be a Samadhi Object.

If I keep going back to the samadhi, eventually this weird mental object will be re-born in a Purified or Maha condition.

If I was like Citrasena, if I could just use this light like paint and slap it on some invisible, body-less dakini, then the Deity's Stupa would touch my Inverted Stupa and then we could train Transference.

In the Pali Vishuddhimagga, they are more or less telling you to do this on "randomly, anything", whereas in Vajrayana, it is used to summon Celestial Wisdom Beings in resonance to Mantra.

So the thing about Color is a Method, right, it is a particular kind of technique, whereas we would also have to contend there is such a thing as relinquishing Mental Sense of Sight, which would leave some corresponding factor of Darkness.

Relinquishing Mental Sound is like exiting Gandharva Heaven on the other side.

That is why "the Dharmadhatu" is, from the view of experience, what we "go to"--Dharmadhatu Vajra or Mental Object or the object of samadhi--and it is our ability to "go there" and stabilize it which has to become the platform for that which happens in/via/through it.

Amoghasiddhi is not really the object, but more like the ability.

Vajrasattva is the interest in and development of the ability and continues to ride the rails in/via/through it.

Parasol refers to Dharmadhatu in the corresponding term Vijnana Dhatu which clarifies it is an Element more subtle than Akash, and subject to the Asta Vijnana training of Yogacara. In the vocabulary of Dakini Jala, Dharmadhatu Vajra is the generic name for the Lady of the Sixth Principle, such as Jnanadakini or Vajravarahi.

For those of us looking for tamer, more symbolic versions, Vajra Ghanta, Vajrasattvatmika, Vajra Gharvi are appropriate, or, it looks to me, Parasol.

Dharmadhatu Vajra is the Object, i. e, the perceived form, whereas the Element or simply Dhatu is the Prajna or Ishvari, Wisdom or Ultimate Enlightenment. In that sense, Marici is Dharmadhatu Ishvari and Vajrasattva Ishvari.

Although Vajrasattva is of the Mind Element, by placing him first, then, Amoghasiddhi stands sixth as a marker of communion, that is, to say, Samadhi, with our conceptual or initial, purifying Vajrasattva finally realizing his true nature, via or through Amoghasiddhi, so to speak.

Now of course there is no direct scriptural relationship between Parasol and Vajrasattva, they are miles apart, and we are just showing how they connect in terms of inner meaning. However, here is an interesting Sadhana (http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BH/bh117527.htm) which firstly indicates she was nothing but a Mental or Dharmadhatu Vajra to begin with:

"Her sutra and mantra emanate from the Buddha's ushnisha, rather than through His speech, and accordingly her name is White Ushnisha. The deity is classified as belonging to the Kriya Yoga tradition, but the manner of explanation and practice belongs to the Mahayoga. Great mahasiddhas, Dze Tari, Dorje Denpa and so on composed her sadhanas, which are easy to practice and this one is similar to them. Also, there is a Nyingma lineage from Garab Dorje, through Manjusrimitra to Vimalamitra.

Dorje Tsuk Tor (Skt. Vajra Ushnisha) form of the great expeller. (She has) one thousand heads.

Vairocana Buddha marks her forehead; in His heart is a white Om. Amitabha Buddha marks her throat; in His heart is a red AH:
Vajrasattva marks her solar plexus; in his heart is a blue Hung. Around a white OM, which stands on a moon disk in the center of heart, the mantra rotates, emitting light which removes all defilements and hindrances and provides strength and power.

You are decorated all over with flaming, invisible vajras.

The time of death is uncertain where one will go, but it is certain that great suffering awaits one in any of the six destinations. Whoever can keep these in mind, please, practice this secret oral teaching."

That is outright bizarre since it is supposed to be a blue Hum deity at the heart. But, she has given Vajrasattva the assignment and pushed him to, their words, solar plexus, while placing him in the rank of an important Dhyani Buddha. In Nepal, Maha Pratyangira is both the Six Arm Blue form and Thousand Arm Parasol. Here, Vajrosnisa is Thousand Arm Parasol and acting in the same manner as Pratyangira.

He also calls her Sugata, so, even though she is just a Mental Object produced by Buddha, that Mental Object is a Buddha in its own right.

I think there is a real problem with using the word Ego for these things, because by its original psychological definition, Ego is very limited, and Self is not. But the translators came upon this word once upon a time, and it fit with their philosophy classes so they started using it.

Now, yes, in the "days of Psychology". During the Theosophical era, there was a fondness of keeping Greek in its original meaning and philosophy, wherein, for instance, Eros = our Amitayus, and Ego = True Individual, or "not self" or immortal monad.

I still employ a lot of nineteenth-century usage and tend to mix Pali into Sanskrit as if it were the same.

I believe there is a major linguistic and philosophical point to what happened then. Or, if you will, compared to the evolution of the so-called Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic, Modern styles of art, I might argue The Secret Doctrine started the Modern Era in its entirety. But the meaning was mostly lost due to pseudo-Theosophy and materialistic science, which it was intended to combat. Theosophy was merely the Groundwork for Raja Yoga, which we have more information on; as an outer presentation to the public or world, it is a weapon, definitely, against those two kinds of extremes.

Sanskrit is considered un-translatable.

Kriya--Charya posits an Atma Tattva from the very beginning, and so it is as if the rest of tantra is in transporting "this" to a non-conceptual, non-dual state.

If we look for instance at the rise of Manjushri in Namasangiti, in the sixth mandala he is the Sambhogakaya, Maha Vairocana, whereas in the seventh, he is Vairocana Atman and Dharmakaya.

Looked at the other way round, the Right View would be like Four Seals:

I am not

-identical to

-contained in

-independent of

-the owner of

Skandhas.

That is how the Path applies to me. The failure of Sakkaya Ditthi is like the failure of the Third Noble Truth implying the Path is not important or the Path does not apply to me.

shaberon

9th January 2021, 20:09

Trptachakra sounded unusual to me, and, the only examples of it appear to be someone saying that this "reading" is unattested and not found in the commentaries because the ordinary consort of Vajrakilaya is Diptachakra.

Trpta would be "satisfied, content", whereas Dipta is "flaming, luminous".

Kumara is, however, a traditional name for Kilaya. From the Tantra Samuccaya on the Russian site, this is called Vajrakumara:

http://www.surajamrita.com/images/mandalas/anuttara_yogini_tantra/BVajrakumara.jpg

Dipta Chakra is supposed to be a lighter blue; according to Tibet Art, Robert Beer's site:

"He is a wrathful activity-aspect of Vajrasattva and Vajrapani who is associated with the Karma or Activity Family of Amoghasiddhi Buddha; and his consort, Diptachakra, is regarded as a wrathful emanation of Green Tara."

Diptachakra is a type of Chandi who has been intercepted by Vajrasattva.

The Hindu fellow at Kamakoti (http://www.kamakotimandali.com/blog/index.php?p=209&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1) says this is one of the Buddhist rites he has experienced, that it originally was taught by Prabhahasti and that it does use forceful breathing, which reminded him most of Bagalamukhi.

Prabhahasti is translated as Radiant Elephant (https://balkhandshambhala.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-vidyadharas-of-uddiyana-kashmir.html), and, he is not really the origin itself, but, among the Eight Vidyadharas, he held the Vajrakilaya transmission.

If it were to be said Diptachakra could not be Vajrakumari because Vajrakumari is Parasol, I would look at it like Parasol really is more of a Pancha Tara with all the Families, and that her personal names/forms/hypostasis do not really emphasize Karma Family.

Historically, Parasol was emanated to the Sangha by Buddha, and Nagarjuna, you might say, worked with this and realized Green Tara and transmitted her along with Karma Family energy which perhaps was not understandable prior to that point.

Old Student

10th January 2021, 06:46

I am just not that good at Tibetan. But from what I recall it is like the Voids and Prabhasvara, with the intention of Transference, which is the Seventh Dharma usually just involved with Jnana Dakini.

I may be talking about the cold thing. Maybe that is the difference. Maybe that is it and you just don't die.

The Phowa is the ritual that is done during the Chikkai Bardo, i.e. dying. The red and white drops combine at the heart, and then go out the crown as basically an ejaculate that finds the yoni of Vajrayogini to be reborn in the land of the Dakinis.

In my shaking, there is an inner and an outer Phowa (not really sure why this is, but this is what I mean by loss of self. The inner Phowa is very much like the rite described above, with the top of my head 'splitting' into the crown (male) and the yoni (female) as the ejaculation occurs. The outer Phowa is seemingly on the outside of this, but is characterized by those pairs at the various points in my body - lily and jewel, clouds and empty space, etc. down to the bottom. When it happens and it is outer, I am looking at myself from the outside and I do not exist as a body.

He does not really have his own male deities, but, it can be easily shown that Vajrasattva "approaches" him, and so you have white at the beginning and green at the end this way.

I started in on my chest/heart last night. There was a long set up, but part of it included going over the things that had been seen in my heart before. As a result of that and of the "preparation" for the shaking, I was reminded of three male deities that have been in my shaking -- there are those who are there only once or so (Vajrayogini twice, Pandaravasini once, etc.). The males were Surya once, and then a meditation at my heart in which the deity there was Avalokitashvara on the bottom and Shiva on the top. (Since your post also talks about Pandara, the reason Pandaravasini only appeared once was that after that Mandarava appeared instead).

The new thing was a total rewrite of how the muscles in my chest and rib cage normally work. I can neither do it when not shaking (maybe someday I will but not even close now), nor figure out how I was able to breathe while it was happening.

It was also a chest/heart version of two such sequences in my lower abdomen/pelvis, and one such sequence in my throat. Of the two such sequences in my lower abdomen/pelvis, one is the precursor to the inner Phowa I described. The motion rolls down my rib cage in what must be a coordinated wave of superficial and deep intercostals and subcostals (which are all underneath the pectorals), and then up my chest above it in the pectorals and the muscles at the areolae. That happened about 3 times per second for about 30 minutes. When it had started, it had trouble detaching from the muscles below that, one of which was my diaphragm so that I lost my breath initially. It continued to entrain my shoulder muscles, which these days control (in my shaking) becoming the shaman animals, so those were rolling. Otherwise, my mind was stopped the way it is in the middle of a dissolve, the rest of my body was I suppose quiet but I was not aware of it.

I was trained to work the various sets of muscles involved in novel ways over the last few months, and I had to contribute a lot of standing to control my breath (I was told to do that and did so but don't have that exercise completely down). Otherwise, I have zero idea how my muscles moved that way, coordinated but totally alien to my experience.

Because this just happened last night (actually early this morning), it is very fresh in my mind and I can assert that there is nothing -- no self -- that can be there when that is happening or it either (most likely) won't happen, or else (less likely) I would not have breathed because most of my breathing muscles and chest flexibility to support breathing would not have been there.

My POV (point of view) was both over my body and deep in my throat. I have had a 'curtain' drawn over my clear body for some weeks now (it looks like grey or red and black fog but has ripples at the bottom like the bottom of a curtain and has a sheen like liquid crystal). That was because I was learning "action", and "wasn't ready" to both experience vision and action. After/during last night sometime it finally dawned on my that "action" in sanskrit is karma, and that the heart is the karma chakra.

All of which is a long way of saying in response to:

The part that is important for Samadhi is *only* what is in the mind, i. e. Dharmadhatu Vajra, Mental Object.

There is no such thing in shaking. If shaking is seen as a form of dhyana, then samadhi is a state which may well be the same state as for sitting or standing, but there is no such thing as "only what is in the mind" because the body shakes when the mind enters uncommon states, and the mind dissolves when the body does so. That's about as clear as I can put it. The state last night was a total zero for the mind and a body doing something it can't logically do, but I am sure that probably the reason the heart is so hard to set up is because I remember the mandala there. It's made up of red and white drops and is spatiotemporal in the sense that as you move from the center, the movements get exponentially faster and the space exponentially smaller.

I read the rest of your post (this one, and the next one) but will have to comment tomorrow, since I had to look some things up to do this response.

shaberon

10th January 2021, 09:15

The correction of Kilaya's consort to Dipta is important with respect to the similar term, Lamp, or Dipa.

Dipta arguably has more connotation towards hot, excited, and blazing than a Lamp, which could be crafted to shun that.

E. dīp to blaze, to shine, affix kta .

A Lamp, per se, appears in three rings or successive layers of action in Yoga practice.

Lamp is a mundane Offering. In any kind of temple, it would be a literal one, or, in most sadhanas that prompt you to use Offering Goddesses, then they appropriate these regular items and use them.

If we proceed from the basic kinds of retinues to a tantric version, in the Inner Homa, for Nirajan, the Lamp Offering is the heating of Nectar via Agni Kunda. And so that is why at that point, we have changed the Lamp's possession from that of a Neat Bodhisattva goddess holding it on a pole, to certain rare tantric emanations who hold a Kunda or Dharmodaya.

In the Stages of Dissolutions, Lamp is the Fourth, the last thing remaining before Sky. At that point, it is not an item, but the nature of how one perceives one's own body, which is scarcely. Instead there is appearance of something more like a Lamp in this moment of Air into Sky.

Turquoise Lamp is often thought of as a protector, but, I have a feeling that part of what she is protecting is the integrity of this state of mind called Lamp.

It is the kind of thing we should chew slowly and savor.

It is, of course, also associated with Atisha and is perhaps used in other ways with other meanings, but, it is pretty specific within the framework of sadhanas. Atisha merely borrowed his last name.

Now we have looked at Seven Historical Buddhas, but, there is one who is not among them which I have always wondered why was highly important in Nepal, Dipankara.

It is actually simple, it is from the Jataka Tales or the old Pali legends of Buddha's past lives.

When he was named Sumedha, or, Megha, Sumati, or Sumegha, he became a disciple of Dipankara, which was actually his first real discipleship, the moment he decided to become a Buddha, and so this story is really the first example of the Bodhisattva Path and Paramitas.

It is believed to have taken place in Gandahar, and, so, those were the giant statues that the Taliban demolished. They were representative of the size and lifespan of their likenesses. HPB knew this and used it to refer to Lemurians and Atlanteans, and described two versions of counting Historical Buddhas, since there are different numbers that pertain to different cycles.

Sumedha pledged himself to Dipankara during a Christopher Columbus-type moment of using himself to cover a mud puddle.

Thousands of deities rejoiced.

The onlookers who decided to become followers of Sumedha became Kasyapa Gotra.

According to Wiki:

In the Pāli Apadāna and Āgamas, Sumedha receives (or buys) blue lotus flowers from a young brahmin girl called Sumittā; he later offers the flowers to Dīpankara Buddha, throwing them in the air. Sumittā takes a vow that she may be reborn as the wife of Sumedha in a future life, which is confirmed by a prediction by Dīpankara Buddha. Later, Sumittā is reborn as Yasodharā (Sanskrit: Yaśodharā), the wife of Prince Siddhattha who later becomes Gotama Buddha. In some versions of the story, Yasodharā only gives the flowers to Sumedha on the condition that he join her in pledging to be reborn as a couple in future lives.

After lifetimes on the Path, he emerges from Tusita Heaven to incarnate as Gautama, just as Maitreya is said to be doing currently.

There are a few variations; Dipankara (http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_1987_02_03.pdf) six page paper from a native.

According to China Buddhism:

He is generally depicted with two Bodhisattvas, Manjushri and Vajrapani (common in Java) or Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani (common in Sri Lanka); or with the Buddhas who come after him, Gautama and Maitreya [standard depiction of Buddhas of the Three Times].

Dipankara Buddha

(Buddha of Fixed Light)

(T.) mar-me-mdsad (the illuminator or enlightener).
(M.) jula joqiaqci (the maker of light).
(C.) Ting-kuang-fo (Ting Kuang Fo).

Dipankara Buddha is represented in Java and Ceylon with the right hand in ahhaya mudra — gesture of protection, called 'blessing of Fearlessness'.

In Nepal, he is associated with Swayambhunath Stupa, and has a Garuda Throne with Makara Riders:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/0/100023.jpg

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/5/8/65824.jpg

He is barely known in Tibet, but in this Gelug view he is an aspect of Manjushri. Note the presence of Dhritarashtra:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/4/0/6/4064.jpg

And note the presence of Dhritarashtra:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/4/2/5/4251.jpg

The common translation of him is Upholder of the Nation, and his wife is Gandhari.

So this all tells me something a little more than "Dipankara prophesied Buddha's birth".

It is like a Sutra version of which the tantric version is Vajradhara as Vimala Guru with Siddharajni or Guhyajnanadakini.

It is like a particular emphasis that Parasol "is" Pandara even if she can appear in or affect other families.

Amitabha is defined as Limitless Light, so, he is like a tantric Dipankara.

Swayambhu is an unusual lotus because the root comes before the seed. What this means is the Root is Swayambhu, self-existent, like Buddha Nature. The Lotus or i. e., practitioner, has to "grow" on this, and *makes* the seed, which is cast into the future cycle, such as the next life.

Now of course if you are Nyingma you follow Guru Padmasambhava and so Lotus Family is stamped on you immediately.

And so if I do not have that, and I do not have an earthly Guru, how should we think of the important prayer, Calling the Guru from Afar?

Here is a quite brief Ngondro Commentary (https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/ndro.htm) from Khenpo Palden Sherab.

It is interesting because if I excerpt the relevant parts and overlook differences in some of the details, he will give me back basically the same Guru Yoga as I already do. He doesn't really mention lineage holders or anyone--Calls the Guru in one line.

He says a Vajrasattva on one's head and a front-generated Vajrayogini:

"Ngondro", of course, is a Tibetan word. "Ngondro" means "going
ahead". Many people maintain that Ngondro is a less important
practice, kind of a pre-school practice. But these people really
misunderstand. Ngondro is really an essential practice. It must be
done, fully accomplished, before enlightenment can be reached. If we
want to reach enlightenment, this practice must be done because
Ngondro practice is the root of enlightenment.

Without paying attention to this practice, you won't get results
from any other practice. You won't achieve the results you want,
because you won't have the foundation. Other practices may look full
of excitement, but without Ngondro it's like building a nice, fancy
house without any foundation. The house won't last for a long time.
The shelter would not be good for you and not good for others. The
house will require a large insurance cost. Without Ngondro as a
basis, other practices will bring some obstacles, not enlightenment.

If I am using Vajradhara as a transcendant Guru, it works pretty much just as he says, using the "condensed" version of Calling the Guru from Afar which could run on for several pages:

"NAMO LUMED TEN GYI GONPO LAMA KHYEN"
Homage! Lama, infallible constant protector, (you who) know!

If you are very busy, you can just say this line and then begin
the Ngondro practice. Here you are calling the Lama from afar.
Actually you are really invoking your primordial natural state of
mind. This state of mind can be seen in one sense as being far away
from our normal, daily state of mind. Our ignorance is really deep
and is a great hindrance to reaching our primordial state of mind. On
the other hand this state can be seen as right here. It is never
really beyond you. It is never separated from you. It is always here.
What you need to do now, is to have sincere longing, devotion, and
confidence that you CAN reach your primordial state of mind which will
then be your guide. The Lama is not separate from your primordial
state of mind. Your primordial state of mind is your absolute teacher
and will guide you through every situation.

That is just about exactly what I mean by Guru, except I would not say this at the beginning of Ngondro but rather at the so-called end or transition to Guru Vajradhara.

Ours tends to use Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra and Seven Limb Offering and Generate Bodhicitta. And so the Nyingma techniques or sequences might look a little different, but the important parts are almost exactly the same thing.

I am not going to bring in all of his version; however, at the appropriate moments I have also done this and it is much like he says:

When you do Ngondro practice you also do prostrations.
Sometimes these prostrations can be done when you are doing the Guru
Yoga practices. In the Ngondro practice, doing prostrations together
with the refuge is correct and more practical. There are two types of
prostrations, short prostrations and long prostrations. In Ngondro
practice we do the long prostrations, the very extensive ones. While
we are doing the physical prostrations, we chant the refuge prayer and
do the visualization meditation at the same time.

To do the physical prostration we stand straight up and fold our
hands at the heart center. Our feet may be close together. This mudra
is called the Mudra of the Blossoming Lotus, or The Wish-fulfilling
Mudra. This mudra is a symbol of the heart. You are opening your heart
toward Guru Padmasambhava and the Three Jewels.

Now put your folded hands on the crown chakra, then on the speech
chakra, then on the heart chakra. Bow down on the floor. In the short
prostration your five points must touch on the floor. The five points
are the forehead, the two palms, and the two knees. All five points
must touch the floor. In the long prostration, you slide completely
onto the floor. It's like swimming on the floor (laughter); with all
of your body touching the floor. Next swing back and stand up.

To begin the second prostration, you hands don't have to start at
the heart center. They can go right to the crown chakra. Repeat the
prostrations again, and again, and again. With the long prostration,
you stretch out all the way. Your belly, your knees, your forehead,
your body, all of you touching the floor. When you are getting up from
the long prostration it is all right for your knees to be on the
floor. Doing many long prostrations can be difficult at first.

Although it wasn't designed for exercise, this is a good side effect
of doing prostrations. It is a lot of exercise. Many people have said
that when they do one hundred thousand prostrations over a short
period of time, their bodies become very light. They find it very good
for arthritic joint pains.

And so we do this handful of routines that are basically similar, but highly interchangeable, for instance on the phase Generate Bodhichitta, you can use a short form, or, highly elaborate things like The King of Prayers Samantabhadra Pranidhana, articles from Shantideva, and so on, and so it is usually recommended that people use this much of the Ngondro for a long time until it feels natural to them.

And so we do those routines which are sort of malleable and then we are going to get to one that is not. The part about whether it has to do with Padmasambhava or a Karmapa or whoever may change, and you do not really use Union, just a plain Vajrasattva:

"CHI WOR LAMA DOR SEM YER MED PAI"
Above one's head is Vajrasattva, inseparable from the Lama.

"KU LE DUD TSH GYUN BAB DRIB JANG GYUR"
From (Vajrasattva's) body, a nectar stream descends, purifying (my)
obscurations.

Vajrasattva is no other than Guru Padmasambhava; therefore
Vajrasattva is also your teacher. Guru Vajrasattva is a totally
enlightened being and has the special power to remove obscurations.
When we meditate as Guru Padmasambhava we are meditating on the
Nirmanakaya Guru. Vajrasattva is a Sambogakaya Guru. Guru
Padmasambava and Guru Vajrasattva are the same, there is no difference
between them. In this visualization we see Guru Padmasambhava
transform into Vajrasattva. Then we meditate on Vajrasattva.

Visualize Vajrasattva above your head so that you both are facing
in the same direction. In the refuge visualization, the objects of
refuge face you. This time you and Vajrasattva both face the same
direction. Above your head is a one thousand petal white lotus. Above
the lotus is a moon disk, and on the moon disc sits Vajrasattva in
vajra posture. This visualization is not of solid objects.
Vajrasattva and his consort appear in wisdom rainbow bodies.
Vajrasattva and his consort are in union. Both are white in color. It
is a rich white color, like when a snow covered mountain is touched by
moon light, a very rich, bright white. Seeing Vajrasattva as the
embodyment of all the Buddhas, of all the Buddha families, know that
Vajrasattva is also of the same nature as Guru Padmasambhava.

Then remain just as you are, in meditation, nothing else has to
change. Recite the 100 syllable mantra of Vajrasattva. When you
begin the recitation of the mantra, invoke the blessings of the male
and female bodies of Vajrasattva as they extend bliss in all
directions. Blessing nectar starts to descend from Vajrasattva in the
form of light and enters your central channel through the crown
chakra. The light fills your crown chakra, pushing away all
obscurations, obstacles, and diseases. The light nectar gradually
descends to your speech chakra, filling that chakra and pushing out
all negativities, diseases and obstacles. The light nectar then fills
your entire body, and you become as completely pure and clean as
Vajrasattva. Your entire body is filled with the wisdom light nectar
of the Vajrasattvas.

Each time you say the 100 syllable mantra, see yourself receiving
more and more nectar, becoming more and more purified, losing more and
more obscurations, obstacles, and diseases. Continue reciting this
mantra with a single pointed mind, great devotion, and sharp
concentration.

Here is how he interprets the Laughter in Vajrasattva Mantra:

From my heart I will have great joy in the Four Boundless, Four
Empowerments, Four Joys, and the Four Kayas.

Visualize yourself as Vajrasattva dissolving into the primordial
natural state. You have no more perceptions, no more concentration, no
more thinking. You merge with the primordial natural state and remain
in that state for as much time as you can.

"OD ZHU DAG NANG DANG DRE RO CHIG GYUR"
(Vajrasattva) melts into light and becomes mingled in one taste with
one's own perceptions.

One way or another, they end with, usually, Vajrasattva just entirely melts into you, and then everything reduces to Voidness and so you use Purity mantra.

And so, this stage, this Voidness moment is intended to search for and enter the Body-less, Videha, and other synonyms of direct recognition of Voidness. When this is stable, then you would move to the full Guru Yoga aspect of Vajradhara, and perhaps be given a Yidam.

He doesn't dig much into this since it is not really inside the Ngondro any more:

Now comes the practice of Guru Yoga.

"RANG NYID DORJE NALJOR DUN KHA RU"
Oneself (is) Vajrayogini and in the sky in front.

That is extremely strange that for an article which stresses the necessity of Ngondro, he sticks Vajrayogini in there casually.

That is more or less what we are attempting to do, in the long run, is force her appearance, not just read about her and try something.

Most of the available literature will say "Instantly I become Vajrayogini".

Since he has front-generated her, this alludes to the value of doing so, which, of course, may work better and probably should be done with simple samaya beings.

One can see a White--Green interface with Amoghasiddhi, but, what of its opposite, Red?

This Red color is very mysterious to me, as it is Desire and it is shown in several instances as "white tinged with red due to proximity". Pandara's primary meaning. Desire is Kama Dhatu and so it is like the root nature of the entire plane that consists of heavens and hells.

White and Red are the "halves" of Bodhicitta, with Amitabha's Bowl near the navel area being somewhat of an Inverted Parasol.

The small Parasol sadhana from the other day dealt with the interpretation of Saptanam and Kotinam by saying Parasol's Crown consists of Seven Million Buddhas who are under Seven Parasols. That makes sense to me, there are any number of Buddhas, mainly of seven kinds. "That" is Vajrosnisa, or, Vajrosnisa is a name that has not been found on her other forms, may only be this.

Just as male Vajrosnisa is a transformation of Padmantaka, the Wrathful Western Gatekeeper, we might guess female Vajrosnisa is a transmutation of the corresponding female gatekeeper, and, well, it turns out that all of the tantras are already based on this one, Khandaroha, who springs from Varuni.

Old Student

11th January 2021, 02:22

So finishing up about the first post from yesterday,

Similarly, in Kila which is Ekagatta growing to Samadhi, it is an increase of Vajrasattva until attaching Amoghasiddhi or Karma Family, corresponding to additional use of the Muladhara Chakra.

This is confusing to me, I thought Karma was associated with the heart chakra.

Old Student

11th January 2021, 03:00

Vajrasattva is no other than Guru Padmasambhava; therefore
Vajrasattva is also your teacher. Guru Vajrasattva is a totally
enlightened being and has the special power to remove obscurations.
When we meditate as Guru Padmasambhava we are meditating on the
Nirmanakaya Guru. Vajrasattva is a Sambogakaya Guru. Guru
Padmasambava and Guru Vajrasattva are the same, there is no difference
between them. In this visualization we see Guru Padmasambhava
transform into Vajrasattva. Then we meditate on Vajrasattva.

Visualize Vajrasattva above your head so that you both are facing
in the same direction. In the refuge visualization, the objects of
refuge face you. This time you and Vajrasattva both face the same
direction. Above your head is a one thousand petal white lotus. Above
the lotus is a moon disk, and on the moon disc sits Vajrasattva in
vajra posture. This visualization is not of solid objects.
Vajrasattva and his consort appear in wisdom rainbow bodies.
Vajrasattva and his consort are in union. Both are white in color. It
is a rich white color, like when a snow covered mountain is touched by
moon light, a very rich, bright white. Seeing Vajrasattva as the
embodyment of all the Buddhas, of all the Buddha families, know that
Vajrasattva is also of the same nature as Guru Padmasambhava.

Then remain just as you are, in meditation, nothing else has to
change. Recite the 100 syllable mantra of Vajrasattva. When you
begin the recitation of the mantra, invoke the blessings of the male
and female bodies of Vajrasattva as they extend bliss in all
directions. Blessing nectar starts to descend from Vajrasattva in the
form of light and enters your central channel through the crown
chakra. The light fills your crown chakra, pushing away all
obscurations, obstacles, and diseases. The light nectar gradually
descends to your speech chakra, filling that chakra and pushing out
all negativities, diseases and obstacles. The light nectar then fills
your entire body, and you become as completely pure and clean as
Vajrasattva. Your entire body is filled with the wisdom light nectar
of the Vajrasattvas.

Each time you say the 100 syllable mantra, see yourself receiving
more and more nectar, becoming more and more purified, losing more and
more obscurations, obstacles, and diseases. Continue reciting this
mantra with a single pointed mind, great devotion, and sharp
concentration.

This is exactly the visualization that Lama Yeshe has in his book as a preliminary to cleanse oneself before doing the Tummo he teaches, which starts with a visualization of Heruka Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini. So I've done this visualization, back in the period when I was trying to figure out what to do, after I had my perception of a clear body, and before I started shaking (about 5 months after the former, and 1 or 2 months before the latter.)

One way or another, they end with, usually, Vajrasattva just entirely melts into you, and then everything reduces to Voidness and so you use Purity mantra.

Melts into the heart, in the version I learned.

This Red color is very mysterious to me, as it is Desire and it is shown in several instances as "white tinged with red due to proximity". Pandara's primary meaning. Desire is Kama Dhatu and so it is like the root nature of the entire plane that consists of heavens and hells.

White and Red are the "halves" of Bodhicitta, with Amitabha's Bowl near the navel area being somewhat of an Inverted Parasol.

Pandaravasini is literally "the white robed one", she is pink, the robes are white. As I said in yesterday's response, I have seen her, that is also what she looked like then.
She was one of the ones that first appeared standing on my heart (not all of them at the same time).

With reference to your discussion about Dipta meaning flaming, blazing:

Dipta arguably has more connotation towards hot, excited, and blazing than a Lamp, which could be crafted to shun that.

When we were discussing the Butchou (Japanese for Buddhosnisa), there was one listed in JAANUS (http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/butchou.htm):

Another important Butchou is Shijoukou Butchou 熾盛光仏頂,...

This Butchou's name (in Kanji which is really used directly from Chinese in these cases) literally means "blazing flaming light Buddhosnisa".

shaberon

11th January 2021, 09:18

This is exactly the visualization that Lama Yeshe has in his book as a preliminary to cleanse oneself before doing the Tummo he teaches, which starts with a visualization of Heruka Chakrasamvara and Vajrayogini. So I've done this visualization, back in the period when I was trying to figure out what to do, after I had my perception of a clear body, and before I started shaking (about 5 months after the former, and 1 or 2 months before the latter.)

I am not surprised. Although brief, it is obviously something from Highest Yoga.

I would say Chakrasamvara is a mantric compound.

Then I would say it begins with what I am going to add below, and builds to Seven Syllable deity.

Because we can show how the scheme of these mantras attaches to what we must resort to calling energy levels or degrees of Yoga, that is the system I am trying to streamline. Since we know Guhyajnana Dakini is mistress of Four Dakinis mantra, and, she is the Heart of Avalokiteshvara, then, she works with Pandara, or Parasol, or Bhrkuti, which is appropriate since Lotus Family governs the stage of Pranayama.

I think it would start with Atma Tattva and the Paramadya description of Vajrasattva and end with Ziro Bhusana Vajrayogini.

One way or another, they end with, usually, Vajrasattva just entirely melts into you, and then everything reduces to Voidness and so you use Purity mantra.

Melts into the heart, in the version I learned.

Yes, This is an outer purification, and, so, slightly different ways of doing it will work the same way. Again, meaning it is something appropriate, you found it in the Dharma somewhere.

He may have been on your head, or, you could put him on the sky or ground, the important thing here is the Samaya. Make and uphold a Bond of Dignity to him. And I can say that if you have this even at a basic purificatory level it really works, i. e. if you go out into the world and defile your Samaya you are going to feel it.

That is why I confess to Vajrasattva continuously and use his mantra at odd moments outside of sadhanas.

And if you work with him, it becomes that it not only applies to common-sense violations, he will start letting you know when you counteract the growth of Void Gnosis, in other words if you do something that is bad for Bodhi Mind, you will feel it.

If you take him seriously, he will make a very good disciple out of you. That is all you have to do! Just be serious and follow along as if your life was already over and you are just his property. If not then you will get lots of messages that Death can come any moment.

Pandaravasini is literally "the white robed one", she is pink, the robes are white. As I said in yesterday's response, I have seen her, that is also what she looked like then.
She was one of the ones that first appeared standing on my heart (not all of them at the same time).

Interesting.

Pink is rare, in GST it is Pink Vajradhatvishvari in Union with Vairocana in the East.

It is not just the two halves of Male and Female Bindus or Upper and Lower, it is Buddha and Lotus Families.

The impression I get is of something like a Red-to-White spectrum, something that is solid red which turns to white.

I am more familiar with a bold dark red like blood like Mahamaya Vijayavahini.

I see pink, yellow, blue, and green phosphenes constantly, but, with auras or the inner eye, I do not get the same pink or the hotter scarlets of Vajravarahi et al.

Again, I believe this is expressed in Mahakarunika, when the spelling is corrected to Vyuha Rajaya, it means Avalokiteshvara is the King of Producing and Comprehending the Display of Vairocana.

When we were discussing the Butchou (Japanese for Buddhosnisa), there was one listed in JAANUS (http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/b/butchou.htm):

Another important Butchou is Shijoukou Butchou 熾盛光仏頂,...

This Butchou's name (in Kanji which is really used directly from Chinese in these cases) literally means "blazing flaming light Buddhosnisa".

They may have Jvalosnisa there. Such Dharanis exist in the orient which is why Imee Ooi sings them.

08zzFeGFDdQ

namaḥ samanta-buddhānām apratihata-śāsanānāṃ tadyathā oṃ kha kha khā hi khā hi hūṃ hūṃ jvala jvala prajvala prajvala tiṣṭhā tiṣṭhā ṣṭriṣṭri sphaṭ sphaṭ śāntika śrīye svāhā

That is the only way to retrieve something that otherwise is probably in some dusty archive in Tibet.

This is the kind of thing you cannot make up, I wondered why she said Sphat, which sounded like "Crystal", but is a verb meaning to open or expand. What is bizarre is that the definitions are loaded with places the words are used in books, usually lots of them if the word is used much, but there is only one example here, where it is in a footnote, followed by another explanatory footnote:

stṛ, “to spread.”

And so it looked to me like it was talking about Crystal Woman, but really, it is commanding the Blaze to Stand, Spread, Expand, Svaha Lady of Peace.

However the footnotes happen to be found in History of Dipankara Buddha (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/the-mahavastu/d/doc234308.html) in Mahavastu, and, what is even doubly strange is that it has significant emphasis on Seven while describing his kingdom in ways that resound with Lankavatara and Avatamsaka Sutras. It iterates the Yaksha to Gandharva realm and portrays Kama Loka.

Tusita is considered the most beautiful level:

Tuṣita (तुषित).—There were twelve good devas called Tuṣitas in the Cākṣuṣa Manvantara. When the Cākṣuṣa Manvantara ended and the Vaivasvata Manvantara commenced all the twelve were born as sons of Kaśyapa of his wife Aditi. Because they were born of Aditi they were called Dvādaśādityas. They were Viṣṇu etc.

Mahavastu is a pre-Mahayana book of Lokottara Vada, School of Transcendence, and that page is like a primordial stamp on all of the Sutras and Tantras. Since the stamp is there, I think it would be impossible to say that no-one understood the kind of in-depth development as in these later writings. There has also been found an earlier Prajnaparamita manuscript carbon-dated to ca. year 75.

Anyway, there is a much more profound Dipankara than "prophesied Buddha's birth".

Kha--Akash Hi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/hi) Hum--Heart Blaze Blaze Forth Stand Spread Expand is the general sense of Jvalosnisa Dharani.

Karma Family is not directly part of the Heart Chakra.

The following is what could be called the basis of Buddhist Pranayama.

The way we teach it is like the Three Jewels are the Three Vajras and these are the Three Families of Kriya, Buddha, Lotus, and Vajra. Now it could be learned just as the mantric version--for which this is about the only classical Sanskrit, non-Siddham image I can find:

https://jogegarts.com/wp-content/uploads/om-ah-hum-1.jpg

But I would strongly suggest to think of it at least at a Kriya Tantra level attached to Prajnaparamita. There are many, many Refuge Fields showing the centrality of her, but this simple thangka is like a stripped-down Refuge Field for someone like me who does not really even have a Guru, and so it is uncluttered with lineage holders.

It is Vajradhara doing Pride of the Deity with Prajnaparamita--and, for the most part, they have inverted color schemes from each other:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/8/1/781.jpg

And so I have this written up in a bigger format with Sarasvati and so forth, but, what we will do here is just look at White Heruka Prajnaparamita and the syllables.

We would do the Ngondro, and then I, personally, have never had anyone to over-write Vajradhara as Guru, and so I will use something like Calling from Afar, and if I just interact with him, it is Guru Yoga, except I am not any good at that so I ask him to show me something I might be able to understand and use from some other Murti. I am going to let him slip behind the curtain and some new scene emerges. In actuality I have never used that many, probably just Green Tara, Sita Vaideha, White Vajra Tara, Prajnaparamita, and Green Janguli.

The Kagyu Ngondro always had Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra in it, so this is like taking a look at what someone was reading.

From Void, a white Om 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

https://i1.wp.com/teahouse.buddhistdoor.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/01.jpg?resize=640%2C624&ssl=1

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, loving 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.

In order to get familiar with the syllables themselves, this is a nice Lama Yeshe basic syllables exercise:

"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 cleansed 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. ... "

Muttering means we are going to chant the Three Syllables over and over with the intent and visualization as described, and while we are doing this, it affects Prajnaparamita, and we want to go to a climax until her Three Lights sunburst and she melts through them into our Three Places. We do something in that condition which is probably Dhyana, and then we are going to reverse the layers we opened, and go back to Guru and thank him for the assistance and dedicate whatever benefits may arise from our practice to the welfare of all sentient beings.

Hum is Vajra Family of the Heart, Prajnaparamita, the Yoshid or Vajra Ladies, the Indestructible Drop.

So what we are doing in Yoga is Seva and Upasadhana. And what we are calling Buddhist Pranayama is the beginning of Upasadhana. It means we are training in the Method to do Sadhana, which is Smrti, which is Seven Syllable deity, which is Sadhana. And so if we review with Lamp and look at it in terms of Vajrasattva is Upaya, then, this is practically all about him becoming Smrti, and certainly based in the Khasama Tantra.

The different layers of the outer Kriya-Cara to symbolic inner Yoga are shown in the standard Indic custom of using a Lamp twice:

Dīpa (दीप) refers to the “offering of a lamp”, representing one of the various services (upacāra) of a pūjā (ritualistic worship of a deity) which aim at the purification of the devotee.—A small lamp (dīpa) fed with ghee (Mar. nirañjan) is offered to the icon. According to an old custom a lamp is put near the guest before a meal (cf. naivedya) is served to him. In current practice this lamp is first waved clockwise in front of the icon several times, accompanied by the ringing of the bell. The ghee lamp is then placed at the right side of the icon. This act of worship is to be distinguished from the service [mahānīrājana-dīpa], where one waves burning camphor and a lamp in front of the icon accompanied by the singing of metrical compositions.

We see a second lamp, Maha Nirajana Dipa, hotter from burning more wicks and camphor, with singing, and so it is exactly this which becomes the Mental Object of an Inner Homa, which, in Yoga terms, should correspond to inner heat and the discovery of nectar. And so one is remaining in this stage or practice level until able to personally verify the enhancements of prana.

Nirajan is part of Upacara. "Upa" is "near or approaching". Whereas Kriya was just used to mean repetition, action, in the outer sense, the Cara that is being Approached tends to have meanings of "moving around to gather information", such as:

cāra (चार).—m S A spy, scout, secret emissary. 2 A messenger; a herald.

And then in Buddhism, it has a much more specific meaning:

Source: Dhamma Dana: Pali English Glossary
F (Access concentration).

Source: Journey to Nibbana: Patthana Dhama
Upacara means proximity, crownprince. It is sometimes called proximate concentration.

In other words, a pre-samadhi, or an initial samadhi granting access to more.

And so this must have almost the same meaning as Upasadhana in the GST:

Upāya (उपाय, “means”) refers to the “process of various experiences through which the Sādhaka has to pass before the deity is realised and visualised”.—The Guhyasamāja (chapter 18) calls this process Upāya (means) which is recognised as of four kinds.

The four upāyas are:—

Sevā (worship),
Upasādhana,
Sādhana,
Mahāsādhana.

Sevā (worship) is again sub-divided into two, namely, Sāmānya (ordinary) and Uttama (excellent). Of these two, the Sāmānya-sevā consists of four Vajras: first, the conception of Śūnyatā; second, its transformation into the germ-syllable; third, its evolution in the form of a deity, and the fourth, the external representation of the deity.

In the Six Yogas:

seva (practice) corresponds to pratyahara and dhyana, upasadhana (near-realization) to pranayama and dharana, and sadhana (realization) to anusmrti. Implicitly mahasadhana (great realization) is related to samadhi.

Seva, which we can legitimately call "service", is the same as "practice".

And so there are Six Yogas, but, they are kind of blocked off in pairs, since we might say the first set, Pratyahara and Dhyana, are still somewhat similar to any kind of Yoga, may not yet have the Buddhist character, and is like a challengers' field, wherein it will be seen if your capabilities are limited to the most literal or mundane or perhaps "superstitious". This is Seva. It has most of the same vocabulary as Indian spirituality in gerneral.

If not, then "our" Upacara loses the generic meaning of categories of ritual items and actions and is Upasadhana, an Access Concentration, Pranayama, a training ground for Sadhana as no longer an external Puja, but a move through tantric states of being.

The real Sadhana then is Smrti, which produces a tantric samadhi appropriate for Highest Yoga.

That is why we are mostly talking about the development of the ability of Sadhana or Smrti.

Parasol was among the first Buddhist definitions of Samadhi, and her emanation in Karma Family:

Vajraśṛṅkhalā (वज्रशृङ्खला) is the name of Dūtī (i.e., messengers of Lord Vajrapāṇi) mentioned as attending the teachings in the 6th century Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa.

To the Jains, Vajrashrnkala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajrashrinkhala) is a Yakshini named Kali.

E. śṛṅga a horn, here said to mean a link, and khal to collect, aff. ac; or śiñjā the tinkling of a chain, and skhal to go, aff. ac, deriv irr.

Vajrashrnkala is the Activity of Samadhi, Vajraraudri is the Path of it--not the Mental Object or Dharmadhatu Vajra itself, but the underlying Sense Faculty of Consciousness, which operates when objects lose their duality as opposite from self or subject.

Chain is also the idea behind Guru Parampara and behind the meaning of "param-" as "infinite", i. e., whatever is linked to a thing, containing every link.

Shrnkala does not get used in many compounds, although there is a
Dipashrnkala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/dipashrinkhala).

There is a pretty decent way to map Access Concentration and Samadhi. The classification of Six Yogas more or less arranges all the literature and sadhanas, whereas Abhisambodhi is narrower and is sort of within or is a particular way of doing a sadhana in this Yoga system.

shaberon

12th January 2021, 00:27

I was a little surprised by the appearance of "Upacara" as I was not familiar with it.

It actually does not come from the Sutras, it comes from Vishuddhimagga, and it kind of at the heart of a modern Theravada debate.

That really came out of the bag of Col. Olcott, he revived it.

They argue about whether Samadhi is necessary for Vispassana--Insight, which they say is more important.

Now in their description, it is a bit loose since they always use the term "samadhi" at every turn, for instance it is Upacara Samadhi. They say:

There can be numerous kinds of samādhi. Here we distinguish three types of samādhi or mindfulness:

Momentary mindfulness (khanika samādhi)
Access mindfulness (upacāra, pronounced “upachāra,” samādhi)
Absorption mindfulness (appanā samādhi)

I think for Mahayana purposes, we are only calling the last one Samadhi, and the pre-cursors would be more like Ekagatta and Sati. Nothing momentary or transient about the Samadhi we have in mind.

They say:

Samādhi (“sama”+”adhi” where “sama” means “same” and “adhi” means “dominance”) means the object becomes the priority. Then the mind gets focused on it. As we discussed in many posts when the mind becomes focused on one object (ārammana), the ekaggata cetasika takes over and makes the mind latched “on to it.”

That is how one gets to not only samādhi but also anāriya jhāna using breath meditation, just by focusing the mind on the breath.
One gets to samādhi on whatever the activity one gets absorbed in.
Being mindful depends on the situation. The kind of mindfulness needed while driving a car is different from the mindfulness required to design something (or read a book). And the mindfulness required to attain a jhāna needs to be different from those two.

So, driving is more like Momentary or Khanika--you can concentrate one-pointedly while still shifting across many external objects.

Reading, etc., is more of Upacara--steadier and with fewer distractions.

A letter makes a difference. Sama + adhi? I am not sure. I thought it was Sama plus Dhi, since Dhi is the root syllable of Dhyana and is the syllable of Sarasvati since Vedic times and also a syllable of Manjushri. Similarly, Khahi is usually written as one word, which looks like Kha plus Ahi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ahi), whereas the way shown in Imee's version splits it to make Hi a separate word which is a verb.

Here is a response from Stack Exchange:

The process of concentration as described in the Abhidhammattha Sangaha (IX 17, 18):

When that sign has been thoroughly apprehended and enters into range of the mind door just as if it were seen by the eye, then it is called the learning sign, and that meditation becomes concentrated. When one is thus concentrated, one then applies oneself to meditation by means of that preliminary [parikamma] concentration based on the learning sign. As one does so, an object which is the counterpart of that (learning sign) becomes well established and fixed in the mind -- (an object) which is freed of the flaws of the original object, reckoned as a concept, born of meditation. Then it is said that the counterpart sign has arisen.

Thereafter, access [upacāra] development is accomplished, consisting in concentration of the sense sphere in which the obstacles have been abandoned.

Fast forward to our current century:

Access concentration is characterized by the significant reduction or complete dropping of the five hindrances and the arising and strengthening of jhāna factors. [...] It is easy to confuse momentary concentration with access concentration. One difference is that with access concentration, the meditator's continuity with the object is much longer and more stable over time. Another difference is that with access concentration, the object is much more energized and "bright". [...] In access concentration, the jhāna factors are present but insufficiently strong for full absorption into jhāna.

-- Stephen Snyder & Tina Rasmussen (Practicing the Jhānas)

or more broadly speaking:

The Buddhist tradition has introduced the term upacāra samadhi [...] to refer to a non absorptive experience of concentration that begins with the arising of the counterpart sign and endures until consciousness enters into full absorption. Upacāra samadhi implies concentration that is in the vicinity of jhāna [...] and describes the experiences that precede absorption, but it does not necessarily leads to jhāna. It may refer to the conditions that precede jhāna; it may refer to experiences that are reminiscent of first jhāna mental factors, but without the seclusion of absorption; and it may describe the mature concentration that accompanies those meditation objects (such as discernment of the body parts, and various recollections) that do not have the potential to reach full absorption. [...] Some meditators use the term upacāra samādhi so loosely that it merely describes the feeling of being concentrated and a mind that is stable and happy during meditation.

-- Shaila Catherine (Wisdom Wide and Deep)

If we re-arrange the vocabulary somewhat, we would still use the summation from the Pali (https://puredhamma.net/bhavana-meditation/samadhi-three-kinds-of-mindfulness/) site:

Samādhi is the endpoint of being mindful (sati).

Samādhi is a synonym for the cetasika (mental factor) of ekaggata, i.e., having a focus. One can cultivate it by being mindful the correct way, i.e., via sammā sati.

Wiki's Dhyana in Buddhism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhy%C4%81na_in_Buddhism#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20P%C4%81li%20canon,the%20entry%20into%20access %20concentration.) is a reasonable article which begins:

In the oldest texts of Buddhism, dhyāna (Sanskrit) or jhāna (Pāḷi) is the training of the mind, commonly translated as meditation, to withdraw the mind from the automatic responses to sense-impressions, and leading to a "state of perfect equanimity and awareness (upekkhā-sati-parisuddhi)." Dhyāna may have been the core practice of pre-sectarian Buddhism, in combination with several related practices which together lead to perfected mindfulness and detachment, and are fully realized with the practice of dhyana.

"Leading to a state" means those are the qualities of the Fourth Jana:

Upekkha Sati Parishuddhi

Upekkha or Upeksha is the most important quality, starting in the Four Brahma Vihara and continuing into Seven Syllable deity at the seventh aspect.

Sati or "mindfulnees" is a base-level word which would apply to all activities in ordinary waking consciousness, but, due to changeable or altered states of consciousness, goes through various synonyms.

Parishuddhi is also what is being done the the Dharmadhatu--or, all the purificatory stages of the Dharmadhatu are the Bodhisattva Path.

The Wiki article suggests that Buddha's two Gurus mean that he learned both Element and Formless meditation--so again, it is more like "both, together", than one at the expense of the other.

Upacara means that one has overcome the Five Hindrances or Nivarani (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_hindrances), which are not the Skandhas, but obvious types of Vitarka or discursion or distraction that would obviously burden Mindfulness or Sati.

And so while it may not be clear why Samadhi has been drop-kicked way beyond all the cumulative iterations of "concentration" where it used to be, if we just want to blot it out and know that we would learn its meaning within the state of Access Concentration, this will work, since Access Concentration has a specific point within Puja or Seva as well as within the Six Yogas:

Upacara, restraining the Hindrances, is the outer Nirajan, corresponding to Upasadhana, which is Pranayama and Dharana.

The four upāyas of Guhyasamaja are:—

Sevā [Pratyahara and Dhyana]

Upasādhana [Pranayama and Dharana]

Sādhana [Smrti]

Mahāsādhana [Samadhi]

So I guess I can't say that is the specific "Buddhist" definition of Samadhi, since many of them use it to denote inferior things. It is, moreso, the Buddhist Sadanga Yoga definition of Samadhi. Dhyana, here, is perhaps the first two or three dhyanas or janas.

Upacara or Upasadhana is therefor a huge, major change to a being. Many people would think they can meditate without Hindrances. Not many would think they can master Pranayama as we show it, let alone Retain it indefinitely.

If Sadhana is really a "technique", a type of inner puja, it still uses the same Ekaggata that will be universally carried out into mundane life, and so the real Vajrayana Deity Yoga carries all that divine force with it and the mundane disappears.

Until then, Mahayana is more like a divided struggle where we try to achieve a divine state in our meditations, and then we feel like the world is a hostile place that overwhelms and ruins our mindfulness and divinity.

That is why you can be a Mahayanist without doing sadhanas. Comparatively, it is slower and more difficult.

Sadhana is the Upaya of Luminous Mind. So we would know we were doing good with Upasadhana or Upacara or Prayanama--Dharana when this Luminous Mind becomes real to us.

Upacara containing the Form Janas already has Bliss in it, so, Piti, ecstatic bodily states, and altered mental states are part and parcel of it. Perhaps you can visualize or see ordinary things mentally. So it definitely corresponds to an esoteric transition. But there is an obvious border between all of that and Luminous Mind. "Accomplishment" of Upacara said something pretty similar to a Mind Object arises as a Luminous Mind Object. If truly Accomplished, that Accomplishment is the seed for the next stage. Here, it seems mainly about Hindrances (Nivarani), whereas Sadhana is more about stopping the Skandhas. The definition of Nivarana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/nivarana) says Hindrances are temporarily suppressed at this stage, are not completely stopped until entering the super-mundane path as Srotistipanna, Anangamin, and Arhat.

In Prajnaparamita Sutra:

If he has been able to reject the five sense objects (kāmaguṇa) and remove the five obstacles (nīvaraṇa), the ascetic practices the five dharmas:

aspiration (chanda),
exertion (vīrya),
mindfulness (smṛti),
clear seeing (saṃprajñāna),
concentration of mind (cittaikāgratā).
By practicing these five dharmas, he acquires the first dhyāna furnished with five members (pañcāṅga-samanvāgata).

Nivarana is not all that rare, as in the Kamakshi Devi song, but it only comes up one time in Sadhanamala, on Sahasra Pramardani in the weird Pancha Raksa 206, who is in Vajra Family, but in her mantra is Amritavara.

Upacara is near the beginning with Gandha Offering and Acala, and then again on Vajra Tara 94:

atrāyaṃ upacāraḥ

which is like using the name Angiras, it has little possible other meaning than Upacara according to the Gotra of Rishi Atreya. This comes right before Saptabhi mantra, which, according to Srila Prabhupada, means Seven times Three. It must be a quite rare word, found one time in Sanskrit RGV (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/3_phil/buddh/bsa073_r.txt). But it is standard for Patancala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/patancala) Tara Dharani.

Kurukulla 174 does not have regular Offering Goddesses, but, she notably has:

nairṛtyadale pradīpatārāṃ

She has Prasanna Tara, Nispanna Tara, Jaya Tara, Karna Tara, Cunda, Aparajita, Pradipa Tara, and Gauri Tara.

This suggests, to me, the mysteriously vacant Cundi Dharani is more related to Kurukulla's line of development, which here, has mysterious stuff inside of it, such as Nispanna would seem to refer to Completion Stage. This Prasanna is, I would wager, highly important, she has no outer forms and no development other than here with Kurukulla. And so she has one personal sadhana which is brief, but, she has a grandiose tantric form and it called Amrita Locana, which again is far along in the line of the Divine Eye or Divya Caksus, then Buddha Eye--Locana, Gagana Locana, and other upgrades on Locana.

Prasanna is like a Lotus Family energetic parallel of Amaravajra.

Sakyamuni Buddha came to Nepal valley and stayed in Svayambhugopuchagraparvat. He firstly granted Buddhist ordination to a lady named Cunda and narrated the account on origin of Adi-buddha (Svaymbujyotirupa) and on origin of Nepal.

In the Dharani goddesses, Cunda is Kamandalu--Initiation Pitcher.

Now, hang on, because there is a second Vajrakilaya scheme in which Vajrakumara is re-named to Mahabala. In this format of Vajrakilaya, Cunda is with Mahabala at the base of the spine or Amoghasiddhi location.

So I am prepared to stick with she is something like an Inverted Parasol.

Cunda of course has a major form, but has no personal explanation of how it came to be. And so the Cunda with Kurukulla is likely the product of Cunda from Guhyasamaja who also has one solo form or sadhana.

Cunda's arms or items represent upaya, or the normally male "means". She has Jewel attributes such as picula fruit and a lemon.

Sakya Raksita explains her solo practice from the speech of Pandita Purna Vajra. On a lotus and moon disc is a white Cum syllable from which White Twenty-six Arm Cunda arises, crowned by Five Buddhas, surrounded by red light. Her faces are white, blue, and yellow. She is semi-wrathful with hair in a top knot. Millions of Buddhas reside in her pores. On a moon disc in her heart is her syllable, with her mantra on the eight petals of a white lotus. She has Om Ah Hum in her three places. And she uses the seed syllable, Heart Mantra, and then the mantra with the previous line the way Imee sings it. Even when recited wrongly by an old woman with faith, it nevertheless enabled her to make food by cooking stones.

It starts "Namah samanta Buddhanam" instead of "Namah saptanam", but otherwise has no more complex dharani, from Taranatha 163. If anything, this change makes it resemble Vairocana Abhisambodhi mantras.

Here, the Buddhas are in her pores, Kurukulla is Nectar Sweat, Ekajati is sweat-born from Buddha.

This form is then important with Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra's "bonus" deities. He personally emanates Locana and Cunda.

Cunda NE
Ratnolka SE
Bhrkuti SW
Vajrashrnkala NW

He has Cunda, Ratnolka or Dhvajagrakeyura--Banner, and then two kinds of Parasol.

The subtle detail of this rite is that Ratnasambhava failed to emanate a Prajna.

What happens is that Manjuvajra has kicked Locana out of any of her prior roles in the center in Buddha Family, and gifted her to Vajra Family. Consequently, Akshobya has gifted Mamaki to Jewel Family.

He has usurped Locana because he has Sparshavajra or Vajradhatvishvari, i. e. he has started the tantric process of pulling his sense of Touch out of Air--Entire Surface and inwardly sensitized it to Prana and Space--Akash.

So there is a trend of motion altering a basic Quintessence shown with Manjuvajra, Kurukulla, and Vajrakilaya, if the presence of Cunda is any kind of a bridge between them. I think so.

Some of the Namasangiti Dharanis do not have an identifiable goddess such as:

Sarva Varana Vishodani

For the time being, it seemed to me to use Mahamaya Vijayavahini Dharani here, I am pretty sure if we double-check, she is a Nivarani remover.

Of course, we have deities and sadhanas that are not yet "Sadhana" as an ingrained Method or Upaya of Luminous Mind. The lower or outer deities are the Kriya-Chara and Yoga Path. Guhyasamaja is the "how-to" of Highest Yoga which is taking the capitalized Sadhana for granted.

Upasadhana makes a lot of sense--it holds the philosophical meanings of Upacara, and incorporates the building blocks of Sadhana as mantras, mandala features, or deities, while uniting these with tantric Pranayama. We can do the real Sadhana when Smrti is a Luminous Vajrasattva.

I, for one, could sweep away all the time cycles and humanized "no one to understand it" as we still have now, and pin this on Dipankara and Swayambhu Adi Buddha and Guhyeshvari, almost relegating Gautama Buddha to something of a revivalist, who forces his relevance by providing the school we have in modern times, i. e. I am able to say something about Dipankara because it has been transmitted to us by Buddha's memory.

Parasol must be linked to Buddha and Dipankara mentally, so, we are in a position to gain mental continuity with all of it.

She has never had any objective existence, is a Mental Object, and so could not be perceived by anything less than Upacara.

So she could be the Learning Sign and the Counterpart Sign as mentioned in Abhidharma.

When a Dhyana or Jana is infused to the point where it has no awareness of the external environment, and uninterrupted continuity to the Mental Object, that is Sampatti, the tantric Gauris.

So the Samadhi of Sadanga Yoga is inexpressible without tantric deities. I would not know how to put it in Theravada terms. It is not really a contradiction or refutal of the Pali, but, something that takes a bit of critical analysis to see that it is mainly the same thing in a specific usage, the technique or Method or Upaya of Sadhana.

Here is a Rime'-era Karma Kagyu Amitayus who has Pink Pandara with Vase:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/2/102227.jpg

Day-Night Tara emerges from Padmapani's heart, and Mahamaya Vijayavahini is Padmapani Priya, his love or consort.

She is less like an Usnisa because she is:

sarvatathagatahrdayagarbhe

Her attributes are that All Tathagatas' Wisdom is Refuge from all the Varanas she splits away, and one of her "held attributes" becomes "final samadhi":

Mahamayavijayavahini smara smara
sarvatathagatajnanarupendgaccha gaccha sarvavaranaksayamkari
parasainyavidrapani

She is Maha Maya Jala and Consecration to Maha Mandala:

mahāmaṇḍalādhiṣṭhite

Pandara has limited deployment in sadhanas.

RG 152 is Eleven Face Thirty-two Arm White Amoghapasha, made of Hindu deities, who splits into Vishvesvara and Pandaravasini. His heart mantra refers to Pashupati and Padma Kula Samaya. Pandara is "similar in aspect", so White. She says:

Om Padme Pandaravasini Kunda Kunda Svaha

Kunda is a synonym for Padma, Kamala, Nilotpala, particularly with respect to Kashmir. It could also be jasmine, or a fire pit, but most likely is simply lotus here.

Padma Tara, white with a reddish luster, is with the next Eleven Face Lokeshvara 153. Eight Fears Lokeshvara 151 uses Mani Tara, these are all from Pandita Purna Vajra, preceded by his version of Bodhisattvas, followed by the same of White Six Arm Sukhavati Lokeshvara and Red Two Arm Sukhavati Lokeshvara. So in that group, you find one Om Mani Tare Hum, followed by a set of Om Padme Tare Hum.

M. Boord perhaps does not only use the unattested name Trptachakra. Kila is also in Guhyasamaja:

This basic exemplar is amplified in the verses which follow where it is said that, in order to destroy the body, one recites the mantra OM CHINDA CHINDA HANA HANA DAHA DAHA DIPTAVAJRACAKRA HOM PHAT and strikes the vajrakila into the head ("the dwelling of Vairocana") of (an effigy of) the victim. Death will occur as soon as he is struck.

It is pertinent to note that the mantra given here corresponds in several particulars to that of VajrakiIa's consort Trptacakra or Dlptacakra, whose seed syllables in the rNyingrna school under consideration in this work are HANA HANA HOM PHAT. 246

246. This mantra is to be found in the MMK (p. 395) where it ends DiPTACAKRA HUM and is called the mantra of the dharmacakra. It is said to destroy all klesas and so on and, most significantly, to fulfil the desires of the yogin by allowing him to "un-nail" them (utkilayati) as he wishes.

Parasol's repetitive use of Chinda and Kila is similar to this.

Tibetan dictionary (https://english-tibetan-dictionary.tumblr.com/post/59669132686/wrathful/amp):

She is also in Bolt of Lightning from the Blue (https://epdf.pub/a-bolt-lightening-from-the-blue.html), where in China, it is Cunda the Impellor.

tsun du - cunda (emanation of rdo rje sems dpa’, 4 arms peaceful, 16 arms wrathful)

Old Student

12th January 2021, 05:08

Pink is rare, in GST it is Pink Vajradhatvishvari in Union with Vairocana in the East.

It is not just the two halves of Male and Female Bindus or Upper and Lower, it is Buddha and Lotus Families.

I had thought Pandaravasini is the consort of Amitabha.

Kha--Akash Hi Hum--Heart Blaze Blaze Forth Stand Spread Expand is the general sense of Jvalosnisa Dharani.

Isn't Usnisa by definition at the crown? Why the heart here?

From Void, a white Om 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

What is the mudra she is using in the picture? Prajnaparamita in sculptures is usually doing dharmachakra mudra, here she is holding the flowers, but it seems like her hands are still that shaped.

In order to get familiar with the syllables themselves, this is a nice Lama Yeshe basic syllables exercise:

In my shaking, most of my interaction with Prajnaparamita is because she is related to Cunda. I am trying to think if the centers are the same as here. I think they may be shifted, because the top one is really at my throat.

Dīpa (दीप) refers to the “offering of a lamp”, representing one of the various services (upacāra) of a pūjā (ritualistic worship of a deity) which aim at the purification of the devotee.—A small lamp (dīpa) fed with ghee (Mar. nirañjan) is offered to the icon. According to an old custom a lamp is put near the guest before a meal (cf. naivedya) is served to him. In current practice this lamp is first waved clockwise in front of the icon several times, accompanied by the ringing of the bell. The ghee lamp is then placed at the right side of the icon. This act of worship is to be distinguished from the service [mahānīrājana-dīpa], where one waves burning camphor and a lamp in front of the icon accompanied by the singing of metrical compositions.

This bears some similarity (with the ghee lamp at least) with a less formal practice used to celebrate Diwali. I wonder if that one is supposed to have this significance.

There is a pretty decent way to map Access Concentration and Samadhi. The classification of Six Yogas more or less arranges all the literature and sadhanas, whereas Abhisambodhi is narrower and is sort of within or is a particular way of doing a sadhana in this Yoga system.

I am entering a phase in my shaking where dreams are becoming somehow important, I don't know exactly how that is going to work out yet. I just know that the 'preliminary' shakings during the night that are sometimes used to get me ready for the main one have some of them been replaced by vivid dreams, in the same sequence, but without apparent meaning to the dreams themselves as far as the shaking is concerned.

Old Student

12th January 2021, 05:23

They argue about whether Samadhi is necessary for Vispassana--Insight, which they say is more important.

Now in their description, it is a bit loose since they always use the term "samadhi" at every turn, for instance it is Upacara Samadhi. They say:

There can be numerous kinds of samādhi. Here we distinguish three types of samādhi or mindfulness:

Momentary mindfulness (khanika samādhi)
Access mindfulness (upacāra, pronounced “upachāra,” samādhi)
Absorption mindfulness (appanā samādhi)

I think for Mahayana purposes, we are only calling the last one Samadhi, and the pre-cursors would be more like Ekagatta and Sati. Nothing momentary or transient about the Samadhi we have in mind.

I don't have any feeling for the samadhi-vispassana debate, the two seem more overlapping than one as a prerequisite for the other. But I would also not have said one is more important than the other. But their use of samadhi is closer to the way I have seen it used.

Above you had put smrti in a higher position than you are now seeming to put sati. Aren't they Sanskrit and Pali for the same word?

On a lotus and moon disc is a white Cum syllable from which White Twenty-six Arm Cunda arises, crowned by Five Buddhas, surrounded by red light. Her faces are white, blue, and yellow. She is semi-wrathful with hair in a top knot. Millions of Buddhas reside in her pores. On a moon disc in her heart is her syllable, with her mantra on the eight petals of a white lotus. She has Om Ah Hum in her three places. And she uses the seed syllable, Heart Mantra, and then the mantra with the previous line the way Imee sings it. Even when recited wrongly by an old woman with faith, it nevertheless enabled her to make food by cooking stones.

This sounds like a lot of the descriptions I'm going through in the Avatamsaka Sutra. The Cunda that identifies during my shaking is closely related to Prajnaparamita, and 'speaks' of her as if they are aspects of the same thing.

shaberon

12th January 2021, 07:40

Pink is rare, in GST it is Pink Vajradhatvishvari in Union with Vairocana in the East.

I had thought Pandaravasini is the consort of Amitabha.

Yes. Vajradhatvishvari just happens to be an example of Pink in this specific instance.

Kha--Akash Hi Hum--Heart Blaze Blaze Forth Stand Spread Expand is the general sense of Jvalosnisa Dharani.

Isn't Usnisa by definition at the crown? Why the heart here?[/QUOTE]

Yes, but, Usnisa deities are simply emanated from Buddha's mind/usnisa...nothing has limited them to only being that center. As males, they simply are the Dhyanis or Tathagatas, so male Vajrosinsa = Vajra Family = Akshobya.

Nothing says female Usnisas were emanated in a ring of eight matching standard iconography. I can only come up with four, wherein Vajrosnisa - Parasol, which is not necessarily a Family but probably in the wider sense like "Vajrayana".

Om namo Bhagavatyai Arya Prajnaparamitayai

What is the mudra she is using in the picture? Prajnaparamita in sculptures is usually doing dharmachakra mudra, here she is holding the flowers, but it seems like her hands are still that shaped.

Correct--same! Just that the Lotus grows from the gesture.

The shape of the gesture itself is the eye of a peacock plume whose quill rests in the Initiation Vase.

This bears some similarity (with the ghee lamp at least) with a less formal practice used to celebrate Diwali. I wonder if that one is supposed to have this significance.

I think it is all roughly identical, it is all based in the same Homa.

Orthodox Homa uses male Varuna to bless the holy water, whereas tantric Buddhist Homa uses female Varuni to provide a magical fluid.

Other than that, Buddhist Homa has only certain differences from the Orthodox, such as adding a Deity Yoga usually based on Chakrasamvara, and then, using Agni himself according to the Buddhist manner.

Those would be the visible differences, and the esoteric differences are in how it pertains to Generation and Completion Stages, that is, the Six Yogas.

If a great deal of Chakrasamvara is a majority copy of Shiva's information, but, then, the main practice called Six Yogas in each is a totally different beast, they are not the same, difficult though it may be to tell.

If Dipa is symbolic as the symbol which changes from any lamp used in Diwali into metaphysical heat which we can feel loosening up a nectar flow like warm wax, and Dipta is an increased Dipa, Kalachakra has for his inmost ring, foul colored Diptas, Blue, Red, Yellow, and Sveta--White Dipta in the cardinal directions, and in the corners--Four Dissolutions:

1. Dhuma

2. Marlci

3. Pratlpa

4. Khadyota

He then goes on to confuse everything with couples such as Vairocana--Tara; for the most part, he uses a lot of our same deities, but they often have different forms and locations, he is very much his own "brand" which is nearly incomprehensible to everything else which is in NSP. Almost all of the other material is related in steps and handoffs. But Kalachakra's core tells a little something, again just a bit weird since Kadyota is usually third.

I am entering a phase in my shaking where dreams are becoming somehow important, I don't know exactly how that is going to work out yet. I just know that the 'preliminary' shakings during the night that are sometimes used to get me ready for the main one have some of them been replaced by vivid dreams, in the same sequence, but without apparent meaning to the dreams themselves as far as the shaking is concerned.

Sadhana per se as a "level of instruction/practice" is the cleansing of Dream State, is heavily related to Dream Yoga, and often produces a dreamlike quality to ordinary waking consciousness. That all is part of Luminosity.

I am a person who had what is called "repetitive dreams", such as from the time I was young, I sometimes dreamed of a tidal wave.

As I figured out how to get a basic sadhana to work as Guru Yoga, the tidal wave diminished, and other related dreams of being stuck in swampy, dark water were also reduced.

Concurrently, I figured out how to fly in Vajrasana. I figured out how to control my direction and speed and so forth.

I never new where I was going.

A few times I reached a destination which was like partial ruins of a campus. It is like I want to know what that place is in my ordinary waking mind by forcing it in through sadhana, then I will know where I am going, and the rest of it is easy.

I don't really know any "meaning of dreams" except the proportion of Lucidity and Luminousness should increase.

Svapna Tara is particularly for this.

shaberon

12th January 2021, 09:30

But their use of samadhi is closer to the way I have seen it used.

Above you had put smrti in a higher position than you are now seeming to put sati. Aren't they Sanskrit and Pali for the same word?

Yes.

Again, I think some of the Pali breaks down into its specific commentaries in Theravada, and I am just going for the general parallels. When I want to really listen to them, then ask them about Hrdaya Vastu. Then they have an extremely valuable explanation.

And so yes, samadhi, sati, smrti, and ekaggata, all mean Mindfulness or Concentration.

They are mostly trying to explain the Nine Dhyanas or Janas.

Ekaggata could be highly evil, there is nothing spiritual in it.

In Mahayana, we are simply going to rank the other synonyms into something like Sati = beginning, moral precepts and attempts at concentration and sharpness, which we bring to the Six Yogas.

Smrti is a threshhold in the development of Vajrasattva according to the philosophies and sadhanas that work in the Six Yogas system.

Samadhi is like a great gong thwacked by the mallet of Smrti.

This sounds like a lot of the descriptions I'm going through in the Avatamsaka Sutra. The Cunda that identifies during my shaking is closely related to Prajnaparamita, and 'speaks' of her as if they are aspects of the same thing.

Very good.

I put a bit more Cunda information in the large-ish post above. I cannot find any longer Roll of Thunder from Void on Archive. It turns out to be vol. two of M. Boord's first book that added the name Trptachakra. I see it from Germany (https://www.wandel-verlag.de/wp-content/uploads/roll_2.pdf) in pdf but the thing stops very early. So it may be difficult to re-quote what Vajrakilaya does with Cunda. Often, they don't really say anything about "what happened", but just name her as being there.

Cunda is used in GST and in the Manjuvajra lineage that emphasizes Yoga Tantra, and then winds up with Kurukulla so is part of Hevajra Krama.

I am not 100% sure, but, it seems to me, most of the developmental and explanatory material pertains to Chakrasamvara, whereas Hevajra distinctly takes it for granted and starts with tantric Nairatma. And it also is more related to Darkness and Kama Dhatvishvari, whereas Chakrasamvara emphasizes every other kind of Dhatvishvari.

Cunda also shows up in a rather interesting Sanskrit Catalog (https://www.angelfire.com/linux/vidyadhara/sina_cat.htm) from the Beijing Imperial Palace.

One of the first translations was Matangi.

They have boatloads of dharanis. Here are a couple of things where we can detect Parasol:

trisamaya raja krodharaja acala duta sadhana vidhi
kani() krodha vajra kumari sadhana vidhi

Sragdhara is Lotus Garland Tara and they have:

marici devi puspamala sutra (sragdhara stotra)

They have Ananta Mukha Dharani shortly followed by:

mahasri sutra
srimahadevi vyakarana
janguli vidya

indra guha sadhana vidhi (buddha tells vajrapani how to see maitreya
in the indra cave)

You have to go a couple hundred titles until you find Cunda and China will be shown to be suffused with the Namasangiti Dharanis and several corresponding tantras. The first thing is her Sadhana Kalpa which means it should have some kinf of background as to the how and why of her.

Half of that stuff I have never heard of. It is an exclave repository for, example, Mahasri Sutra and Dharani, and Ananta Mukha and Shurangama, things that we have to specifically requisition because they are called for by their relatives.

In GST, Diptachackra is the mantra of the Dharmachakra mudra....hmm.

Diptachakra is called a Wrathful Green Tara, and yet is equivalently over-written by Cunda.

The Bolt of Lightning text is another type of Vajrakilaya scan where the mantras are trashed and a good bit of it is mangled, but it does say something about the difference between Seva (Pratyahara and Dhyana) and Sadhana (Smrti):

With regard to the ten true and false bodily colours: At the time of the ritual service (seva), [those deities in the] east [are] white, the south, yellow, west red, and north green..At the time of the accomplishment (sadhana), all of the deities are just dark blue.

It seems to start some Tibetan terms for the Paramitas and then:

...so they should be known down to (A:) bsKul-byad (Cunda)/(B:)bsKyod-byed-ma (Sancalini).

These are for the wrathful king of great strength and for his vajra queen Rig-byed-ma,15 as well as for the emanated goddesses with the heads of a bear and a rat who are their shape-shifting messengers.

15 Peking and sDe-dge: munde mum. Peking and sDe-dge:kaiika. Creator of Awareness. Usually bsKul-byad-ma, Cunda, The Impellor. Peking and sDe-dge: vajraya+a sada.

Rig byed ma is Kurukulla.

Miranda Shaw (https://books.google.com/books?id=IOs9DwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA522&ots=1iv1_4YVQp&dq=bskul-byed-ma&pg=PA522#v=onepage&q=bskul-byed-ma&f=false) gives the other name a common spelling of Kulchayma, and, circularly, translates Cunda or Tsun da into Bskul byed ma.

Bskul and byed both show up in the dictionary under Urging (https://english-tibetan-dictionary.tumblr.com/post/59668512987/urging), which agrees with Cunda the Impellor, which agrees with Cale Cule Cundi.

It seems to me that Cunda becomes the consort of Mahabala. If at the base of the spine, this seems to be Karma Family.

Solo Mahabala is an Amitabha emanation, usually in the northwest if in a retinue.

Mahābala is described in the Niṣpannayogāvalī (mañjuvajra-maṇḍala) as follows:—

“In the Vāyu corner appears Mahābala of blue colour with three faces of blue, white and red colour. He holds the triśula, the sword, the jewel and the lotus”.

[As usual, with the principal hands he holds the śakti. In the vajrahūṃkāra-maṇḍala he is given the name of Mahākāla. But in the dharmadhātuvagīśvara-maṇḍala he is known as Paramāśva.]

So there you have male Mahabala as Paramasva--Amoghasiddhi, or, at least, they over-write each other in the northwest position. Humkara says it specifically re-names the Wrathfuls; and then we would have to consider, how Mahabala is now associated with two Dhyanis, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi.

One rare definition of Mahabala similar to Paramasva is:

1e) A Kinnara gaṇa, horse-faced.*

* Vāyu-purāṇa 69. 32.

In Vajradaka tantra, male and female Mahabala are in different couples:

Mahābalā has for her husband the hero (vīra) named Padmanarteśvara. She is the presiding deity of Sindhu and the associated internal location are the ‘insteps’ and the bodily ingredients (dhātu) are the ‘tears’.

2) Mahābala (महाबल) is the husband of Cakravegā: the name of a Ḍākinī (‘sacred girl’) presiding over Pretādhivāsinī.

In Dakarnava, these couples remain, but then there is also Mahabali with Mahabala in the Heart Chakra.

Female Mahabala has Padmanartesvara---Amitabha, the male one has Chakravega, similar to Diptachakra.

As to their location:

Melāpaka (मेलापक) is one of the Pīṭhādis (group of districts) present within the Kāyacakra (‘circle of body’) which is associated with the Ḍākinī named Pātālavāsinī (‘a woman living underground’),

In the Pīṭhādi named Melāpaka:

Pretādhivāsinī,
Gṛhadevatā.

There they are around the root center, or, more accurately, sex organ.

It does seem like Cunda is going to the base of the spine and in some way is Candi, that is, Wrathjful Green Tara, while still being connected to Lotus Family. Northwest for Mahabala of course is the normal "transition" from Lotus to Karma.

I would say it has a lot to do with the Four Chakra system in Pranayama governed by Lotus Family, versus, in the higher tantras, the base of the spine appears, in a way that is Extremely Wrathful, Flaming, Urging, and held by the Samadhi Goddess, Candi, after the Sadhana deities or Wrathful Ones have changed luminosity to dark blue, or perhaps made the first Mental Object, associated with the normal five colors, into a re-born one.

Dakarnava's Body Mandala is the Kama Loka and Brahma Loka Divisions up to Akanistha, followed by Akasa and Vijnana as a gate to the Formless Dhyanas or Janas in the following manner from Prajnaparamita Sutra:

Ākiṃcanyāyatana (आकिंचन्यायतन) referst to the “sphere of nothing at all” and represents one of the four Ārūpyasamāpatti (“formless absorptions”), according to the 2nd century Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter 32. Of the four formless (ārūpya) absorptions, one, namely, the naivasaṃjñānā-saṃjñā-āyatana, is always impure (sāsrava). For the other three, one can single out: the ākāśānantya-āyatana is sometimes impure (sāsrava) and sometimes pure (anāsrava). If it is impure, this ākāśāyatana contains four impure aggregates (sāsrava-skandha); if it is pure, it contains four pure aggregates. It is the same for the vijñānānantya-āyatana and the ākiṃcanya-āyatana.

The highest part of his Body Mandala includes:

Akaniṣṭhavartinī & Akaniṣṭhacakravartin,
Ākāśānantyāyatanī & Ākāśānantyāyatanacakravartin,
Vijñānānantyāyatanī & Vijñānānantyāyatanacakravartin,
Ākiṃcanyāyatanī & Ākiṃcanyāyatanacakravartin,
Naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñānī & Naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñānacakravartin,
Nārakī & Nārakacakravartin,
Pretanī & Pretacakravartin,
Tiryī & Tiryakacakravartin,
Nārī & Nāracakravartin,
Asurī & Asuracakravartin,
Vimānacāriṇī & Vimānacakravartin,
Śaśīravī & Śaśiravicakravartin,
Yamī & Yamacakravartin,
Indrī & Indracakravartin,

shaberon

12th January 2021, 23:19

Cakravega (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/cakravega) the Elision

As a proper name, she has just a few very specific instances.

She is in the big Vajravarahi mandala, which is based on Abhidhanottara Tantra (http://texts.00.gs/Abhidhanottara_Tantra.htm), where she is both physically close to Khandaroha, as well as in the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment as part of her Thirty-seven points. She is Joy, so, more than slightly related to Vajrasattva who is the Bhumi of Joy. She is also Joy in Luipa's (https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.532369/2015.532369.buddhist-tantras_djvu.txt) Vajravarahi in Alex Wayman's book. She is so close to Khandaroha that these come up as the first two translations into Uighur and Mongolian (https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/some-philological-considerations-on-indic-transmissions-to-uighurs-and-mongols/). With syllables in Naro Dakini (https://books.google.com/books?id=GCrADwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT171&ots=pKaGlLmsBV&dq=chakravega&pg=PT171#v=onepage&q=chakravega&f=false). Jamgon Kongtrul (https://books.google.com/books?id=wn0SAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT404&ots=3te45PgNxe&dq=chakravega&pg=PT404#v=onepage&q=chakravega&f=false) version. Described as Erect (https://books.google.com/books?id=l3KmWbcq5foC&lpg=PA244&ots=LzuSs9xS_S&dq=chakravega&pg=PA244#v=onepage&q=chakravega&f=false) in Circle of Bliss. In the Varahi pattern, she inaugurates a ring ending on Cakra Varmini or Vartini.

She is in Vajradaka, which is also a bit of an elision since it focuses on the Seven Jewels without going through all Thirty-seven opints.

She is in Dakarnava, and somewhere at the end of Sadhanamala which we lack the original for.

So she worms her way directly through our entire tantric scheme in a pretty specific way, having a nearly identical role in each of those.

However, as a lower-case description of Shakti (https://mahanaya.org/hu/teachings/samviccakrasarah.html), it is very clear:

The Self is the axle (of the Wheel) (ātmā-akṣaḥ…tu), the felloe is the world (jagat-vartaniḥ) and (ca) the spokes (arāṇi) are the outer and inner senses (dik-gāvau). Moreover (atas), the real nature of the process of the Wheel (cakra-krama-svabhāvaḥ) rotates (parivartate) with two speeds (javābhyām). |

...(It) is really (nāma) Her (sā) (who) is seen (dṛśyate) in the rotating movement of the Wheel of Consciousness (saṁvid-cakra-viparivartane).

...Self-awareness (ahaṃ-vimarśaḥ), (and) always (sadā) vibrates (spandate). Because of this (tataḥ) the Wheel of Consciousness (saṃvid-cakram) always (nitya-kālam) rotates (viparivartate).

...But (vā) when (yadā), because of (the birth of) individuality (vyastatāyāḥ), the speed of the Wheel (cakra-vegaḥ) slows down (rodhyate), then (tadā) the world (jagat) through the senses (indriyaiḥ) truly (eva) becomes visible (dṛśyate), consequently (atas) duality (bhedaḥ) prevails (pravartate).

Although that is just some type of commentary, that is the general understanding in Brahmayamala Tantra tradition, closely related to Para Shakti:

three Yoginis of Apară (embodied as the three syllables of her vidya) are Månası, Cakravega and Mohani

So as a generic term, cakra vega is a right-angle, centrifugal, rotating, vibrating circle, compared to the male seed which is like a central axle or axis. Now for those of us with stretched-out minds, is it possible to see a kind of x-shaped, fourth dimensional tesseract version of this, yes, it is not just one's personal center, but like an expanding sponge or rising bread at every point, much as physics believes space itself expands at a rate determined by the Hubble constant.

That is not really a number but a ratio, and its speed for an area the size of one's body comes up to around a nanometer per lifetime. Slow, but unceasing.

But when mainly focused on oneself, it is a "higher speed" which strips away the sensory attachments, "fires up", and brings development as indicated. So when we say "Manas can look up or down", it is physiologically demonstrated by the "two speeds" of Cakravega.

Her location is distinguished from clitoris which would be Khaganana in the listings, and so basically only refers to excited organs which may be placed in union.

The big Heruka in Dakarnava is like a cosmic translation of the previous tantras which are primarily in one's body.

It says there is an Ayatana for:

Akasa

Vijnana

Akimcanya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/akimcanya)

So in each of those subtle realms, if impure, or dualized, then Sasrava Skandhas will arise, which, according to the dictionary, is the same as Asrava (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ahsrava), which if you would like to call that an Influx of Tears, that would be apt.

So these three states have an either/or direction--as determined by Chakra Vega. The Nine Notions or Navasamjna are "always impure", i. e., these can only be thwarted and harnessed by wrathful practice.

Ayatana is something like "sense faculty" called Indriya when weak, and Bala when strong. So the tantric procedure of being "under" Indra and then "identifying" him and eventually "replacing" him results in Bala, or, i. e. Mahabala.

At the top of Kama Loka, within the Akanistha, Heruka says you will get a dualistic ordeal in Sky, Consciousness, and Void. So this is the closest Buddhist praxis to the Akashic or Mental plane as in Theosophy and the Puranas.

If you satisfy all the requisites for "Nothigness", the final "element" here, then you would penetrate the Voids or higher Janas or Arupa or Formless Realms, which is the lowest edge of Heruka's Nirmana Manifestation, which is why this is cosmic or celestial.

You are gated essentially by the illusory Mirror of Hrim and Maya, and the Moon Disk Mirror which is Manas on one side and Buddhi on the other. So Indrani is the culmination of this outer edge, complete conversion of Indriyas to Balas.

Old Student

13th January 2021, 05:39

Correct--same! Just that the Lotus grows from the gesture.

The shape of the gesture itself is the eye of a peacock plume whose quill rests in the Initiation Vase.

This is interesting. I have a lot of this mudra sometimes, this is an interesting way to think about what it is.

Svapna Tara is particularly for this.

Hence her name?

Old Student

13th January 2021, 05:54

Cunda also shows up in a rather interesting Sanskrit Catalog from the Beijing Imperial Palace.

One of the first translations was Matangi.

They have boatloads of dharanis. Here are a couple of things where we can detect Parasol:

The imperial collections have boatloads of just about everything. The art collection is split in two, one half still in Beijing, the other in Taipei. There is so much art that the museum there keeps it in a hollowed out mountain, and they have never repeated an exhibit.

As to their location:

Melāpaka (मेलापक) is one of the Pīṭhādis (group of districts) present within the Kāyacakra (‘circle of body’) which is associated with the Ḍākinī named Pātālavāsinī (‘a woman living underground’),

In the Pīṭhādi named Melāpaka:

Pretādhivāsinī,
Gṛhadevatā.

There they are around the root center, or, more accurately, sex organ.

It does seem like Cunda is going to the base of the spine and in some way is Candi, that is, Wrathjful Green Tara, while still being connected to Lotus Family. Northwest for Mahabala of course is the normal "transition" from Lotus to Karma.

I would say it has a lot to do with the Four Chakra system in Pranayama governed by Lotus Family, versus, in the higher tantras, the base of the spine appears, in a way that is Extremely Wrathful, Flaming, Urging, and held by the Samadhi Goddess, Candi, after the Sadhana deities or Wrathful Ones have changed luminosity to dark blue, or perhaps made the first Mental Object, associated with the normal five colors, into a re-born one.

More specifically,

Pretādhivāsinī -- sex organ
Gṛhadevatā -- rectum.

This pairing of Cunda with the base of the spine also seems to fit well with my shaking. I am in the chest area right now, and Ushas is running things. Before that, though, I was in the lower pelvis and surrounds with a lot of muscular training, and it was being run by Cunda.

When I said she was very closely paired with Prajnaparamita, it was through a mathematical artifice (Dakinis that know all of you also know they can use such vocabulary, I guess), called the 'forgetful functor', which takes something that has additional structure built on something simpler and 'reverts' it to the simpler structure by 'forgetting' structure. The precise relationship is that with me Cunda 'evolved' from Prajnaparamita, and she 'reverts' to Prajnaparamita to teach things for which it is more appropriate that the latter would appear, because, at least for me, Prajnaparamita does not directly appear, only by Cunda.

Old Student

13th January 2021, 06:13

She is so close to Khandaroha that these come up as the first two translations into Uighur and Mongolian.

Weird dictionary -- they relate the words to "Tocharian", which if one is looking at where these are located, is indistinct whether they really mean Tocharian as in Afghan, or Tocharian as in the (misnamed but allowed to continue) original inhabitants of the Taklamakan, or Tocharian as in possibly the later inhabitants of the Taklamakan who were probably those who gave words to the Uyghurs, who later became the literati of the Mongol empire. My guess is the last, who are more properly called Saka (or in Roman terms, Eastern Scythians).

So as a generic term, cakra vega is a right-angle, centrifugal, rotating, vibrating circle, compared to the male seed which is like a central axle or axis. Now for those of us with stretched-out minds, is it possible to see a kind of x-shaped, fourth dimensional tesseract version of this, yes, it is not just one's personal center, but like an expanding sponge or rising bread at every point, much as physics believes space itself expands at a rate determined by the Hubble constant.

That is not really a number but a ratio, and its speed for an area the size of one's body comes up to around a nanometer per lifetime. Slow, but unceasing.

Interesting set of metaphors. It isn't clear that the expansion forces are great enough to actually stretch the body itself in this model.

I would guess this is about the chakra at the sex organs? My own perception of it is that it is very complex, I suppose 4 dimensions might make it simpler. Have you heard of the Menger Sponge?

shaberon

13th January 2021, 10:47

Interesting set of metaphors. It isn't clear that the expansion forces are great enough to actually stretch the body itself in this model.

I would guess this is about the chakra at the sex organs? My own perception of it is that it is very complex, I suppose 4 dimensions might make it simpler. Have you heard of the Menger Sponge?

I have not.

No, if it is unclear that expansion does not stretch the body, this is why Mandala begins as a plane with just a Fence, and by the practitioner adding an axis with Nadir and Zenith, is like saying nadir has been pushed down to the base of spine.

This region is unidentified and ignored until through tantrism, its manifestation is forced as a Mental Object, which is Diptachakra in Vajrakilaya Tantra, which is equivalent to Cakravega in the Chakrasamvara system, either one being Cunda, expressed as uniting with Mahabala.

So in Yoga, if Cakra Vega is confined to the domain of Mental Object and a very qualified meaning of Samadhi, then, she is neither indicated nor found until the Noumenal Path has made its way to her. Virtually the opposite of most Yoga systems, in how most of them say, you have these chakras, here is the first one and now start it. In fact, after one had trained in the Three Places, then, it would really add the navel and reveal head as the crown or Mahasukha or Jnana Chakra. I am not sure it will deal with the root until it is established the heart is opened and softened somewhat.

The similar Chakravega in Trika (http://www.anuttaratrika.com/DOWNLOAD/eng/visualization_of_the_deities_of_the_trika_sanderson.pdf) is supposed to be in this article, but I am having a hard time finding her, where she is supposed to be triune with Manasa and Mohani.

Dipta or Vega has a high-energy connotation, related to Maha forms, which are usually six armed and fiery, and so she is like one lamp or flame destined for a chandelier.

Bhattacarya said that Paramasva was Hayagriva and that he was an Akshobya emanation, neither one of which is exemplified by the sadhana. What is perhaps more likely accurate is that Dharmadhatu Vagisvara Manjughosha says he is Mahabala. Bala means none of his Ayatanas have any weaknesses, not with respect to Akasha Dhatu, nor Vijnana Dhatu, nor to whatever would have to be expressed as Akimcanya Dhatu. He is not under/beneath Indra in any way and is more like his employer.

Paramasva is Viswa Daka in Hevajra's Five Families, and, he is the holder of a significant hypostasis in Dakini Jala. Besides a Crossed Vajra, also he has a couple unusual things, a staff with Double Lotus or Viswa Padma, and a Shakti or spear. He is red, and his main face shows Krodhasrngara, his second, Raudra, and his third is Brahma. His crown, if anything, is:

Haritasva Mukham

Which, to me at least, has more of a suggestion towards the main Vehicle of Jewel Family, and the original rays of Marici.

The sketch artist missed the point that he has Four Legs, which is certainly a rare or restricted attribute.

Amoghasiddhi is not too well-known from the Sutras; compared to the other Dhyani Buddhas in Dakini Jala, Paramasva is the only one to also emanate four additional mandalas, most likely as the Four Activities.

Amoghasiddhi is the end of the Maitreya or Jampa Gompa scheme, or, in the bizarre Tson kha pa manuscript related to Phurba, Amoghasiddhi is Watery Fire or the Seventh and Final (https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/ettt/ettt08.htm#an_r_7:6) Initiation, which says the purification of Five Skandhas is the Sambhoga kaya, and so on.

Now towards one's body, if seen that the male is like an axis and the female is more like a rotating egg, then that way in which she is a Bell should be somewhat evident as for instance a mental vibration passed from the axis causing vibration to the egg. That is how he is Shiva, it is like in that Tarika description. However he has been accessed by Bodhicitta, not any other means.

Yes, Svapna Tara = assists in dreams. Dream Yoga is also the basis of Illusory Body. The difference it seems to me between Illusory Body and Flitting is that, for example, in Illusory Body, you could easily go to someone else who was Lucid in Illusory Body, and debate Avatamsaka Sutra just as easily as if you were physically awake in the same room.

It makes sense to me that Cunda expands/collapses from Prajnaparamita, who is more of a "base model" and has no extensive forms and could be said to sequester herself in Vairocana's niche and lose her body, becoming mental-only.

She doesn't leave. There are just a whole lot of beneficial things to arise through her rather than the simple fact that "there is Voidness" of a blank, raw variety.

Pretādhivāsinī -- sex organ
Gṛhadevatā -- rectum.

That is how close Cakravega and Khandaroha are. That is why these are like the esoteric deities which assist the overall Dharani, Mahavidya, or Vidyadhara practices. Khandaroha we can show through the Varuni-based evolution of Vajravarahi. Of Chakravega and Paramasva, hardly anything could be said to be said about them, without showing how they are parsed out as the Sixth Yoga, Samadhi.

This pair of organs is the District governed by Patala Vasini, i. e., a Nadir Goddess.

However even for a male, Khaganana would be the Tip of the Jewel, Cakravega being the Root. Yes, the regions are a little different and could be said to be in communication with each other or not.

The Abhidhana link is a quick reference which shows at the beginning of the list, the head, is Cinnamasta. It doesn't say that, you have to know that about Candi. Cinnamasta is Tri-kaya Vajrayogini. Vajrayogini is explaining Dakini Jala which is therefor to be placed in the Tri-kaya system.

The closeness of these particular dakinis in the body and in the tantras is reflected in the progression:

Pranayama and Dharana = Upacara or Upasadhana = Varuni -- Khandaroha

Smrti and Samadhi = Sadhana and/or Mahasadhana = Cakravega--Paramasva

Vajrashrnkala being a Chain of such Successful Samadhis is thereby a consorting chain to Hevajra.

Paramasva should probably be looked at as "Vajrasattva having arisen to this encounter".

It is a Teevra Devata, Raudra, Extremely Wrathful.

He does not show other male emanations, but, largely on a Dharani basis, we have found there is such a thing as Raudra Krama and Mahabala Krama and it is on Ganapati and it is on Pancha Raksa.

Ganapati is at least guilty of having a considerable volume of collected lore to describe what he does, whereas the Pancha Raksha are only a series of Buddhist spells, except for Mayuri, who has quite an extensive background.

Now in having talked about Guru Yoga is the thing I skipped about Vajradhara is that you do him similarly with Three Places but you also ask him for Four Empowerments. And so one of the articles about it said "at least forty-five minutes to maybe two hours".

But instead of doing that I am doing Vajrasattva and Ganapati. This does not quite put him in a Buddhist Yidam position, and he works more like Dharani. And this goes to Japa or recitation and one time I used the most extreme Krom-based mantra, and I wound up eating it with an explosion of Mamos within a few days. So I reverted to the Pisaci mantra which more closely aligned with my intentions.

I had been doing it rather crisp and peppy, and I saw this was a kind of artificial structure since it made a continuous sound.

But then in slowing it down and trying to get a little more musical about it, he showed me the artificiality, in that the tiny pauses now coming between the words were not filled with Emptiness, but were all little bubbles for discursion or distraction trying to pop through, Hindrances.

Compared to the Six Yogas, it is a tiny little ripple of Pratyahara and Dhyana. But even that is powerful and authoritative.

In saying that Samadhi is "of a certain caliber" and that the first one is Heroic March or Shurangama, the second samadhi is Gaganaganja (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/gaganaganja), which is a Jewel Family Bodhisattva, like Ratnaketu, and is used in Namasangiti.

Then Vimala Prabha, and finally Lion's "Sport":

(2) oftener, fig., something like easy mastery: °tam Mahāvyutpatti 6404 = Tibetan rnam par rol pa (and so often in [compound] n. pr. (proper name) in Mahāvyutpatti), which Jäschke (Tibetan-English Dictionary) renders to practise sorcery, to cause to appear by magic; lit., however, it would seem to be like the Sanskrit, variously (rnam par = vi) sporting (rol pa, or °ba, also used for Sanskrit lalita)

something like miracles, exhibitions of supernatural power;

tad buddha- vikrīḍitaṃ Divyāvadāna 401.15, refers to a mahā-prātihāryam, great miracle, just mentioned

mama (sc. Bodhisattvasya) siṃhavikrīḍitaṃ (in vanquishing Māra)

trivimokṣa-mukha-(Lefm. sukha-, misprint?)-vikrīḍito Lalitavistara 181.20, [bahuvrīhi], (the Bodhisattva) having perfect mastery of entrance to the three-fold salvation; similarly, (bodhisattvair…aneka-)-samādhivaśitā-balā- bhijñā-vikrīḍitair Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra 1.10, ‘perfect masters of…’

That is why Mahasri Tara on a Lion is Sambhogakaya, a Samadhi considerably beyond the initial.

Sadhanamala is almost the non-book of Cunda and Parasol. It just mentions them in the most basic ways. It is not meant to be exhaustive as a resource; although it is exquisite for Kurukulla, Vajra Tara, Marici, etc.

Neither one of them is extensively practiced in Tibet.

After reflecting about the Paramartha Parasol, well, the manuscript actually is many, many times larger than her original Dharani. It is possible the text itself could say it quotes Krishnayamari Tantra, and the compiler just linked what he could as a reference. I am not sure.

Paramasva was obscurely called a Horse-faced Kinnara Gana. Because that is from Vayu Purana, it gets extra attention.

As to the Kinnara sadhana with Manohara, Sumukhi, etc., that seems to be a previously-established thing, there is no reason it could not be mentioned by Parasol.

As to the Kinnara and Amoghasiddhi Family, that would be a correlation. In the most general Pancha Jina:

In the Yoga and Anuttarayoga classifications there are Five Buddha Families: Akshobhya (East, blue, vajra, elephant throne), Ratnasambhava (South, yellow, jewel, horse throne), Amitabha (West, red, lotus, peacock throne), Amoghasiddhi (North, green, sword, kinnara throne) and the center with Vairochana (white, wheel, lion throne). Any of these Five Buddhas can occupy the center of a mandala although the directions remain the same.

According to China Buddhism:

In particular, the word Kinnara (literally means "what human?" in Sanskrit) is related to the word Kimpurusha (meaning "what man?" i.e. hermaphrodite, half man-half woman). Legends have it that the original Kinnaras were the troops of Ila, the unfortunate King who was transformed into a woman by means of a curse. Later he/she became a wife of the divine hermit and god of the planet Mercury, Budha, while his former soldiers were turned into kinnara by the hermit Budha.

One of the eight types of celestial beings. Horse-headed celestial musicians having a human-like body. Their king is Lord Vaishravana [or: Kubera].

Budha--Mercury was also not sure about deciding to be male.

One of the regular synonyms for Kinnara is:

Aśvamukhas

And Paramasva's "crown" is...

Green Kinnara?

I am not sure. It does not exactly say that.

These are like ultra-Gandharvas. One could say that Gandharva women are mostly just beautiful, but Kinnara women stay in union for pleasure all the time.

That is somewhat close to the trail through Manohara and Bharati, which seems to pluck Bala from the Blue Wrathful Males in order to make its Red Path of Bliss.

And so if Amoghasiddhi lacks much of a peaceful Bodhisattva atmosphere to his eminence, by definition, whatever is stronger in the wrathful aspect here, means there must be a peaceful source stronger than expected.

In that one, we will definitely find Tara's Forest of Turquoise Leaves. If you can make a real Vajrashrnkala, that is, a Chain of Successful Samadhis of this quality, no matter how wrathful, if this is good then you would be able to go to that Akanistha. That is what the Delok legends are trying to tell us.

shaberon

13th January 2021, 22:12

As a consequence of not really having a human Guru, I wonder what would be the next closest thing. I unfortunately do not experience Nirmanakayas of Mandarava or anything like that. I am familiar with some life stories such as Milarepa, and the language and practices of many Mahasiddhas are very familiar to me, but none of that really puts any of them in the limelight.

In saying that Sadhanamala is a valuable resource for certain things, it is not like the Chinese Imperial collection, which has buckets of titles that mean nothing to me. That does not mean they are no good or don't work, It means they are not major statuary deities of the Ratnagiri system, such as Mahattari Tara and Durgottarini Tara from Sadhanamala.

It is true that some of its specimens are found in the Ngor tradition, and that probably the single-most explanatory thangka would be the big Ekajati with multiple Maricis done by the Drukpa Kagyu.

This is Bhutanese, and, whereas they are directly attached to the most powerful Regional Protector, Tseringma of Mt. Everest, they also have a unique Dharma Protector. What this means is, she protects the lineage itself. But if it also means she protects the truth and reality within the associated Dharma teachings, and they have the greatest exposition of Sadhanamala, and we are sort of exalting this after centuries in the dust, then this is a closely-related affair.

And so currently, the Drikung are promoting Achi Chokyi and Parnasabari (https://gardrolma.org/daily-virtual-achi-chokyi-drolma-practice-and-achi-smoke-offering-and-parnashavari-practice/)--the latter described as the twentieth Tara and of the nature of the Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi. Parnasabari is being promoted by any lineage that has her I believe.

When shown against their Panel of Primary Yidams (http://drikungdharmasurya.org/pujas-for-the-living/), Achi is called an emanation of Vajrayogini, and ranked with Mahakala.

https://gardrolma.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GDC_Daily_Virtual_Achi_Practice_-_Google_Docs.jpg

http://drikungdharmasurya.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Achi-Chokyi-Drolma-1.jpg

https://gardrolma.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GDC_Daily_Virtual_Achi_Practice_-_Google_Docs-2.jpg

The request is that we do not copy/distribute her formulae. There is something you can get at the first link with Parnasabari, or, for instance, there are a couple similar articles:

Achi sadhana composed by Achi Chokyi Drolma (http://www.drigung.com/sadhana.html)

A Collection of her practices (https://kupdf.net/download/achi-sadhana-drikung_58b08b396454a79c04b1e935_pdf)

In looking at the Ten Wrathful Ones in general format, the main ones share the name Antaka (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/antaka), "The End", similar to Antara or "Interval", and to the Andhaka demons.

Since Death is usually the End, Antaka is strongly associated with Yama or is a name of him. When "reflected" at him as in the name Yamantaka, this should signify The End of Death, which sounds fair, but then would be oxymoronically followed by Prajnantaka. Hang on.

Allright, this Antaka format is in the general definition of Dasa Krodha (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/dashakrodha#buddhism). It shows Mahabala in the northwest, and Sumbha in the Nadir.

It is a very plain page, since, although we know the basic format may be changed in some cases, the comparative format given is that of Vajrakilaya.

Well, we have said he is a compound deity that is like an evolution of Vajrasattva to the peculiar intensity of Karma Family.

And indeed he seems to rely on having a relevant deity to launch his version of Ten Wrathful Ones:

Huṃkāra,
Vijaya (Tib. Namgyal; Wyl. rnam rgyal),
Nīladaṇḍa (Tib. Yuk Ngön; Wyl. dbyug pa sngon po),
Yamāntaka (Tib. Shinjé; Wyl. gshin rje gshed),
Ārya Acala (Tib. Miyowa; Wyl. mi g.yo ba),
Hayagrīva (Tib. Tamdrin; Wyl. rta mgrin),
Aparājita (Tib. Dö Gyal),
Amṛtakuṇḍalī (Tib. Düdtsi Khyilwa; Wyl. bdud rtsi 'khyil ba),
Trailokyavijaya (Tib. Kham Sum Namgyal),
Mahābala (Tib. Tob Chen)

By splicing in Humkara, something happened to the Antakas. Vighnantaka has become Amritakundali and thereby shoved Mahabala into the Nadir.

Dharmadhatu Vagisvara Manjughosha, however, could be attributed with keeping the Standard Six Directions--the four Antakas plus Usnisa and Sumbha. What he has changed, replaced, or re-named are the corner deities:

Isana: Trailokyavijaya (was: Acala)

Agni: Vajrajvalanalarka (was: Takkiraja)

Nrrta: Herukavajra (was: Niladanda)

Vayu: Paramasva (was: Mahabala)

His inner ring is actually a unique Usnisa group, starting with Mahosnisa, followed by Sitatapatra Usnisa, making it hard to tell which ones are meant, male or female. In Brahmanda (https://soolaba.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/brahmanda-purana-cosmography-14-20.pdf) or Vayu (https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.274476/2015.274476.The-Vayu_djvu.txt) Puranas, Mahosnisa is a Rakshasha in the second or Sutala. However, in Namasangiti commentary (https://kipdf.com/the-names-of-wisdom-a-critical-edition-and-annotated-translation-of-chapters-1-5_5add5d907f8b9aea388b4568.html), Mahosnisa is The Great Coronal Dome, Jewel Family, as also said in the Vilasavajra (https://books.google.com/books?id=TcZJDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA432&ots=oWROkVAn-f&dq=mahosnisa&pg=PA130#v=onepage&q=mahosnisa&f=false) version.

I am not sure how it is meant in Japan, but, I would think Manjushri uses the one as in his commentary.

For his Wrathfuls, much as we have said Trailokyavijaya has a near-equivalency or similar effective role to Acala, the same appears to be the case between Paramasva and Mahabala. In the case of Kilaya, why Acala and Trailokyavijaya are separate, is perhaps because the latter has grasped the Zenith. The Trailokyavijaya "could" have been accomplished by someone other than Acala. In DDV it is like he personally takes care of it, I suppose, and Zenith is in the more common hands of Vijaya, presumably Usnisa Vijaya, usually meaning the male one, although the female also does it.

If we look at how Humkara changes all of the Wrathfuls, you have to be careful, because in that case, Isana is listed as the last corner. Acala is still in it, he just looks out of order.

In looking at the usually Twenty-four sacred sites or Pithas, they will be divided up a little differently if they are shown as Three Kayas versus Six Families.

We said that Cakravega was "close" to Khandaroha, as they remain in the same group. The Dakinis, in order, would go Khaganana, Cakravega, Khandaroha.

In either classification, Khaganana is split from those two. She is either the end of Voice and they are the beginning of Body, or, in Six Chakravartins which are really Six Dakas, Amitabha's court ends with Khaganana, whereas Akshobya has Cakravega, Khandaroha, Saundini, and Cakravarmini.

The last Ratna deity is Vajrahumkara.

This format is unusual; Amitabha is also in Vairocana's court, whereas Amoghasiddhi solely emanates other Dhyanis--Heruka, Padmanarttesvara, Vairocana, and Vajrasattva, in which case Vairocana has the shakti distinctly named Cakravartini, and Vajrasattva has Mahavirya.

The sum total of the six mandalas actually is a bit like Five Directions, supposed to be a Pancha Jina with Akshobya above center.

The overall gatekeepers include Uluka and Sukara.

Six Chakravartins or Six Dakas is like a mantricly-identical version of Dakini Jala, based mainly on the Pithas and the Four Dakinis. The retinue in Dakini Jala is different, larger, more related to that in Paramadya and Samputa.

A Six Family Wheel is supposed to be subjected to the Tri-kaya, and so the roster of Pithas ports to both, it stays basically the same and is just divided differently.

Akshobya is the most-hypostasized deity. Even to really identify Jewel and Karma Families, you need some Vajra Family-based Wrathful experience; Vajrasattva and Vajradhara are considered found through/extensions of Akshobya; and he emanates the principal male in almost all of the major tantras, whether Humkara, Kalachakra, Buddha Kapala, and so on, are all Akshobyas.

Khaganana's energy winds up being governed by either Speech or Amitabha. In the case of a human male, this would be very, very important if you were to realize Vajra Surya with a Karma Mudra. The root of it though physically close is noumenally a bit different.

If you become sensitized to Khaganana, she is the outer extension of Guhyeshvari.

Vajra Surya is like a lower equivalent of Mahosnisa, both being a noumenal appearance of Jewel Family, which can be physically felt. One of Puranic Mahosnisa's Nagas is Asvatara (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ashvatara) which translates also as "mule", i. e. a swift or better horse, with tara being used in a general lower-case meaning, and not among the Buddhist Taras; but it may also be a Gandharva or class of Gandharvas. Buddhist Sri rides a mule, slowly, I think, perhaps hers is the "better" kind. It is sometimes called a Donkey or klang. Mule is "dreu" in Tibetan. Himalayan Art (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1748) says that Dudsolma should be on a donkey.

In Singapore (http://www.casotac.com/CASonline%20Articles/28122013.html), they say that Achi is the Activity aspect (similar to Karma Family) of Vajrayogini, that she is semi-wrathful, and that Dudsolma on a mule is her wrathful form. They say that Achi is behind the resurgence of interest in Dharma generally and of Drikung-themed Dharma in particular.

Achi lived in the 1100s and this is her from the 1300s:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/6/2/36277.jpg

1800s with Tara above and praise to two Situ Rinpoches on reverse:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/3/8/73896.jpg

Recent:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/2/4/8242.jpg

Old Student

14th January 2021, 06:01

"Have you heard of the Menger Sponge?"
I have not.

It is the 3-D version of a Sierpinski Triangle, made by taking a cube and removing the middle 1/9th from each side, and then from each of the sides of the smaller cubes that are left, and so on. It's a fractal.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Menger-Schwamm-farbig.png/620px-Menger-Schwamm-farbig.png

This region is unidentified and ignored until through tantrism, its manifestation is forced as a Mental Object, which is Diptachakra in Vajrakilaya Tantra, which is equivalent to Cakravega in the Chakrasamvara system, either one being Cunda, expressed as uniting with Mahabala.

So in Yoga, if Cakra Vega is confined to the domain of Mental Object and a very qualified meaning of Samadhi, then, she is neither indicated nor found until the Noumenal Path has made its way to her. Virtually the opposite of most Yoga systems, in how most of them say, you have these chakras, here is the first one and now start it. In fact, after one had trained in the Three Places, then, it would really add the navel and reveal head as the crown or Mahasukha or Jnana Chakra. I am not sure it will deal with the root until it is established the heart is opened and softened somewhat.

The similar Chakravega in Trika is supposed to be in this article, but I am having a hard time finding her, where she is supposed to be triune with Manasa and Mohani.

I read through the whole article on the Trika practice, no it does not have anything about Chakravega by that name. It is interesting, because it talks about the trinity of Para, Parapara, and Apara as encompassing all that has to do with the mind. It's also interesting because in it, Bala/Mahabala is female. And because it sets up that there was major contention between the Para people and the Krama people in 11th-12th c. Tantra.

This pair of organs is the District governed by Patala Vasini, i. e., a Nadir Goddess.

However even for a male, Khaganana would be the Tip of the Jewel, Cakravega being the Root. Yes, the regions are a little different and could be said to be in communication with each other or not.

This is interesting. I have had to do some scrambling in the last few days about the 'secret chakra', which in males and females would be in matching correspondence during conjoining, according to Lama Yeshe, the tip chakra in male is at the tip of the penis, but in the female it is at the cervix, and the root in the male is at the base and in the female at the opening of the vagina. In a shaking from some nights ago, it was reversed, so I did some leg work to see what directions the elongations went in both, and they elongate in both cases away from the pubis area. So the Lama Yeshe is perhaps the way that would work. But in terms of redirecting orgasm, they would work in reverse, as the technique for males involves muscular control at the root, and using Lama Yeshe's taxonomy in female it would involve the tip.

Sorry for all the gory detail, but I thought I needed to figure that one out.

One more thing about the Trika article. It describes Apara as being red and black, and elsewhere as being ultra-wrathful as opposed to Parapara who is wrathful (that wasn't the exact term but I don't have it in front of me right now). After some weeks during which I have been kept from seeing my clear body because of the exercise, I did last night and the first glimpse had that coloring -- red and black. Not sure what to make of it yet.

shaberon

14th January 2021, 09:20

I have had to do some scrambling in the last few days about the 'secret chakra', which in males and females would be in matching correspondence during conjoining, according to Lama Yeshe, the tip chakra in male is at the tip of the penis, but in the female it is at the cervix, and the root in the male is at the base and in the female at the opening of the vagina. In a shaking from some nights ago, it was reversed, so I did some leg work to see what directions the elongations went in both, and they elongate in both cases away from the pubis area. So the Lama Yeshe is perhaps the way that would work. But in terms of redirecting orgasm, they would work in reverse, as the technique for males involves muscular control at the root, and using Lama Yeshe's taxonomy in female it would involve the tip.

In the aspect of the Tip being related to Orgasmic Bliss, then yes internally the cervix is the center whereas on the surface it is Bird Beak or clitoris. Her root opening is more of a Lotus which, i. e. is able to receive the Vajra, which usually has to have the root working in order for the tip to talk to it. The female internally is further different since her womb is connected to her heart. A male, lacking this, is probably relegated to saying that semen is related to Food.

After some weeks during which I have been kept from seeing my clear body because of the exercise, I did last night and the first glimpse had that coloring -- red and black. Not sure what to make of it yet.

Shiny? Or grisly?

Achi Chokyi has some more powerful forms in red and black. Her main white form is like Pandara, white with red, and her vehicle is really Blue Water Horse of Wisdom in the Clouds.

She is an Enlightened Activity, and the milieu of such activity is for instance as Vajrayogini at Teahouse (https://teahouse.buddhistdoor.net/vajrayogini/):

The goddess has gained complete control over her emotional states and can handle them at will and manifest them in their diversity as part of her enlightened activity (Tib. trinle).

Or from the extensive Vajrayogini Commentary (https://fpmt.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2012/12/VajrayoginiPomaia.pdf):

Also, there are many emanations of dakinis, virinis, yoginis and female enlightened beings who are emanations
of the enlightening activity (trinlay, ‘phrin-las) of Buddha and who come in many forms
to help us on the path. This is another distinguished factor.

Usually, Thab or thabs translates "upaya".

In Bhutan (https://www.bhutanstudies.org.bt/publicationFiles/OccasionalPublications/GNH-SetofDiscussionPapers/GNH_Ch7_PhuntshoPrakkeChettri.pdf), Thinle is Karma and Karma Family. Also:

The next concept we like to relate to the above is that of
Tongnyi (Skt: Shunyata), emptiness, and Nyingje (Skt:
Karuna), literally ‘noble heart’ but normally referred to as
‘compassion’. Emptiness and compassion is the same couple
as wisdom and compassion, because in the latter ‘wisdom’
refers to seeing emptiness – the experiential realisation that
appearances in the relative world lack inherent existence.
These two are also known as Thab and Sherab (Skt: Upaya
and Prajna), skilful means and wisdom, because the
expression of compassion appears as appropriate methods. In
meditation practice they are furthermore called Kyerim and
Dzogrim (Skt: Utpatti and Sampannakrama), creation and
completion stage, because (after flashing emptiness), the
practitioner creates a pure vision and later dissolves that
back into emptiness.

In the last, it is like calling the pair Smrti and Samadhi, or Garbhadhatu and Vajradhatu. All that we train as Generation Stage more or less funnels into Smrti, or Sadhana, causing the result Luminous, or Prajna.

The Four Activities do not directly have the name upaya or karma:

According to Himalayan Art,

Four Activities or Rites (Skt. caturkriya; Tib. las-bzhi)
The 'four rites' are the functions of an enlightened being's activities, and in Buddhist tantra their application is usually expressed in the fire ritual of homa. These four activities are: (1) pacifying; (2) increasing; (3) subjugating; (4) wrathful activity. Pacifying means purifying and calming through removing hindrances and illnesses. Increasing means enriching or bringing prosperity and longevity. Subjugating means influencing or attracting power to give control over situations. Wrathful, destructive or forceful activity means annihilating confusion and obstacles. A fifth rite of spontaneous or all-purpose activity is sometimes added to this list when it corresponds to the Five Buddha Families.

Which is also near their explanation of the upper reaches of Kama Loka:

Four Absorptions (Skt. catursamapatti; Tib. snyoms-'jug bzhi)
The four most refined states of mental absorption, the attainment of which leads to rebirth in one of the four formless heavenly realms. These four absorptions are known as: (1) limitless space (akashanantya); (2) limitless consciousness (vijnananantya); (3) nothingness (akinchaya); (4) neither cognition nor non-cognition (naivashanjnanasamjna).

That sounds a little different as if not giving room for the other Pali terms for the higher Janas. Obviously it is also ananta "endless" rather than ayatana "sense faculty" appended there.

Achi says she became an Activity Consort [Karma Mudra] of Padmasambhava.

The chiefly-discussed iteration of Tibetan Shentong Yogacara says that H. H. Ranjnung Dorje provided the majority of its doctrine and then Dolpopa perhaps made a few refinements, and from him, to Taranatha, who made a career of pilgrimages to find everything about Tara that he could.

Ok, that is male-based, it is in writing, and to follow it is a bit like Upacara, and a bit more like the male seed and Father aspect.

Well, it seems to me I am unable to come up with any position to refute Achi.

She is Vajrayogini, and, at the same time, is Tara.

This concept has been raised for example in a Tara and Vajrayogini (https://buddhaweekly.com/tara-the-saviour-and-vajrayogini-the-sarvabuddhadakini-how-are-they-different-and-how-are-they-the-one-the-importance-of-female-buddhas-wisdom-personified/) Saviour and Sarvabuddhadakini article.

If the running commentary which we have established places Guhyajnana Dakini in an extremely pivotal position, the main difference between these two is that Guhyajnana arises from a Red Hrih, and Achi from a White Hri.

Furthermore, her Ganacakra uses Inverted Stupa explicitly the same way as we have, with three skullcups in the triangle, and a fourth over them.

She follows the color theme of Vajrakumara with Dipta Chakra, or rather refers to Deep Blue Space and Turquoise Light, in much the same way we are thinking of Turquoise Lamp as highly beneficial to the corresponding stage if we were to undergo the Dissolutions. One of her primary names is Dharma Lamp, Palden Chokyi Dron. Dakinis are called the body of the Dharmadhatu who can manifest the Activities of Yeshe. Turquoise and Azure Light is apparently her domain in the Deep Blue, from where she is summoned to appear in a mandala or sadhana to manifest Yeshe. She and they make Emanated Bodies to empower the Commitments of Karma and Yeshe.

Yidam Vajrayogini is the leader of the dakinis, those of Activity, Le kyi, and wisdom, Yeshe, also Dam Tsig--Commitment, and power, which is Wang, i. e. Empowerment. They are loud with a sad and haunting melody.

Then seem to be the Three Pisaci Sisters over the Mamos. Around Bhutan, it may specifically be these three, but we have already seen much about how Pisaci works, and could use what is more local to us.

Her personal retinue of Four Dakinis is Flesh Eater, Yeshe, Wang, White Samaya.

The way she uses Inverted Stupa specifically says to use "local protectors" and that the end of it is Samaya to her. Now what the heck, Yeshe is second, as if you have to have Void Gnosis to plug into the initiation whose outcome is Samaya, which, in its higher aspect is Time, in the sense of time spent with manifestation of the actual or self-arisen form of the deity. That makes sense.

Chokyi Drolma is translated as both Dharma Tara and Dharma Saviouress.

In terms of the Tri-kaya, her Dharmakaya is Vajrayogini, Sambhogakaya is Achi Lady of Nanam or Nanamza, and her Nirmanakaya is the Four Dakinis. She also can start from the Four Dakinis and progress to Sarvabuddhadakini (https://pdfslide.net/documents/achi-chokyi-drolmapdf.html). Nanam is the Drikung region in Tibet, northwest of Lhasa.

Her Nirmanakaya, largely characterized by a mantric field, is the Four Dakinis, which is the same as Guhyajnana Dakini, and then almost all of the Highest Yoga tantras.

In her self-authored practices she does use Four Dakinis mantra for Vasikaran and calls Karma Dakini the Horse Woman. In a possibly less-trashed copy (https://vdocuments.mx/achis-sadhana-by-achi-3.html), Karma rite uses three destructive dakinis, who perhaps are supposed to be the Three Pisacis, however it turns out to be about the Three Times. It relies on Kshim and Khahi.

In a dissertation (http://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:254364/datastream/PDF/view), we see that she must have an entire library and that Dharma Tara is Jnana Dakini. She was born with a third eye and could talk and was immediately recognized as Vajrayogini and at age three she spontaneously started reciting Tara mantra. It also seems to make her far earlier, not long after Padmasambhava. The dissertation is fairly good, although even here, the point is missed about the esoteric meaning of Wealth and how the Tseringma are a localization of related kingdoms internal to the human being, which returns us to the concept of air and/or life elementals as ganas, and so Rudra Krama meets it in the mystery arena here, on a turbulent wind storm to Bliss axis, I suppose. Similarly, when the lore speaks of destroyer rites and killing, and the ingredients of the magic pill, we had better take those metaphorically or symbolicly.

When she is called Dug kar (https://www.himalayanart.org/items/288), it is Vajrosnisa Sitatapatra, and she also has command of a red pisaci and/ or Tromo Wangchuk Krodhishvari (https://lhaseylotsawa.org/library/fivefold-consecration) as shown there related to Hayagriva and Kilaya. The very beginning of one of the practice books does not call her Achi Chokyi Drolma, it says A chi ku dog kar mo. So although Tibetan, we can find her extra strong connection with a red, western dakini, like a continuation of the Sanskrit Khandaroha, followed by a type of Kila-intense Samaya to Karma Family.

In a difficult run-on version (https://dokumen.site/download/achi-chokyi-drolma-practice-collectionclean1-a5b39ef61ce59a), she mantricly assembles Vajradhara, Tilo, Nagarjuna, and Vajravarahi.

The nearness of her inner meaning to Kilaya is perhaps shown by the sequential contents of a printed book (http://www.buddhavisions.com/shop/achi-chokyi-drolma-sole-mother-of-nanamza-pure-vision/):

Inner Sadhana of the Yidam (Vajrakilaya), Secret Sadhana of the Dakini Dharmatara,

The main difference between Achi and most dakini iconography is that her skullcup contains a wish-fulfilling jewel.

Taranatha collected Tara's lineages but Achi comes a lot closer to "is Tara".

She effectively is almost the same thing as a White Guhyajnana or Siddhi Rajni, or Tinuma.

I cannot pry her off the subjects.

What is that, like a mystical female guru or something?

In her Inverted Stupa article, it comes out to be nearly the identical thing as me plotting it out with Guhyajnana and Ziro Bhusana. Achi is in a position to say these red deities are simply her in Vasikaran mode.

Her main item is sometimes a Drum and sometimes it is a Mirror, those being usually similar in shape. The more energetic or Buddhadakini-class dakinis seem to be associated with a Drum. A Mirror however is almost always Sarasvati or Lakshmi.

If we sort her images carefully, we can find she shows Orange and Turquoise, the latter as a lamp or light indicative of Akanistha. The first is the somewhat rare heated Amrita shown occasionally on Amitayus, or by Saffron Khaganana or Manjuvajra. And so these two colors seem to have much to do with inner heat and coolness and the right combinations and purifications for them to make effective Mercury.

So I think her imagery and vocabulary is speaking right at the Yoga Path at its upper extremes as we have extensively modelled on the sadhanas and commentaries.

Again the question of Inverted Stupa is right at the point where one "gets" Emptiness or Prajnaparamita and she enters the niche and sort of disappears. And so it is like saying, from Void, what?

Sadhanas answer that with various syllables and symbols, but the meaning of Inverted Stupa is that the symbols directly correspond to "moving Sense of Touch from Surface to Center", and, so, i. e. a calm a void as possible and the slow arising of Bindu-Nada and then the representation is the energy-winds reversing their outflow from the lower part of the body into the core. And so then it will enter the stage of heat. And so at that point you can truly begin the Third Yoga, Pranayama, with heat, wind, and mantra going into the channel.

From that point, it is less obvious how the symbol works, since the Circle or Citta Chakra is not simply "the next step up" but is further along in time or a noumenal process which should get a little taste of nectar to drip down and to get some of the heart petals softened. The final Earth Square of it is a lot like the hot nectar having worked its way all the way back down to Nirmana Chakra into the Bowl or Vessel or Bharati and Mercury is made. The square is loosely defined as "up" since if the Mercury goes up, then we are able to Touch the square base of the real, upright Stupa of the deity.

Achi seems fluent at this. The trouble is that the glyph is easy to find in very many sadhanas, but it is just described like a picture, whereas it is really the finesse mode of Suksma Yoga and Deity Yoga.

It is something where each piece of it represents something like six months' training. Once you are a natural at it, then, of course, for your own purposes, you would go to a condensed version which you could perform in a matter of minutes.

Old Student

15th January 2021, 06:00

In looking at the Ten Wrathful Ones in general format, the main ones share the name Antaka, "The End", similar to Antara or "Interval", and to the Andhaka demons.

Since Death is usually the End, Antaka is strongly associated with Yama or is a name of him. When "reflected" at him as in the name Yamantaka, this should signify The End of Death, which sounds fair, but then would be oxymoronically followed by Prajnantaka. Hang on.

Interesting. I wonder what the etymology of Yamantaka is, since it is YamAntaka so it can come apart as Yama antaka, and Yama can also mean to reign in as with a horse, which could yield Yamantaka he who reigns in The End.

With respect to Cakravega, and her dominion over Pretadhivasini, I had been going to say after my description that the description of the cakra vega as a rotating right angle and the male being a central seed, that it made sense from the thing I was trying to figure out when I was investigating those things, because I was investigating a 'vision' or experience where the root and tip were reversed.

Akshobya is the most-hypostasized deity. Even to really identify Jewel and Karma Families, you need some Vajra Family-based Wrathful experience; Vajrasattva and Vajradhara are considered found through/extensions of Akshobya; and he emanates the principal male in almost all of the major tantras, whether Humkara, Kalachakra, Buddha Kapala, and so on, are all Akshobyas.

I genuinely do not know what to do about Akshobya, I have spent some time trying to figure out what should be my relationship to a Buddha who is called "Unshakeable".

In Singapore, they say that Achi is the Activity aspect (similar to Karma Family) of Vajrayogini, that she is semi-wrathful, and that Dudsolma on a mule is her wrathful form. They say that Achi is behind the resurgence of interest in Dharma generally and of Drikung-themed in particular.

From this and your other post, the position of Vajrayogini in all of these things seems very similar to the position the author of the Trika text had ascribed to Para, sort of a transcendent shakti force which other deities embody in some characteristics.

Old Student

15th January 2021, 06:12

In the aspect of the Tip being related to Orgasmic Bliss, then yes internally the cervix is the center whereas on the surface it is Bird Beak or clitoris. Her root opening is more of a Lotus which, i. e. is able to receive the Vajra, which usually has to have the root working in order for the tip to talk to it. The female internally is further different since her womb is connected to her heart. A male, lacking this, is probably relegated to saying that semen is related to Food.

Okay, but when there is both a physical body and a clear body, and they are opposite genders, then the situation arises when one can be 'of both' at the same time. It is in that context when the discussion about root and tip comes up, because at that time, there is a coincidence of points.

The female is actually physically connected between womb and heart to the extent that the vagus nerve endings impinge on the uterus and on the heart. I know it may seem strange to go back and forth between anatomy and physiology and the spiritual, but a lot of clues can be found from these things. Also, the most likely mechanism for bringing an involuntary muscle under control, as happens with yoga, is to project new nerve endings into it, and that would have the correct feel in terms of the new body it created.

Achi says she became an Activity Consort [Karma Mudra] of Padmasambhava.

This is interesting. Then does she know Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal?

In a dissertation, we see that she must have an entire library and that Dharma Tara is Jnana Dakini.
Technically, it is a thesis.

From that point, it is less obvious how the symbol works, since the Circle or Citta Chakra is not simply "the next step up" but is further along in time or a noumenal process which should get a little taste of nectar to drip down and to get some of the heart petals softened. The final Earth Square of it is a lot like the hot nectar having worked its way all the way back down to Nirmana Chakra into the Bowl or Vessel or Bharati and Mercury is made. The square is loosely defined as "up" since if the Mercury goes up, then we are able to Touch the square base of the real, upright Stupa of the deity.

Are the three chakras in the circle of the body direct correspondents to the other chakras? Sometimes it seems like it and sometimes it doesn't, so I'm confused.

shaberon

15th January 2021, 09:53

With respect to Cakravega, and her dominion over Pretadhivasini, I had been going to say after my description that the description of the cakra vega as a rotating right angle and the male being a central seed, that it made sense from the thing I was trying to figure out when I was investigating those things, because I was investigating a 'vision' or experience where the root and tip were reversed.

I can get that...conceptually...kind of. Functionally, I cannot. With respect to the root I can say that age makes no difference towards the sensation that if I think about some kind of being in pain, I often get a shock in the root that then does something like a bear trap.

Akshobya would be the lack of reaction.

You had used "reaction" as the mental component which would collapse bliss or voidness.

I genuinely do not know what to do about Akshobya, I have spent some time trying to figure out what should be my relationship to a Buddha who is called "Unshakeable".

Master of Bhumi Sparsha.

He is Aversion and its emotional extremes Rage and Hatred.

There are plenty of tests the world can dish out to prove it is not really that hard to make us angry.

I often think of it in the Vajrapani at Shaolin context. Lack of anger behind a deadly strike. There was no way those guys were taught to not hit anybody. Why or when that is justified is the question.

It is not even Buddhist but defined exactly the same way in this verse of Vishnu's 86th name (https://vishnusahasranama.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/akshobhya/). Consequently, Akshobya is our Vishnu. When the Tibetans call Buddha "Sangyas", it means Vibuddha, which is Fully Expanded Buddha or Vishnu Buddha, which is still the same general Hindu sense as in Agni Vaisvanara.

There is really no reaction at all, not mentally, Buddha does not think as we know it. If we ask a question so profound it takes the whole Avatamsaka Sutra to answer it, he does not process anything, the answer is omnipresent and it just arises through him almost like a recording. As if were just an echo from the true part of our mind to the unsure part.

If we know how ruinous anger can be, then, there is an equally strong peaceful counterpart which is the Heart. That one is the real Mind or Citta, the dark blue with a brighter light, and I believe that is supposed to be the case artistically with all of these Akshobya males when they have a blue female partner, she should be lighter. This will be more vivid just momentarily.

From this and your other post, the position of Vajrayogini in all of these things seems very similar to the position the author of the Trika text had ascribed to Para, sort of a transcendent shakti force which other deities embody in some characteristics.

Yes, because the Vajrayogini is simultaneously Mistress over the Fivefold form unit, but, she is fully aware in her sixth principle which means she becomes just as adept in Void, is of a Guru nature towards the manifestation.

From continuing to scrutinize Achi:

Five Achi Sisters appear identical to Tseringma and sisters.

Because she is a Lokapala, I am not sure whether it is appropriate to consider Tseringma as a name in one's internal hierarchy, or if it is only a correspondence. The Tseringma are also seen as Long Life, so, they may at least have influence.

She does refer to:

Female Samantabhadri as the source of sensory enjoyments

a fairly complete title for her would come out to:

Ma Palden Akashadhatvishvari Dharma Tara

Part of her retinue is customary but she also has The Outer Activities or Twenty-eight yoginis, which are four groups of seven for each of the Four Activities. These are the wrathful solar plexus or navel center, and so they are like the "merest" or low-level tantric encounter, and the reason there are seven is because:

six dwell in dharmadhatu

one appears in

tab kyi ku ru sal "skillful form", similar to Upaya.

Very close to saying Six Ayatanas plus Upaya, close to the basis of Seven Syllable deity.

The source or abode of Achi is also:

Uddiyana the Western Charnel Ground

And another place which has a sort of dual existence between the physical plane and inner experience that she hails from:

Tidro in Zho

which I would have just overlooked, but I didn't, because it turns up to be the same thing in the legend of Yeshe Tsogyal (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Lady_of_the_Lotus-Born:_The_Life_and_Enlightenment_of_Yeshe_Tsogyal):

...for the sake of the ministers, Guru Rinpoche and Yeshe Tsogyal appeared to comply with the decision. In reality, however, they went to the crag of Zhoto Tidro, to the Great Trysting Place of the Dakinis, the abode of the Green Lady of the Deadly Bell, a place invulnerable to every kind of obstacle. And there they engaged in secret practice...

Akanishta is my perfect home, the crag of Tidro...

Three times the Lady Tsogyal took this vow of eight austerities. The Guru was well pleased. He gave her advice and predictions and then returned to the king to act as his spiritual guide. First the Lady Tsogyal practiced the austerity of clothing, relying on the inner heat of tummo. On the heights of the mountain of Tidro, where the high screes give way to snow, she meditated for a year, wearing nothing but a single piece of cotton cloth. At first the warmth of the tummo did not arise and, as the new year gales began to blow, the frost and cold were hard to bear. Her Indian companion could stand it no longer and went off to find the Guru, saying that he would serve him. But because of her vow, the Lady Tsogyal persisted in her meditation. Blisters covered her entire body, and she was racked with anguish, her breath coming in sharp, painful gasps. She was on the point of death when, in invocation to the venerable Teacher, she prayed:

Five Lord of Orgyen, Lord of Dharma, Protecting all who wander in samsara. Sun of loving pity, look on me! Friendless, I am naked and alone. The wind howls through this dark and rocky den. When the blizzards rage, It is a girl of snow that I become. My bed is stone, and stone my roof and walls— They are an icy comfort. A clod of earth and rock I lie, inert and still. The Lady of the White Robe 53 is not here, And I am frozen through and through. But with the sunshine of your mercy Bless me! Kindle in me, please, the tummo fire! "As I said this," the Lady recalled, "the karmic wind-energy moved slightly, and this enabled the warmth of the tummo fire to spring up. I felt ever more strongly a deep and sincere faith towards the Guru, and I sang: The strong ambrosia of blessings Of the Secret Mantra, Diamond Vehicle, Is granted by a true authentic Teacher, And Vajrasattva, Primal Wisdom, Brings the Four Joys skipping in my heart. White Robe has arisen in her proper place; She offers now her blissful warmth to me. How great is now my joy. Yet still I beg your kindness! "The Master of Orgyen appeared to me in the form of a heruka. He gave me a skull cup filled with beer to drink, and then he disappeared. My experience became continuous and stable: the bliss was truly blissful, the warmth was truly warm, and I was filled with happiness. My body, which beforehand had been completely frozen, was transfigured through and through, like a snake sloughing off its skin. Whereupon I thought that the time had come for the austerity of the bone ornaments. And so, taking off the cotton cloth and donning the ornaments of bone, I practiced for one year the austerity called the Union of the Three Pith Instructions.

53 gos dkar mo (Skt. Pandaravasini, lit. Lady of the White Robe). This is the female Buddha, consort of Amitabha, representing the intrinsically pure nature of the element of fire. According to the explanation given by Zenkar Rinpoche, gos kar is still the current word in the dialect of the nomads for the hearth or fireplace.

So she has used Pandara literally as the presence of tummo, i. e. if we revert to our Sanskrit terms then she was doing Pranayama without result until something happened.

It has stopped short of calling Pandara "the kundalini goddess" or saying she is a lower center, she was nothing until the springing up of warmth. It does not say that Parasol was not there or that Yeshe Tsogyal did not have a crown center, it gives the higher or enlightenment-giving Prajna aspect of Parasol some actual substance, Purified Fire.

Tidro is thereby related to Akanistha of Turquoise Light.

The theme of the "lighter blue consort" is not hard to find. Sometimes it is not done. But if we think of it with the intent of Diptacakra or Cakravega in "high gear", that was the intent of the visionary, if not the artist.

Here is a 1700s Drukpa Vajradhara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/0/100609.jpg

Chanda Maha Roshana:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/2/4/3/24396.jpg

Modern Nepalese Chanda Roshana:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/5/3/65360.jpg

Then he is going to reverse the color scheme and emit a retinue which is forms of Acala:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/0/9/90915.jpg

Acala is the Wrathful form of Akasha Garbha or the male equivalent to Queen of Space.

Vajradhara says that Pink can take the place of Light Blue:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/9/9/89911.jpg

Akshobya mostly speaks through Vajrapani, the Master of Secrets and general Lord of Tantra. And so in Sarvadurgati Parishodana, he has many more roles than Buddha or Amitayus. He is grinding most of the levels and classes of beings in Kama Loka, the Nagas and Bhairavas and so on. The highly important Vajramrita tantra is an enquiry of Mamaki to Vajrapani.

Vajra Family is in the Hum syllable and the Heart and the Dharmakaya.

It is correct they have hardly any rites or manifestations that are not wrathful. Some Jambhalas and Manjushris, for instance Namasangiti Manjushri. I do not believe they have a nicer, more presentable outer deity than Prajnaparamita. Namasangiti is kind of a nice form, although he will shove Vajrabhairava in your face rather quickly.

Vajrasattva and Vajradhara are synthetic or hypostatic families derived out of Vajra.

We generally equate Akshobya with Mirror Wisdom, i. e. with the calmness requisite but also a feeling of "on the other side". It is not the Mirror Item because it is one's entire body/being which does it.

Are they related, certainly, that is why it is often a Red Vairocana goddess on an Akshobya male, if such a goddess held the item and developed the power.

So that Mirror Item is what I used to collide Sarasvati with Prajnaparamita into their shared Picu mantra and the Dhih syllable which is shared with Manjushri. That is what I am intending as Bindu-Nada of the Inverted Stupa.

Consorts shift and so it becomes arguable who has the Mirror Wisdom, as if goes into modes or something

Here is a portion of the Book of the Dead (https://atlanta.shambhala.org/passage-from-the-tibetan-book-of-the-dead/) where they over-wrote Akshobya with Vajrasattva:

When through intense aggression you wander in samsara,

on the luminous light-path of the mirror-like wisdom,

may Blessed Vajrasattva go before you,

his consort Buddha-Locana behind you;

Here (https://mandala-of-love.com/2020/05/21/the-rupa-skandha-part-2-the-mirror-like-wisdom/) is a more complete version, which specifies the name Vajrasattva Akshobya for the same verse and with a decently clear graphic of Pancha Jina and Pancha Skandha to perhaps help memorize the ideas, but they messed up mandala directions because south is not down.

Here is an old Vajra and Bell (https://www.aryaloka.org/vajrabell/vajra-bell-2008-04.pdf) with Akshobya and Locana articles; and, here again, some of the symbolism is debatable or changes, however Akshobya is usually blue and in the east, and so they say to think of him as dark blue at dawn. It also emphasizes that the Bhumisparsha is mainly getting Vasudhara to witness the defeat of the Maras.

Because they are blue they are usually associated with water.

In most of the mandalas we use, the actual eastern quadrant is white and is earth. And from that perspective, then what it means is that Vairocana is pushed into earth and Locana which has the intended meaning of Nirmana Chakra, or, that is our first chakra, it is not even the first Pancha Jina, it is a change to it.

As you make this Nirmana Chakra, then, simultaneously, you have focused on a Family that has a lot of dreadful appearances.

Locana and Mamaki do most of the moving. I am not sure that is says anywhere for example that Pandara is given to Ratnasambhava as a consort, or Samaya Tara. If we go back to Achi's Fourth Activity then the significance of this name is plain.

Achi is pretty close to having harnessed Ekaggata as Kilaya in order to progress to Samadhi as represented by her Samaya Tara.

So when those articles say "Locana is Water" it has to be taken lightly.

In the mandala pattern, Earth stays where it is. So when Mamaki is given to Jewel Family, she does not bury it in earth element.

Those are sly. The simpler version from GST is that after Touch Object occupies the central space, then, Mind Object asks to be the consort. That tells us something like achieving a visualization along with the pranic reversal.

The Prajnas themselves are perhaps something only Vajrapani can explain since he does something with Mamaki.

Pandara is used a bit in, I think it was a Malini rite, similar or precursor to Vajravilasini, which I suppose is a Jewel Family centered rite, although I am not sure it is in the canon. It is considered transitional as a type of Karmamudra. It is a bit closer to Guhyajnana and Padmanarttesvara, or, one could say Pandara operates at a Karmamudra level as Guhyajnana.

Even if Yeshe Tsogyal refers to Purified Fire in her body, that is not the same as the Prajna on her own plane, which remains inconceivable at that time.

Part of the idea when you gain it physically is to propel further and further towards the higher plane, which is what she did.

It is perhaps unusual that instead of a name like Candali, that they say Pandara, synonymous with Vajrosnisa, for which the correspondingly-named male takes over the wrathful Lotus deity, and so that name doubly does not mean Vajra Family.

Dukkar Vajrosnisa has to do with heat, and yet her name Vajradakini has to do with the Fiery Crown Center, and so would be a further maturing.

Pratyangira is her Blue form which has no consort that I know of.

shaberon

15th January 2021, 19:33

The female is actually physically connected between womb and heart to the extent that the vagus nerve endings impinge on the uterus and on the heart. I know it may seem strange to go back and forth between anatomy and physiology and the spiritual, but a lot of clues can be found from these things. Also, the most likely mechanism for bringing an involuntary muscle under control, as happens with yoga, is to project new nerve endings into it, and that would have the correct feel in terms of the new body it created.

Vagus sounds like hunger. First sign of a new life! Craving the destruction of other forms.

I have no doubt that the physical nervous system is still quite important and highly conditioning. I just tend to shy away from biological disciplines, since there is an underlying current of "consciousness is random electro-chemical soup".

But yes, new endings, new connections, and I suppose altered functions of the nerves themselves, sound like likely outcomes from dedicated Yoga.

Achi says she became an Activity Consort [Karma Mudra] of Padmasambhava.

This is interesting. Then does she know Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal?

Does she know Padmasambhava?

I could imagine a conversation like:

A: I had sex with Padmasambhava.

Skeptic: In your dreams.

A: Yes, exactly.

Skeptic: You are an idiot.

A: Yes, the kind that has complete control of mind over matter, death is no obstacle.

Jigten Sumgon the founder of Drikung was a disciple of Pamo Dru and would have been active not long after 1150.

Achi was his grandmother and so I was a little surprised that the thesis said she may have lived around 800. Elsewhere she seems placed around the cusp of the 11th-12th centuries.

No one could literally say she "knows" Padmasambhava et al. But so far I have not noticed anyone saying she is a Mandarava or Yeshe reincarnation.

Even the Drikung Wiki page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drikung_Kagyu) points out they have a significant focus on Phowa at the time of death.

Without further notice, we know this is part of Jnanadakini, who is Achi (among others).

I am not sure if it is possible to say she knows the older teachers in any way other than Akanistha. Almost all of the lore is sadhanas by her or to her. Jigten Sumgon also had a famous vision of Seven Faces of Tara (http://www.gartrust.org/uploads/4/4/7/5/44758921/tara_booklet_customizable_16.01.pdf).

Technically, it is a thesis.

Haha, well, it probably says so. I probably skipped that part.

Are the three chakras in the circle of the body direct correspondents to the other chakras? Sometimes it seems like it and sometimes it doesn't, so I'm confused.

Nirmana Chakra is a chakra of the navel having eventually sixty-four spokes, which we are describing in a more basic way as something like Earth and Gold which gets swept by Fire.

Kaya Vajra is like a sutra or mantric way of transforming the body.

Kaya Chakra as a body mandala is a whole pattern.

The Three Places are not even called chakras, they are usually called "centers", but all of the emphasis is on the syllables and colors.

The Inverted Stupa is not exactly chakras, either, but more like a timer of the process of using them.

The real resource I think is the Four Dakinis because they are both linked to the four classes in the lower, outer sense, but actually remain as an inner core or Sahaja layer in the most subtle and profound levels.

It is technical and slippery and depends on which system, kaya, or chakra one asks corresponding to what else.

Jnanadakini seems pre-eminent to me since she is the main Phowa instructress and appears to work with Parasol as Vajradakini and so forth as her Nyasa or Body Placements.

Old Student

16th January 2021, 05:30

I can get that...conceptually...kind of. Functionally, I cannot. With respect to the root I can say that age makes no difference towards the sensation that if I think about some kind of being in pain, I often get a shock in the root that then does something like a bear trap.

All the visualizations of creation (conjugation) are as in yab-yum the being and his consort or the being and her consort. So the versions of root and tip follow this. But they don't follow the muscular skill needed to redirect the downward flow of orgasm, and they don't follow the superposition of two bodies of opposite gender upon each other. I had the two parts of the secret chakra distinguish themselves while shaking recently (why I went to all that research work), and because they were not matched as in conjoining, they felt very different, because they were not matched root and tip as they would be for yab-yum (visualizing oneself to be both deity and consort) they were matched as they are for concurrence not conjunction.

There is really no reaction at all, not mentally, Buddha does not think as we know it. If we ask a question so profound it takes the whole Avatamsaka Sutra to answer it, he does not process anything, the answer is omnipresent and it just arises through him almost like a recording. As if were just an echo from the true part of our mind to the unsure part.

This kind of imperturbability is fully in keeping with shaking. To use your analogy of the Shaolin monks, this is like the stillness inside the motion of a strike. The spatiotemporal mandala at my heart, which I seldom see because I have not been doing a lot of forms recently, is this way. Within each motion is a stillness and within each stillness is a motion, so the motions inside the motions go on forever dividing time into smaller and smaller pieces (or going faster and faster if you want to use that point of view).

The source or abode of Achi is also:

Uddiyana the Western Charnel Ground

And another place which has a sort of dual existence between the physical plane and inner experience that she hails from:

Tidro in Zho

which I would have just overlooked, but I didn't, because it turns up to be the same thing in the legend of Yeshe Tsogyal:

So maybe the answer to the question, "Did she know Yeshe Tsogyal?" is "Yes".

So she has used Pandara literally as the presence of tummo, i. e. if we revert to our Sanskrit terms then she was doing Pranayama without result until something happened.

It has stopped short of calling Pandara "the kundalini goddess" or saying she is a lower center, she was nothing until the springing up of warmth. It does not say that Parasol was not there or that Yeshe Tsogyal did not have a crown center, it gives the higher or enlightenment-giving Prajna aspect of Parasol some actual substance, Purified Fire.

This is interesting. Pandaravasini as the Tummo fire. Especially since Mandarava is supposed to be and incarnate of Pandaravasini, and Yeshe Tsogyal and Mandarava have a working relationship.

Locana and Mamaki do most of the moving. I am not sure that is says anywhere for example that Pandara is given to Ratnasambhava as a consort, or Samaya Tara. If we go back to Achi's Fourth Activity then the significance of this name is plain.

I had a weird thing happen last night, I had multiple Dakini identifications at the same time. Since they 'inhabit' me when they identify, this meant feeling that I had fractured with legs and arms coming out at all angles. But one of the multiple identifications involved Locana, and I was told that she isn't as difficult since "she is mostly eyes."

Dukkar Vajrosnisa has to do with heat, and yet her name Vajradakini has to do with the Fiery Crown Center, and so would be a further maturing.

Pratyangira is her Blue form which has no consort that I know of.

Does 'Dukkar' here mean "of suffering"?

Old Student

16th January 2021, 05:57

Vagus sounds like hunger. First sign of a new life! Craving the destruction of other forms.

It actually means 'wandering' here, as in vagrant. Same meaning as 'planet' by the way.

I have no doubt that the physical nervous system is still quite important and highly conditioning. I just tend to shy away from biological disciplines, since there is an underlying current of "consciousness is random electro-chemical soup".

But yes, new endings, new connections, and I suppose altered functions of the nerves themselves, sound like likely outcomes from dedicated Yoga.

On both points, first the second: "consciousness is random electro-chemical soup".

I haven't actually heard the random part for a few years, it comes from those who are wishing for some innate "creativity circuit" in the brain and think that anything truly new would have to be produced by something that wasn't already there. Perhaps I haven't been traveling in those circles in a while, they are mostly centered elsewhere to where I live and I haven't been on the conference circuit in a while. I don't think that was ever a successful theory, it never sounded right to people, nor does "all creativity comes from sulcus 5a on the right side of the brain". My take is people project onto the brain what they think of their own consciousness, and if someone wants to be the product of a random soup, they can have fun with that, but the rest of us will be elsewhere.

Now to the first part: The Buddhists from quite early on were adept at and advertised themselves as good at medicine. In no small part this came from doing stints at the charnel grounds, where bodies were cut up and examined, or left out for the crows and vultures. When I say quite early, I mean that there was advertisement about Buddhist medicinal prowess carved on the pillars of Ashoka.

So almost always, if they say there is a channel here, a body there, a connection here or there, dissection of an actual body will find a physical one, regardless of whether its physical purpose matches its spiritual one. And just as almost always, if you need to create a connection between parts of the body because of the scriptures or because in my case of the Dakini instruction, there is actually a physical way to do that, almost always in the nervous or cardiovascular systems which are capable of being very plastic.

So that's why when there is something I don't understand about something in one of these texts about the body, I sometimes read the underlying anatomy and physiology.

Achi was his grandmother and so I was a little surprised that the thesis said she may have lived around 800. Elsewhere she seems placed around the cusp of the 11th-12th centuries.

No one could literally say she "knows" Padmasambhava et al. But so far I have not noticed anyone saying she is a Mandarava or Yeshe reincarnation.

So she perhaps knows him like you say in a dream, or maybe she knows him the way I know Mandarava -- in a meditation or shaking. I am wondering about the experience if she knows him in either of these two ways of being a karmamudra to him.

Kaya Vajra is like a sutra or mantric way of transforming the body.

Kaya Chakra as a body mandala is a whole pattern.

The Three Places are not even called chakras, they are usually called "centers", but all of the emphasis is on the syllables and colors.

Thanks. I will have to look into this, I hadn't heard of it before.

Jnanadakini seems pre-eminent to me since she is the main Phowa instructress and appears to work with Parasol as Vajradakini and so forth as her Nyasa or Body Placements.

The main Dakini deities for the Chikkai Bardo Phowa are the White One and Vajrayogini. The White One is somehow* instrumental in bringing together the two bindu, when the seed exits the crown it is into the vagina of Vajrayogini, to be reborn in the Land of the Dakinis.

(*somehow isn't clear, because after the takeover of Tibet, the guy who knew this stuff decided never to teach her again.)

shaberon

16th January 2021, 08:05

From the thesis, I was able to gander a few more things.

Achi means "grandmother" (cf. Ma chig "One Mother").

Her grandson or great-grandson, Jigten Sumgon, calls her an incarnation of Vajradakini, and Achi Chokyi Dron, or Achi Dharma Lamp.

It is the same "dron" as in the reincarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal, Machig Labdron:

Machig Labdrön (Tibetan: མ་གཅིག་ལབ་སྒྲོན་, Wylie: Ma-gcig Lab-sgron, English translation: Unique Mother Torch of Lab) (1055 - 1149).

"Butter lamp (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butter_lamp) is dkar me which still carries the connotation of tummo,

The more common spelling gron (https://english-tibetan-dictionary.tumblr.com/post/59667871014/torch) covers all synonyms such as lamp or torch and with mental and tantric meanings.

Dharma Lamp contracts to Chodron.

Achi is described as being in Vajra Family.

Due to practice, she is Kama Dhatvishvari Remati who Dispels the Smoke.

She said her practice center was a furrow near the White Rock of Tidro.

Her father was trained in the Vajrakilaya of Glorious Lady Kharchen (Vajrayogini) and possessed the magic of the Action of Remati. He went to Swayambhunath to request a son.

It caused similar dreams to both parents, making light to flow from Akshobya's Pure Land called Abhirati. Then Vajravarahi was roused from Akanistha by the Great Mother. She caused a golden five-pronged vajra marked with a Hri to enter Achi's mother.

They thought she was evil when born, and threw her into water, but she was teaching Dharma to the neighbors by age four. It seems difficult to imagine that her parents named her "grandmother"; she earned the name Chokyi Drolma by her oath and teachings in infancy. I am not sure she has any recorded normal human birth name. It is actually said that none (https://garchencanada.com/pdf/practice-texts/A%20Brief%20Instruction%20on%20Tara.pdf) of these are birth names.

She magically produced her own wedding banquet when she was about eighteen, and said all her male descendants would cause Abhirati to arise.

She made a lotus from the dharmodaya of Varahi's mandala, which still exists, saying Four Dakinis mantra in the manner Vam Hi Ri Ni Sa. There is no other attestation of "Hi" instead of "Ha"; rooted in the syllable Vam relates it to Jnanadakini (http://www.buddhavisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Vajrayogini-Yeshe-Tsogyal%E2%80%99s-Condensed-Essence-Sadhana-by-Jnana.pdf) Vajravarahi Yeshe Tsogyal.

Jigten Sumgon calls the "essence of the goddess" hri ma.

Achi "is not" a Dharmapala, but can function as one, as well as Inmost Secret Guru, Yidam, and Dakini consort. Tseringma was subjugated by Milarepa, so, she definitely is not derived from Achi, but Achi can evidently use her. Tseringma (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11591697.pdf) is moreover part of Remati. Karma Kagyu (https://www.translating-karmapas.org/all-works/) adds the name Swayambhu Rajni Rangjung Gyalmo sort of over-arching her. Ramati is a better spelling which is basically Kama, made out of Ram, being the fire syllable, and Ati higher/highest such as in Ati Yoga. On this one they are keeping a Sanskrit name. So it is a coy way of saying Kama Dhatvishvari.

Smoke has a few interpretations from smoke offering, to prana, to bluish tendrils (https://emodernbuddhism.com/Modern_Buddhism_pdfs/Modern%20Buddhism_text_2013-06_web.pdf) as a Sign of Dissolution. I am not yet sure how Remati "dispels" it, but she is through and through the whole thing.

When Tibetans say "Queen of Space", they seem to mean Ekajati or Nairatma, rather than just space itself as Akashadhatvishvari and fivefold form.

The general Tri-kaya description is that Vajrayogini is Dharmakaya, Vajravarahi is Sambhogakaya, and various humans and dakinis are Nirmanakaya.

Achi seems to be only drawn in Sambhogakaya aspect. She apparently has ferocious forms, but there does not really seem to be much call for them.

Now, you might not even name a baby you were attempting to drown. That part is unclear. It is more evident that from the time she could walk, she was Dharma Tara.

She understands enough Sanskrit to be invoked that way.

We have raked the books enough to say Parasol is a type of Pandara, how can she be in Vajra Family?

We found that Vajradakini is probably not usually in Vajra Family either.

It is not unusual, since the vajra could be an item or a subject similar to Vajrayana, such as Vajra Tara or Vajravarahi are not really in Vajra Family.

None of them are really in it in terms of base emanations, but we are supposed to find further meaning in something that is removed from familiarity and emanated by a different Dhyani.

This is like slicing up the Vishuddhimagga visualizations so you get Earth of Air and so on.

And so what we see here in the long run is "the rise of Abhirati". It is like Achi is just doing her best to make it so.

It is the Irreversible Stages of the Bodhisattva Path, I am sure of that.

Now if we were just talking about Akshobya, it would be different, but this has blown by the Sukhavati that would ordinarily be expected, and opened perhaps the most difficult one. It produced white rays in the east, much like dawn, which we would say is White Om and Buddha Family, not Akshobya.

Akshobya is still blue, this is Abhirati itself.

It certainly uses a blue realm as part of its practice.

Parasol can easily be found in Vajra Family as six arm blue Mahapratyangira, who is really Sword Devi. She also has ankus, two Jewel Family attributes--Varada Mudra and a Noose, a Red Lotus, and a Trident. She is a young, beautiful form. Her origin is Hum. In Nepal, this form is in conjunction with her 1,000 arm Vajrosnisa form. Achi's parents got a dream from the Swayambhunath which produced her. Remati is virtually called the queen of it.

There would also be Amaravajra Parasol in Vajra Family.

Achi's relation to kila and ekagatta is in the statement before her Muttering:

The experience of primordial awareness is ignited. I am nailed with the nail of undistracted concentration. As it circulates like a fire-brand...

and after it, asserting the instructions are to achieve one-pointedness.

She rains elixir through the Yidams Qualities and Activities, Chemchog and one other, i. e. Jewel and Karma Families.

She goes on to make Rainbow Body with you.

She is the vajra-consort of all Victors.

When I started putting it together...I must admit that finding Parasol expressed as Vajradakini of the Fiery Crown of Jnanadakini seemed rather strange, but, it looks as if Nanamza Achi puts together this same Parasol as found in Indian sources.

Unlike only the texts themselves, she is a living example that makes more living examples. Not physically living, but somewhere in the Akanistha similar to blue Samantabhadri and Mahapratyangira. She really is emphasizing Dharmakaya, and seems like she is tossing out Sambhogakaya as a form of play or perhaps Lion's Sport, very exuberant. Unlike other yoginis, she extends herself in all roles sought by meditators.

Unlike them, it is a bit difficult to give her a mantric identity. Dharma Tara seems quite common as her name, but she also uses a lot of "mama", and, fortunately, there is a description for her:

Explanation of the mantra meaning (by Venerable Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche)

OM MAMA means "to me". CHAKRA is a Sanskrit word, it means a wheel that symbolizes all kinds of activities and excellent qualities. SOHA (SWAHA) means "may I get it." OM MAMA CHAKRA SVAHA is a very short version of the Achi mantra.

YAR DU is a peaceful activity. SARWA DU is increasing activity. RADZA RADZA DU is magnetizing activity. MAMA DU is wrathful activity. By those activities, Achi can destroy external and internal maras - all mental delusions and defilements with her great compassion and wisdom.

Chakra, there, I would almost take as Diptachakra or Chakravega; there are limited uses of "chakra" in any names, and it is in either one of those, referring to the same thing. Her basic mantra just means the Four Activities; again only a slight twist to Four Dakinis mantra, like a Kriya--Chara version of it.

They have even opened a center named for her in Stauffenberg DE.

Dharma Tara confers Mahamudra (https://ratnashri.se/Achi%20Pure%20Vision.pdf) in another mantra.

Nicer picture:

https://gardrolma.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Achi_Chokyi_Drolma_Life_Storeis_-_Google_Docs-2.jpg

shaberon

16th January 2021, 11:03

So she perhaps knows him like you say in a dream, or maybe she knows him the way I know Mandarava -- in a meditation or shaking. I am wondering about the experience if she knows him in either of these two ways of being a karmamudra to him.

In Akanistha or Rainbow Body.

This "level" says she could have used a real person, or a Daka consort, and she appears to have use a Daka for Karmamudra, at least in that example. But, further along, Achi is a consort to anyone and everyone. The only way it makes sense is if you do think they can make such a mental body as is invulnerable to death.

Kaya Vajra is like a sutra or mantric way of transforming the body.

Kaya Chakra as a body mandala is a whole pattern.

The Three Places are not even called chakras, they are usually called "centers", but all of the emphasis is on the syllables and colors.

Thanks. I will have to look into this, I hadn't heard of it before.

It is from the same stuff. The Three Vajras:

Kaya Vajra

Vach Vajra

Citta Vajra

or, Three Chakras:

Kaya Chakra

Vach Chakra

Citta Chakra

which means they are physical centers hooked to the Pitha system. where for instance the first part of Kaya Chakra is Pretadhivasini, governed by Diptachakra or Chakravega. "Head" is often the same as "Body" here:

...at the crown of the head is the lady of Vajra Body, at the throat is the lady of Vajra Speech, and at the heart is the lady of Vajra Mind.

Kayacakra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kayacakra) has two possible meanings--as above, or, the whole Kama Loka as given by Heruka. "This" Heruka is not working until "that" explanatory tantra has had its effect, which is why the Heruks is cosmic or formless or through the mirror.

And the sacred girls (Ḍākinīs) residing on each of tricakra are called respectively:—1) ‘a woman going in the sky’ (khecarī--Mind), 2) ‘a woman going on the ground’ (bhūcarī--Word), 3) ‘a woman living underground’ (pātālavāsinī--Body).

The main Dakini deities for the Chikkai Bardo Phowa are the White One and Vajrayogini. The White One is somehow* instrumental in bringing together the two bindu, when the seed exits the crown it is into the vagina of Vajrayogini, to be reborn in the Land of the Dakinis.

(*somehow isn't clear, because after the takeover of Tibet, the guy who knew this stuff decided never to teach her again.)

Let Achi step in, her tradition is from Bhutan.

Vajrayogini as Dharmakaya makes sense here.

The instrument as far as I know is the Indestructible Blue Drop of the Heart, non-dual union of the red and white halves.

With Tson kha pa, the transit is to the Heart of Guru and Yidam.

I am not quite sure he knew all of Vajrayogini, which was mostly resident in Nepal and transmitted through Sakya and Kagyu. Nevertheless, Wayman says we should consult that C. A. Muses text on Transference. Now that is slick because the contents say Six Dharmas of Naro and then it gives the seventh of Transference in Chapter Nine (https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/ettt/ettt18.htm#page_250). The key components seem to be Vase Breathing and Asta Vijnana, i. e. the cemeteries closing all the other escape routes for energy.

"Any" deity can do it, however a lot of the best tantric instructions originally seem to have been with Jnanadakini. When she is there we get Corpse. That is why I tend to think Corpse is the thing that enters the niche emptied by Prajnaparamita. It is not necessarily the only thing to happen, but, she is like the male-based Ten Wrathful Ones.

Jnanadakini is Hrih and Vetali. Samputa and Jnana Dakini both appear to define Jewel Family Vajradakini as the crown or only acceptable gate for prana and consciousness; Vajradakini changes Family at the time of Union; so far, she is found in Jewel and Tathagata.

In Armor Deities, Jewel or Ratna Family protects the crown.

They will tell us that Humkara originally refers to Sound:

When one finds Ratna in Dakini Jala, Ratna's chapel begins with Airavati, ‘descendant of goddess Iravati-Viraj’, and ends with Vajrahumkara with Surabhaski, Sura or Wine Enjoyer. Almost as pure play, one name of Cow of Plenty is Surabhi; and this is Vak Viraj of whom HPB spoke much, and she specifically enters the Household, Ahavaniya, and Dakshina fires. Her additional names in Hinduism are rather indistinct; but Surabhi has to do with being fragrant, including spiritous liquor. Vrindaban is full of them (Surabhis or Kamadhenu); the Cow is either the source, or first product of, Ocean of Milk; is born from the Humkara or sound of Brahma, or from Kama; is the proper name for Kamadhenu; Surabhi lives in the seventh world beneath the earth i.e. Rasātala. And so if one might surmise her "descendant" could be Varuni, as in Samjna daughter of Samjna and so forth, the end of the circle gives us Wine Enjoyer, or Varuni, with Humkara, she lives at the core of the earth as the embodied radiance of Sesha--Ananta.

or:

When the devas sing Aparajita's praise, Parvati appears, wondering who they are singing to, and, from her body (kosha) emerges a beautiful devi (Kaushiki -- Ambika). Ambika incinerates the first demon by a mere heave of her breath (humkara).

So for instance, there is a Tibetan Hum Svara Nadini Tara, and you do Om Ah Hum until evoking her from that Hum.

In Chakrasamvara, the wrathful names are aimed at specific levels of Kama Loka:

In the Paranirmitavasavartin [heaven] he disciplined crimi¬
nals as the Fierce One Trailokyavijaya; the obstacle demons
(vinayak) were disciplined in the Nirmanarati [heaven]
by the Fierce One Vajrajvalanalarka, in Tusita by Vajra-
garbha, in the Yama [heaven] by the Fierce One Vajra-
humkara, and on the peak of Sumeru by Vajrapani.

It turns out on the mandala in a prior post above with "reversed blues", the consort is Mamaki. That one is Chanda Maharoshana Vajrapani, which is Acala emitting more Acalas; Chanda Maha Roshana is the most wrathful form of Vajrapani, and considered the most sexualized tantra.

In Varamrita Tantra, there is Vajrapani and Vajramrita with Mamaki and:

dark Vajrahumkara who embraces Mamaki in an unusual way, from behind, lifting her breasts with his lower arms. He has Concentration Hero Hum, is crowned by a Vajramrita text, and her syllable is Ghi.

Mamaki is just about like a "vajra consort for everyone", especially since here she has fallen out of her rank to conjoin with Bodhisattvas.

In Vajravali, between Varahi's three family forms and the Six Chakravartins is Vajrasattva-crowned Humkara from Abhidhana, wearing Eight Nagas, who, mantricly, is Kha Vajra, and Vajra Kundalin.

Three Varahis followed by Humkara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/1/101370.jpg

Paramasva is considered a form of Vajradhatu mandala in Namasangiti. In Dakini Jala, he gains the unusual companions Citra Padma and Citra Vajra. Citra generally means painting, or variegated color, but is also the top of the central channel at the brahmarandra or crown aperture, the pericarp, and is only another deity with Buddha Kapala, his consort Citrasena.

Here comes a strange Jewel Family Pancha Jina:

Iconography of Nepalese Buddhism also decides that sources of images or practices on Prajnas are few and rare. They are in Guhyasamaja, and discussed only a little bit in Panchakara of Advayavajra, meaning the same as Maitri's Samgraha, or part of Maitri's collection of scriptures and explanations. The special characteristic of Locana is Suvisuddha Dharmadhatu Jnana, or Dharmadhatu Wisdom. That of Mamaki is Three Flasks (Anti wine, Khayakori yogurt, Thapin beer). Pandara is passion, lust, or pleasure. Tara is Activity of All Tathagatas. Vajradhatvishvari is the center, yellow, space element, Ratnasambhava consort. Because of her role as the embodiment of Tathata or Prajnaparamita she is also called Nairatma, Vajravarahi and Jnanadakini. In Sadhanamala she is identified with six headed and twelve armed Marici whose lord is Vairocana.

The closeness of this family to the main explanatory tantras is:

Vajrasurya, or Secret Sun, is a title of Ratnasambhava (with Mamaki) as used in Anandagarbha's time, when a yogi called Gambhiravajra propitiated Vajrasurya by means of Sarvabuddha Samayoga Dakini Jala tantra in Sitavana cemetery. He obtained the vision of Vajramrita Maha Mandala and the sadharana siddhi.

He was then sent to Dhumasthira (Steady Smoke) to find a blue (utpala) woman with an emerald-colored tikka. She conferred to him the initiation of Catuh Vajra Amrita Mandala. She taught him the rest of the tantras, he meditated on Heruka, until attaining Mahamudra siddhi.

That is the description by Taranatha (https://books.google.com/books?id=VRrsDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA287&ots=4-QwI9Ga5J&dq=gambhiravajra&pg=PA287#v=onepage&q=gambhiravajra&f=false) who correspondingly includes Gambhiravajra in his list of tantric authors (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Buddhist_Tantra) starting with Saraha around 633. Jamgon Kongtrul (https://books.google.com/books?id=xy8tDQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT235&ots=m15Nx7D5Lr&dq=gambhiravajra&pg=PT235#v=onepage&q=gambhiravajra&f=false) refers to him similarly.

There is an extremely esoteric song by Tsonkhapa which talks about sound offered to Akshobya when the Nirmana chakra is ready to burn. Pratyangira is the caster of Hero's March or Surangama samadhi. Tson Khapa uses Hero's March and Spring Drop or Vasanta Tilaka to emphasize the teaching that one who aspires the Ultimate does not neglect the beginning or Generation Stage.

The little we can say about the Vajramrita Tantra itself is that Māmakī asks for insights on the means to achieve (sādhana) the supreme Nectar of the Vajra (vajrāmṛta), and Mahasukha Vajramrita explains.

It has a Homa, Vajrahumkara Sadhana, Heruka Utpatti; the ninth chapter is Amritakundalin Utpatti. Amrita is in chapter nine; Surupa; also, Varuna; it has the long mark over both letters a; seems to be feminine way of ending anything with a.
,
Tenth chapter (vetālasādhana-nirdeśa),
Eleventh chapter (pañcāmṛtasādhanopāya-nirdeśa)

Kha is sky and head even in some of the Phowa, and yet it is also Karma Family.

Saraha provided Buddha Kapala and a Pitha Ishvari Tara sadhana. It is good because it is relatively standard and because of Usnisa Vijaya and Bhrum at the Zenith, that is, overhead, in mandalas.

Pitheshvari's crown syllable is Bhrum, throat Hrih, and her heart is still Hum. Her navel is Ah and secret place is Kham. This is just Five Families where Yellow Jewel has the navel. But she has added Amoghasiddhi at the base, so she is not a preliminary of Four Chakras, it is an advanced practice similar to Vajrakila and Chakrasamvara and so forth. However she is a direct progression, since it is about building and raising an esoteric Bhrum syllable, has gotten a useful Hrih from Guhyajnana or Hayagriva or wherever, and is fine with a nice yellow Ah in her fat belly.

Well, that is like the original Throat syllable settled down there. That is a bit like fire starting to sweep the Nirmana Chakra especially after the main Lotus deity syllable has taken over the Throat. At the same time, Usnisa matches Usnisa Vijaya. Then Vajrasattva in One Syllable Ah at the Navel is possible.

I am not sure she ever does anything, is more like a Yoga deity, but very extravagant for a Tara.

Dukkar is a way of writing dug kar or gdugs dkar which is for colors, not the Sanskrit dukkha for suffering.

I know nothing of Abhirati other than the word sounds like Sex Initiation, which would be more than redundant, since that is more like the first Bhumi.

Dialectical Variation. — There are dial. variations in the use and meanings of abhi. Vedic abhi besides corresponding to abhi in P. is represented also by ati°, adhi° and anu°, since all are similar in meaning, and psychologically easily fused and confused (cp. meanings: abhi = on to, towards; ati = up to and beyond; adhi = up to, towards, over; anu = along towards).

The name of the goddess Rati comes from the Sanskrit root ram, meaning "enjoy" or "delight in." Although the verb root generally refers to any sort of enjoyment, it usually carries connotations of physical and sensual enjoyment. Etymologically, the word rati refers to anything that can be enjoyed; but, it is almost always used to refer to sexual love.

However, as just a love root emotion, when it is for a sexual lover, it is called Srngara, while that for others such as relatives and deities is Bhava.

In Shiva Purana, she is Sweat-born from Daksha. In Kalika Purana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/compilation/puranic-encyclopaedia/d/doc241878.html), she is Sweat-born from Daksha in a story of Five Arrows. Brahma was too excited about his own daughter Sandhya and has just sweated the Agnishvattas and Barhisads.

Rati is the wife of Kama who gets incinerated.

Kama re-incarnates as Pradyumna, the eldest son of Krishna, which is a meaningful principle in Lakshmi Tantra:

Pradyumna—with this Vyūha the duality of Spirit (Puruṣa) and Matter (Prakṛti) makes its appearance, by means of the aiśvarya (absolute independence) guṇa.

"...within ten days of his birth Śambara stole him and threw the babe into the sea; was swallowed by a fish; fishermen who caught the fish presented it to Śambara who asked the cooks to cook it; when cut open there was the child inside and Nārada asked Māyāvatī in charge of the kitchen to take care of the child after telling her the truth about it; that it was the re-incarnation of her husband Kāma; she brought up the child more as a lover; asked by Pradyumna why she was not behaving as a mother but as a wife she explained that she was Ratī and himself Kāma, and also as to how he came there by Śambara's act; taught Māyāvatī the vidyā of mahāmāyā he invited Śambara to battle and cut off his head; then Māyāvatī took him by air to Dvārakā the residence of Rukmiṇī and Kṛṣṇa; in Kṛṣṇa's palace, women found the likeness of Kṛṣṇa in him and Rukminī thought of her lost son; to their wonder and joy Nārada related the life story of Pradyumna; the couple were embraced by all of them and the whole Dvārakā was filled with satisfaction."

Old Student

17th January 2021, 05:37

Now, you might not even name a baby you were attempting to drown. That part is unclear. It is more evident that from the time she could walk, she was Dharma Tara.

I knew someone who's parents tried to kill her because they had wanted a boy, they left her out in the hills, and her grandparents found her and brought her up. It had a major influence on her, as you might guess.

Now if we were just talking about Akshobya, it would be different, but this has blown by the Sukhavati that would ordinarily be expected, and opened perhaps the most difficult one. It produced white rays in the east, much like dawn, which we would say is White Om and Buddha Family, not Akshobya.

Akshobya is still blue, this is Abhirati itself.

It certainly uses a blue realm as part of its practice.

Isn't Sukhavati the pure land of Amitabha? Different place. The Phowa in the Chikkai Bardo, because the seed goes to Vajrayogini, produces rebirth in the land of the Dakinis, Garsha Khandroling.

She goes on to make Rainbow Body with you.

I don't think I am understanding your use of the term Rainbow Body. Isn't it the body that people achieve on death if they qualify?

Old Student

17th January 2021, 05:50

Kayacakra has two possible meanings--as above, or, the whole Kama Loka as given by Heruka. "This" Heruka is not working until "that" explanatory tantra has had its effect, which is why the Heruks is cosmic or formless or through the mirror.

Wouldn't it have both these meanings instead of one or the other?

Quote The main Dakini deities for the Chikkai Bardo Phowa are the White One and Vajrayogini. The White One is somehow* instrumental in bringing together the two bindu, when the seed exits the crown it is into the vagina of Vajrayogini, to be reborn in the Land of the Dakinis.

(*somehow isn't clear, because after the takeover of Tibet, the guy who knew this stuff decided never to teach her again.)

Let Achi step in, her tradition is from Bhutan.

I don't really have a choice. When the Phowa sequence happens during my shaking, my head become the transmission talked about in the phowa, the Dakini's vagina ensheathing the crown of my head as it emits the seed through the crown. It's not something that has happened in the last couple of months but it does happen frequently and it is very explicit, but I don't think I get to choose who's who in the whole thing.

When the devas sing Aparajita's praise, Parvati appears, wondering who they are singing to, and, from her body (kosha) emerges a beautiful devi (Kaushiki -- Ambika). Ambika incinerates the first demon by a mere heave of her breath (humkara).
Interesting idea of beauty, that it incorporates fiery breath.

I know nothing of Abhirati other than the word sounds like Sex Initiation, which would be more than redundant, since that is more like the first Bhumi.

Dialectical Variation. — There are dial. variations in the use and meanings of abhi. Vedic abhi besides corresponding to abhi in P. is represented also by ati°, adhi° and anu°, since all are similar in meaning, and psychologically easily fused and confused (cp. meanings: abhi = on to, towards; ati = up to and beyond; adhi = up to, towards, over; anu = along towards).

The name of the goddess Rati comes from the Sanskrit root ram, meaning "enjoy" or "delight in." Although the verb root generally refers to any sort of enjoyment, it usually carries connotations of physical and sensual enjoyment. Etymologically, the word rati refers to anything that can be enjoyed; but, it is almost always used to refer to sexual love.

So it could conceivably mean 'beyond' Rati, beyond enjoyment?

shaberon

17th January 2021, 09:53

I knew someone who's parents tried to kill her because they had wanted a boy, they left her out in the hills, and her grandparents found her and brought her up. It had a major influence on her, as you might guess.

Yes, I did guess. That is a strange form of infanticide, abandonment. Doesn't everybody know you might wind up with your own little baby Moses that way?

About the only thing that is worse is when someone raises the baby in a closet and it has no chance to develop as other than an animal.

But if we are honest, infanticide is really a pan-cultural event, at least across Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in most cases seems to be like an act of pride or even devotion when the victim is deformed. There is less of such a "justification", I suppose, for the category "healthy but unwanted", probably a different kind of motive and I guess frequently anti-girl.

Buddhist monasteries are supposed to function as orphanages, and in the harsh land of Tibet we have found that some parents simply surrender children they can't feed, for which the one representative thangka is White Mahasri as the protector of those young ones on their travels.

Isn't Sukhavati the pure land of Amitabha? Different place. The Phowa in the Chikkai Bardo, because the seed goes to Vajrayogini, produces rebirth in the land of the Dakinis, Garsha Khandroling.

Yes, Sukhavati is Lotus Family, and considered relatively easy to attain. The easiest one is Tara's Forest of Turquoise Leaves.

All of them are divisions of Akanistha.

I don't think I am understanding your use of the term Rainbow Body. Isn't it the body that people achieve on death if they qualify?

True. I may be a bit jumpy, and, of course, the manuscript scan is a headache. Shortly after the nectar rain via Chemchog, and, I think it is supposed to be Zhitro, the Rainbow Body is on Achi:

imbued with blessings. powers. and lovely to look at is the dakini, who is burning with the experience of great bliss and emits abundant rays of light May you rain down the blessing that ripens the vivid. the secret dakini cave. and the thirty towns.In the land of Malaysia at the navel of this world. May the Mother Dakinis rain down blessings. the twenty-four abodes of Earthly Upapithas. vital rays by perfecting the four undefiled joys into a rainbow tent. from the spacious tent of rainbow. the heroine Achi [along with} a cloud of dakinis: May you rain down the blessing that increases abilities. In Ngayab Ling. you dispel obstacles and accomplish myriad of activities. are Achi and her four sisters. along with a crowd of a thousand re-manifestations.· which is the ripened result. the rainbow body. Within the expanse of the rainbow rays of the unceasing five-fold lights. perfect at the base. of the Atiyoga practice lineage. the virtuous sublime dharma flourish and spread. and may the six types of beings achieve the power of enjoying love and joy within the stale of undefiled clear light. May you rain down the blessing of the supreme and ordinary siddhis [as well asJ longevity and glories here. May you rain down the blessing of the vajra-dharmakaya.' [from] the profound expanse o[ Samantabhadri's bluzga. [?] in this ·secret Cave of Celestial Clear-light Dakinis.

It is a liturgy, but, if it matches the inner meaning, then you make your own nectar rain and her marvelous form appears. And so yes around the Achi sadhanas, there are several episodes of the appearance of Rainbow Light, it should present itself as a component of practice.

I have not challenged it, and there probably is a debate if you can establish Rainbow Body while living, or, if it specifically refers to passing away.

If those of us who do not perceive it are able to perceive the rainbow light itself, we would be encouraged, at the very least. Having a sample is never the same as the complete phenomenon.

It may be considered identical to Purified Illusory Body.

It also may be less over-mystified to see Achi and her ilk as a version of Avalokiteshvara because he is also Hri and does the same kinds of things in at least 108 forms with probably about half of them being well known.

However, if it so commonplace, if we were able to get some basic etymological idea about Hri and modesty--Lajja or blushing, what would the practices tell us? After all, most Tibetans make an erroneous Seven Syllable mantra by adding Avalokiteshvara's syllable into the mix:

Om manipadme Hum Hrih

Well, what the mantra is trying to show you is how the one sound manifests six sounds, and this has a reasonable explanation mentioned by Aro, who is a very modern, 20th century, terton, I think, someone similar to Achi, whose practice is associated with a splendid Owl Dakini.

According to Aro (https://www.aroencyclopaedia.org/shared/text/h/hri_ca_01_01_eng.php):

‘Hri is the unification of the three spheres of being: emptiness – the sphere of unconditioned potentiality; energy – the sphere of visionary appearances; and form – the sphere of realised manifestation. Hri is the divisionless experience of being. Hri is the point-instant in which the seamless nature of reality experiences itself through the eternal moment of our awareness. Hri is the smile of discovery as we meet our natural state of total presence face to face – and recognise it as indistinguishable from the Mind of the Lama.’

An instant point equal to infinite duration--I like that.

What's more is that she knows how to draw it:

https://www.aroencyclopaedia.org/shared/image/h/hri_350_532.jpg

Whereas Buddha Weekly says these are Hri, but they have written Hriih:

https://mk0buddhaweeklyqoftb.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/Buddha-Weekly-Seed-syllable-Hri-in-Sankrit-Tibetan-Devanagara-of-Kurukulla-Hayagriva-and-Amitabha-Buddhism.jpg

Here (http://khenposodargye.org/content/uploads/2018/02/The-Mandala-to-Which-One-Prays.pdf) is an article which started to explain Hrih, but then just went on to describing Lotus Family:

“Bodies of discerning wisdom - union of bliss and emptiness” refers to the basic form of
the magnetizing deities. Regarding “union of bliss and emptiness”, from the perspective of the
perceiver, it is unchanging great bliss; and from the perspective of the perceivable, it is
profound emptiness. The magnetizing deities have completely realized the non-duality of the
perceiver and the perceivable, abiding in the perfect union of bliss and emptiness, and
irreversibly transform lust and desire into the wisdom of discernment [Pratyavekshana Jnana].

One of the standard Bija and Mantra (https://jayarava.blogspot.com/2007/07/seed-syllable-of-great-compassion.html) resources we have been using attempted to study Hrih, and came up with some ideas from Lama Govinda which were not sourced and seemed to be his personal evaluation. In other words, it came up to a rather surprising "almost nothing" by a native speaker.

There is a fairly specific body of doctrine when you use Hrim, but the Lotus syllable Hrih is...not particularly forthcoming, which is odd in the light of it being used erroneously all the time.

And then, since it can launch Four Dakinis mantra, that also follows in a shround of obfuscation.

In looking at "Ha Ri" we might think it was going to spell Hrih, but then we get "Ha Ri Ni" which could be Golden Antelope, but it is still not finished.

Then, if you just looked at the mantra as a whole, you could find it assigned with Buddha Families (https://www.taramandala.org/wp-content/uploads/Ellen-Booth-Church_Mandala-Time-Exploring-Mandala-of-the-Five-Families-with-Young-Children.pdf), but, the problem there is that they have followed the standard casting order, whereas in Chakrasamvara, it is almost always reversed and Rupini in the South is last.

Either way, you would get "Ni" on the western dakini.

It can be found spliced into a White Khecari (https://www.kunzang.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GroupWhiteKhechariaComplete.pdf) sadhana right at the start after Padmasambhava's Seven Line Prayer and personal mantra:

AH HRIH MA HA RI NI SA RA TSA HRI YA TSITTA HRIM HRIM

Ha Ri Ni Sa Raca Hriya

Tsitta is Citta like Tsunda is Cunda, so we get that exact portion of Guhyajnana mantra there as having the word, Raca, meaning "orderly pile".

It comes up again on p. 22 rooted on Vam and applied to Buddha Dakini and Sarva Siddhi.

"Hriya" is a specific term from Guhyajnana. Apparently in place of "Svaha".

In Nyingma, dakinis are considered inseparable from Yeshe Tsogyal.

Here is a revealed treasure of Guhyajnana (http://all-otr.org/vajrayana/33-commentary-on-the-guhyajnana-sadhana-fulfillment-of-all-wishes) where she is called Maha Guru Dakini. Alternate copy (http://chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Commentary_on_the_Guhyajnana_Sadhana_%E2%80%98Fulfillment_of_all_Wishes%E2%80%99).

It uses a version of her Dhuma Ghaye mantra to manifest her.

Her samaya being is a typical two arm red Vajrayogini, although she has a bliss whorl instead of a third eye.

Her Hook Rays go especially to Dhumathala.

The sadhana is not that long, especially when seen in sections:

For the recitation, there are three parts: approach [upasadhana], accomplishment [sadhana], and activity [thinle].

A "part" is considered: "try it this way for six months".

In part two, there is Padmanarttesvara yab-yum, and in three is the title Vajradakini.

It is simultaneously identical to Yeshe Tsogyal and Parasol.

So this is close to a "standard" and since Achi was from a Nyingma background, it must be highly similar.

It may not be obvious, but when thought of as lineages, there is a fair amount of Nyingma practice incorporated into Kagyu. So it would be a mistake to think of Kagyu as "only Sarma". It is just picky, does not accept that all buried or revealed treasures are reliable. Achi's descendant founded a sub-system within Kagyu, keeping her secret for fifteen generations.

From Sukhasiddhi Guru Yoga which calls Dhumathala the land of dakinis and Buddhafield of Vajrayogini:

Supreme amongst wisdom Dakinis who opens up the sky like treasury,
Khandroma Guhyajnana, may I fulfill your sublime wishes.
Queen of the pure realms, master of karmas,
Dechen Gyalmo Great Bliss Queen , may I fulfill your sublime wishes.
Single Mother of us yogins, who bestows the secret bliss,
Khandroma Yeshe Tsogyel, may I fulfill your sublime wishes.

It was hidden in Bhutan.

Since Dhumathala is so recurrent, I am persuaded that Dhuma Ghaye is probably the right spelling in her mantra, which leaves little option for Ghaye to be a form of Ghaya which is Ghee. Butterlamp Smoke? Is that her name??

I thought the other books might have misunderstandings, but, in the Commentary, which seems fairly well-written, it is several times Ghaye, not Gaye or other variants.

The nature of Hell (https://www.wisdomlib.org/buddhism/book/abhidhamma-in-daily-life-ashin/d/doc3200.html) comes from utu, which is tejosadhatu, the Element of Fire, meant as Heat.

Heat is not exactly the same as light or combustion.

It is the same as Lotus Family.

Dhuamathala is in a Tibetan (https://amahonet.blogspot.com/2012/11/blog-post_8769.html) post which manages to use Shrnkala instead of Sphoti. Chokyi Lodro (https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jamyang-khyentse-chokyi-lodro/opening-the-door-of-dharma) mentions it. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (https://buddhismoitalia.forumcommunity.net/?t=15902250) calls it a luminous city in our hearts.

In a song to Ama Tsogyal (https://www.nalandatranslation.org/offerings/translations-and-commentaries/the-wisdom-of-the-feminine/):

In the luminous realm of Dhumathala, the source of all dharmas,
Is the ravishing woman free from habitual craving and grasping.
In a gathering of fair, fair ladies, at the undefiled ganachakra,
I’d take even the lowest seat there to enjoy the equality of the fourth moment.

It sounds to me that Dhumathala is the same as H. H. Rangjung Dorje's Sutra-based explanation Luminous Heart.

Uddiyana and/or Dhumatala is significant because that is where Rudra's heart fell.

Longsal (https://epdf.pub/longsal-teachings-volume-8.html) anchors this all in:

the ancient siddha of Uddiyana, Arya Palo

evidently a male yogin involved with the practices of alternately Jnanadakini or Guhyajnana Dakini, depending on emphasis:

The quintessential eleven-syllable mantra of the Guru Jnanadakini is: OM BAM GUHYA JNANA DHAKKINI AH. HUM . .

It has Vajrayogini Gomadevi with Guhyajnana in her heart. She is a lineage:

disciple of Maharaja the scholar of Uddiyana; teacher of Aloke the Atsantra (a tsan tra a lo ke). Early master in the sems sde lineage.

http://shangshung.org/store/images/GomaDevi%20CD.jpg

It is actively practised (https://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.php?t=17822) by people who say she is Inner Guru Jnanadakini.

The exercise I linked uses Hrih Vam and Karmamudra. Very interesting and very botched with garbage, would take a while to fix it. The Guhyajnana of our basic sadhana does not use Vam. That is kind of what I am saying is that Vam is close to Vajravarahi and all the commitment lineages.

Thala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/thala) is one of those very twisty words that could be cow dung, dry ground, a haunted place, or heat in the belly.

Someone has opened an Arya Palo center in New York. A large Sakya (https://www.sakya.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Swift-Path-to-Benefit-and-Ease.pdf) Avalokiteshvara practice spastically interjects it in Sanskrit where everything else is Tibetan.

In China, Jigten Sumgon (http://www.dharma-media.org/wogmin/data/teachings/Lord_Jigten_Sumgon_Accomplishments.pdf) was renowned as an emanation of Manjushri, and, in Hor, of Arya Palo, p. 7.

He is actually a singer (http://texts.00.gs/Wellsprings_of_the_Great_Perfection,_0-1.htm) after a very interesting table of attainments required for many abodes in Akanistha followed by a type of Secret Guru where Wu Tai Shan Manjushri is Vimala, which is the name of his Pure Land. That table is about Rainbow Guru, which, I don't know, exactly, about the Rainbow Body, but I would say this Guru is a power I believe in.

Lotsawa Vairocana (https://books.google.com/books?id=-SctDQAAQBAJ&lpg=PT131&dq=%22arya%20palo%22&pg=PT131#v=onepage&q=%22arya%20palo%22&f=false) stopped at an Arya Palo temple, for instance.

The name Palo has no meaning in Sanskrit unless an area settled around Buddha's time:

The Chinese monk, Fa-Hsien, who visited Ceylon from 411 to 413, has given a description of Anurādhapura as he saw it, and he says that “it was full of lay chiefs, dwellings of head-merchants grand, main streets and side streets level and well-kept, and between 50,000 and 60,000 monks in the City”: he mentions also the rich decoration of the temples, the beautiful works of art and the great procession of the Tooth-Relic. The walled Citadel or Inner City, within which was the Royal Palace, had an area of about 200 acres. No traces exist of an outerring of walls enclosing both Citadel and City, whose area in the 10th century extended to nearly 20 square miles.

If the spelling were a bit different, it would be similar to Phala or Fruit, and there are things such as:

Phalodaka (फलोदक).—A Yakṣa of the court of Kubera.

phaloni vagina

It could be Gujarat or some other language.

shaberon

17th January 2021, 20:08

Kayacakra has two possible meanings--as above, or, the whole Kama Loka as given by Heruka. "This" Heruka is not working until "that" explanatory tantra has had its effect, which is why the Heruks is cosmic or formless or through the mirror.

Wouldn't it have both these meanings instead of one or the other?

It does; they are only separated as degrees of practice or perception. A lot of the tantric path is based on achieving first, a visualized, later, a self-arisen deity form. These forms are used, primarily, to defeat and transcend Kama Loka. It is really only when Kama Loka has greatly subsided as an obstacle, and has become a perceived object, that Dakarnava could be said to begin.

I don't really have a choice. When the Phowa sequence happens during my shaking, my head become the transmission talked about in the phowa, the Dakini's vagina ensheathing the crown of my head as it emits the seed through the crown. It's not something that has happened in the last couple of months but it does happen frequently and it is very explicit, but I don't think I get to choose who's who in the whole thing.

I know; it just isn't that similar to most experiences. Hardly anyone has self-arisen dakinis, or inner vision of the subtle body. I just meant Achi by way of explanation. She is connected, as in she is another projection of Samantabhadri or Jnanadakini as the more famous ladies.

Most of us have to do this "with effort", taking a long time to ever see or be able to work with dakinis or yidams, etc. There is very little record even among Mahasiddhas of them rushing forth in a rapid deployment of unveiling so many chakras and so forth. Unless specifically following Vajrayogini, most practitioners would have a simpler working model of some deity such as Vajrabhairava to make their attempts with. It is hard to find a corollary of such a "capture" as you describe.

So it could conceivably mean 'beyond' Rati, beyond enjoyment?

It might.

One thing I like about Achi is how she is mostly portrayed as a peaceful white sambhogakaya, unlike most other presentations of the same goddess, which are usually sexualized or violent. She has these capacities, but she is mostly showing something else, which is related to the dawn of Abhirati. I am not sure offhand of anyone else who portrays this.

A quick search finds Drukpa Kagyu (https://drukpachoegon.org/buddha-akshobhya) takes Akshobya as one of the four main practices, and that success with Abhirati means one does not fall to lower states of consciousness, which is much like saying Irreversible Bodhisattva Path.

According to Iconography of Nepalese Buddhism (http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/icon_nepbud.pdf):

In other words, Akshobhya attained Buddhahood under
the tree of seven jewels in the land of Abhirati i.e. wonderful
joy in the east.

Old Student

18th January 2021, 02:43

Buddhist monasteries are supposed to function as orphanages, and in the harsh land of Tibet we have found that some parents simply surrender children they can't feed, for which the one representative thangka is White Mahasri as the protector of those young ones on their travels.

Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal recruited abandoned girls as proteges, but for some reason they are always described as being found in charnel grounds. But given that a lot of charnel grounds were Buddhist holy places, maybe this is the same as orphanages, they usually are found being raised by animals or among corpses, though.

It is a liturgy, but, if it matches the inner meaning, then you make your own nectar rain and her marvelous form appears. And so yes around the Achi sadhanas, there are several episodes of the appearance of Rainbow Light, it should present itself as a component of practice.

I have not challenged it, and there probably is a debate if you can establish Rainbow Body while living, or, if it specifically refers to passing away.

I don't know. Mandarava achieved rainbow body while she was being burned alive, and took to the sky in that body and defeated those who had burned them, but they do not say whether she is supposed to have passed through death to get to that point, only that she leaps into the air as her rainbow body and defeats them.

Om manipadme Hum Hrih

I wonder if this is the form from which the version in the song by Haya Band comes from (if so, Hrih ended up as Shi in Mongolian).

In Nyingma, dakinis are considered inseparable from Yeshe Tsogyal.

Here is a revealed treasure of Guhyajnana where she is called Maha Guru Dakini. Alternate copy.

It uses a version of her Dhuma Ghaye mantra to manifest her.

Her samaya being is a typical two arm red Vajrayogini, although she has a bliss whorl instead of a third eye.

Her Hook Rays go especially to Dhumathala.

The sadhana is not that long, especially when seen in sections:

For the recitation, there are three parts: approach [upasadhana], accomplishment [sadhana], and activity [thinle].

A "part" is considered: "try it this way for six months".

In part two, there is Padmanarttesvara yab-yum, and in three is the title Vajradakini.

It is simultaneously identical to Yeshe Tsogyal and Parasol.

I have a lot of things that are Yeshe Tsogyal, mostly in retrospect -- during the time they are happening, I recognize the person but cannot formulate the name, afterward I know they are related to her.

Not surprised that Dakinis flow from her, she and Mandarava pretty much founded female tantric Buddhism in Tibet, and were supposed to have trained thousands of acolytes.

Since Dhumathala is so recurrent, I am persuaded that Dhuma Ghaye is probably the right spelling in her mantra, which leaves little option for Ghaye to be a form of Ghaya which is Ghee. Butterlamp Smoke? Is that her name??

Interesting.

Old Student

18th January 2021, 02:50

Most of us have to do this "with effort", taking a long time to ever see or be able to work with dakinis or yidams, etc. There is very little record even among Mahasiddhas of them rushing forth in a rapid deployment of unveiling so many chakras and so forth.

The way it happens with me is not without effort, its just that the teachers are excellent, even if (as happened last night) the yell, "Act!" at me for hours while I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams trying to comply.

One thing I like about Achi is how she is mostly portrayed as a peaceful white sambhogakaya, unlike most other presentations of the same goddess, which are usually sexualized or violent. She has these capacities, but she is mostly showing something else, which is related to the dawn of Abhirati. I am not sure offhand of anyone else who portrays this.

Sometimes things we discuss end up being in my responses during shaking. We were talking about the Phowa, and about Achi being the universal consort. I had a brief question last night about how these could be related -- which did not really get answered but did get vividly portrayed.

shaberon

18th January 2021, 10:09

The way it happens with me is not without effort, its just that the teachers are excellent, even if (as happened last night) the yell, "Act!" at me for hours while I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams trying to comply.

In the teaching of Samadhi, it is a specific meaning, it means "with Effort" in terms of the visualization. Yes, the general sense of effort is apparent from what you write, but you seem to have no difficulty seeing things.

Most of us are like me; I still cannot make a Vajrasattva that is much of anything other than a fuzzy ball.

On the other hand, due to tantric yoga, I have induced states that caused some kind of power flow of what were definitely visualizations but never exactly stable.

I saw the Blue and Orange Dragons, which was stable as in consistent, but they kept moving fast.

So I can understand an uncontrolled aspect of being able to see strange things, but, the closest thing that has really worked for me as an ability was Auric Sight.

Therefor, I have experience in things that resemble a Buddhist Samadhi, but, there were certain failures and things missing, and, ultimately, I have never beheld any basic Vajrasattva or Green Tara or anything like that. Samadhi with Effort means you can at least get that to work.

In terms of Buddhism, I can do Pranayama, and if for example Vajrasattva really appeared, I would take it as Smrti--Samadhi, which would be the real Sadhana, or Spiritual Practice.

It is like saying I have an interest in spirituality, but am not, in fact, spiritual. Which is Yoga Tantra. Gaining the Samadhi as described would be the real Generation Stage.

Bhrkuti carried an Akshobya statue into Tibet before Yeshe Tsogyal was alive, which is still considered very important, this and her loom in Nepal. They say, simply enough, she was an emanation of Bhrkuti, and so she is another type of Pandara.

Sometimes things we discuss end up being in my responses during shaking. We were talking about the Phowa, and about Achi being the universal consort. I had a brief question last night about how these could be related -- which did not really get answered but did get vividly portrayed.

To me it is very simple, it is called Vajradhatvishvari.

Now in saying that Prajnas never do much, according to scholars it mainly boils down to Guhyasamaya and to Maitri, also called Advayavajra, who is remembered for Akasha Dhatvishvari--the flyer with both feet lifted up called Maitri Dakini--and a rosary of 108 sadhanas. This is used as the exposition at Tibet House in India. It was an interesting decision by H. H. D. L. in selecting something that isn't so specifically pinned to his own sect.

And so the "roles" of Prajnas were what I took from Iconography of Nepalese Buddhism (http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/icon_nepbud.pdf) by a fellow who is recently deceased but did a lot of the work in setting up the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon.

Bhattacharya published Maitri's Samgraha and said a lot of stuff in it and left the actual text in Hindi characters.

Thanks to the Canon we have a Sanskrit Advayavajra Samgraha (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/book/82) in Roman script.

According to Min Bahadur Sakya,

In Buddhist tantras these deities symbolize the essence or prajnarupa or
svabhava of five Buddhas. It is strange to note that not a single
sadhana is devoted to these live Prajnas. They appear only in
Yab-yum position and they are not given any active function.
The images of these deities are very rare. However a fine
specimen of these five Prajnas can be found in the Swayambhu Caitya with the exception of Vajradhatveshvary.

She is said to be the consort of Buddha Ratna Sambhava. She
is the same in essence as Buddha Ratna Sambhava. She is the
embodiment of emptiness or the space element. She is yellow
in colour. She is surrounded by the four Prajnas i.e. Locana,
Mamaki, Pandara and Tara.

Vajradhatveshvari as described in the Pancakara of
Advayavajra Samgraha resembles Tathagata Vajrasattva. She
has various forms: two armed, six armed and eight armed...

...Because of her role as the embodiment of
Tathata or Prajnaparamita she is also called Nairatma,
Vajravarahi and Jnanadakini. In Sadhanamala she is
identified with six headed and twelve armed Marici
whose lord is Vairocana.

He says she is Space. We found she turns Grey in the Ratna-centered Vilasini rite.

Prajnas do have some, limited, sadhanas, starting with Locana in the Vajrasana lineage who is the only instance of a deity curing physical pain, rather than disease and the like.

He says Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi have no Sutra background.

He says the second or third Buddha activated an image of Nairatma in the Root of Swayambhu Lotus.

If we go to the Samgraha and pull out the Pancakara, it will give us the Dhyani Buddhas centered on Vajra Family which uses:

ākāśaśabdacavargo akṣobhyaviśuddho

Purity of Akshobya in Space and Sound

To make a form janma or born of humkara--syllable, gesture, sound, probably all three:

vajrasattvastu hūmkārajanmā śuklo dvibhūja ekavakto vajravajraghaṇṭādharo manaḥsvabhāvaḥ kāṣāyarasaśarīraḥ śaradṛtuviśuddho yaralavādyātmakaḥ arddharātrataḥ prabhātakālaparyyanto dharmmadhātuparanāmā |

So Vajrasattva is the center of Pancha Jina, as an Akshobya hypostasis.

After they are cast, there are a couple of breaks, starting around:

śūnyatākaruṇābhinnaṃ yatra cittaṃ prabhāvyate |

which is non-dual Vajrasattva in Luminous Mind.

It then casts the Prajnas in the corners. And so Mamaki is placed beside Ratnasambhava which would usually be his consort area and it says:

māmakī kṛṣṇavarṇā kṛṣṇavajracihnā abdhātusvabhāvā vajrkulā dveṣaraktā |

she is still in Vajra Family related to Rage.

After the Four Prajnas are cast, it says:

etāḥ catasraḥ ṣoḍaśābdikā asādhāraṇarūpayauvanaśālinyo yathāśobhasaṃsthitā pūrvvavat kāyacatuṣṭayātmikā manohlādinyaḥ sakalajinaguṇādhārabhūtāḥ pañcatathāgatasvarūpāḥ | āsāṃ(asyāṃ)madhye ālisvabhāvā vajrasattvasvarūpiṇī vajradhātvīśvarī nāyikā | iyameva bhagavatī tathatā śūnyatā prajñāpāramitā bhūtakoṭinairātmyeti vyapadiśyate |

Purvavat--first, fourfold body self-nature gladdens the heart, and:

Sakala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shakala) is a devi who is the root of Atma in Kubjika Tantra; or, it is Samadhi; or, it means the material universe as a reflection of the transcendental. The conquerors, Jina, hold this quality, Guna, via the Elements, Bhuta, which are the Prajnas just cast.

Pancha Tathagata Svarupa is Fivefold Form, i. e., Rupa Skandha, a particular bundle familiar to some, re-iterated in most of these manuscripts as a necessity.

In the middle is Ali Svabhava--the nature of vowels--Vajrasattva Svarupini means she has Vajrasattva's body which is really Prajna--Karuna in Luminous Mind--is Vajradhatvishvari

Nāyikā (नायिका) is the name of Dūtī (i.e., messengers of Lord Vajrapāṇi)

Iyam is Idam, so, Idam Eva, female transcendent Suchness Sky Prajnaparamita is:

Bhūtakoṭi (भूतकोटि) refers to the “limit of truth” and is mentioned as one of the synonyms of Dharmatā (the ‘dharma-nature’ or ‘true nature’ of dharmas), according to Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra chapter XLIX. Accordingly, “because the dharmadhātu is actually proven (bhūtena sākṣātkṛta), it is the culmination (koṭi) of reality. Thus ‘the saint (Arhat) is established in the culmination of reality’’.”.

While not seeing permanent dharmas, seeing impermanence (anityatā) is a wrong view (mithyādṛṣṭi). And it is the same for the views of suffering, emptiness, non-self and impurity. That is what is called tathatā. [...] Having acquired this tathatā of dharmas, one penetrates into the dharmadhātu, one eliminates all opinions (vipaśyanā) and does not conceive any further beliefs, for “such is its essence. [...] Finally, to completely penetrate (supravidh-) the dharmadhātu is bhūtakoṭi.

When one takes possession of the realization of the fruit (phalasākṣātkāra), there is bhūtakoṭi. [...] Just as there is an empty aspect (śūnyabhāga) in every material dharma (rūpin), so there is a nature of nirvāṇa called dharmadhātu in dharmas. The nature of nirvāṇa is also in the many skillful means (upāya) used to attain nirvāṇa. At the time when nirvāṇa is realized, tathatā and dharmadhātu are bhūtakoṭi. Finally, the immense (apramāna), limitless (ananta) dharmadhātu, unable to be measured by the mind and mental events (cittacaitta), is called dharmadhātu. It is so wondrous that it is called bhūtakoṭi.

of Nairatma.

Nairatma takes over the Sixth Principle, same as Vajrasattva.

Vajradhatvishvari is the central, non-dual, non-conceptual energy-wind, like the main operative power as discussed in Vajra Rosary.

Here it does not quite say how she has anything to do with Ratnasambhava, except Mamaki appears to, although she is still in Vajra Family. Vajradhatvishvari is considered yellow, although it does not say that here. Her common form is formless, Empty Niche. Maybe that is how she is here if designated as a "nature" or "stage" of Vajrasattva. I would think that is so, since Marici is Vajrasattva Ishvari, i. e. much further down the road from here.

Mamaki has the role of the Three Flasks and so whereas this is properly visualized in Achi Sadhana, it is not explained there, it is relatively common knowledge in Nepal, and that may be about it.

Hevajra is Akshobya in union with Nairatma, which, in the Sakya Vajrapanjara (https://www.himalayanart.org/items/81) has:

In the square below is Vairochana-Hevajra, white in colour, embracing pink Vajradhatvishvari. In the square to the left is Ratnasambhava-Hevajra, yellow in colour, embracing orange Buddha Locani.

Suryagupta (https://www.himalayanart.org/items/779) is the mandala where Tara Reverses Amoghasiddhi and so Akshobya gets kicked out of the middle and it shuffles to:

At the right is Buddha Akshobhya, blue, similar in appearance; holding to the heart a gold vajra and bell. Below is the consort Mamaki, blue, similar in appearance; holding to the heart a vajra handled curved knife and a skullcup, seated in a relaxed posture. Below is Buddha Vairochana, white, holding a wheel to the heart and a bell at the side. At the left is the consort Vajradhatvishvari, white, similar in appearance, holding to the heart a wheel handled curved knife and a skullcup, seated in a relaxed posture. At the left is Buddha Ratnasambhava, yellow, holding to the heart a jewel and bell. Above is the consort Buddha-Locani, yellow, holding to the heart a jewel handled curved knife and a white skullcup, seated in a relaxed posture.

We can definitely say Tara has done something active here; Tara is Activity. Pandara still has not been affected.

So we can find two poignant places where Vajradhatvishvari is not centered and is hooked to Vairocana, which means Ratnasambhava gets what would appear to be Amrta Locana (Prasanna). Well, Locana's nature is Suvishuddha Dharmadhatu which means the purificatory stages of the Dharmadhatu, the sixth element, which arises and grows by stages, the Bodhisattva Path. The motion of Locana seems relatively obvious since it follows a Sutra-to-Tantra flow.

That is why Marici Vajradhatvishvari is like the queen of these and Laughing Ekajati is like the corresponding Nairatma aspect.

Exactly how basic Vajradhatvishvari sounds like she is super-posed on Vajrasattva and the fact she is listed last sounds a lot like bundling five-fold form pinned on Vajrasattva and when he "increases" to Luminosity, she transforms or over-writes him, something like Smrti and Samadhi.

Guhyasamaja Vajradhatvishvari is different and more related to Sparsha Vajra.

I believe there are cases where Vajradhatvishvari is simply the consort of Vajradhara.

That is not really a personal name, often it is just said to mean Queen of Vajradhatu.

And so if we are unsure, there is a Jewel Family Vajravarahi, Vajra Tara, Vasudhara, Ila, Cintamani, and so on. Bhattacharya said Ratnasambhava seemed relatively unimportant, and in his "Sadhanamala" actually paraphrased Maitri for his description of Ratnasambhava and Vajradhatvishvari, as if there were nothing else to go by.

His closest personal expression is probably Gaganaganja, Ksitigarbha, and possibly Jnanaketu or Ratnaketu.

According to Manjushri, Jewel is the Family of the Paramitas.

If we turn to Guhyasamaja, it will look weird since Akshobya gives away something called "Vajra", and the normal Amoghasiddhi goddess Irsya is with Ratnasambhava:

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 fRSYARATI 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.

Here, it would seem that Moharati = Vajradhatvishvari, who is not the consort of Ratnasambhava.

Jewel is Guna which is Enlightened Use of All Families Equally. It is not a Sutra. It requires tantric manipulation of the energy-winds. Its more customary sin is Greed which is the sin of Mamaki, and her very name is a dual interpretation on an axis of "all mine" or "equal to everything".

Some Hindu tantras give greed the specific designation Lobha, but:

lobha can also be called be denoted as the following: Raga (greed), abhijja (covetousness) and tanha (craving).

And so it simply replaces Raga in Dharma Samgraha.

My understanding is that Greed intends materialistic wealth, whereas Raga is passion. When Jealousy is called "coveteousness", it is really stemming from the opposite direction, where one's self is lower than others. In other words, the Jewel and Karma Families are a bit like feeling above others, or under them. The Three Families are much more raw and direct; it is due to Ignorance that we suffer Aversion and Attachment. The second two families are a bit more complex, socially-interacted, and constructed.

So you will, of course, get to know her if you think about prana in your body at all, but the thing about being in the Most Subtle Mind and using her as the Sole Support is a completely different condition.

It could perhaps be that Ratnasambhava is smeared with Mamaki--Greed until gaining the Wisdom Locana--Nectar Eye which appears to represent Hevajra practice. I am not sure if he ever has his "own" consort, as in the mandala where he failed to emanate one.

Vajradhatvishvari is called the consort of Vairocana (https://www.buddha-figures.com/vairocana-8-cm-partly-gold-plated.html) for a small figurine.

According to Marpa (https://books.google.com/books?id=wn0SAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PT321&ots=3te4aMiGBa&dq=ratnasambhava%20vajradhatvishvari&pg=PT321#v=onepage&q=ratnasambhava%20vajradhatvishvari&f=false), Guhyasamaja is crowned by White Vajradhara in Union with White Vajradhatvishvari.

In a description of a vajra (https://www.wise-geek.com/what-is-the-vajra.htm), she is iterated in the order that would mate her with Ratnasambhava.

According to a medieval Ratnasambhava statue (https://tibetmuseum.app/index.php?w=mguide&room=4&o=2&id=530&d=vitrine&r=2), his consort can be either Mamaki, or Vajradhatvishvari--which when she does, she has the function of Extinguishing Pride.

According to Manjuvajra, in the mandala with the major Cunda, Ratnolka, Bhrkuti, and Vajrashrnkala, when Mamaki is with Ratnasambhava, Manjuvajra is "tied" to Vajradhatvishvari, who does not appear in the list of deities. Those weird goddesses correspond to Sattvavajri, Ratnavajri, Dharmavajri, and Karmavari.

Sattvavajri is under Locana who is with Akshobya. Akshobya and Locana have eight arms, and the other Dhyanis and Prajnas have six. This is according to the mandala's housing in Torino (https://artsandculture.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/manjuvajramandala-with-43-deities-unknown/cgHrisi2m6UCbQ), IT.

Again, it is only that, specific mandala which has these features, the regular Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra is not the same thing.

It has not made Cunda into Vajravajri although she appears to be in Vajra Family, Sattva is the nature of Vajrasattva.

Vajradhatvishvari is weird, but, she really only comes from a certain attainment, considerably above Vairocani.

Bhattacarya defaults Vairocani and Cinnamasta into Jewel Family, but, again, there is still Yellow Janguli, or Yellow Bhrkuti, etc., so the color is not a guarantee.

Gomadevi is the singer of Amrita Kundalin, and, from the table, we can find a certain duplication. In Akanistha:

Palace: self-existing wisdom, deity or siddha: Faultless Light-Ray, attainment requested: rainbow body.

Following Yoga of the Early Dawn--Om Ah Hum each with a rainbow light--the following are invited:

From 5-fold mountain-peak in China, Flawless Kinsman Vimala

From mansion Waterlily Light, Uddi-yana master & his consort

From mansion glowing mass of brilliance, Flawless Light-Ray

From "the throne of sun and moon above my head’, fundamental guru, swirling in rainbows

They may have in mind Vimalamitra, since the first two are almost certainly Manjushri and Padmasambhava. They were not mentioned in Akanistha however. The Yoga as described is practically Muttering Marici, she has an Abode and she can probably make rainbow guru, even if it was on Vajradhara or incorporeal Achi.

It would not work without Vajradhatvishvari, and if it worked, it must be almost the same as Marici Vajradhatvishvari.

Jewel Family is made of Nectar, extinguishing pride, in the sense of a sin of arrogance. Nectar is made of Heat, so, this Jewel Family would be pretty difficult without the Lotus stage governed by Pranayama.

shaberon

18th January 2021, 20:32

It has started to get my attention from the last post on the previous page.

We have usually overlooked Vairocana tantra, which has chiefly the progression:

STTS-->Buddha and Sarvavid Vairocana in Sarvadurgati Parishodana-->Sarvavid Vairocana in Vajradhatu

What seems to be the case is that Sattvavajri is used as the first retinue goddess, i. e. in the Hook or Eastern position.

Their original grouping appears to be:

the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri, Ratnavajri,
Dharmavajri and Karmavajri, the four Internal Offerings (fluids), i.e. Vajralasya,
Vajramala, Vajragita and Vajranrtya

Sattvavajri is in STTS (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161528228.pdf) forty-six times, so we will have to get back to that.

Sarvadurgati involves Vajrasattva and Sattvavajri, and places Vajradhatvishvari at the center of Vajravajrini and the rest. It seems to refer to Gagana-ganja-samadhi to produce the mandala. At the end, it classifies Seven Jewels of Enlightenment, the Dhyanas, and describes the Pratisamvits as absolute. So it seems to have a process or transfer between Vajravajrini and Sattvavajrini; in English Sarvadurgati Parishodana (http://abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Durgatiparisodhana/0001.pdf), Sattvavajri comes up four times.

According to Sakyamitra, the Symbol-consorts refer to the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri symbolising ‘perfection of knowledge (jnana)’, Ratnavajri ‘perfection of generosity {dana)', Dharmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of wisdom (prajna)', and Karmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of exertion (virya).

Vajradhatu has many lineages, but mainly we look to Namasangiti about it. Vilasavajra (https://books.google.com/books?id=TcZJDAAAQBAJ&lpg=PA163&ots=oWROoVzgXe&dq=sattvavajri&pg=PA163#v=onepage&q=sattvavajri&f=false) characterizes Sattvavajri as the pledge-being of all Tathagatas and relates her to Mirror Wisdom. In another page showing chapters 1-5 (https://kipdf.com/the-names-of-wisdom-a-critical-edition-and-annotated-translation-of-chapters-1-5_5add5d907f8b9aea388b4568.html), her class is described as Janas followed by the eight consciousnesses.

It turns out there is also a Wayman publication of Sarva Rahasya Tantra (https://jainqq.org/explore/269565/32) which involves her. But this is more advanced and seems to place deities to produce Abhisambodhis:

Any showing of the navel refers to Vajradhatvisvari (rdo rje dbyins dban phyug bsad) Any showing of the 'heart (=chest) implies (the goddess) Sattvavajri. Any showing of the brows is Ratnavajri. Any showing of the throat is Dharmavajri. Any showing of crown of "head should be taken as Karmavajri. "showing of the navel ......": touching the navel, etc. are the five goddesses; these are corporeal signs. Whether it be the one enlightened sooner in the five enlightenments, or the five wisdoms, or the five Buddhas, attended with them is the mandala-enlightenment. "in the five enlightenments": the verse shows verbal signs (gsun gi brda'). [Apparently the mantras recited in connection with the five enlightenments (abhi sambodhi); see verse 17, 43, 44, above.]

The museum in Turin (https://www.hisour.com/himalayan-gallery-oriental-art-museum-in-turin-56126/) is a substantial collection, which shows Vajrasattva--Sattvavajri as the first thing on the third floor, with also the appearance of:

Acala and the pañcaraksha, 13th century

Evidently they show the couple in blue:

http://www.cultor.org/Orient/CircleofBliss/Source/Web/09%20Vajrasattva/055L.jpg

Circle of Bliss (https://books.google.com/books?id=l3KmWbcq5foC&lpg=PA209&ots=LzuSx7xT-R&dq=sattvavajri&pg=PA209#v=onepage&q=sattvavajri&f=false) mentions Sattvavajri a few times with some operative details. The gif (https://huntingtonarchive.org/Exhibitions/circleOfBlissExhibit.php) on their current page is a sequence of White Tara, White Varahi, and Prajnaparamita.

At Himalayan Art, their link calls this Seventeen Deity Vajrasattva; on the page, it is just Vajrasattva Samvara. The number seventeen would ignore the gatekeepers, so, it probably refers to his "peculiar" deities, likely referring to the format in Dakini Jala and/or Samputa. Here, the couple are different colors:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/7/2/77204.jpg

That is a lot of material. The "consort of Vajrasattva" is clearly functional as a type of hypostasis from Vajra Family into a sixth family; in other words, she is not simply stated to be oh so mighty, but resembles a tiny speck gathering momentum, until in Sarva Rahasya, there is an odd, separate Vajradhatvishvari at the navel, which cannot be her true form, either, but the necessary physical means of getting to her.

In this case, Wisdom Library is not useful since these are not the advanced tantras; it does tell us Garvi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/garvi) is a sudharmāna god in Brahmanda Purana and that the word refers to Pride, which, I suppose, is like Desire; having a samsaric aspect which is objectionable, and a divine aspect which is important.

It seems to me that Sattvavajri and Vajradhatvishvari are not a "thing", they are a flow. Neither one is a consort at first, then they sort of get blended together, and, eventually, split the difference between Vajrasattva and Vajradhara, which is miniscule, a bit like the difference between the Mind and the Winds, inseparable but not identical.

The early mandalas appear to cast these Vajris and then Karmavajri manifests a result, emanates or changes the central deity; similarly, Maitri casts Vajradhatvishvari at the end, who washes or co-opts Vajrasattva; Namasangiti uses a method like this to replace Manjuvajra with each of the six mantra kings. It may be useful to work up each version in greater detail, a couple of tables being available to help quickly plot the correspondences. Lasya, et al, are used as inner offerings of substances, distinguished from the outer offerings of incense and the rest. It is such an Inner Offering that marks the break from rote Kriya--Charya into Yoga having symbols translated into experienced states of consciousness.

The STTS idea is that they are Bodhisattvas, Vajris being the Mudras:

Then, in order to seal the knowledge of each (Tathagata) family
with a mudra, the four A/Wra-Masters (i.e. Sattvavajri,
Ratnavajri, Dharmavajri and Karmavajri) should transform each of
the four mudras abiding in each quarter. The four SecretOfferings, namely, Vajralasya, (Vajramala, Vajragita and
Vajranrtya) are Pleasure in the Thought of Enlightenment, Garland
of all the Tathagatas, Melody of all the Tathagatas and Drama of
all the Tathagatas. Since these become the highest, they are placed
as the form having the nature of the Great Goddess of the family.
The four (External Offerings), namely, Vajradhupa, (Vajrapuspa,
Vajraloka and Vajragandha) are Very Purifying, the Flower of the
Qualities of Enlightenment, the Lamp of Knowledge and the Scent
of Moral Conduct. The four Guardians (i.e. Vajrankusa,
Vajrapasa, Vajrasphota and Vajravesa) are Heart, Affection
toward Living Beings, Exertion of Teaching and Perfection of
Wisdom.”

It is trying to build Vajravesa, the "yoga with Vajrasattva" or "union with a deity such as Sattvavajri".

They have roles similar to Paramadya goddesses.

It turns out that there is a Guhyavajra Vajradhatu, female counterpart of Vajradhatu:

The images of these female deities are shown in the Vajradhatu Guhyadharanlmandala of the Gobushinkan, which contains the female images of thirty-four deities in total, i.e., Vairocana (though Vajradhatvisvari is the counterpart of Vairocana) and the thirty-three female deities excluding the four Internal Offerings described in the Sanskrit STTS.

Something similar to this is displayed at Alchi.

Amoghavajra and Anandagarbha name this mandala, which constitutes the supreme samayamudra and focuses on the Mind of Vairocana, Dharanlmandala (of the
Vajradhatu). The thirty-seven female deities manifested by the samadhi, who
symbolise the minds of the deities of the Vajradhatu Mahdmandala, are shown as
symbols in the Vajraguhya Vajramandala of the STTS and in the Samaya
Assembly of the Nine Assemblies Mandala.

sneaky females:

It is evident that the Vajradhatu in this context indicates the symbol of Vairocana because it is called Vajradhatvlsvari (Queen of the Vajradhatu) according to the Vajraguhya Vajramandala.

There are also related rites involving the bhaga of a consort, and the metamorphosis of a Wish-fulfilling Jewel passed between the Vajris. They bring in Vajrahumkara for some of their deeds.

From a note, Princess Bhrikuti is fully named Balzah-Lha-Ching-Khri-Tsun, or Dichu.

I am not sure how close the presence of Tsun makes her to Cunda. As we have seen, Bhrkuti or Lotus deity is Parasol, to whom Cunda appears more Vajrasattva-esque, and like a lower mirror.

For Cunda, since we see the one lineage that reveres her magnificently appears to relate her to Sattvavajri, which is...a complex Vajrasattva evolution similar to what Parasol does...and evidently secretly run by Dharani goddesses...that makes a framework for both of them.

Both at a Sutra level look like a blend of Buddha and Lotus Families, yet in the tantras, Vajra Family pertains to them. It has much to do with the Wrathful Ones and Vajrahumkara and the knowledge of proliferous "vajra" terminology in those Thirty-seven point Enlightenment tables.

Old Student

19th January 2021, 06:04

Yes, the general sense of effort is apparent from what you write, but you seem to have no difficulty seeing things.

I didn't have trouble seeing things before. I spent most of my career visualizing things, because I do geometry, including at times fractal geometry or geometry in high or infinite dimensions.

"It's just impossible, said Alice, "I just can't believe in impossible things."

"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen, "Why, when I was your age I had to believe in six impossible things before breakfast."

(Charles Ludwig Dodgson, mathematician. a.k.a. Lewis Carroll)

As an example, there are these things called Julia sets, named after Gaston Julia. They're fractals, like this:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/Julia_set%2C_plotted_with_Matplotlib.svg/512px-Julia_set%2C_plotted_with_Matplotlib.svg.png

Here is the thing to visualize: Each part of the boundary of this set is shared with every other part of the boundary. And on top of that, you can find a replica of the boundary of every Julia set possible, somewhere in the boundary (the part that everybody shows pictures of) of the Mandelbrot set.

On the other hand, due to tantric yoga, I have induced states that caused some kind of power flow of what were definitely visualizations but never exactly stable.

This seems like it's far more important.

In Buddhist tantras these deities symbolize the essence or prajnarupa or
svabhava of five Buddhas. It is strange to note that not a single
sadhana is devoted to these live Prajnas. They appear only in
Yab-yum position and they are not given any active function.
The images of these deities are very rare. However a fine
specimen of these five Prajnas can be found in the Swayambhu Caitya with the exception of Vajradhatveshvary.

This doesn't make much sense to me. The wisdom Dakinis, who is whom I think you are talking about by the 5 Prajnas, seem to have been talked about all the time, but maybe that's a false impression I get from the fact that so many web pages are devoted to them, and so many taxonomies as to which one is what place and what color, etc.

When the Dakinis first started visiting, I had thought they were going to fall neatly into these 5, since they were initially one of each color. That sort of didn't happen entirely, or at least they didn't hold to it, but they still have that aura of being of 5 colors and representing all things that way. I found site after site definitively discussing them, I later came to realize many were more New Age than accurate. And the Dakinis that appear to me do not fit neatly into their descriptions on those websites, but neither do anything else it seems, I did find out that the rainbow color scheme for the chakras was a Western invention and had no basis in the East.

From 5-fold mountain-peak in China, Flawless Kinsman Vimala
I looked this one up, and got Wuxing Shan (literally five-fold mountain), it is where Xuanzang is supposed to have left for India from (where he recruited the Monkey, etc.) but the picture shown on the web page for it is of a mountain in Central China, and there was supposed to be something about the other mountains (Tianshan or the Kunlun mtns.). Or maybe "5-fold" is wrong and it is Wutai Shan.

Old Student

19th January 2021, 06:22

Their original grouping appears to be:

the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri, Ratnavajri,
Dharmavajri and Karmavajri, the four Internal Offerings (fluids), i.e. Vajralasya,
Vajramala, Vajragita and Vajranrtya

This is something new to me, having 'vajri' at the end, as the thing being modified, instead of 'vajra' at the beginning.

According to Sakyamitra, the Symbol-consorts refer to the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri symbolising ‘perfection of knowledge (jnana)’, Ratnavajri ‘perfection of generosity {dana)', Dharmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of wisdom (prajna)', and Karmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of exertion (virya).

Are there two more deity-consort pairs somewhere for the other Paramitas?

It seems to me that Sattvavajri and Vajradhatvishvari are not a "thing", they are a flow. Neither one is a consort at first, then they sort of get blended together, and, eventually, split the difference between Vajrasattva and Vajradhara, which is miniscule, a bit like the difference between the Mind and the Winds, inseparable but not identical.

I guess I'm not understanding how Vajradhara is corporeal and has a consort. I had thought that Vajradhara did not exist in corporeal form.

From a note, Princess Bhrikuti is fully named Balzah-Lha-Ching-Khri-Tsun, or Dichu.

I am not sure how close the presence of Tsun makes her to Cunda. As we have seen, Bhrkuti or Lotus deity is Parasol, to whom Cunda appears more Vajrasattva-esque, and like a lower mirror.

For Cunda, since we see the one lineage that reveres her magnificently appears to relate her to Sattvavajri, which is...a complex Vajrasattva evolution similar to what Parasol does...and evidently secretly run by Dharani goddesses...that makes a framework for both of them.

Because Cun -> Tsun. I don't understand what you mean by Vajrasattva-esque.

I got pressured to "Act!" again last night, some of the pressure apparently coming from me (who found myself repeating that word as if it were a mantra or something).

shaberon

19th January 2021, 08:27

My expectation was correct that the Nepalese Sarvadurgati Parishodana would yield perhaps a richer presentation of Sattvavajri, who comes up eleven times and does seem to work like a thread in a labyrinth.

In this older literature, what we call Lotus Family was called Dharma Family, by the classification "Sound of Dharma Speech", which is still the underlying stratum of Lotus Family, just not obvious from the name.

We could try to compare it to the fewer mentions in the English version, but, when I take it this way, it seems to make an elegant synopsis.

These are Bodhisattvas. And so for example, all the various actions of Vajrasattva are at a Bodhisattva level, and then if the Bodhisattva process is successful, he realizes the Prajna or Ishvari who is Divine Wisdom. So if we ask a question like, is Pandara the same as Dharmavajri, it is like a conditional yes and no, because they are not on the same plane, but they do bear a direct relationship. If we thought of Bhrkuti as Dharmavajri, that would be much closer.

If we are thinking of Cunda as Sattvavajri, that is because Manjuvajra strongly suggests there is a Dharani basis that would operate these Vajris if you can find it in inner meaning. In that case, there are a bunch of details that would satisfy the lack of any independent development of Cunda outside of--you can't really say this tantra, but, this role, Sattvavajri, which in a sense is the manifestation of a consort for Vajrasattva, except it is not an image, it is the procedure of establishment.

The instances of Sattvavajri are gathered into clusters in different areas of the tantra dealing with Peaceful and Wrathful mandalas.

The use of "mudra" is proliferous here, usually referring to hand gestures, while teaching the basics of Mudras of the tantric seals of deity initiations.

In her first section, she appears to develop Avesa Mudra by taking bits of Vajrasattva mantra and compress it into the power of Vajra Fist and then do some mantras I can practically remember from listening to the Dharani months ago:

(14)

tata oṃ
vajrañjalīti| vajrabandhanaṃ hṛdaye sphoṭayet|

oṃ
sarvavid vajrabandha trāṭ bruvan|

vajrāveśamudrāṃ
baddhvā|

oṃ tiṣṭha
vajra dṛḍho me bhava śāśvato me bhava hṛdayaṃ

me'dhitiṣṭha
sarvasiddhiṃ ca me prayaccha huṃ ha ha ha ha hoḥ| iti|

oṃ vajramuṣṭi
vaṃ|

sattvavajrīṃ
baddhvā|

oṃ sarvavit
śodhane śodhane sarvapāpān apanaya huṃ|

pāpākarṣaṇamantraḥ|

vajrabandhaṃ
dṛdhaṃ baddhvā vajramudrādhiṣṭhāntarāt|

samutkṣipet
kṣaṇāḍ ūrdhvaṃ patitotkṣepaṇaṃ param| iti|

oṃ
sarvavit sarvāpāyaviśodhani huṃ phaṭ|

pāpaviśodhanamantraḥ|

vajrabandhaṃ
dṛdhīkṛtya madhyamā mukhasahitā||

The sound of the next phrase, Four Antyas, suggests to me the upper layers of Kama Loka, the Four Formless Janas:

caturantyamukhāsaktā
pāpaṃ sphoṭayati kṣaṇāt||

oṃ
sarvavit trāṭ huṃ|

She comes again and then Buddha appears, and you cultivate his Atma Bhava:

sattvavajrīṃ
baddhvā|

oṃ
sarvavit sarvāvaraṇaviśodhane muḥ huṃ phaṭ|

uddharaṇalakṣaṇaṃ|

tataḥ
paścād yogino hṛdayamadhye'kāreṇa candramaṇḍalaṃ tasyopari|

oṃ mune
mune mahāmunaye svāhā|

oṃ namaḥ
sarvadurgatipariśodhanarājāya tathāgatāyārhate samyaksambuddhāya| tadyathā|

oṃ śodhane
śodhane sarvapāpaviśodhani śuddhe viśuddhe sarvakarmāvaraṇaviśuddhe svāhā|

etena
mantreṇa durgatipariśodhanamaṇḍalaṃ pariniṣpannaṃ bhavati| tato vajrāṅkuśadyair
ākṛṣya praveśya baddhvā vaśīkṛtyākāśamaṇḍalapūjāṃ kṛtvā hṛdayamaṇḍale niveṣayet|
dvayamaṇḍale naikamaṇḍalaṃ bhavatīti| niṣpannayogo bhūtvā samayamaṇḍalaṃ
devatāparipūrṇaṃ bhavati| tatra maṇḍalamadhye cakravartirūpaṃ

ātmabhāvaṃ
śākyasiṃhaṃ vibhāvayet| tataḥ śākyamuner hṛdyakāreṇa candramaṇḍalaṃ bhāvayet|
candramaṇḍalamadhye|

Atma Bhava Sakyasimha Vibhava (Nirvana-like meditation). Then he has a Moon Disk in his Heart.

In the next chapter, Karma Mudra relates to Vajra Hetu, i. e. Vajra Cause, which immediately brings to mind the Hetu--Phala or Path and Fruit tradition, which is the underlying meaning of the name, Hevajra, Hetu Vajra.

(15)

oṃ mune
mune mahāmunaye svāhā|

tato
vajrahetukarmamudrayā maṇḍalaṃ nirmāya|

oṃ
sarvavid vajracakra huṃ| iti|

sattvavajrīṃ
baddhvaiva madhyāṅgulidvayena mālām ādāya manasā praviśet| samaye huṃ ity anena
tāṃ ca mālāṃ svaśirasi kṣipet| anena praticcha vajra hoḥ| iti| tataḥ svaśirasi
bandhed anena|

oṃ pratigṛhṇa
tvam imāṃ sattva mahābaleti||

mukhabandhaṃ
cānena muñcet|

oṃ
vajrasattvaḥ svayaṃ te'dya cakṣūdghāṭanatatparaḥ||

udghāṭayati
sarvākṣo vajracakṣur anuttaram|| iti|

he vajra
paśya| iti|

We usually see Vajra Pasa all the time, but this is He Vajra

Pāśyā (पाश्या).—f.

(-śyā) A number of nooses. E. pāśa, and yat aff.

i. e., a Net.

And what it appears to do is draw in Buddha, who relies on the fullness of Sattvavajri and what looks like the attainment of Vajra Fist to begin an Omniscient Vajra Initiation rooted in Mam, which then begins a new, similar process with Vajradhatvishvari and a set of Vajris without Sattva, instead beginning with the quixotical Vajravarini:

tato
mahāmaṇḍale tāvat paśyed yāvad bhagavantaṃ śākyamunim|

punaḥ
sattvavajrīṃ baddhvā hṛdaye muṅcet| vajrādhiṣṭitakalaśād udakābhiṣekaṃ vajramuṣṭyā
dadyāt|

oṃ sarvavid
vajrābhiṣiñca mām| iti|

punar
vajradhātvīśvaryādimudrayābhimudrayet|

oṃ
sarvavid vajradhātvīśvari huṃ abhiṣiñca mām|

oṃ
sarvavid vajravajriṇi huṃ abhiṣiñca mām|

oṃ
sarvavid ratnavajriṇi huṃ abhiṣiñca mām|

oṃ
sarvavid dharmavajriṇi huṃ abhiṣiñca mām|

oṃ
sarvavit karmavajriṇi huṃ abhiṣiñca mām|

oṃ ṭūṃ ṭūṃ
ṭūṃ vajra tuṣya hoḥ|

dvyakṣarakavacena
kavacayitvā| tataḥ svavajrābhiṣekṃ gṛhṇiyāt|

adyābhiṣiktas
tvam asi buddhair vajrābhiṣekataḥ||

So that is a little different than Maitri's Pancakara, which casts four and then Vajradhatvishvari.

It is followed by what looks like Vajra Name Initiation which ends by defining an Atma mantra as the Omniscient Vajra one:

idam tat
sarvabuddhatvaṃ gṛhṇa vajrasusiddhaye||

oṃ vajrādhipati
tvām abhiṣiñcāmi tiṣṭha vajrasamayas tvaṃ

vajranāmābhiṣekataḥ|

oṃ
vajrasattva tvām abhiṣiñcāmi|

idaṃ tat
sarvabuddhatvaṃ vajrasattvakare sthitam||

tvayāpi hi
sadā dhāryaṃ vajrapāṇidṛḍhavratam||

oṃ
sarvatathāgatasiddhivajrasamaya tiṣṭhaiṣa tvāṃ dhārayāmi vajrasattva hi hi hi
hi huṃ| iti|

oṃ
sarvavid vajrādhiṣṭhānasamaye huṃ|

ātmādhiṣṭhānamantraḥ|

Further along, the male Vajrosnisa enjoys use of Vajrinis followed by instructions to do Lasya Puja:

ato vajroṣṇīṣāditathāgataiḥ
sattvavajrīratnavajrīdharmavajrīkarmavajrīṃ sphārayitvā samāṇḍaleyadevatāśrīśākyarājapramukhavajrāveśaparyantam

abhiṣekaṃ
dadyāt|

pañcabhiṣekādhipatidaśaparyantaṃ
dadyāt| abhiṣekānantaram|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatadhūpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatapuṣpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatadīpapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

oṃ
sarvatathāgatagandhapūjāmeghasamudraspharaṇasamaye huṃ|

tato
lāsyādicatuṣṭayena pūjayet|

The subject or scene changes; later on, then there are a few examples in the Wrathful area near Sumbha Nisumbha.

It appears that Vajrahumkara is equated to Vajrasattva and Sattvavari:

sagarvotkarṣaṇaṃ

dvābhyāṃ
vajrahuṃkāravajrasattvasattvavajrīṇāṃ|

aṃkuśagrahaṇasaṃsthitā
vāṇaghaṭanayogā ca||

sādhukāraṃ
hṛdi sthitā abhiṣekaṃ dvivajraṃ tu||

A Jeweled Hum becomes a Wrathful Vajrabhrkuti:

ratnahuṃkāravajrabhṛkuṭikrodharatnavajrīṇām||

hṛdi
sūryapradarśanaṃ vāmasthabāhudaṇḍā ca||

tathāsya
parivartitā savyāpasavyavikoca||

Or the meaning is perhaps as if this means "The Sound of Dharma becomes Vajradharma with Dharmavajri":

dharmahuṃkāravajradharmadharmavajrīṇām||

hṛdvāmā
khaḍgadhāriṇī alātacakrabhramitā||

vajradvayamukhoṭṭhitā
vajranṛtyabhramonmuktā||

kapotoṣṇīṣasaṃsthitā||
karmahuṃkāravajrakarmakarmavajrīṇāṃ,

kavacakaniṣṭhādaṃṣṭrāgrā
muṣṭidvayanipīḍitā||

It appears to mean that section was the Prayoga of Vajragarvi:

vajragarvaprayogeṇa
named āśayakampitaiḥ||

And lastly around section 85, Agni Homa is related to Avesa, which looks equivalent to Vajrasattva gaining Sattvavajri in Wrathful mode:

samidbhir
madhurair agniṃ prajvālya susamāhitaḥ||

tato homakuṇḍān
nirgatya jvālākulair vajrais tasya śarīre pāpaṃ dahyamānaṃ cintayet| tataḥ
punar vajrāveśaṃ tathaivaṃ baddhvāveśayet| niyatam āviśati| evam api yasyāveśo na
bhavati tasyābhiṣekaṃ na kuryād iti| āviṣṭasya ca pañcabhijñādiniṣpattis tat kṣaṇād
eva bhavati| tataḥ samāviṣṭaṃ jñātvā punaḥ| oṃ vajrasattvasattvasaṃgrahādigītim
uccārya| krodhamuṣṭyā tathaiva sattvavajrīmudraṃ sphoṭayet| sa ced āviṣṭo
vajrasattvakrodhamudrāṃ

badhnīyāt|

Here, without really being able to read all the narrative, we can still find a configuration based around Sattvavajri.

Vajra Name is usually the third initiation and used for the third Abhisambodhi, I believe. It has many Udaka (Water) and Kalasa initiations; otherwise, "initiation" is a frequent term, but Name and Vase are familiar to tantrists. Here, there is also a Fivefold initiation regulated by the Vajris and the Dancers, which gets forwarded along to:

bhagavantaṃ vairocanaṃ bhadrakalpikaṃ bāhyavajrakulāni ca vajraratnābhiṣekenābhiṣiñcya|
śrīvajrahuṃkārādīn pañcabuddhamukuṭavajramālāpaṭābhiḥṣekair abhiṣiñcet|

Vajra Ratna is again similar to Vajra Surya--Secret Sun and Vajra Tara, and, I would say, Rainbow Guru.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana is like a vital middle portion, which does not, itself, appear to deal with all the Abhisambodhis or all the Initiations--but it does inculcate the rotation of a Cycle, Sattvavajri to Karmavajri--which is capable of purifying the Bardo Consciousness.

Vajra Dhatu is some kind of subtle mental element which is similar to Vijnana Dhatu and a Six Family Wheel. Such things are usually defined in Coarse, Subtle, Very Subtle, and sometimes Secret or Profound levels, generally meaning you have to complete a ring in each.

The point of Namasangiti is making it arise as Maha Vajradhatu. Sarvadurgati has already mentioned the Queen, and it also next refers to her material or veil or element.

Now knowing that Ah can be trained as a rush of Vajrasattva pinned to the Fivefold Element, more basically in this Yoga level of tantra, Vairocana is the Fivefold Rupa Skandha--and now, a Sixth Element or Vajra Tathagata is his Atman which is in Avesa--Possession of him:

tanmantreṇa aḥkārāntena
vairocanasthāne tathāgatavajram ātmānam āveśayet| vajro'ham iti vajrāhaṃkāraṃ
vibhāvya| tad vajraṃ vairocanaṃ bhāvayet| vajradhātur aham iti| evaṃ yāvad
vajraveśamahāmudrāṃ baddhvottaradvāre tanmantreṇāḥkārāntena vajrāghaṇṭām
ātmānam āveśayet|

And so in this condition, "that" Element is the Vajra Dhatu. Evam, thus Vajra Avesa Maha Mudra evolves into Bell--Vajra Ghanta Atma taking Possession of it.

This chapter I am not sure if it is talking about anyone other than Bhrkuti:

(69 )

tarjanīdvayaṃ
vajraṃ tu dakṣiṇāṃkucitāṃkuśī||

tathaivāgrastahuṃkārāḥ
sādhukārās tathaiva hi||

dvyagrasaṃsthā
bhṛkuṭyāṃ tu hṛdi suryāgramaṇḍalā||

prasāritabhujā
mūrdhni tarjanī mukhahāsinī||

tarjanī
nakhasaṃsaktā kośamuṣṭis tu dakṣiṇā||

samamadhyaguṇṭhacakrā
tu mukhataḥ pratiniḥṣṛtā||

tarjanīmadhye
vajrā tu grīvāveṣṭitatarjanī||

agrādikamahādaṃṣṭrā
grastāgrāvajramuṣṭitā|| iti|

lāsyādīnāṃ
tu vajradhātu uktā eva huṃkṛtā|

Lasya and others--the Vajradhatu is spoken by you...

In this tantra, Vajradhatvishvari looks to have something to do with Vairocana getting Possessed by Akshobya, like a pentagram in a hexagram. That makes complete sense to me and comes up as a perpetual theme in most higher tantras.

Just because it does not teach or deal with everything Vajradhatvishvari can do, does not place it in conflict with those materials, such as Achi and Vajrayogini, that explain more.

It does appear geared to shift one into Akshobya-class tantras. By promoting Lasya as the primary Inner Offering, it segues to the consort of Seven Syllable deity.

In NSP, Bhattacharya suspiciously fails to include the Vajris. In the Nepalese version, it still has the Usnisas.

Exactly why Usnisa Vijaya is the Dharani related to this tantra when she is not anywhere in it, is similar to why Cunda may be Sattvavajri even if only by way of apparent association in another tantra.

The Guhyagarbha use of Vajrasattva is such that Wathful Deities are the Brain, and Peaceful Deities are the Heart:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/7/0/77025.jpg

There are very many "Vajrasattva with consort"s--this one is particularly instructive with Nagaraja and Parnasabari:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/9/7/89724.jpg

Much as the Drikung are currently disseminating Achi with Parnasabari, this is like the older Sutra tradition of the same thing, Bodhisattva Nagaraja being the one who puts the finishing move on Generation Stage, indicated by Parnasabari and Janguli in Krsna Yamari tantra, as well as by Amoghasiddhi also gaining a Serpent Hood.

shaberon

19th January 2021, 11:05

I didn't have trouble seeing things before. I spent most of my career visualizing things, because I do geometry, including at times fractal geometry or geometry in high or infinite dimensions.

I think in geometrical ways such as the kata of martial arts, or, it is how I remember directions rather than street names and landmarks. Less mathematically artistic and closer to the holographic physics of the environment.

Yours sounds like something that could be called eye of the artist cross higher mathematics.

On the other hand, due to tantric yoga, I have induced states that caused some kind of power flow of what were definitely visualizations but never exactly stable.

This seems like it's far more important.

I would say it has a natural appeal, is definitely interesting, Dharma Pravicaya.

But then I might say Auric Sight of a relatively purified person, let alone an Arhat or Bodhisattva, may be more interesting.

Overall I would say there are various Spheres of Light Phenomena which are all part of nature and should be investigated, Dharma Pravicaya.

The extent of my inner eye now is that occasionally if I press myself hard I can work myself into something that is not quite hypnagogia and see a marvelous shine which spews out mostly random shapes and forms--fractal-ish in the way it expands, but not repeating the same function anywhere. Part of it might make silver boxes and pagodas, and another fling out yellow streamers, and so on.

I take it as a form of impure luminosity, i. e. all the strange vibrations are caused by uncontrolled imprints of habit-energy, rather than by something orderly like a mantra, which should impress it with something like standing waveforms.

When you do Manasa Japa you get a ghost image of the muscles in your tongue and so forth still saying it. It takes a while to shed the attachment.

The intent is that Manasa Japa should trigger certain responses, and so if Ganapati can easily prove that I do not have what it takes to even come up with his color, at the rate I am going I will Mutter him a year or more before anything happens. If I do more and add more Sumukhi, then it would probably kick in sooner.

Again I am mainly talking about environmental light and I have never really seen chakras, pathways, etc.

In Buddhist tantras these deities symbolize the essence or prajnarupa or
svabhava of five Buddhas. It is strange to note that not a single
sadhana is devoted to these live Prajnas. They appear only in
Yab-yum position and they are not given any active function.
The images of these deities are very rare. However a fine
specimen of these five Prajnas can be found in the Swayambhu Caitya with the exception of Vajradhatveshvary.

This doesn't make much sense to me. The wisdom Dakinis, who is whom I think you are talking about by the 5 Prajnas, seem to have been talked about all the time, but maybe that's a false impression I get from the fact that so many web pages are devoted to them, and so many taxonomies as to which one is what place and what color, etc.

No the Dakinis are not Prajnas.

They are an Activity.

Mayavi Rupa is the highest body; Prajnas are above that.

This very succinct page on Rainbow Body (https://soonyata.home.xs4all.nl/sorubasamadhi.htm) gives three kinds: the common one projected at death, the rare one arisen in life, and Transference or Rainbow Guru. It is jivanmukti, or gyu lu.

Mayavi Rupa (http://chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Illusory_body) is the self-arisen White Heruka which can be identified by any other yogin who has the Heruka Yoga. It is made of Vajradhatvishvari. It is gyu lu. Same as above! Also, Subtle Body.

"The purpose of illusory body yoga is mentioned, to realize the subtlest mind of clear light. This clear light mind is not considered illusory.

The illusory body is always called illusory (impermanent) because it is to be distinguished from vajra (permanent) body.

The clear light is the vajra body.

When the pure illusory body recognizes the primordially pure vajra body, there is the possibility one can realize a permanent form body, called "samboghakaya buddha," "body of light," etc.

All of this is very buddhism specific. It is called clear light, but it is not light.

It is a metaphor for pure consciousness.

The permanent form body fits the description of a body of divine light, but it is incorrect to say that it is created or generated. It is one's own primordial reality, seen correctly when the confused projections are finally ungrasped.

The vajra body is what is shared by all beings and is not a mere expedient means. It is what you are referring to as Brahman. The presence of the prana, nadi and bindu are also called the vajra body in terms of the relative.

There is a distinction to be made between Brahman and Tathagatagharba. Depending on the tradition, Brahman is said to be "nirguna," without qualities and attribute-less.

A smaller group of traditions speak of Brahman as being endowed with all auspicious qualities.

In Buddhism, the Tathagatagharba is said to be endowed with limitless qualities including the 32 major and minor marks of a fully enlightened Buddha."

Rainbow Guru:

https://soonyata.home.xs4all.nl/Soruba%20samadhi/Living%20rainbow%20body%20of%20great%20transference.jpg

The difference is perhaps that Illusory Body refers to the Krama, method and practice of development, and Rainbow Body only refers to the purified result.

As the vagina of Vajrayogini, it is said that it is really only the womb and ovaries which are Kamarupa Pitha of Assam. The Vagina and Cervix Pitha is Guhyeshvari which is a spring and the Root of Swayambhu, with the Root subsequently being Nairatma, so the most common name is Guhyeshvari Nairatma.

She initiated Manjushri into Chakrasamvara--Vajrayogini at an unknown time.

Nepalese Sangha means Dipankara plus the Seven Historical Buddhas, most of whom visited Swayambhu.

And the Dakinis that appear to me do not fit neatly into their descriptions on those websites, but neither do anything else it seems, I did find out that the rainbow color scheme for the chakras was a Western invention and had no basis in the East.

I believe it is Sanmat or Sikh Yoga.

We can find something in Krishna Yajur Veda which expresses seven elements as seven sounds and seven double colors, but, even here, the colors are not completely identical to the rainbow spectrum.

From 5-fold mountain-peak in China, Flawless Kinsman Vimala
I looked this one up, and got Wuxing Shan (literally five-fold mountain), it is where Xuanzang is supposed to have left for India from (where he recruited the Monkey, etc.) but the picture shown on the web page for it is of a mountain in Central China, and there was supposed to be something about the other mountains (Tianshan or the Kunlun mtns.). Or maybe "5-fold" is wrong and it is Wutai Shan.

Usnisa Vijaya Dharani is associated with Wu Tai Shan and, by listening, I get the sense of Vajra Kaya and Amrta Vacana as an important backbone of it, otherwise sounding similar to some of the Sarvadurgati mantras.

Yes "Five Peak Mountain" could be Kinchenjunga, or others in China or a few other places, but the one at the Mongolian frontier is the one meant.

shaberon

19th January 2021, 16:46

In poking through the Rainbow Body stuff, I saw that one experienced practitioner posted that Rainbow Body at death is displayed by someone about once every five years. He also says there are jivanmuktas, that there are rare, but multiple, living Lamas on whom you can see the manifestation and that it can occasionally even be photographed.

I was curious about the "Vajri" goddesses; it looks like they arise in the lower tantras, and then are tapered off, or, rather, replaced by names that are more individualized.

We have gotten accustomed to the term "vajra" appearing after a name to mean "Object" such as:

Rasa Vajra--Taste Object

But coming from STTS, we see "vajri" after names, which does not refer to objects, but to Seals or Mudras, such as:

Dharmavajri

is really a process which, so to speak, composes a magical prestidigitation aimed at improving the bond and quality of Lotus Family.

And it sounds a but like "vajrini" from Pratisara's mantra.

G. Buhnemann (http://lca.wisc.edu/~gbuhnema/deities2.pdf) cites Sakta's Srividyarnava Tantra as collecting all kinds of mantras, and uses a Buddhist group, that is, it personally identifies the group as Buddhist:

Padmavati, Ugra Tara, Ekajati, Tara, Nilasarasvati, Matangi, Sumukhi, and Candamatangi.

SVT says that Tara's mantra came from Gandharva Tantra, although it cannot currently be found there.

She says SVT also copies Pancha Raksa's manidhari vajrini mantra, and that it means "bearing a pearl necklace" and "holding a vajra". But the title does not seem to be anything other than a proper name, such as:

Vajriṇī (वज्रिणी) is an epithet of Kālī but used to invoke the goddess Durgā in her warrior mode during tantric rituals.

The more generic Vajri may mean Indrani, a type of Euphoria, or feminine vajra.

Buhnemann uses an image of Panjara Pratisara, which is different from the familiar one and involves her as a solo deity. It would be more accurate to say Nepalese Buddhists practice Kriya Tantra using volumes of Pancha Raksa texts. Not many make it to Panjara.

Panjara is the likely source for this weird Pratisara (https://manasataramgini.wordpress.com/2006/04/04/mahapratisara/) who emerges from the third eye of Pratyangira and does a strange Nyasa using Vajradaka, Ekajati, and others.

The Vajris continue in their STTS format in only one place in Sadhanamala, and, otherwise, are transferred into something more like the Rati goddesses in Guhyasamaja, e. g. Moharati, etc.

In Sadhanamala, Nairatma uses four Vajris for her Nyasa, lacking Matsarya. Namasangiti Manjushri has four (Sattva, Ratna, Padma, Karma). Vajra Tara 110 has:

mohavajrāṃ nyasen netre dveṣavajrāṃ ca karṇataḥ /
īrṣyāvajrāṃ tathā ghrāṇe vaktre tu rāgavajrikām //
saparśe mātsaryavajrāṃ vai sarvakleśatamo 'pahām /
āyataneṣu vijñeyā hṛdyā nairātmyayoginī //

and re-iterates them with Irsya either missing or called Sarva Vajri. Or, it seems to be using "vajra" indiscriminately with one vajri.

Buddhism separates Irsya from Matsarya (Lobha or avarice) according to that.

The weird Pancha Raksa 206 has:

pūjāstutyamṛtāsvādapūrvvakaṃ bhāvayet vicakṣaṇaḥ - cakṣuṣormohavajrī
mahāpratisarā, śrotrayor dveṣavajrī mahāsāhasrapramarddanī, ghrāṇe
mātsaryyavajrī mahāmāyūrī, vaktre rāgavajrī mahāmantrānu-
sāriṇī, spharśe īrṣyāvajrī mahāsitvatī / evaṃ rūpavedanā-
saṃjñāsaṃskāraviññānaskandhadhātvāyatanasvabhāvā evaṃ devatā-
viśuddhito jñātavyā viśeṣataḥ /

and makes a stray mention of Karmavajri.

Here, they are not conflated with "vajra--object", nor are they vajrinis as if Pratisara were apportioning her mantra.

Vajris of the Families have become personally identified with the Raksa Dharani goddesses on the body and the Five Skandhas there.

Varahi 226 has Guhya Vajrini.

That is about all they have--but the consistent thing is Vajribhava Mahasamaya Sattva Ah, which is Vajrasattva.

The previous line in his mantra had said "give me the Vajra state of the Tathagatas", but, at the end, it is Vajrasattva's own nature which is dependent on Vajris.

Although Abhisekha means "initiation" generally, Abhisinca (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/abhisincana) specifically means consecration by sprinkling.

According to Longsal (https://zh.b-ok2.org/book/1278389/7872cb):

VAJRIBHAVA.: Make me a Vajra holder

If Vajrasattva represents the First Bhumi, the mantra for that is:

Ground (bhumim): Om medini vajribhava vajrabandha hum.

Vajribhava is actually a specific initiation (https://books.google.com/books?id=u5mdDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA317&ots=kMl9boeK01&dq=vajribhava&pg=PA317#v=onepage&q=vajribhava&f=false) in Zhije, via Nine Vajrachandalis. The elixir goddesses are crowned with a thousand Buddhas until excess water rises up and they become crowned with Akshobya.

Black Jambhala (https://pdfslide.net/documents/dzambhala-black.html) does Vajribhava with the Five Tathagatas pouring nectar into your head until it overflows and the head is adorned with Ratnasambhava.

Hevajra (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Short_Hevajra_Sadhana) uses the Five Tathagatas and the Nectar consecrates the centers, possibly intending the Four Joys, before overflowing and Akshobya does some crowning. A longer (http://www.abhidharma.ru/A/Tantra/Content/Hevajra/0001.pdf) form applies it to each Tathagata individually.

Vajra Samaya = Vajribhava Abhisinca

When Kurukulla (https://dokumen.tips/documents/red-tara-kuru-kulle-sadhana.html) does it, the Gauris appear. That one is very direct and succinct, beautiful piece where she does this and then uses Inverted Stupa.

If we follow Marici, it will open Samaya to Vajradakini.

I think we are in a position to say that the Vajris and Vajribhava mean a lot to Vajrasattva increasing his abilities and using Nectar.

With these practices, almost anyone can make a refreshing, purifying Nectar, which is not the same one as defined by Kurukulla, she has the Blissful tantric one. That is a great sadhana because it is extremely definitive in a relatively short space. Kurukulla is mainly made of Hrih. If we follow the evolution of this syllable and mix it with the meaning of her sadhana, I don't see how she could resist.

Dombini her consort embraces her. It says that. It makes slight remarks about the actual use of the Inverted Stupa. Deities drink through their "straws", and, it says the mantra rosary is the butter lamp rosary...

About the only thing omitted from this sadhana is the production of Mercury. It takes you to that point but the result is "anything desired".

The thing is extremely close to what I have set up in more perfuse detail with Guhyajnana Dakini and Ziro Bhusana Vajrayogini, more pervasive in having Varuni and Vairocani. It is like a central definition that would snap-fit to Chakrasamvara or to this Kurukulla, who is part of Hevajra.

Ganapati Hrdaya shares an epithet with Vajrasattva: Pramodaya, similar to Pramudita.

Pramodā (प्रमोदा) is the name of Vidyārājñī (i.e., “wisdom queen”) mentioned as attending the teachings in the 6th century Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa.

Pramudita is also an epithet of Kubera.

Sakta Pramoda (http://docplayer.net/149473789-Buddlllst-tradidon-series.html) includes Sumukhi in 108 Names of Cinnamasta in what looks to be the whole Elizabeth English book there.

Similar to Joy, the First Joy, or the First Bhumi, Buddha in discovering a Path that was a modification of Samkhya did so because he remembered spontaneously having the First Dhyana as a child. Because it was happy, he decided the real Path must be in the Dhyanas.

I was a little confused, and, it is the Four Formless Dhyanas which are the upper crust of Dakarnava Heruka's lowest layer. I was also confused as to whether they were anantya "endless" or ayatana "sense faculties" but from the relevant section in Abhidharma Kosa (https://abhidharmakosa.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/akb-ch-8-karika.pdf):

36a. There are ten All-Encompassing Āyatanas (kṛtsnāyatanas). 36b. Eight are the absence of
desire. 36c. They belong to the last Dhyāna. 36d. They have Kāmadhātu for their object. 36e. Two
are pure ārūpya. 36f. They have the four skandhas of their sphere for their object.
N/C: K36a: “They are called „all-encompassing‟ (krtsna) because they embrace their object in its totality and
exclusively. They are ten in number: this is the totality of earth, water, fire, and wind; blue, yellow, red, and white; plus
the uninterrupted ayatanas (anantyayatanas) of space and consciousness (the First and the Second Absorptions of
Arupyadhatu).”

[so they are Anantya and Ayatana]

K36b: “The first eight are, by nature, the root of good which is absence of desire:(with their concomitant dharmas, they
are the five skandhas).”
K36c: “They are realized by an ascetic in the Fourth Dhyana.”
K36d: “They refer to the visible things (rupayatana) of Kamadhatu. However some think that the Fourth, the AllEncompassing Ayatana of Wind (vayukrtsnayatana) has for its object the tangible thing that is called the wind element
(vayudhatu). Some think that the first four have tangible things for their object, while the last four have visible things for
their object.”
K36e: “The last two are pure absorptions of Arupyadhatu.”
K36f: “Their objects are the four skandhas of the sphere to which they belong (the First and Second absorptions of
Arupyadhatu).”
“The Eight Dominant Ayatanas have the Eight Deliverances for their „entry‟ and the Ten All-Encompassing Ayatanas
have the Eight Dominant Ayatanas for their entry: the following, in fact, are superior to the preceding ones. All these
qualities can have the mental series of a Prthagjana or the mental series of an Aryan for their support, with the exception
of the Deliverance of Extinction (nirodhavimoksa) which can only be produced by Aryans.”

At the end, he specifies that removing oneself into permanently-still nirvana is non-Buddhist.

The eighth Dhyana is Naivasamjnanasamjnayatana (or Bhavagra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/bhavagra)).

Old Student

20th January 2021, 02:00

I think in geometrical ways such as the kata of martial arts, or, it is how I remember directions rather than street names and landmarks. Less mathematically artistic and closer to the holographic physics of the environment.

Yours sounds like something that could be called eye of the artist cross higher mathematics.

When I was starting out with martial arts, there was an ideal called a gongfuren (in those days people didn't use pinyin, so then it would have been Kung-fu jen). Literally a man of gongfu, i.e. a man of mastery. One should know martial arts, "philosophy (including meditation), art, music, science and medicine. So I studied all of these, eventually. I had thought all that was to make one "well-rounded". Now I can realize it was to make one's mind more flexible.

The extent of my inner eye now is that occasionally if I press myself hard I can work myself into something that is not quite hypnagogia and see a marvelous shine which spews out mostly random shapes and forms--fractal-ish in the way it expands, but not repeating the same function anywhere. Part of it might make silver boxes and pagodas, and another fling out yellow streamers, and so on.

I can pass on something I have learned about this: There is kind of a 'near' vision and a 'far' vision. I wrote them down in my notes that way but they need not be one near, one far. The near one is the vision you call up directly inside of you, which is what some of what you describe sounds like. It sometimes feels identical to the vision in dreams. The far one is crystal clear, like a very vivid memory, but it isn't a memory. I know they are separate because I was shown how to see both of them at the same time. The far one is the better one for seeing deities and visions and such. I don't know how you would practice using it, except to "remember" something you've never experienced with it.

This very succinct page on Rainbow Body gives three kinds: the common one projected at death, the rare one arisen in life, and Transference or Rainbow Guru. It is jivanmukti, or gyu lu.

So I've had a little problem with the stylized depiction of rainbow body in the thangkas. The pictures on that page like the one with the lotus underneath, and the picture of Mandarava most of the way down the page. I understand the others, but they seem symbolic. Maybe someone will get very good at CGI and do a modern version. I see a body that is shimmering, and emitting light, but is also sort of clear like glass, but the glass has tints and hues of rainbows as well.

As the vagina of Vajrayogini, it is said that it is really only the womb and ovaries which are Kamarupa Pitha of Assam. The Vagina and Cervix Pitha is Guhyeshvari which is a spring and the Root of Swayambhu, with the Root subsequently being Nairatma, so the most common name is Guhyeshvari Nairatma.

This is interesting.

I believe it is Sanmat or Sikh Yoga.

Not sure what this is, Guru Nanak was dead set opposed to yoga.

[QUOTE][Usnisa Vijaya Dharani is associated with Wu Tai Shan and, by listening, I get the sense of Vajra Kaya and Amrta Vacana as an important backbone of it, otherwise sounding similar to some of the Sarvadurgati mantras.

Yes "Five Peak Mountain" could be Kinchenjunga, or others in China or a few other places, but the one at the Mongolian frontier is the one meant. /QUOTE]

I would have thought so, too.

Old Student

20th January 2021, 02:11

She says SVT also copies Pancha Raksa's manidhari vajrini mantra, and that it means "bearing a pearl necklace" and "holding a vajra". But the title does not seem to be anything other than a proper name, such as:

Vajriṇī (वज्रिणी) is an epithet of Kālī but used to invoke the goddess Durgā in her warrior mode during tantric rituals.

The more generic Vajri may mean Indrani, a type of Euphoria, or feminine vajra.

It has to be that Vajri is modified by the word before it. If one says (made up example) vajrachakra it means lightning or diamond wheel. If one said chakravajra it would have to mean the wheel-like vajra. Vajri is, as you say, 'feminine vajra' but exactly what is that? As opposed to shakti. This is very interesting, you know I had a long thing with lightning bodies, and this seems like it is them somehow, that would be one kind of 'feminine vajra'.

When Kurukulla does it, the Gauris appear. That one is very direct and succinct, beautiful piece where she does this and then uses Inverted Stupa.

If we follow Marici, it will open Samaya to Vajradakini.

I think we are in a position to say that the Vajris and Vajribhava mean a lot to Vajrasattva increasing his abilities and using Nectar.

Interesting.

shaberon

20th January 2021, 21:03

the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri, Ratnavajri,
Dharmavajri and Karmavajri, the four Internal Offerings (fluids), i.e. Vajralasya,
Vajramala, Vajragita and Vajranrtya

This is something new to me, having 'vajri' at the end, as the thing being modified, instead of 'vajra' at the beginning.

According to Sakyamitra, the Symbol-consorts refer to the four Paramitas, i.e. Sattvavajri symbolising ‘perfection of knowledge (jnana)’, Ratnavajri ‘perfection of generosity {dana)', Dharmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of wisdom (prajna)', and Karmavajri symbolising ‘perfection of exertion (virya).

Are there two more deity-consort pairs somewhere for the other Paramitas?

This is sly.

They just gave the Tenth Paramita first on Sattvavajri.

Those Paramitas are not in order, they are certain roles, i. e. Virya--Karma--Activity....

I guess I'm not understanding how Vajradhara is corporeal and has a consort. I had thought that Vajradhara did not exist in corporeal form.

Symbolic for Dharmakaya.

Vajradhara Guru + enlightened use of the central wind = experience of Dharmakaya, so, in that way, he "has a consort", like the Spring Drop is "the Mahasiddhas' consort".

Vajradhara is considered to emanate a Celestial Bodhisattva, i. e. into Akanistha.

He may be considered by some to be an Outer Guru in the sense you could just pick up books about him and read those lines.

I have never taken him as anything other than Unmanifest.

He may have a consort sometimes, but is always about the most basic deity form there could be. It may be lavishly embellished, or, he may look poor, but, he also has a special Pandita role, Vimala Guru, with Siddharajni--Guhyajnana Dakini. That is the closest way I can describe the realm of his Bodhisattva. It can only be said to be gated by the Two Mountains of Vajrayogini which in practice are a very fine resolution of the energy-winds purifying the Seventh Principle, Addicted Mind.

I am not sure how close the presence of Tsun makes her to Cunda. As we have seen, Bhrkuti or Lotus deity is Parasol, to whom Cunda appears more Vajrasattva-esque, and like a lower mirror.

No, it may be more like a title like Jetsun.

For Cunda, since we see the one lineage that reveres her magnificently appears to relate her to Sattvavajri, which is...a complex Vajrasattva evolution similar to what Parasol does...and evidently secretly run by Dharani goddesses...that makes a framework for both of them.

Because Cun -> Tsun. I don't understand what you mean by Vajrasattva-esque.

It is difficult because they are highly similar.

Parasol is Bhrkuti and Padmavajri.

Cunda is Sattvavajri.

Parasol has an incredibly hypostatic path which is just hard to find due to the strewn material being hidden behind the popular use of her common mantras.

Cunda has nothing like that, however, she would if taken as Sattvavajri, and we see how that bridges to an entire class of Bodhisattvas, which is not being discussed by anyone that I know of, or raised in the commentaries. Simply by evidence alone we are able to see the big picture of them.

And so half of what we know about Dakini Jala is from Illustrated History of the Mandala, which does us the favor of a similar thing, since its chapters are organized by mandala classes. And so Kalachakra is seventh and so they are correct for separating it, since, it is its own system that is not really conversant with the rest and would be like making another translation.

I am not versed in Sutra Buddhism since I am more like an Ngakpa and it looks more difficult to me. I can see how it would be part of an educational system, like everyone takes the entire Prajnaparamita Sutra in their Junior Year or something. Since we don't have that kind of formal background, if anyone were to ask me where I got it from, I would point to the Legend of Dipankara. If our Buddha generated Bodhi Mind then, and re-generated it in his lifetime by the First Dhyana, I think those are the same. If I can change my aura by a Dharani such as Parasol which came out of Buddha's mind telepathically, then, I think it homes in on Dipankara rather easily.

In the tantras we have found a decided lack of Paramadya material, which has been described as fundamental, and, fortunately, Illustrated History deals with that. And its subject is Seventeen Deities, or, that is an important part of where mandala retinues come from.

So by examining the table of contents, Chapter Three (https://books.google.com/books?id=l8VWDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT7&ots=5qAz5WujO9&dq=vajrasattva%20seventeen%20deity&pg=PT7#v=onepage&q=vajrasattva%20seventeen%20deity&f=false) studies the topics:

Prajnaparamita Sutra is a system of Eighteen Mandalas related to Vajrasekhara

Seventeen Vishuddhi Padas are the seventeen deity mandala

Vajrasattva is the center

Paramadya Mandala

Chapter Four goes on to Vajradhatu Mandala, which is what we mean by Vairocana Tantra since it goes on to Navosnisa Sarvadurgati Parishodana and Dharmadhatu Vagisvara.

Chapter Five is Guhyasamaja and Maya Jala.

Chapter Six is:

Dakini Jala Samayoga

Paramadya into Samayoga

Hevajra

Chakrasamvara

And so Seventeen Deity Vajrasattva is the "representative" mandala of Prajnaparamita Sutra, with, they say, the main version being Parama Rahasya in the Mantrakhanda portion of the Chinese translation.

This one is a basic male version which gets "spiced up" in Paramadya. Male gods are in the cardinal directions and females in the corners.

The purifications are for instance, Rasa Vajra = Rasa Vishuddhi. We cannot see the page that gives the first five. In the mandala that was available, the Four Seasons goddesses were placed in the inner ring; usually they would be found outermost. The retinue as such and the Vishuddhipadas we can find are:

Vajra Manodbhava, Vajra Kilikila, Vajra Nismara, Vajra Garva, followed by Madhuvajri (Bhusana), Vajra Megha (Aladhana), Sarada Vajra (Aloka), and Hemanta Vajra (Kayasukha).

Rupa Vajra, Sabda Vajra, Gandha Vajra, Rasa Vajra, followed by Lasya (Dristi), Hasya (Rati), Gita (Trsta), and Nrrtya (Garva).

Vishuddhi is the act of purifying defilements by applying deities to them.

Amoghavajra's Vishuddhipadas match those in Anandagarbha's Paramadya commentary, so, the Chinese and Indian systems are the same to this point. The current oriental Four Bodhisattvas of Directions (https://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/mandala-deities.html) are still the same as given above.

Paramadya replaces the outer ring with Four Buddhas as if centered on Vairocana, and Bodhisattvas.

As far as the natures of the inner ring, I can only get "Vajramanodbhava, symbolizing desire, holds an arrow, the symbol of the god of love; Vajrakīlikīla, symbolizing touch, embraces ..."

Alex Wayman has a long quote from Paramadya using Anuraga (https://archive.org/stream/IntroductionToTheBuddhistTantricSystemsAlexWaymanMlbd_201806/Introduction-to-the-Buddhist-Tantric-Systems%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20Alex%20Wayman%20Mlbd------------------------------------------------------------------------------------_djvu.txt) as the Method for executing the Four Seals.

So the more static male-based mandalas are being converted into a way to do goddess initiations.

Anandagarbha comments Paramadya about the subject of Inner Guru which he calls presiding deity:

“One’s presiding deity is kamadeva. The
conviction that his diamonds of body, speech, and mind are one’s own —
with a praxis that it is really so — is the meaning of yoga. The “presiding
deity” appears to mean the same as the “tutelary deity” (ista-devata), or
the deity which the disciple serves with daily devotions and enshrines in
the heart."

Wayman is not completely correct, in that Inner Guru is not necessarily identical to Ihsta Devata. Inner Guru can make any Ishvar work and that is how he speaks, Vajradhara himself does not have forms, he enables something like a Thousand Arm Avalokiteshvar or Parasol to light up.

Since Paramadya is a tantra, it has much, much more than the original basic mandala, and goes on to the Reality of the Hand Symbol (Vajra), and to the subject of Vajra in Lotus.

When goddesses are present in the inner ring, they become able to confer the Diadem Initiation of the Four Families.

It begins talking about the Tri-kaya or Three Vajras as mysteries. Something to personally experience. It is not praising Buddha for his perfections, or asking him to teach them, but to install it via Vajrasattva.

Then, there are Four Goddesses since Vajrasattva is ordinarily male, but it also begins calling the same group Five Goddesses. In Hundred Syllable mantra, it asks Vajrasattva to bestow siddhis--and so that line is essentially what is being employed here:

The great weapon of the great lord who has the supreme success
(siddhi) that is great, is said to be the five-pronged thunderbolt
which is the great reality of the five secrets.

Anandagarbha’s extensive commentary on this verse (PTT. VoL 73,
p. 127-5 to p. 130), starts by explaining that the “supreme success” is the
siddhi of Sri-Vajrasattva (the glorious diamond being). The “great lord”
is Mahavajradhara. The great reality of the five secrets amounts to the
(1) bodhiucitta (mind of enlightenment), (2) understanding it, (3) its realiza-
tion, (4) its non-abandonment, and (5) the knowledge characterized by
attainment; and these are represented by five goddesses, who are “seals”
(mudra) arising from the Body, Speech, and Mind diamonds (vajra) of
Mahavajradhara. Observe that the source is again the “three mysteries of
the Buddha.”

And so if Vajrasattva is questionably called a goddess, and described as having Sukha (female) and Unwasted Vajra (male), then "he" really is Androgyne. And so he gets this retinue which is perhaps a bit unusual since Raga is in Vajra Family and there is also Kama at the end:

Bodhicitta---Vajrasattva (who has both the great pleasure and the unwasted vajra)

Understanding Bodhicitta--Vajra Family Ragavajra (who pleases Vajrasattva's mind so he will not swerve from the thought of enlightenment)

Realization of Bodhicitta--Ratna Family Vajrakilikila (Joyful utterance, the pledge to arouse attachment to the great pleasure and unwasted vajra)

Non-abandonment--Dharma Family Vajrasmrti (unshattered, victory over lust, etc.)

Knowledge characterized by Attainment--Karma Family Vajrakamesvari (sensory objects materialized by Vajrasattva)

It follows from the explanation of Vajrasattva that his inclusion in the five
goddess group is simply because he has the “great pleasure” which must be
counted as female in contrast with the “unwasted vajra'" which is male.
This is the closest this literature comes to the “passive-active” polarity.
It is because Vajrasattva is androgyne that both men and women can
practice the Tantras as yogins and yoginis.

And so it is from these one would learn the Four Seals.

The Fourth Activity enacted by Kama Ishvari above is the correct way to look at Krtyausthana Jana or Amoghasiddhi. Yes, the North pretty much always indicates knowledge or ability gained by a rite, but that is the Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi, Krtyausthana, entirely arcane.

Pramadya surprisingly ends like Guhyasamaja. The latter talks about thirty-eight classes of samadhi from initial training up to the hundred lineages, it then talks about after-stability, so one remains in inseparable void ecstasy, the union of vajra and lotus or Vajrapadmasamayoga:

By the yoga of '‘after-stability' one is ever stabilized. That
practice in all thoughts is called ‘practice of mantras’.

Whatever the sense basis and whatever its path ( — sense
object), precisely that approach in its own-being leads
to all Buddha-equality by the yoga of ‘after’-stability.

Accordingly, the asamdhita is the place
in the intervals by means of‘divine pride’ ( devata-garva ). The
two of them do not exist separately in the yughanaddha-krama
because there is a single own-being of ‘profound concentration’

So the Yoga techniques and samadhis should make a seamless garment to outer activities. The process shows us to cash in our old Garva and get a new one.

Paramadya similarly says:

Whatever the sense basis and whatever its path, he should
act in the own-being of the former and the latter. By
yoga after stability, he will unite with his own presiding
lord ( adhideia ). By this very yoga he will accomplish
everything. He will always see and perfect all the Buddha
natures.

So this is like understanding four parts of Vajrasattva mantra.

Sarva Siddhim me prayaccha is based in Five-pronged Vajra as described.

Laughter = Four Joys and Bell of Prajna

Sarva Tathagata Vajre = for example Parasol, Sarva Tathagata Adhisthana Adhistithe, All Buddhas' state of consecration.

Vajri Bhava = Vajra Ground, or, first Bhumi, or, Vajrasattva as wired through what "vajris" are capable of, more and more initiations.

Now by doing this, anyone can do it. If you are willing to do anything more than just read the words, you will get Vajrasattva casting or turning into some kind of purifying water. This is not tantric Nectar, but, you can get it to do something that is at least vaguely baptismal and helps. Now if you plug him in to Vajrasekhara or Shingon, it still will give his retinue back at what we might call a conceptual level. If you are dedicated to it, you probably can benefit from the long, formal process that goes on from there. However when goddesses are mixed in, then it is the case that works heavily on a Dharani basis that will bring a whole lot more power and subsequently change the mandala. And so then you get the subject "Paramadya into Dakini Jala". And so this means you are taking a minor Vajrasattva and moving it into his full operating field.

In Paramadya there is a weird, singular instance of Raga in Vajra Family, which is echoed much further down the road by for instance Achi in Vajra Family, or Parasol emanating as Maha Pratyangira and Amaravajra. Paramadya Raga is based in Anuraga, which would not generally get my attention, but, recently showed up as the word for a feeling I have never known a word for, other than perhaps symbolicly, Phoenix.

Hym

20th January 2021, 22:31

"This is interesting.

Quote I believe it is Sanmat or Sikh Yoga.
Not sure what this is, Guru Nanak was dead set opposed to yoga."

Yes. Guru Nanak was opposed to some forms of yoga and would surely have rejected the bastardized version of kundalini yoga as taught by any yogi, especially one claiming to be a sikh. The only real yog attributed to the sikh legacy is a wide open choice of the practitioner to develop their own, without losing touch to basic ethical standards that keep one in touch with the truth. Master it then leave it. If it is of service to humanity, it will find you.

In the case of martial arts, the sikhs did develop Gatka and other forms, adapted to being outnumbered by many opponents, arts previously known for many years.

Guru Nanak's emphasis was Raj Yog, the honoring, the crowning of the soul you are, embodied in Seva and self sacrifice on the highest level, the egoless energy needed to embrace the truth and not be caught up in the world of sensational limitations that many yogas focus on. When I see sikhs lost in the outward imprint of some pseudo-martial and ego-based drama, I quote Kabir and his hard core insights into hypocrisy, since his words live in the sikh Guide.

Also, you are referring to Sant Mat, a 5 prayer method of mantra that, after repetition, has the practitioner close off the eyes, ears and mouth, leaving a nostril or both open to breath in order to occlude external sensory input and thus begin to see and hear deeper. It is in the Listening and in beginning to See.

This is the art, the way, the method of occlusion as practiced by many different paths, with some closely aligned variants in the words themselves.

Jot Neerunjun, O Ung Kaar, Roorun Kaar (or Raarun Kaar), So Hung, Saat Naam(Suh- tih Naam). (the U as in the word Up)

Then, while occluding the other senses, in listening...Soonee-eh.........................

The Way of Occlusion was last of the Eight Stands of The Brocade that the very tall Sons of Reflected Light, the Fan Kuang Tzu, originally taught the Chinese some 11,000 years ago. The other strands being natural diet, herbal therapy, thermogenesis, Daoist massage, acupuncture, acupressure and exercise.

Most sikhs, definitely those lost in the excess of what a corrupt yogi taught them, do not even know of it's existence, as inner connection thru sound and sight was excluded from all of his teachings.

However the method and many others are alive within the sikh guides, Dasam Granth Sahib and The Siri Guru Granth Sahib.

I learned it from a Jain who sought me out and shared the method along many other prayers and their applications, projections, and effects. The Sant Mat teachers also sent me chaylas, students, who invited me to learn. No money ever passing hands, just service to share. Help keep the lights on..in the room and inside the practices.

Guru Gobind Singh did reference the method in the treatise prayer on the journey of the soul into enlightenment, called The 35 Letters, Pentees Uhkree, composed of the 35 basic letters of the alphabet, arranged in 7 dynamic paragraphs. Most notably he advised that the prayer always be vocalized and not ever whispered or read silently. It is a graduation test on enunciation for the language, and one of the 11 Baanees, prayers, that make up the Suhdaa Sunpoorun Paat.

Recently, and more specifically most think of Kundalini Yoga as something connected by the precepts of core sikhism and it is not. Guru Nanak taught the core truths of Raj Yog, which holds the highest of ethical standards and a direct connection to the power of service to humanity. Sadhana, discipline of the soul, is not bound to early morning practice, which is just putting in the hours for a distant promise never realized. It is much more than that.

My brothers and sisters of many paths laugh at the salesmanship it took to con some good people out of their life's energy, by occluding these truths from those who seek them.

I do understand where the great disconnect from the truth of a perception is, as it took a lot of energy to run such a corrupt enterprise.

'My job is to keep the kundalini of my students from rising' is a quote from the american sikh magazine Beads of Truth. It would not only be informed to find another method of learning a complete yog to learn and master, if one were to follow the real dynamic of kundalini and all of it's esoteric dynamics, but it would also be wise not to take a single word from a man who teaches a form of yoga in which he states it is his job to prevent his students from realizing it's essence. I see the printers forgot to put that in all of the manuals, as long as they were saying SatNam, Tell the Truth, in every greeting they had and in every course they so shamelessly sold. I am quite sure your perceptions are much more refined and developed by now to understand.

Not only was the k.y. taught by that man not kundalini yoga, if by that we know it to be a process of understanding the whole of an awakening and balanced life, while maintaining a service filled life of high ethics, but it draws very little of the experience based life of a any real seeker, let alone a sikh, surely not a GurSikh.

I had asked many sikhs who are in name and dress just that, what they have learned recently from the sikh guru, The Siri Guru Granth, and they are often without an answer. They can endlessly quote a yogi, a tuggee, ad nauseam, but often can't remember or understand what the Hookum Naam from their Guru was that morning, or from their wedding, or from the birth of their children, or the answer to a dilemma they had in their life. WTF indeed. Simple lack of connection, for which I understand, but refuse to be around.

I hope this clarifies any misunderstandings around Guru Nanak's messages on yoga.

shaberon

21st January 2021, 00:19

Vajri is, as you say, 'feminine vajra' but exactly what is that? As opposed to shakti. This is very interesting, you know I had a long thing with lightning bodies, and this seems like it is them somehow, that would be one kind of 'feminine vajra'.

Certainly; if the root force is electro-magnetical, the other shaktis such as heat, light, and moisture, are transforms out of it.

Those are the physical results of creation from the mental side. and so we do not really call them shaktis, since we are reversing their materializing behavior to revert to a mental-only state.

I do not think we can do much linguisticly with "vajri", since it has never come up as a subject. I am pretty sure we can get the inner meaning by following the antics of Sattvavajri.

Sattvavajri begins symbolic of the Tenth Paramita, but then she gains the Fourth Mudra and is crucial for the appearance of central deity or Buddha himself, and then her place at the beginning is pre-empted by Vajra Vajrini in other books. Grabbing the fourth power is like grabbing the originally-male Garva in that position.

Vajracakra is not a made-up term at all; it has shown up where Buddha apparently fuses Sattvavajri to Vajrasattva producing Vajra Eye; and Vajracakra becomes the core of Dakarnava Heruka. Actually, it is the first layer around the Padma, Binducakra, or Tilakachakra. He has layers, "Puta", each consisting of three rings. His Sahaja core is the Bindu and three layers (Vajra, Hrdaya, and Guna or Merit); his Dharma layer is Space, Wind, and Earth; his Sambhoga layer is Fire, Water, and Gnosis. The "to us" highest element, Vijnana, Manas, Gnosis, is his lowest, the others stacking up backwardsly. His Gnosis is above his Nirmana layer of Mind--Citta (consisting of the "kinds of beings or mental states"), Speech--Vak (Puja, Japa, etc.), and finally his Body, or, to us, Kama Loka.

Vajrini is so prominent and well-known as Pratisara mantra, it may as well be her name. If she is a Dharani, and perpetuates the "vajri" names where others choose differently, and, it is in a sadhana which has obvious tantric implications that scholars and artists do not deal with, a better arrangement of her table may be useful. It is a Nyasa:

Eyes: cakṣuṣormohavajrī mahāpratisarā (Rupa skandha)

Ears: śrotrayor dveṣavajrī mahāsāhasrapramarddanī (vedana)

Nose: ghrāṇe mātsaryyavajrī mahāmāyūrī (samjna)

Mouth: vaktre rāgavajrī mahāmantrānusāriṇī (samsara)

Surface: spharśe īrṣyāvajrī mahāsitvatī (vijnana)

Dhatu Ayatana Svabhava purified by infusion of deities, devata vishuddhi.

This is a Kriya tantra because it implies Vairocana-centered with Eyes related to form.

It protects mostly the face, leaving Spharse as "body".

When such a mandala "graduates", skandhas will play musical chairs by sliding down one spot, so that Samsara lines up with Irsya, and then Vijnana Skandha will get sucked to the center looking to meet the Sixth Element, Vijnana--Manas.

Temporarily, your Samsara is in the hands of the Mantra Queen of Lotus Family.

It purifies the ayatanas of dhatus, and even if not mentioned here, the same principle applies to Akasa Dhatu Ayatana and the other Formless Realms.

As the ayatanas are purified, they raise the Gauris, which are Sampatti or fully-absorbed meditations.

Garva is obviously a target of the early tantra, for which, we find, the union of Ratnasambhava with Vajradhatvishvari is to Extinguish Pride, or Garva.

Lasya is defined as Pleasure in the Thought of Enlightenment, so, she keeps Raga Vajra's idea from Paramadya Tantra.

Names of Wisdom tells us Sattvavajri is the pledge-deing of all Tathagatas. The end of Vajrasattva's mantra implies compressing the Vajris into "Ah", whereas:

[[He is] the great breath, a non-production. Free from speech utterance. Foremost cause of all expression. Very radiant as all speech. (29) 150] The great breath, a non-production [is to be understood] as meaning Sattvavajri. Here the great breath is the sound 'A'; and that [sound 'A'] has nonproduction as its nature. [This is] because it has the Dharma-Sphere as its nature and is the cause of the Mirror-like Awareness.

It does something like this:

Manjusrjnanasattva The letter A Sattvavajri Ratnavajri Dharmavajri Karmavajri Vajrasattva Amitabha Aksobhya Vairocana Amoghasiddhi Ratnasambhava Vajrasattva Vajraraja Vajraraga

From Sattvavajri's non-produced sound, you get:

Free from speech utterance (vagudaharavarjitah) [is to be understood] as meaning Ratnavajri. He, [that is, ManjuSri,] is free from (varjitah > rahitah) that speech utterance {vag^udahara} since, as a result of the Awareness of Equality, [the faculty of] speech is not functioning. Foremost cause of all expression (sarvabhilapahetvagryah) [is to be understood] as meaning Dharmavajri. All expression {sarva^abhilapa} means the expression (abhilapah > abhilapanam) of all real entities (dharma), such as the five constituents (skandhas). The cause (hetuh > karanam) of that [expression] is the Discriminating Awareness. For this very reason it is foremost (agryah > pradhanam). Very radiant as all speech (sarvavaksuprabhasvarah) 151 [is to be under stood] as meaning Karmavajri. All speech {sarva:vak} means [the varieties of speech] as referred to in the passage that begins, "with the speech of the gods, with the speech of the nagas ,.."

Vajris are related to the Dhyanas--Janas and the Outer Offerings to Samadhi:

mahadhyanasamadhistha iti vajrapuspa / samadhi^ cittasyaikagratalaksanas 10 tasmims tisthatiti samadhisthah / mahac ca tad 11 dhyanam ca 12 mahadhyanam mahattvam caturdhyanatmakatvat /

Possessor of a body of great wisdom {mahaprajnas~arira2xihrk} means Vajradhupa (Lady of Diamond Incense). Great wisdom {maha:prajna} is [to be understood as] a body {mahaprajiia:£arira}. He is 'one who possesses that [body]'. Dweller in concentration in great meditation is Vajrapuspa (Lady of the Diamond Flower) {mahadhyana^samadhisthah}. [ManjuSri is a] dweller in concentration {samadhi^sthah}, that is to say, in one-pointedness of mind, in great meditation {maha:dhyana}. [It is called] great because it has the Four Meditation States as its nature. He is in the state of samadhi in those Four Meditation States. Resolve (pranidhih) 193 is Vajradipa (Lady of Diamond Light). [The word] 'pranidhih' means 'that which is vowed', [that is, a 'vow' or 'resolve', rather than 'one who vows']. [He is so-described] because through the power of resolve Bodhisattvas are produced.

Dhyana is intended to increase to Samadhi which becomes so intense one becomes oblivious to outer stimuli, which is Sampatti.

It appears to say Greed is the axis of Sampatti handled by Ratna Family:

mahamahamahalobha iti7 // mahamaheti purvavat8 * / mahalobho9 ratnasambhavah // sarvalobhanisudana iti / sarvalaukikalokottarasampatti

Which is very similar to him consorting with Vajradhatvishvari. Here it is Greed and there it is Pride.

The fourth dhyana, upekkhāsatipārisuddhi, is generally seen as the gate to Siddhis. It makes sense, Sati or basic mindfulness receives shuddhi, purification by deities, to become Smrti, which is tantricly the gate to worldly (laukika) and transcendant (lokottara) siddhis. The Lokottara are Generation and Completion stages, hence, reliant on samadhi.

We are just about fluent enough to say that Dharanimandala is an equivalent goddess-based version of Vajradhatu, and so if it is given the proper things for Thirty-seven point enlightenment, it should be equivalent.

An edit to Kurukulla says her mantra is "like" a butter lamp rosary in terms of shine. It doesn't mean there is a Butter Lamp Rosary mantra.

Old Student

21st January 2021, 02:51

Yes. Guru Nanak was opposed to some forms of yoga and would surely have rejected the bastardized version of kundalini yoga as taught by any yogi, especially one claiming to be a sikh. The only real yog attributed to the sikh legacy is a wide open choice of the practitioner to develop their own, without losing touch to basic ethical standards that keep one in touch with the truth. Master it then leave it. If it is of service to humanity, it will find you.

What he specifically rejected was withdrawing from the world to cultivate oneself with yoga, by extension he did not approve of those who do, who make up a large number of those who found schools of yoga.

I am aware of Sikh martial arts, having attended many kabaddi events, and treated their wounded.

Fung Quan Tzu

Could you please check this for either spelling or transliteration? Quan is in pinyin and the other two words aren't so it is not easy to understand what you mean here. Do you mean, e.g. Feifong quan (flying phoenix boxing)? Do you mean Zhuangzi (Chuang tzu)?

Guru Nanak felt that yoga practice was withdrawal from the world, and he advocated not doing such withdrawal, instead being in the world with the name of the lord on one's tongue at all times.

Old Student

21st January 2021, 03:03

Vajradhara Guru + enlightened use of the central wind = experience of Dharmakaya, so, in that way, he "has a consort", like the Spring Drop is "the Mahasiddhas' consort".

Vajradhara is considered to emanate a Celestial Bodhisattva, i. e. into Akanistha.

He may be considered by some to be an Outer Guru in the sense you could just pick up books about him and read those lines.

I have never taken him as anything other than Unmanifest.

He's usually considered to be very high level, isn't he? That Niguma had communicated with Vajradhara directly was considered evidence that she had attained the 10th (at that time the highest) Bhumi.

Parasol is Bhrkuti and Padmavajri.

Cunda is Sattvavajri.

Parasol has an incredibly hypostatic path which is just hard to find due to the strewn material being hidden behind the popular use of her common mantras.

Cunda has nothing like that, however, she would if taken as Sattvavajri, and we see how that bridges to an entire class of Bodhisattvas, which is not being discussed by anyone that I know of, or raised in the commentaries. Simply by evidence alone we are able to see the big picture of them.

A bridge or a dual embodiment. To me she is dually embodied, so she has both a highly austere form and a 'flower form' (generative, womb).

And so if Vajrasattva is questionably called a goddess, and described as having Sukha (female) and Unwasted Vajra (male), then "he" really is Androgyne. And so he gets this retinue which is perhaps a bit unusual since Raga is in Vajra Family and there is also Kama at the end:

This version of Vajrasattva is closer to the sort of mixed Vajrasattva I've ended up having because of combining what I had had for a Vajrasattva with what you have said about some of his surrounding symbols -- yoghurt for instance.

Now by doing this, anyone can do it. If you are willing to do anything more than just read the words, you will get Vajrasattva casting or turning into some kind of purifying water. This is not tantric Nectar, but, you can get it to do something that is at least vaguely baptismal and helps.

This confirms the previous comment for me.

Hym

21st January 2021, 04:35

It is spelled Fan Kuang Tzu, Sons of Reflected Light. It is no reference to martial arts. It means the tall whites, the sons of a higher race, a more advanced race, in metallic craft/air ships, reflecting the sunlight.

This is my understanding and method for transliteration. A bit of it at least, explaining why I spell that way:

From various differences in dialects I see a range of transliterations, from what is called pinyin, 'spell sound', by those who transliterate Chinese. I use the "u" as in "up", instead of the "a". Most Americans would say "fan", like 'I turned the fan on when it was hot', instead of saying "fun", like 'I had fun learning'. If someone learning speaks the romance languages, they usually enunciate correctly, with only small corrections to get it right.

In transliteration the Uh, or a, is also the sound that fills in between consonants, without being written. It is called the mukta/mooktuh, the liberated space.

To be quite direct with you about this, I felt I had to ask about my method, even after the Indian Sikhs, who asked my help in teaching, said it was correct. I asked The Siree Guroo Grunt about my method. The HukamNaam/Hookum Naam, the focused yet random opening of the Guru, from Guru Raam Daas, answered:

"It doesn't matter how you say Creation's/God's Name, as long as you say it with your Heart."

That took all of my focus on enunciation and method, and emphasized to me that it is always the intention of your words that have to be the focus. Learn the correct way, speaking as a complete being, then let it be.

Also, the word for the Heart was Gut-ih/Ghat. I find this correlation in a lot of transliterations and translations from one prayer system to another, wherein there is carried a meaning that is not coincidental. The G/Gh is a low tone, used by the British transliterators to mean aspirated. The same G spoken from the Tan Tien, the core of your physical energy. The T is a retroflex which means a connection to higher consciousness, touched with the tongue thru the upper palate.

In essence this means that sincerity in speech is a combination of your primal being connected to your higher consciousness. When the lower energy of physicality rises and the upper energy of awareness lowers, they meet in the Heart, the timeless and infinite space of experiential awareness. We feel it in our Gut, our primal awareness that transcends the limitations of speech and words....The technicality is the road, but not the Path.

When sharing with those who speak and read American English, sacred Indo-Asian prayers are most often enunciated incorrectly by them. Either way, it is of no matter, as we teach phonetically the way people read and speak. It is easy to teach, and yet glaring when it is done without that simple correction.

An American for example, using a standardized British transliteration system, enunciates many of the words in GoorMookee incorrectly. A good example of this is when English speaking people refer to sikhs from Northwest India use the mispronunciation "Poon Jab ee", instead of Punj-aabee. Punj is 5, Aab is river. The Punjaab is most notably referenced as the location of the 5 rivers. In American English we rarely use the "u" sounding like "oo" and most often say Uh as in Up.

There is a lot more about sharing this, but suffice it to say I do notice when it has been taught correctly and when it has not. The words, the texts, the songs flow so much easier when it is taught with a simplicity, just as Guru Angad/Ungud was instructed to do by Guru Nanak/Naanuhk, quite easily I have found out, engaging a simplicity that illiterate people could grasp and soon master, easily becoming literate in a very powerful language no less. Again, the heart of speech is not about the technicality, nor the correctness, but the intent of the words. I do get it when earnest people speak from the heart, "correct" or not.

When learning another language, and my focus has been on sacred language, native american, shinto, etc., I have learned to seek out the essence of what that culture is expressing.

Old Student

21st January 2021, 05:32

Certainly; if the root force is electro-magnetical, the other shaktis such as heat, light, and moisture, are transforms out of it.

Those are the physical results of creation from the mental side. and so we do not really call them shaktis, since we are reversing their materializing behavior to revert to a mental-only state.

I know what you mean here, but do also know that in places, such as the Avatamsaka sutra, this distinction of a "mental-only state" doesn't exist.

Vajrini is so prominent and well-known as Pratisara mantra, it may as well be her name. If she is a Dharani, and perpetuates the "vajri" names where others choose differently, and, it is in a sadhana which has obvious tantric implications that scholars and artists do not deal with, a better arrangement of her table may be useful. It is a Nyasa:

Eyes: cakṣuṣormohavajrī mahāpratisarā (Rupa skandha)

Ears: śrotrayor dveṣavajrī mahāsāhasrapramarddanī (vedana)

Nose: ghrāṇe mātsaryyavajrī mahāmāyūrī (samjna)

Mouth: vaktre rāgavajrī mahāmantrānusāriṇī (samsara)

Surface: spharśe īrṣyāvajrī mahāsitvatī (vijnana)

Can you please see if spharśe might be misspelled? I spent a lot of time trying to chase it down, in this diagram, and in the dictionary, it might be should be sparśe, connoting a sense of touch.

[[He is] the great breath, a non-production. Free from speech utterance. Foremost cause of all expression. Very radiant as all speech. (29) 150] The great breath, a non-production [is to be understood] as meaning Sattvavajri. Here the great breath is the sound 'A'; and that [sound 'A'] has nonproduction as its nature. [This is] because it has the Dharma-Sphere as its nature and is the cause of the Mirror-like Awareness.

At least some of this --taking the sound 'A' to be non-production -- is in the disappearance of 'A' from the letters when in a word, and the all speech from that it is the compression of the Prajnaparamita.

I keep counting 4s everywhere instead of 5s or more. Am I missing something?

shaberon

21st January 2021, 09:09

I know what you mean here, but do also know that in places, such as the Avatamsaka sutra, this distinction of a "mental-only state" doesn't exist.

One of the places Avatamsaka was spoken is Tusita Heaven.

It is the place where Ekajati Pratibaddha Bodhisattvas dwell prior to birth in the life they become a Buddha:

"First, dwelling in the Tusita Heaven, he proclaims the true Dharma. Having left the heavenly palace, he descends into his mother's womb."

Indra Heaven is the last thing said to be related to form as we know it. Tusita is above this, and, is the lair of the Aditis. Aditi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aditi) is Boundless, mother of the gods, representing a level that mentally thinks, but, does not, itself, work with lower matter.

The Aditis or Tusitas are in a form or body which is only made of mental matter.

That would be Body-less compared to ordinary consciousness. It is more like Illusory Body.

The Sutra is probably saying more about the virtues of a Bodhisattva, but, if it uses the term Dharmadhatu, it asserts there is a mental element other than physical matter. It is made up of none other than the senses, but, the senses may be placed in a non-physical mode.

Dharmadhatu is really the term I would use about "pinning" a five-fold bundle of form to the Sixth Element. In a system of Five, Dharmadhatu is the highest thing. It is like the word "Form" or "Body", a bit shifty, requiring context.

Can you please see if spharśe might be misspelled? I spent a lot of time trying to chase it down, in this diagram, and in the dictionary, it might be should be sparśe, connoting a sense of touch.

Yes, it is sparsha...spelling tweaks make this pretty difficult.

We see in this format of tantra that Sparsha is in Karma Family, and that, similarly to how the list of skandhas is going to "take a turn", Sparsha is going to the middle.

I keep counting 4s everywhere instead of 5s or more. Am I missing something?

Well, often these basic retinues are just a cycle of four.

And, to be precise, there is not really "the Prajnaparamita Sutra", there is a Prajnaparamita genre of literature, for which I take the large version online as "the Sutra".

But the Hrdaya Sutra with the Gate Gate mantra is not in it; different book.

And so it is an obscure piece of this literature on which Seventeen Deity mandala is based: Prajnaparamita in 150 Stanzas.

Paramadya Tantra begins basically by copying it.

It is unusual, since it is not in Akanistha, but in the sixth Kama Loka called Enjoying the Emanations of Others, where Vairocana deals with the Ishvar of this plane:

Vairocana teaches Ishvara (that is, the Lord) of the desire realm by first emanating as a body of great joy who is
surrounded by a retinue of beautiful women. This gets Ishvara’s attention, since when he
sees the beauty of Vairocana’s retinue his own wife and her retinue look ugly in
comparison. ÊŸvara then asks Vairocana how he obtained such a bevy of beauties. It is in
response to this that Vairocana teaches ÊŸvara the seventeen pure states of the mode of the
perfection of wisdom. Because ÊŸvara would be afraid of attaining liberation through the
process of taking refuge, generating the mind of enlightenment, and then giving up his
domain, Vairocana taught (or displayed) the seventeen pure states in the manner of
goddesses, and thus he taught them as the source of very joyful great bliss.

He then set forth the benefits of listening to and contemplating the mode of the perfection of wisdom
(that is, the seventeen purities or pure states).

This comes from a study on Prajnaparamita literature (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.175.3313&rep=rep1&type=pdf) which used Paramadya to ascertain versions of The Great Compendium sent to China. The author studied it heavily and does not bother to tell us what Vishuddhipada are, other than "similar to emptinesses".

According to H. H. Gyalwa Karmapa (http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/prajnaparamita.htm), Prajnaparamita itself began by quoting an older book. He also says that early texts did not begin "Evam Maya Srutam" as if they did not try to portray themselves as Sutra or i. e., spoken by Buddha.

150 Lines (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/download/Buddhism-Philosophy-and-Doctrine/en/PerfectWisdomTheShortPrajnaparamitaTexts.pdf) comes at p. 184 in the Conze translation, and I am not really able to find Seventeen Vishuddhi Pada before Vajrapani casting a mandala.

It is one of the few articles considered a tantric Prajnaparamita text. It is considered the first intsersection of esoteric tenets with a mandala.

Here is 8000 Lines (https://archive.org/stream/Prajnaparamita800019/Prajnaparamita_8000_19_djvu.txt) on one web page, which may not help us here.

Yogachara Bhumi (http://www.acmuller.net/yogacara/outlines/YBh-summary.html) contains "Seventeen Stages of a Bodhisattva", i. e. the preliminaries and the Bhumis.

she has both a highly austere form and a 'flower form' (generative, womb) -- Parasol and Cunda. Sure. Parasol is regal. She has the "Ni" syllable--which is really that of Khandaroha no matter which mistake you make--but perhaps means "to lead, govern". She is, perhaps, just passing the heat on its course. Cunda appears closer to the engine of heat generation, thus, a Red Bowl. If we follow Samvarodaya Tantra then "Vajrasattva consort" becomes Vairocani with him in the Navel.

When Cunda enters the base of the spine, secondary Khandaroha is her neighbor.

It is possible that originally Vajrasattva only had a Vajra and no Bell. As we can see, the Bell item, or, rather, the powers of it, are unfolded in Karma Family and passed along.

The tenth Bhumi is the State of Vajradhara.

Here is some stuff from the Niguma book. Shangpa Kagyu is based on Vajradhara as a Guru to Niguma and Sukhasiddhi. He is also counted as a Guru to Nairatma, Cinnamasta, and Jnanadakini in those lineages such as Vajrabhairava Tantra.

They say that Vajradhara is the Sixth Family although he has Seven Aspects. If he is a type of Fruitional Vajrasattva, that is why these two are often used interchangeably and would not generally be seen as breaking the format of a Six Family Wheel. I am not sure that I am saying there is a Seventh Family, if it hasn't any other members, but there is a Seventh Consciousness.

Most of this is not "Niguma says" but is in the book:

It can be determined that the fruition aspect of tantra is twofold: the actual fruition and the nominal results. The actual
fruition is that of supreme Vajradhara, the powerful state of
mastery over all family types. The nominal results are those
of the illusory body and of an ordinary being who has realized primordial unity. The latter case is the flawed embodiment of one who is still on the path of training, while the
former is the flawless embodiment of timeless awareness of
one who has reached the path of no more training. The illusory body is also termed that of "a master of awareness" and
"rainbow body"; it constitutes a complete transcendence of
the three realms.

" Vajradhara is described as the inner aspect
of the buddha Shakyamuni. In this form, the Buddha taught the four
classes of tantra to King Indrabhuti, "he" abides until the end of time,
and he dwells in that mysterious place called the bhaga of the vajra
queens"

Similarly to how Sattvavajri bears the Tenth Paramita while being the "first goddess":

The dharmakaya free of all embellishment [appears) in the
meditative equipoise above the first ground. The sambhogakaya adorned with the signs and marks appears in the subsequent knowing on the three pure grounds. The nirmanakaya
appears in the subsequent knowing up through the seventh
ground and above the greater [ground] of the Path of
Accumulation.
It is interesting that the dharmakaya is accessible first, though specifically in meditation. It seems more profound, the ground of all buddhabodies, and therefore more difficult to realize. But the keener realization
is to meet the fully adorned and manifesting buddha, not in meditation but in the subsequent awareness after meditation-in "daily life" so to speak.

Of course, that is not to say the Tenth Paramita or the Dharmakaya is fully realized on those "initial tastes", you have a process of it going deeper while the manifestation becomes stronger.

The actual Tenth is far out enough that Vajradhara rather initiated Niguma and then she attained Dharma Megha:

in this life she directly saw the truth of the nature of phenomena just by hearing some instructive advice from a few adept masters. Her dissipating illusory body
arose as the nondissipating kaya. Dwelling in the three pure grounds,
she encountered the great Vajradhara in person. After she had fully
received from him the complete four empowerments in the emanated
mandala of secret mantra mahayana, she developed the timeless awareness of the understanding of all dharma doors-siitras, tantras, esoteric
instructions, treatises, and so on. She realized all phenomena the way
they are and the way they appear in their multiplicity, and became a real
bodhisattva dwelling on the tenth ground, Cloud of Dharma.

Her personal practice is a parallel snap-fit to what we have with Guhyajnana Dakini and Ziro Bhusana Vajrayogini:

The practice text
attributed to Niguma translated here is quite remarkable and considerably different than the one found in the later Shangpa tradition. The
more usual visualization, such as that found in Kalu Rinpoche's daily
practice, involves Chakrasamvara with Vajrayogini as the central deities in union surrounded by four dakinis.
There is also a practice of visualizing just the dakinis without Chakrasamvara called Five l)dkinis (mkha' gro sde lnga) in the Shangpa lineage. The relevant texts of this were arranged by Kongtrul, drawing
on Taranatha's Mine of jewels, and seem not to date earlier than that,
though it is described as an esoteric instruction of Khyungpo Naljor,
received directly from the five dakinis themselves and in turn from the
Lion-faced dakini.

It is also parallel to Namasangiti, which increases the Vajradhatu mandala to Mahavajradhatu, which is equivalent to Maha Vairocana and complete Sambhogakaya:

In the palace of Akanistha,
Vairochana sambhogakaya Vajradhara

Which is synonymous to, for instance, Samantabhadra Vajradhatu.

The way higher Bhumis are described essentially puts them as simply another series of initiations. Niguma's first teaching is Empowerment:

Alternatively, that tenth-ground bodhisattva in Akanistha received
the complete four empowerments from the great Vajradhara in union
as sambhogakaya and great Vajradhara as sukhakaya, the sixth family.
By that, he traversed to the fourteenth ground. It says in the Tantra of
Vajra Bliss and in the Tantra of Timeless Awareness Drops:
The vase empowerment is the eleventh,
the secret empowerment the excellent twelfth,
the wisdom-timeless awareness the thirteenth,
thus the tathagata is the fourteenth.
Each ground for each empowerment.
These are the lords of the grounds

union and great bliss sambhogakaya, arising to tame anyone,
the mighty Vajradhara of three kayas and seven aspects:

She is going to let slip the secret of Khaganana:

3. One's own body is the means: three channels and four
chakras.
The blazing and melting of a-ham adorns one in moments with
four joys.
By uniting with the wisdom's khagamukha
dissipating and nondissipating four joys arise in sequence.

4· Gather the quintessence, the hollow interior purifier in three
vital points/
and to quicken the heat/ the six dharmas, such as inner heat in
sequence:
rabbit descending, holding, reversing, spreading, and blending
with vital energy currents.
Adorn oneself with nondissipating great timeless awareness.

The Lord of all families, the sixth victor great Vajradhara,
appeared naturally to the dakini of timeless awareness as
unborn native natural sound, which naturally revealed the
abiding nature of mahamudra in samsara and nirvana, and
she spoke these vajra lines...

"When even the most subtle aspects of the subtle channels, energies, and bindu have
been refined so chat they are free of obscuration, one is purified of the ordinary experience of the body and abides on the thirteennth level. This is the actual accomplishment
of the state of Vajradhara, that is, the enlightened embodiment of timeless awareness,
the rainbow body of the consummate path of no more training.

Vajradhara is described as having seven aspects of
union (kha sbyor bdun !dan):

(1) complete enjoyment (longs spyod rdzogs pa), (2) union (kha sbyor), (3) great bliss (bde ba chen po), (4) no intrinsic nature (rang bzhin med pa ), ( s) completely filled with compassion (snying rjes yongs su gang ba ), ( 6) uninterrupted (rgyun mi chad pa), and (7) unceasing (gog pa med pa).

Old Student

21st January 2021, 17:46

Okay, so several things.

Spelling is important for Chinese transliteration because there are only 911 distinct pronunciations for all words in the Chinese language (mandarin). And there are several standard transliterations for standard mandarin, less so for the other dialects. By transliterating it now, as Fan Kuang Tzu (which is known as Wade-Giles system tranliteration), I can very easily see what characters it is. Likewise, if you had written Fanguangzi, which would be the pin-yin. And by saying it is 'sons of reflected light' then I can easily write down, "反光子" and look it up on the internet, because I studied Chinese, including some classical Daoist texts (Laozi, Zhuangzi).

Here is what I find. All roads from "Sons of Reflected Light" lead to Chee Soo, a source cited by Chan Kam Lee, a Taijiquan practitioner who taught "Lee style" Taijiquan, and claimed this as a Daoist source. (in terms of transliteration, both Chan Kam Lee and Chee Soo are spelled as is normal for Cantonese or Toisan (Hong Kong dialect), which in itself is very normal for a 1930s Taijiquan teacher).

In Chinese, if I search on "反光子", I get debates on Baidu and elsewhere about a so-called anti-matter photon called a "reflected photon" fanguangzi (子 can also mean 'seed' or in this case 'particle'), literally a "reflected photon". There is a debate over whether such a particle would exist, it is generally discredited by physicists because the only argument for its existence is to try to make all things "electromagnetic" have polarity.

As for one site, which says Daoism is 10,000 years old and the 10,000 y.o. Daoists met seven foot strangers, etc., Daoism, which was the focus of my big paper when I was studying Chinese, dates from only the 1st millenium B.C.E. with Laozi and Zhuangzi. (My big paper wasn't officially a senior thesis, but it was the length of a master's thesis in Chinese, I wrote it for a class on Laozi, where we had to memorize the whole text).

Separately, I am aware of transliteration for Indian languages, they are based on distinct transliterations for each syllable, because the nagari systems are syllabaries. India has many languages, and pronunciation is not uniform among them. But I'm also not sure outside of proper names that it is a good idea to roll your own on spellings. In my experience, those from different parts of the country can look at standard transliteration and pronounce the words immediately in their own language accents, because English is a link language in India and the Indian dialect of English is considered native speech.

shaberon

21st January 2021, 18:55

OM VAJRA GUHYA ABHISINCA HUM

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/attachments/travelogues/1400094d1438799519-catharsis-soul-ladakh-006ratnavajarinidetail-vajraguhya-mandala.jpg

STTS could be called "the book of Vajradhatu".

Vajradhatu is its first mandala given, and all the rest are children or offshoots of it.

It turns out that Vajraguhya or Dharani mandala Is the second--pictured above at Alchi, centered on a four faced goddess, all considered consorts of male Vajradhatu deities.

There is a slightly cleaner view of the inner core at Alchi (https://www.alchi-treasureofthehimalayas.com/Alchi_-_Treasure_of_the_Himalayas/Structuring.html#3) site but impossible to show here.

The relevant text is Chapter Two (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/84/715) of Sanskrit STTS, or, the entire Gretil STTS (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/sarvttsu.htm) on one page, which appears to have more mantras.

A study (https://doczz.net/doc/2218434/pacific-world---institute-of-buddhist-studies) informs us that Amoghavajra had a "Vajrosnisa system", and, that he also had a copy of Dakini Jala--which he censored:

Assuming that the Vajroṣṇīṣa as summarized by Amoghavajra in
the Indications of the Goals of the Eighteen Assemblies of the Yoga of the
Adamantine Pinnacle Scripture [Vajra Sekhara] did not differ from the set of original
texts given by Nāgajñāna to Vajrabodhi, we see that it is a heady mix
indeed, as the Vajroṣṇīṣa obtained by Amoghavajra from Śrī Laṅkā
is redolent of an origination in an esoteric Śaiva context. Among the
texts obtained by Amoghavajra may be found the above-mentioned
Tattvasaṃgraha, which constitutes the first through fifth assemblies
in his Vajroṣṇīṣa system; at least one Yoginī-tantra, the system’s ninth
assembly, the Sarvabuddhasamāyoga-ḍākinījālasaṃvara; and as well
an edition of the Guhyasamāja, the fifteenth of the assemblies.
Appreciation of this latter text, which declared itself to be promulgated while the Buddha was residing in the vulva of the Vajra Maidens,
was effectively censored by Amoghavajra, who chose to transliterate rather than translate the unchaste term in the original Sanskrit;
he noted both discretely and opaquely that the Guhyasamāja was
“expounded in a secret place, that is to say, it was expounded in the
yoṣidbhaga place, which is called the Prajñāpāramitā Palace.

In the ongoing unfoldment of how widespread the Dharani system must have been:

Cardinal mantras of the vajra-goddess-dominated Vajraguhya Mandala from the second
chapter of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha have recently been identified by
Ven. Rangama Chandawimala Thero (“Esoteric Buddhist Practice in Ancient
Sri Lanka,” International Journal of the Humanities 5, no. 12 [2008]: 950) on two
of the “dhāraṇī stones” recovered from the Abhayagirivihāra. Interestingly,
Chandawimala has discovered that the Abhayagiri tablets provide mantras
for the four Offering Goddesses of the Vajraguhya Mandala which are missing from the extant text of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha itself, suggesting
that the Abhayagirivāsins may have had access to a slightly more extensive
version of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha.

Among the whole system of STTS sub-mandalas, Vajrapani generates a female dharani mandala from Karma Mudra. It would make what is called a Seventeen-deity mandala. This is what he casts:

athātra karmamaṇḍale vajrakarmamudrā bhavanti /

oṃ vajrasatvasiddhijñānasamaye huṃ jjaḥ // 1 //
oṃ vajrākarṣaṇakarmajñānasamaye huṃ jjaḥ // 2 //
oṃ vajraratirāgakarmajñānasamaye huṃ jjaḥ // 3 //
oṃ vajrasādhukarmajñānasamaye huṃ jjaḥ // 4 // //
oṃ vajrabhṛkuṭī vaśīkuru huṃ // 5 //
oṃ vajrasūryamaṇḍale vaśīkuru huṃ // 6 //
oṃ vajradhvajāgrakeyūre vaśīkuru huṃ // 7 //
oṃ vajrāṭṭahāse vaśīkuru huṃ // 8 //
oṃ vajrapadmarāge rāgaya huṃ // 9 //
oṃ vajratīkṣṇarāge rāgaya huṃ // 10 //
oṃ vajramaṇḍalarāge rāgaya huṃ // 11 //
oṃ vajravāgrāge rāgaya huṃ // 12 //
oṃ vajrakarmasamaye pūjaya huṃ // 13 //
oṃ vajrakavacabandhe rakṣaya huṃ // 14 //
oṃ vajrayakṣiṇi māraya vajradaṃṣṭrāyā bhinda hṛdayamamukasya huṃ phaṭ // 15 //
oṃ vajrakarmamuṣṭi siddhya siddhya huṃ phaṭ // 16 //

So we see that in STTS, there is a major fracas about charging up Karma Mudra as the fourth seal. This has two outcomes, the ability to cast the dharani mandala centered on a Brahma- or Vairocana-esque goddess, and, Karma Mudra taking on a new meaning as the *first* kind of tantric seal. Well, if we follow the text, the central goddess is Vajradhatvishvari, the eastern one is Vajravajrini, and Sattvavajri has disappeared. Actually these texts are using the full "Vajrini" rather than Vajri, so now we are getting double-stuck with that really only meaning a proper name.

If not--I see for the masculine Vajrin, it may mean Twelve Vishvadevas, from the complex Progeny of Daksha (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brahma-purana/d/doc57552.html). These are all males (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visvedevas) enumerated in Vishnu Purana, who are only partially famous:

The Viswadevas incarnated on Earth due to the curse of sage Vishwamitra, as the 5 sons of Draupadi with the Pandavas - the Upapandavas.

In Kubjika Tantra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajrini), Vajrini is a Duti in the circle of Ananta, and duplicated in the Earth circle under Indrani.

It may be simple as "she holds a Vajra", since this seems to distinguish them from their neighbor goddesses. In that case, it is like calling Vajra Tara, Tara Vajrini. Otherwise, Sattvavajri would just boild back down to Vajra Sattva. The importance here does not seem to be so much that she holds the item, but that its power is used for change. The text gets loose with the names and winds up with Vajrapadma and Karmavajra next to each other. It does however refer to:

paryaṅake susthitaṃ caityaṃ vajradhātvīśvarī smṛtā|

That is probably the first instance of someone occupying an Empty Niche. The first tantric stupa goddess is most likely this Vajradhatvishvari.

So there is a correspondence from a male-based Vajradhatu to a female-based one similar, but effective as Dharanis.

In the STTS study (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161528228.pdf), information about their forms is found:

Concerning the four symbols of the four Paramitas, a five-pronged
vajra is drawn for Sattvavajri; a five-pronged vajra attached to the top of a wishgranting-gem is drawn for Ratnavajri; a five-pronged vajra at the entrance to the
repositoiy of a sixteen-petalled lotus is drawn for Dharmavajri; a crossed-vajra
made of twelve prongs is drawn for Karmavajri. Anandagarbha adds: “A vajra
with five prongs at both ends is drawn for Lasya; the garland of Mahavajraratna is
drawn for Mala; a vajra-vina is drawn for Gita; the hand gesture of two hands,
drawn up to the wrist and holding a three-pronged vajra, is drawn for Nrtya.

Around p. 105 it discusses the STTS "secret rite" based from the Vajris, which confers siddhis and opens the Vajraguhya Dharani mandala. It uses a lot of Anjalis (similar to Samputa), characterizes the goddesses as females of the Pancha Jina and Sixteen Bodhisattvas, and calls them the Mind of Sarvavid Vairocana.

From the Vajradhatu where they are amongst males, it gives their forms as:

(6) Sattvavajri: She holds a red five-pronged vajra, and sits on a lotus and moon
seat.
(7) Ratnavajri: She holds a five-pronged vajra attached with the top of the wishgranting-gem, and sits on a lotus and moon seat.
(8) Dharmavajri: She holds a five-pronged vajra at the entrance to the repository of
a whitish-red sixteen-petalled lotus with eight petals turn downwards and eight
petals turn upwards. She sits on a lotus and moon seat.
(9) Karmavajri: She holds a crossed-vajra made of five colours and twelve prongs,
i.e. its centre is white, its fore-part is blue, its right part is yellow, its back part is red
and its left part is like emerald. She sits on a lotus and moon seat.

(26) Vajralasya: Her body is white. She holds two five-pronged vajras with the
vajra-fists. Having proudly displayed them with the vajra-contempt, she points
both vajras slightly towards the left.
(27) Vajramala: Her body is yellow. She consecrates the Tathagatas with a garland
of gems.
(28) Vajragita: Her body is pale red. She plucks a vina.
(29) Vajranrtya: Her body is of the same colour as Vajrakarma's body. She holds a
three-pronged vajra while making it dance with both her hands.

(30) Vajradhupa: Her body is white. She satisfies the Tathagatas with the vajraincense-vessel.
(31) Vajrapuspa: Her body is yellow. She holds a vq/Wz-flower-vessel in her left
hand, and she scatters particles of flowers with her right hand.
(32) Vajraloka: Her body is pale red. She holds the wick of a lamp and worships
the Tathagatas delighted by the lamp's brightness.
(33) Vajragandha: Her body is variegated just like the bodies of Vajranrtya and
Vajrakarma. She holds the dharma-shell of scent in her left hand, and worships the
Tathagatas with a scent-cloud held in her right hand.

It looks as if at this stage, the Vajris are Bodhisattvas, and, when finished with the process that unfolds their Pancha Jina, they are Prajnas. So that is like saying Padmavajri is a Bodhisattva of Pandara, you do the training, and she becomes equivalent to Pandara. Whereas if you have "a Boddhisattva" such as Akashagarbha, it stays a Bodhisattva. This makes Vajri something of a role, like a bridge, is a flux of the goddesses' states rather than a set thing.

It consistently speaks of the Four Paramitas, there are never six or ten involved here.

It has a "variegated" color on Gandha, Nrtya, and Karmavajrini. This can be shown constant into Hevajra Tantra where the eighth Gauri, Dombini, is variegated and Offers her Body. Here again, the symbolic Yogic Karmamudra is prepared to become the first tantric seal.

Lotus goddesses are Pale Red which is a standard take on Pandara.

This is messy, but, it obviously is related to the few mentions of Prajnas and Vajradhatvishvari, i. e. Maitri's version is highly similar, and they are in Guhyasamaja.

That seems strange to me that something highly evident at Alchi can be that closely inveigled with such a subject as has hardly been written. That is related to the basis of Prajnaparamita. It is like you can't have a girl Vajrasekhara. Amoghavajra called it a mode of Vajrosnisa and we know a girl one of those. So I am guessing she over-arches this version similarly.

It is tough to say who they are. A Pancha Prajna, sixteen personal goddesses, and sixteen equivalents of the Bodhisattvas. When the mandala is cast, it appears to be called a Vajracakra; after enumerating the main retinue, it just adds:

satvavajrādayo lekhyā yathāvad dhātumaṇḍale|
cinhamudrāḥ samālekhyā vajralāsyādimaṇḍale||10|

It looks like Vajrasattva is the source of a Dhatu Mandala, followed by that of Lasya and others.

So I think that means two rings of sixteen, or, it should end with Gatekeepers; sixteen and twelve plus four.

Would this Vajradhatvishvari wind up working something like what Niguma calls Mahavairocana Vajradhara...yes, that is still it.

Will it work with Marici...of course.

The difficulty reconstructing this is that the Bodhisattvas have no recognizable use; one of them is Vajraguhya Mandala, the name of the text itself, which gives us a closed loop. Actually, that is a mantra, and it looks like the mantras are attached to a previous list, which results in the irony that Dhvajagrakeyura uses Vajraguhya Mandala mantra.

If correct, the Bodhisattvas would be:

samantabhadrā, tathāgatāṅka śī, ratirāgā, sādhumatī ca| vajradhāraṇyaḥ|

ratnottamā, ratnolkā, dhvajāgrakeyūrā, hāsavatī ca| ratnadhāraṇyaḥ||

vajrāmbujā, ādhāraṇī, sarvacakra, sahasrāvartā ca| dharmadhāraṇyaḥ||

siddhottarā, sarvarakṣā, tejaḥpratyāhāriṇī, dharaṇīmudrā ca| sarvadhāraṇya iti||

With the last group, the mantras begin with Guhya Sattvavajri, and make a corresponding circle of Vajris. Here, we can see that Vajrini is used for the Pancha Prajna circle, and Vajri for the Karma Family ring.

Then it is only followed by mantras for the Four Inner Offerings. Still missing eight deities in there somewhere to make thirty-seven.

The subject, to me, is a lot simpler than trying to cobble the texts together.

shaberon

22nd January 2021, 08:22

Guhyasamaja is like a bridging tantra from the above; it does not have dakinis, but, defines them as relevant to the Vidyadhara realm, and says to attract them. And so what it is, is probably the first attempt to write down Completion Stage.

It is Father Tantra and so it is mainly teaching Upaya or Method, "how-to".

Nothing in Buddhism deviates from this very much. It sets a basic standard, such as Muttering Om Ah Hum, whereas the more advanced tantras do things like add the Pithas.

So there is an Alex Wayman study (https://web.opendrive.com/api/v1/download/file.json/NTBfMTE0MTEzNTJfclJ2VVM?inline=1) of it, which is not "The Guhyasamaja", but, he is a better translator than Conze, Cleary, etc., and has a funny habot of asking the right questions.

Guhyasamaja uses the terminology that "the Four Yogas", i. e. the fourfold sealing activities of Vajrasattva, are divided from Six Limb Yoga, which is Mahasadhana, that is, Samadhi.

Its Akshobya mandala produces an upgraded Vajrasattva. It says:

Yamantaka and the others in the raktacakra are together with a prajna looking like themselves (or :
‘their own light’, (svabha) in order:—(1) Vajravetali, (2) Aparajita, (3) Bhrkuti, (4) Ekajati, (5) Visvavajri, (6) Visvaratni,
(7) Visvapadma, (8) Visvakarma, (9) Gaganavajrini, (10) Dharanidhara.

So it just stuffs Vetali in there right with nice little Bhrkuti. Vetali is Jnanadakini, so, we know she already knows Vajrabhairava Tantra, for example.

That is also about the only Vajrini that can be found. The book uses the term Vajra = Object for Sparha Vajra and others. More frequently it uses Vajrin = Yogin skilled in this. Also it lacks Vijnana = sixth element and uses it more like Asta Vijnana, divided or split consciousness. It uses the seals of STTS without the later Yogini Tantra modification.

Circle of Bliss says Sattvavajri is vigorously animated while Vajrasattva is rock-still.

Some excerpts should help form the picture of Guhyasamaja. It begins with a hypostasis:

The kula (family master) is the previously-mentioned Vajrasattva of Aksobhya and Samantabhadra, but holds a vajra , wheel, padma, bell, gem, sword, and embraces a Vajradhatvisvari looking like himself.

The six hand symbols of Vajrasattva are set forth by Ratnakarasanti in the Pindikrta-sadhanopayika-vrtti-ratnavali (PTT.
Vol. 62, p. 77-5) as the signs of the six families : “The vajra is
the emblem of Aksobhya, being the intrinsic nature of contemp¬
lating the ‘wheel of the doctrine* [dharmacakra) . The red lotus
(padma) is the emblem of Amitabha, being the intrinsic nature
of prajna not adhered to by the mud of lust, etc. The bell (is
the emblem of Vajrasattva), being the intrinsic nature of prajna
that is the purity of gestation ( bhava ). The ‘wish-granting
gem* ( cintamani ) is the emblem of Ratnasambhava, being
the knowledge which fulfills all hopes. The sword is the emblem
of Amoghasiddhi, being the prajna (that severs) the corrupt
practice.

It appears that Vajrasattva is the
yogin possibility of a person, as the essence of the Tathagatas,
Aksobhya, and as their enlightenment-pledge, Samantabhadra;
who has advanced, equivalent to the non-tantric progression of
the Bodhisattva during the first seven stages, to the last three
Bodhisattva stages, as indicated by his embracing VajradhatviSvari (‘Queen of the Diamond Realm’), who is drawn from the
yogin’s own heart, according to the verse cited under nidana
verse 33.

When the four enjoyments (= four goddesses, Locana, etc.)
have the great magical powers (<= five Tathagatas), they are
called ‘Queen of Vidya* ( = Rupavajra, etc.). In the same
circumstances, the Diamond Lords ( = the Bodhisattvas)
are known as ‘All desire’ ( = Yamantaka, etc.).
The mandala which the PrakdSikd refers to has an alternate
form according to Tson-kha-pa’s Pancakrama commentary (PTT,
Vol. 159, p. 74-5 to 75-1) called a ‘gana-cakra' (tshogs kyi dkvil
bkhor). In its middle is the yogin skilled in the praxis. The
first series is the four yosits which he places in the sequence of
E, S, W, N, namely Bde mchog sgyu ma, L-ma-ho bde ba.
Sgron ma, and Sasi.

He should contemplate the blazing light of five rays as the
yoga of the vajrin. Falling into the diamonds of his body,
speech, and mind, it attains enlightenment.
The actual experience so indicated belongs to the phase Stage
of Completion with the praxis called ‘without prapanca*
( nisprapanca , '1'. spros bral), which involves the experience of
the three light stages whether in the forward or reverse direction.

The ‘subtle contemplation of the lower orifice’ is dis¬
cussed at length in Tson-kha-pa’s commentary on the Pancakrama called “(idan rdzogs kyi dinar khrid” (PTT, Vol. 159,
pp. 120 and 121). It is the ‘arcane body’ as a practice in the
Stage of Completion; therefore it docs not involve experience
of the three Lights, which is called ‘arcane mind’ (cittaviveka );
rather, it is a preparation for that experience ol the Lights. The
‘lower orifice’ refers to the lower orifice of the central vein (the
avadhuti ), which Tucci ( Tibetan Painted Scrolls, I, p. 241) identi¬
fies as the perineum. In Tsoh-kha-pa’s work (op. cit., p. 120-2)
the ‘lower orifice’ seems to be equivalent to the ‘middle of the
gem’ (nor buhi dbtis) or ‘tip of the gem (nor baht rtse). In the
male this is the root of the penis. The ‘subtle contemplation’
(ibid., p. 120-4) involves contemplating at that spot a small
solar disk and on it a ‘drop’ (thig le, S. bindu) of substance having
three features : its color is blue; its shape is round; its size is no
bigger than a tiny grain such as barley and seen as the form of
one’s presiding deity (adhidera) brilliantly shining with five
rays.

the same spot seems to he called ‘site of the vajra’ (rdo rjehi sa
gsi), which he explains as ‘the lotus of the woman which is the
basis of the vajra (i.e. penis) in the sacral place’ (gsah gnas kyi
rdo rjehi rten yum gyi padma).

It is situated in the middle of the sacral place by the
excrement orifice. Its name is ‘Great Unborn Root*.
It is free from vijnana. The Knowledge-Body, selfless,
is the best of life born there, and is said to have the best
of animated beings.
Tson-kha-pa’s commentary (based on Alamkakalasa’s) ex¬
plains the ‘Great Unborn Root’ as the womb of the mother,
the place where one takes birth. It is unconscious, insentient
matter, hence free from vijnana. The Knowledge-Body of the
Intermediate State, which is selfless because devoid of any ego
substance that craves rebirth, so also devoid of the coarse body
(the vipaka-kaya ) that undergoes states, is the best of life born
there, and rides on the prana- wind which is the best of animated
beings. (That discussion may point to the yoga-praxis of a
woman as distinct from that of a man).

The four seals arc the samayamudra of Mind, the
dharmamudra of Speech, the mahamudra of Body, and the
karmamudra of Action.

Through the union of prajha and upaya the configuration
of deities is generated —scaling with by four seals, conveying
the pride of divinity.

Yoga, atiyoga, and mahayoga occur by themselves; also
vajrin, dakini, as well as any union of both, by
themselves.
Mchan ‘Yoga’ implies both yoga and anuyoga, and they plus
atiyoga and mahayoga —the pratfnnna-prayoga of four yogas —occur
by themselves for mdyddehin. Also vajrin , who is chief of the
vijaya-mandala, plus the dak ini , plus any yoga (of both) occur
themselves for mdyddehin. The two lines refer to the two samadhis
of mdyddehin (possessor of Illusory Body).
Prakasika on Yoga (Vol. 60, p. 295-2 : Those are the four yotjcir (?)
of the ‘Stage of Generation’, whereby one accomplishes the
samadhis of ‘Initial Praxis’, etc. In the present case, yoga is
‘means’ (upaya), anuyoga is ‘insight’ ( prajna ), atiyoga is entrance
into their union; mahayoga is the attainment of great bliss ( main!-
sukha) from their union.

Besides, wc may interpret that the terms ‘yoga’, ‘atiyoga’,
and ‘mahayoga’ of nidana verse 32, refer to the yoga mastery
of the three lights, as is suggested by the synonyms of the lights
in verse 25, sunya, atisunya, and mahasunya. Thus the yogin
with such mastery can evoke automatically the dakini of sunya
(aprajita), the vajrin of atisunya (supaya), or their
androgynous union. Notice also the series of terms in the full
title oi the Guhyasamajalantra : rahasya, atirahasva, mahaguhya,
in which mahaguhya is understood to inchtdc both rahasya
and atirahasya.

‘Yoga' is defined as the equipoise of insight and means.
Whatever is devoid of intrinsic nature, is ‘insight’.
‘Means' is the characteristic of modes.
Nagarjuna's commentary, p. .‘>-2, 3, 4, 5, illustrates insight,
means, and their equipoise, first for each of his five stages {the
pancakrama, Abhisambodhis); then for the terms cause, action, and fruit; next,
for each of the six members of the SatSanga-yoga. In the case of
the six members, the explanations go as follows :

1. Insight is the sense organs and means is the sense
objects. The yoga of their equipoise and enjoyment, is
pratyahara.
2. Insight is the sense organs and means is the Tathagatas. The yoga as their equipoise, is dhyana.

3. Insight is paramartha-bodhicitta and means is samvrtibodhicitta. The yoga as their equipoise, involving the
emanation and reunification of them in upper and lower
sequence, is prana-ayama.

4. When insight and means are as previous, the yoga of
their equipoise, holding the bindu the size of a mustard
grain in (or at) the three ‘tips of nose’, is dharana.

5. When insight and means are the Tathagatas embraced
by the goddesses, the yoga of emanating into the sky, as
their equipoise, is anusmrti.

6. When insight and means are the Dharmakaya and the
Sambhogakaya, the yoga of joining them with the Nirmanakaya as their equipoise, is samadhi.

Then all those Bodhisattvas (their doubts dispelled) became completely silent. Thereupon the Bhagavat who is all
(five) Tathagata (families) took abode in the bhaga-s (the
Buddhadharmodaya = the Clear Light) of the (four)
diamond ladies belonging to (Vajradhara, who is) the
vajra of the Body, Speech, and Mind of all the Tathagatas.

Then MamakI, the wife of the ‘mind of all the Tathagatas'
(-Aksobhya), implored Mahavajradhara in these passionate
terms...

Then Buddhalocana, the wife of the ‘body of all the Tathagatas’...

Then the ‘diamond eye of body, speech, and mind’ (- Pandara),
the wife of Lokesvara (■» Amitabha)...

Then the wife ( — Arya-Tara) of the Samayavajra
(«Amoghasiddhi) of the Body, Speech, and Mind of all the
Tathagatas...

immersing himself in the samadhi called ‘diamond glory partaking of all
desires’, remained silent, while making love to the wives of
all the Tathagatas bv means of the samayacakra

These goddesses simultaneously represent the Four Brahma Vihara.

Having drawn forth the (lady) Prajnaparamita (from
the Clear Light) dwelling in his own heart who is the
mother of the Buddha, he should engage in union with
her, because it is said (in the Sarvarahasyatantra, verse
46):

The great goddess dwelling in the heart, causing the
yoga of the yogin, the mother of all the Buddhas, is called
“Queen of the Diamond Realm’ [Vajradhatvishvari].

Mamaki is doubled very weirdly: Akshobya's consort, and also that of Ratnasambhava where she is on a nine-faced emerald.

It appears to make a sixth family of:

Bell (ghanta)
Vajradhatvisvar!
Samantabhadra

He should give (in marriage) his
own mudra, the Queen ol the Diamond Realm* dwelling in
the heart, belonging to the- 'three-syllable vajrins’, i.e. the
yogins of Vairocana and so on, who have no eye to external
women." Earlier in his commentary on Chapter XII, 76,
("Documents”), Gandrakirti explained the terms ‘Buddha’,
Vajradharma , and Vajrasattva* as respectively the yogin of
Vairocana, yogin of Amitahha, and yogin of Aksobhya.
Regarding those females or mitdtti -s of the verse cited by
Ar\ adrva, namely, the goddess, naga lady, and so on, Mchm
hi’t't'L p. 118-2, mentions that she is the respective goddess of
the three families, thus Locana for Yairocana’s yogin; Pandara
for Amitahha’s yogin; and Mamaki foi Aksobhya's yogin.

She ( = Vajradakini) who shines with a form like the
(respective) Buddha is the (superior) occult success of
body (grasping various forms), speech (grasping various
sounds), and mind (gaining as desired). They ( — mun¬
dane fairies, dakini) who glisten on the Jambu river are
the resorts of inferior siddhi. The lord Vajradhara would
be in the (superior )occult success of‘invisibility’( — united
with the Vajradakini, a ‘together-bom female’). The
lord Vidyadhara would be in the (inferior) occult success
of Yaksaraja. etc. ( = united with the mundane fairies,
the ‘field-born females’).

He should engage in the training of mantra and mudra,
in the imagining of mandala, etc., in the rites of bali and
homa; and in each ease, ever ‘illusory-like*. He should
engage in appeasing (deities), increasing (prosperity),
dominating (the elementary spirits), overcoming (ini¬
mical elements), and in whatever attracting (of dakini -s),
and in each case, ‘rainbow-like’.

So it has praised Vajradakini as some kind of special class.

We figured that out with much difficulty; regardless of family, it is an enhanced breed.

When I look at this as something composed ca. year 300, in a Prajnaparamita background where people felt the need to discuss the slight technical difference between a Sakridagamin and an Anagamin, that is pretty stupendous. Hard to understand. I think it would cause a lot of misleading to go around saying Vajradhatvishvari is the Queen of the Heart...it is only so if the heart is known esoterically. She is this, but, could also be described as the single way that consciousness can exit the crown center. The importance of the central wind from the heart to...elsewhere, is vital. So of course, the real Vajradhatvishvari "arises in stages", and is not really a name you can say or a thing you can praise, just something you can discover.

I did not know that. I thought she was obscure. But she is a primary operative power from STTS through Guhyasamaja, driven mainly by the Four Activities expressed as rites--Mudra.

Old Student

22nd January 2021, 18:24

One of the places Avatamsaka was spoken is Tusita Heaven.

It is the place where Ekajati Pratibaddha Bodhisattvas dwell prior to birth in the life they become a Buddha:

"First, dwelling in the Tusita Heaven, he proclaims the true Dharma. Having left the heavenly palace, he descends into his mother's womb."

Indra Heaven is the last thing said to be related to form as we know it. Tusita is above this, and, is the lair of the Aditis. Aditi is Boundless, mother of the gods, representing a level that mentally thinks, but, does not, itself, work with lower matter.

The Aditis or Tusitas are in a form or body which is only made of mental matter.

That would be Body-less compared to ordinary consciousness. It is more like Illusory Body.

Okay, if this is what you mean by mental only. I guess I find it confusing because it is not my normal mental state to be body-less or to be maybe illusory body, if that is what my clear body is, but I guess it is. I just wasn't connecting that up, even though I know it is not a physical state at all.

Sorry for the late response, I had a technical project and those stop all else when they have bugs.

I have to thank you for the previous description of the trials of Yeshe Tsogyal when she was learning Tummo. I have been having a problem with (probably) shingles for two days, and last night the thing that got me to put that feeling (relentless and very strong itching) aside and focus exclusively into my shaking was remembering her boils.

And, to be precise, there is not really "the Prajnaparamita Sutra", there is a Prajnaparamita genre of literature, for which I take the large version online as "the Sutra".

But the Hrdaya Sutra with the Gate Gate mantra is not in it; different book.

The mythology, though, is that they are all descended from one very long version. I take it as a given when I am thinking about it, that at some point in Khotan, they had a very long version of Prajnaparamita, a very long version of Book of Zambasta, and a very long version of Avatamsaka, and these formed somewhat of a core for them. Khotan is where the versions in other languages came from. They would get material from Kashmir, or create it, and then they were the place where it got turned into all the other language versions, Chinese, Uyghur, Sogdian, etc. Nowadays, the place is where the largest of the Uighur detention camps is, along with being the underground test site for Chinese nuclear weapons. Sad.

150 Lines comes at p. 184 in the Conze translation, and I am not really able to find Seventeen Vishuddhi Pada before Vajrapani casting a mandala.

It is one of the few articles considered a tantric Prajnaparamita text. It is considered the first intsersection of esoteric tenets with a mandala.

Here is 8000 Lines on one web page, which may not help us here.

Thanks for this.

Here is some stuff from the Niguma book. Shangpa Kagyu is based on Vajradhara as a Guru to Niguma and Sukhasiddhi. He is also counted as a Guru to Nairatma, Cinnamasta, and Jnanadakini in those lineages such as Vajrabhairava Tantra.

They say that Vajradhara is the Sixth Family although he has Seven Aspects. If he is a type of Fruitional Vajrasattva, that is why these two are often used interchangeably and would not generally be seen as breaking the format of a Six Family Wheel. I am not sure that I am saying there is a Seventh Family, if it hasn't any other members, but there is a Seventh Consciousness.

Most of this is not "Niguma says" but is in the book:

It can be determined that the fruition aspect of tantra is twofold: the actual fruition and the nominal results. The actual
fruition is that of supreme Vajradhara, the powerful state of
mastery over all family types. The nominal results are those
of the illusory body and of an ordinary being who has realized primordial unity. The latter case is the flawed embodiment of one who is still on the path of training, while the
former is the flawless embodiment of timeless awareness of
one who has reached the path of no more training.

Yes, I am aware of this (I have the book), thanks. This is where I got two impressions, perhaps they are not accurate:

1) Vajradhara is not embodied
2) Only an extremely accomplished person can communicate with Vajradhara and it is a mark of accomplishment of bodhisattva pretty much.

Personally -- and this is from my experiences and only such reading as I had to do to try to understand them as they happened -- I would make a pretty big distinction between illusory body, if that might be roughly what my clear body is, and rainbow body, which I have been 'allowed to experience' in a limited way by seeing someone with a rainbow body (Mandarava), and by the experience (not done by me so much as done to me by the Dakinis) of the body all made of lightning and light, which was shown to me, a big difference from 'achieving' it, which is way out of my league.

Again, personally, they don't perceive the same at all. One is far more mundane than the other.

The vase empowerment is the eleventh,
the secret empowerment the excellent twelfth,
the wisdom-timeless awareness the thirteenth,
thus the tathagata is the fourteenth.
Each ground for each empowerment.

Sarah Harding had made a point that the number of bhumi went up over time, and that perhaps it was always several higher than one achieved when one achieved the current highest one. There are 10 in the Avatamsaka and it is supposed to be the original document on the subject. But there were quickly more over time.

Old Student

22nd January 2021, 18:48

The ‘subtle contemplation of the lower orifice’ is dis¬
cussed at length in Tson-kha-pa’s commentary on the Pancakrama called “(idan rdzogs kyi dinar khrid” (PTT, Vol. 159,
pp. 120 and 121). It is the ‘arcane body’ as a practice in the
Stage of Completion; therefore it docs not involve experience
of the three Lights, which is called ‘arcane mind’ (cittaviveka );
rather, it is a preparation for that experience ol the Lights. The
‘lower orifice’ refers to the lower orifice of the central vein (the
avadhuti ), which Tucci ( Tibetan Painted Scrolls, I, p. 241) identi¬
fies as the perineum. In Tsoh-kha-pa’s work (op. cit., p. 120-2)
the ‘lower orifice’ seems to be equivalent to the ‘middle of the
gem’ (nor buhi dbtis) or ‘tip of the gem (nor baht rtse). In the
male this is the root of the penis. The ‘subtle contemplation’
(ibid., p. 120-4) involves contemplating at that spot a small
solar disk and on it a ‘drop’ (thig le, S. bindu) of substance having
three features : its color is blue; its shape is round; its size is no
bigger than a tiny grain such as barley and seen as the form of
one’s presiding deity (adhidera) brilliantly shining with five
rays.

the same spot seems to he called ‘site of the vajra’ (rdo rjehi sa
gsi), which he explains as ‘the lotus of the woman which is the
basis of the vajra (i.e. penis) in the sacral place’ (gsah gnas kyi
rdo rjehi rten yum gyi padma).

It is situated in the middle of the sacral place by the
excrement orifice. Its name is ‘Great Unborn Root*.
It is free from vijnana. The Knowledge-Body, selfless,
is the best of life born there, and is said to have the best
of animated beings.
Tson-kha-pa’s commentary (based on Alamkakalasa’s) ex¬
plains the ‘Great Unborn Root’ as the womb of the mother,
the place where one takes birth. It is unconscious, insentient
matter, hence free from vijnana. The Knowledge-Body of the
Intermediate State, which is selfless because devoid of any ego
substance that craves rebirth, so also devoid of the coarse body
(the vipaka-kaya ) that undergoes states, is the best of life born
there, and rides on the prana- wind which is the best of animated
beings. (That discussion may point to the yoga-praxis of a
woman as distinct from that of a man).

I need to learn some of these symbols. As for the points, this is something that has already been taught in some detail by the Dakinis.

1. Insight is the sense organs and means is the sense
objects. The yoga of their equipoise and enjoyment, is
pratyahara.
2. Insight is the sense organs and means is the Tathagatas. The yoga as their equipoise, is dhyana.

3. Insight is paramartha-bodhicitta and means is samvrtibodhicitta. The yoga as their equipoise, involving the
emanation and reunification of them in upper and lower
sequence, is prana-ayama.

4. When insight and means are as previous, the yoga of
their equipoise, holding the bindu the size of a mustard
grain in (or at) the three ‘tips of nose’, is dharana.

5. When insight and means are the Tathagatas embraced
by the goddesses, the yoga of emanating into the sky, as
their equipoise, is anusmrti.

6. When insight and means are the Dharmakaya and the
Sambhogakaya, the yoga of joining them with the Nirmanakaya as their equipoise, is samadhi.

This is a good list for me, I will study it.

I had to do a kind of overcoming intense distraction last night. What transpired from that is I kind of 'went traveling' in that I became various places. I'm not really sure whether this is all still part of learning 'action'. The definition of samadhi in 6. is interesting because it is not formless, but rather a union of a form and formless. In the Avatamsaka (in the chapter I'm on, which is mostly about dedications) it talks about expanding the body to fill the cosmos and expanding the mind to fill the cosmos separately (it makes separate reference during the same action).

shaberon

22nd January 2021, 19:48

As for one site, which says Daoism is 10,000 years old and the 10,000 y.o. Daoists met seven foot strangers, etc., Daoism, which was the focus of my big paper when I was studying Chinese, dates from only the 1st millenium B.C.E. with Laozi and Zhuangzi. (My big paper wasn't officially a senior thesis, but it was the length of a master's thesis in Chinese, I wrote it for a class on Laozi, where we had to memorize the whole text).

With Laotze, I am willing to consider "not an individual".

Similar to Zoroaster or Nagarjuna. For instance, Theosophy claims that the "historically known" Zoroaster was the thirteenth one, and that Laotze the compiler of texts did so as a proponent of a much older Laotze lineage. If I were to even try to claim that a single Nagarjuna lived 1,000 years, I would be faced with the difficulty that he attained Rainbow Body in Shantipur, Nepal around 650--so he passed away, at least once, from our point of view.

The Vedas are said to be in their twenty-eighth cycle of dispensation.

Maybe Nagarjuna is a tulku--probably should be. It would be like calling the same reincarnated individual "Dalai Lama" regardless of birth name. Obviously that is not consistent, if we say that Yeshe Tsogyal reincarnated as Sukhasiddhi, then you have a changed name with no apparent connection unless you study how the lineage works. Of course, in Tibet it can be found that feminine influence has been downplayed if not covered up. Only in Shangpa and Bodong is it particularly evident.

It does not seem to have been the case in India, at least by "word of mouth". If there was an important yogini at Dhumathala, there is not a ton of written material making her into a national pilgrimage site, but she must have been widely-known and revered anyway.

Here is another simple skeleton which may help for a quick view of how tantras get organized:

Amitabha does not have many goddesses--Kurukulla, Bhrkuti, Guhyajnana, and anyone such as in Pancha Raksa that may stand in his sector.

Akshobya has the most emanations, most of whom are Wrathful.

So we can quickly answer two simple questions--what are some basic Akshobhyas, and who has a Kalasa or Kamandalu, keeping in mind that historical Princess Bhrkuti was a devotee of Akshobya, this is actually kind of tight.

So there are two minor goddess forms equipped with an Initiation Vessel, Cunda and Bhrkuti. It does wind up in the hands of advanced tantric deities, but where is it coming from and how does it get there?

Cunda is said to be a Vairocana emanation when in the Isana corner of Manjuvajra mandala, but, her sadhanas do not say this; she seems closer to Amitabha, and then, of course, she enters Vajra Family as Sattvavajri and from there to Vajrasattva.

Now if I though Akshobhya was dreadful and difficult and I just wanted a basic peaceful interface, this is what he gives us:

Namasangiti and Manjughosha
Prajnaparamita
Yellow Parnasabari

So, yes, even though Manjushri "is" a Vairocana deity, he does something substantial in Vajra Family, and Manjuvajra is his Vajrasattva hypostasis. Akshobhya has command of two of the most major "text deities" and so, oh...rather approachable. Failing that, he is still behind the most currently-promoted Buddhist deity.

Bhattacharya said that the Sadhanamala contains the only known Cunda sadhanas and that he could not find an image of her major form from NSP; one has showed up, even if it is not that great, there definitely is a Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra who also has this Yoga mandala where Cunda looks like a blotch or square.

Cunda carries a Prajnaparamita manuscript in Manjuvajra mandala. Most of her forms have a Kamandalu. She does a Mula Mudra also called Cunda Mudra.

Most of her forms are relatively minor, but, she has Sixteen arms at the Patikera temple, also in a Prajnaparamita manuscript. He says there is an Eighteen Arm form and does not give an example. So there is like a massive gap between basic and advanced Cunda, which looks rather to be fulfilled as/by Sattvavajri.

Mayajala Kurukulla then for instance has the Pitcher. Kurukulla also has Cunda. So Cunda does get to employ her personal name, even if in a Lotus Family tantric retinue.

Here appear to be a couple Tibetan translations:

CundavajrI|{bskul byed rdo rje ma}: (PH) Cundavajrī. imperative|{bskul tshig }

Now since she only has the Pitcher as a basic Dharani or in her big form, arguably, the Bowl, and Satvvavajri's use of a Vajra are instrumental in turning her "conceptual" initiation into a real one. If we look at the Dharanis, it is an Amodhasiddhi Krama where Prajnaparamita has her standard, somewhat exalted appearance, compared to the rest, of whom Cunda looks to be initiatrix.

The Dharanis are part of Namasangiti, which also includes Vajradhatu, for which there ostensibly is a Dharani system called Vajraguhya, triggered by Sattvavajri and Vajradhatvishvari.

And so I hope there is a sense that Akshobya is "explaining" this, it is really Vajrapani doing the talking. Vajrasattva and Sattvavajri are more like the person experiencing it, and arise from Akshobhya.

The Pitcher is also held by numerous males, Agni, Brahma, Bhrigi, Frog Bhrihaspati, Sukra, Avalokiteshvara.

It almost looks honorary since most of those are non-Buddhist and not active in the rites, except Agni, whose significance is that he is used in a Buddhist manner starting from a Pledge Being. With him as Fire, and Avalokiteshvara is Lotus Family--Fire, the Water Flask has a certain path, perhaps this is the Fiery Water.

Bhrkuti holds the Vessel when she is with Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara; virtually the same Four Arm Yellow Bhrkuti as her personal sadhana. Solo Cunda is Patra Dhara or has a Bowl instead. Bhrkuti does not do a whole lot in her own name, so, her Pitcher is strongly suggestive as equivalent to this Khasarpana state.

There is Red Avalokiteshvara (emanator of Hindu deities such as Sukra) with Tara and Bhrkuti; Mayajala is thought to be his only fierce form known in India.

If Bhrkuti is an underpinning of Parasol and Cunda is still Cunda, then, the seeming lack of a Kamandalu from a large number of simple Taras points to the likelihood that that pair is highly significant.

shaberon

22nd January 2021, 19:56

This is a good list for me, I will study it.

I had to do a kind of overcoming intense distraction last night. What transpired from that is I kind of 'went traveling' in that I became various places. I'm not really sure whether this is all still part of learning 'action'. The definition of samadhi in 6. is interesting because it is not formless, but rather a union of a form and formless. In the Avatamsaka (in the chapter I'm on, which is mostly about dedications) it talks about expanding the body to fill the cosmos and expanding the mind to fill the cosmos separately (it makes separate reference during the same action).

Yes that is extraordinary for the Six Yogas.

Read it with Equipoise = Upeksha.

Paramartha Bodhicitta or Mahamudra Bodhicitta is actually the Namasangiti explanation of why Amoghasiddhi moves to the "top position" in a System of Six and becomes equivalent to the full-strength Samadhi of the tantras, same as the Sixth Yoga here.

Sky corresponds to Sadhana and Luminescence.

And, yes, I think that is the point. It "includes" formless into infinite nothingness of nothingess as a state of nature to be experienced, but, the major emphasis in the teachings is how to arise from this into Manifest Perfection, a "there-and-back-again", withdrawal and assertion.

Rawhide68

22nd January 2021, 22:45

Is there a stop to this thread, no, of course, it isnt.
and thats good.

what?
Its all good

shaberon

23rd January 2021, 10:33

Okay, if this is what you mean by mental only. I guess I find it confusing because it is not my normal mental state to be body-less or to be maybe illusory body, if that is what my clear body is, but I guess it is. I just wasn't connecting that up, even though I know it is not a physical state at all.

Yes, again it is pretty tricky.

I would say I am a lifelong dweller with Dharmadhatu Vajra or Mental Object--I tend to delete the external environment and pay attention to what I think and feel. But that is not really Body-less, it is just ordinary waking consciousness.

If I can withdraw my senses so the body is essentially asleep but the mind is lucid, then that would be mental-only or Body-less.

When that is done to the point that it is not interrupted by sounds, touches, etc., it is Sampatti.

The likely origin of "Body-less" is Shiva incinerating Kamadev. Any tantra Hindu or Buddhist derives from the subjugation or destruction of Kamadev and Rudra; in Buddhism, Rudra's Heart is significant to Oddiyana and Vajradhatvishvari.

It does not sound to me much like you are stuck in the astral plane, i. e., a phantasmal blueprint of the physical world. So it must be some degree of Impure Illusory Body.

1) Vajradhara is not embodied
2) Only an extremely accomplished person can communicate with Vajradhara and it is a mark of accomplishment of bodhisattva pretty much.

Personally -- and this is from my experiences and only such reading as I had to do to try to understand them as they happened -- I would make a pretty big distinction between illusory body, if that might be roughly what my clear body is, and rainbow body, which I have been 'allowed to experience' in a limited way by seeing someone with a rainbow body (Mandarava), and by the experience (not done by me so much as done to me by the Dakinis) of the body all made of lightning and light, which was shown to me, a big difference from 'achieving' it, which is way out of my league.

Again, personally, they don't perceive the same at all. One is far more mundane than the other.

It still says to me that Mandarava is really your Guru.

One could argue that she reincarnated and should have a new name, such as Niguma.

According to Treasury of Lives (https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Mandarava/9), she meditated on the union of Hayagriva and Vajravarahi before going to Oddiyana, where she caused everyone to attain Rainbow Body. She then went to Shamballah to subdue hostiles. She departed to the Akaniṣṭa Paradise of Padmavyūha and arose as the supreme secret consort of primordial wisdom.

Here is an interesting modern Jetsunma (https://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/tag/mandarava/) report on going to Mandarava cave.

According to Wiki:

As Mandarava attained the vajra rainbow body (jalus), she is held to be present in the world now spreading and inspiring the Dharma through various incarnations in both the east and the west.

The dakini Niguma is considered to be an incarnation of Mandarava.

The female tertön Jetsunma Do Dasel Wangmo Rinpoche (1928-2019) of Kham, Tibet, is understood as an emanation of Mandarava.

In the USA, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo was apparently recognized by Lama Orgyen Kusum Lingpa as an emanation of Mandarava. (author of the linked article).

Mandarava Lives and Liberation (http://promienie.net/images/dharma/books/mandarava_lives-and-liberation.pdf) recent entire book in pdf.

If Rainbow Body is one thing and White Heruka is another, though they are held to be the same, they sound like different appearances. Heruka Yoga is roughly "Holder of the Vajra" with its dual meaning of Lightning and Five-colored light. I do not really know if they are alternate modes of perception, or why they have the same name in Tibetan. Since it is stated that Rainbow Body only means the realization, whereas Heruka represents development from initial to completion, that is why I lean towards Heruka for assistance.

I am not sure whether the two represent the varying influences of Parasol and Cunda, but, maybe.

Suryagupta's Tara two, "white as the moon", has an unusual twelve arms and a Kamandalu, which implies Cunda, although this one is more frequently called Sarasvati and in a lesser form, though still with a Pitcher.

Alice Getty reported what I always thought, that the name Cunda is neither Candra nor Candi:

"...the Jun-tei resembles the Tibetan goddess, Cunda or Cunti"

That is a plebian word--Cunti (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/cunti#sanskrit)--a well.

Santideva mentions Cunda in his Shiksa Samuccaya (https://ia802707.us.archive.org/10/items/sikshasamuccayaa032067mbp/sikshasamuccayaa032067mbp.pdf):

Or let him recite the Cundadharani until he sees in sleep the tokens of the destruction of sin : namely, when he dreams of
uttering various cries, or partaking of milk and whey and so forth, vomiting, staring at sun and moon, passing through
the air, overcoming a black man, a bull, or blazing lire, beholding a congregation of Brethren and Sisters, climbing upon milk-trees, elephants, bulls, mountains, thrones, palaces, boats, by hearing the Law, the annulling of sin is to be indicated.

In the index, Bhattacharya calls her Bahubhuja Cunda. "Bahu" can mean many, but, ironically, it also means "arm".

Aside from her being in Kalachakra, she is only found with Manjushri (Manjuvajra and DDV) and Kurukulla.

Manjuvajra may be more complicated than I thought; Manjuvajra emanates four Dhyanis, so he emanates Akshobya, as well as Locana and Cunda. Akshobya however emanates Mamaki and Sattvavajri. This information is a bit different than by default visual appearance. And since Vajrasattva emanates Manjuvajra who emanates Cunda, then, Sattvavajri is an Akshobya deity, and so it looks like here is where Cunda will commandeer Sattvavajri, and then you would get no more Sattvavajri, and a Cunda who has been hypostasized.

By using this weird extra ring, Manjuvajra is probably dealing with dharanis of Cunda, Ratnolka, Bhrkuti, and Shrnkala.

Yellow Ratnolka is a Light goddess, holds a jewel, wrathful and nude, called Ulkadhara in China. Red Ratnolka is a dharani goddess holding a banner. In Shiksa Samuccaya, she is called Ka Dharani. Ulka is a torch, or, meteor.

Ratnolka is so big it is actually a Sutra in a massive list of Sutras with Dharanis (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/2786475.pdf). It can also be found as a separate Sutra from that of Dhvajagrakeyura (https://books.google.com/books?id=k4z9oy0ZxfMC&lpg=PA343&ots=3riecFFrCu&dq=ratnolka%20sutra&pg=PA343#v=onepage&q=ratnolka%20sutra&f=false). I had thought they were the same; STTS study (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161528228.pdf) enumerates Ratna Dharanis as Ratnottama, Ratnolka, Dhvajagrakeyura, and Hasavati. Dharani Samgraha (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/820/2949) mentions Ratnottama and Ratnosni. But so far, although it is quoted like everyone knows it, I cannot find a Ratnolka Dharani or Sutra.

I would stick my neck out far enough to guess that Dhvaja is just a tantric Ratnolka.

Hasa is Mirth and Hasavati is from Mahavutpatti, and Hasavajrini is from Manjushri Mulakalpa. It appears that many or most of the obscure-to-us names are in these sources.

In Sadhanamala, Dhvajagrakeyura is called Arka Vimala and Urnamukhi, and does a Maha Abhiseka of the Three Worlds and Three Guhyas, with a function:

sarvvatathāgatābhiṣekasamayaśirye

and uses a Kha Khahi mantra.

Urna (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/urna) is the wife of Puranic male Marici, and also a Vidyarajni who attended Manjushri Mulakalpa. It also refers to the Ajna.

Ulkamukhi (http://www.baglamukhi.info/2017/03/06/baglamukhi-panchastra-mantra-sadhana-evam-siddhi/) is a title of Bagala, as is Jvalamukhi. The common Dhvajagrakeyura Dharani calls her Ulkamukhi; here is a Dharani (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/dhvajkeu.htm) that calls her Ulka Dharani. The version more like a Sutra (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/dhvajkdu.htm) calls her Ulka Mukhi.

MMK is perhaps older than Bagala, thought to have been written ca. 200; Jvalamukhi is the Tongue Pitha, so, it is archaic, and, one would have to say, significant.

Her further tantric correspondence is Vetali; cf. IWS 268 and the apparent intersection of them in Rinjung Gyatsa. 268 is a Blue Akshobya Urna Mukhi. So, for some reason she is Vetali in this form, particularly.

"Sirya" is "fragile", so, one would guess it is Asirya combined into All Buddhas' Initiation there.

According to Bhattacharya, there is also a Blue Dhvajagrakeyura that must be in the back of the book:

Dhvajagrakeyura is blue in colour, three-faced, and four-armed, with the right and left faces of red and green colour (respec- tively). She carries the sword and the noose in the two right hands, and the Khatvahga stamped with a Vajra and the Cakra in the two left, has brown hair rising upwards on her head which is embellished by a row of five shrivelled heads. She wears garments of tiger-skin, and has faces distorted with bare fangs. She has a protruding belly, stands in the Pratyalidha attitude,
has her seat on and glows like the sun, wears yellow garments and jacket, originates from the syllable 'Hun' and bears the image of Aksobhya on the crown.

He did not assume the yellow one is a Ratna form, and, it does not say, but it does in the old classification with Ratnolka. The blue form equated to Vetali is quickly glossed on TBRC (https://www.tbrc.org/#!rid=T740).

The Light Goddesses are only found in Hevajra's Pancha Daka:

1. Suryahasta ;

2. Dlpa ;

3. Ratnolka ;

4. Tadit-kara.

The last being the main one we have found appearing to have static or plasma on her hands. One holds the sun, the next is hardly distinguishable from Dipa Tara with a "light stick", the third has a jewel that is either glowing or surmounted by a torch.

Bhrkuti is plain enough, and, although Shrnkala was elusive for years, we see that Parasol Dharani equates to her.

Bhrkuti appears to have a Caitya with Khasarpana, followed by the male Manidhari Vajrini, or, that is his mantra, his name is actually Manidharin or Sudhana--but he has near-identity to Pratisara based on this. She is two armed white with a yellow lotus with Padmanarttesvara 30. His corner goddesses are a trip:

pūrvakoṇadale padmavāsinī pītā māñjiṣṭha-padmadharā; dakṣiṇakoṇadale vajrapadmeśvarī ākāśavarṇā sitapadmadharā; paścimakoṇadale viśvapadmā śuklā kṛṣṇapadmadharā; uttarakoṇadale viśvavajrā viśvavarṇā viśvapadmadharā /

They are all Saumya. He is red and none of them are--there is a Sky and a Variegated one.

Min Bahadur Sakya says she is in Hevajra Tantra, probably due to Kurukulla. She is the end of Part One in Sadhanamala, and Dvitya Bhaga begins with Tarodbhava Kurukulla. Further, he says:

When she appears in blue colour, she is depicted as three headed and a six armed form.

In her right hands are a sword, an iron hook and a rod; in the left hands
a skull, snare and a Brahma's head. Reeds are believed to be growing in
the eight directions around her. The following is the hymn in praise of
Bhrikuti Tara:

Hail! with frown and angry eyes
Beating ground with fist and feet
Uttering the mystic \Hung '

Conquering the sevenfold foe

I don't know where he got it.

It is Tara Fourteen (http://warnemyr.com/indotibetan/21taras/14.html), which standardly is Bhrkuti which is why I questioned it since she has no wrathful forms. This explains it. Also, I had forgotten, but Suryagupta teaches Transference on Tara Seven (http://warnemyr.com/indotibetan/21taras/7.html), who, in Jonang, is Black Pramardani in Ratna Family. Called Vadipramardaka (https://lightgrid.ning.com/group/tara/forum/topics/mantrams?overrideMobileRedirect=1) in another version--which also has the Wrathful Bhrkuti, or, gives her form. So there are two versions listed for that, and so on, none of them are cast in stone--all we get are the verses. But then if we look at the general agreements for Seven, the closest thing is Pramardani from the Pancha Raksa. Suryagupta (https://jonangfoundation.org/blog/21-t%C4%81r%C4%81s-s%C5%ABrya-gupta) goes so far as to use Sukhasiddhi for nineteen.

Pitheshvari Tara uses the Twenty-four Pithas, and Nyan's Green Tara is Six Limb Yoga Tara. So you could legitimately incorporate the majority of the Chakrasamvara system on just those two.

That is why Twenty-one Taras is so amazing. You can't do it wrong if you follow it as close as you can. And so if Pitheshvari makes more sense than the regular first Tara, who is similar, but unknown, having a similar form anyway, it would not be wrong to use Pitheshvari and learn her syllables and the Pithas.

He is however also the author of Life and Contribution of Nepalese Princess Bhrkuti (https://archive.org/stream/TheLifeAndContributionOfTheNepalesePrincessBhrikutiDeviInTibetanHistoryMinBahadurShakya/The%20Life%20and%20Contribution%20of%20the%20Nepalese%20Princess%20Bhrikuti%20Devi%20in%20Tibetan%20 History%20%28Min%20Bahadur%20Shakya%29_djvu.txt) which indicates her syllable is Bhrim. This is also confirmed by a German (https://books.google.com/books?id=ais5AQAAMAAJ&lpg=PA9&ots=m1y0V-J8KX&dq=bhrikuti%20bhrim&pg=PA9#v=onepage&q=bhrikuti%20bhrim&f=false) book. This is significant because it is botched in Sadhanamala. It of course means she is Jupiterian and immediately calls to mind the Yellow Tara Cintamani who also uses this.

By this name, she does not go on to advanced rites, which is about like saying we can truncate Jupiter into Ganapati into Avalokiteshvara. I think if we go back over how Jupiter is a "mini-sun", that Ganapati expresses Jivanmukta or Sound Conveyed into Light, and that the older spelling Avalokita Svara would mean Sound which is Seen, and then that Jupiter is not really the human guru anyway because he handles Rta or "natural order", this is the gate to Suci or Solar Fire. Suci is Marici's Needle or one of the Three-in-One Agni. In Buddhism, Agni's samaya being is Yellow.

Her sadhanas are miniscule but there is a Bhrkuti Mudra, spreading the thumbs in some way, related to Sesa:

pūrvavat hastadvayaprasāritenāṅguṣṭhena kaniṣṭhikānakhaṃ pidhāya pṛthak pṛthak śeṣā vajralakṣaṇāḥ, iyaṃ bhṛkuṭīmudrā /

That is attention-grabbing since Vajralaksana is not a subject. Laksana are the "marks or signs" of Buddha Qualities, etc., but to call it Vajra suggests the esoteric or perhaps sixteen marks of being receptive to the Four Noble Truths (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/lakshana). The only other place it is even mentioned is right at the beginning related to Vajra Mudra:

tataḥ sarvavighnavināśārtham acalahṛdayam amoghacaṇḍaṃ vajramudrāṃ
003ḷ05 budhvā trir uccārayet / tatreyaṃ vajramudrā / dakṣiṇahastam
003ḷ06 ūrdhvaṃ prasṛtaṃ kṛtvā vṛddhāṅguṣṭhena tarjanyagramākramet /
003ḷ07 śeṣo vajralakṣṇāḥ / mantraḥ / namaḥ samantavajrāṇāṃ trāṭ
003ḷ08 amoghacaṇḍa mahāroṣaṇa sphāṭaya huṃ bhramaya bhramaya huṃ traṭ hāṃ
003ḷ09 māṃ /

I am not quite sure what it is or means, except it is that, which is geared towards Canda Maharoshana, the most wrathful and sexualized Akshobya, Acala Hrdaya.

Since that is unique, and, her Wrathful form appears to be unique to Twenty-one Taras, then she is probably significant to the incipience of Ten Wrathful Ones.

A Reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/translator/comments/6hllkq/english_i_took_this_picture_in_a_refuge_mountain/) translation of Dhvajagrakeyura flag shows Bhrkuti in her dharani. That is also in the Gretil version, but, it may just be an ordinary adjective and one could say Dhvaja is scowling. It is used in Sadhanamala many times obviously as an adjective.

It was Tara and Bhrkuti that Avalokiteshvara wept into manifestation, which is why they are the chief residents of Mt. Potalaka.

I tend to think Peaceful Bhrkuti refers to either the knitted brows of concentration, or, vibration of the Ajna.

Although she is used on flags, Dhvaja is actually supposed to be on something like this, permanently affixed to a post:

https://anthro.amnh.org/images/full/702/702_876.jpg

Here is a French collection of Dharanis (http://docplayer.in/200014419-Mantras-2017-v4-p541-indd.html) seemingly for Parasol, Usnisa Vijaya, Jvalosnisa, Vimalosnisa, and Vairocana Sarvadurgati Parishodana. It says to take Refuge three times and generate Bodhicitta, and self-generate as Buddha. I am completely unaware of that unless it pertains to the Body Mandala of Sarvadurgati Parishodana. It has Mahakarunika and makes "Vyuharajaya" one word, so, it very clearly is not the meaningless "vyuhara jaya" as in most editions. Vimala says to build a stupa and recite this:

Om traiyadhé sarva tathâgata hridaya garbhé / jvala dharmadhâtu garbhé / samharana âyuh samshodhaya / pâpam sarvatathâgata samanta ushnîsha vimalé vishuddhé svâhâ

It is evidently a personal ritual, not a funeral. You pick an element, and are born in that family, liberated by it. Again, only four female Usnisas are known to be described, and that is the only thing I have ever found for Vimala. They are a category not really because they pertain to the crown center, but, because Buddha communicated them telepathically. Ultimately, yes, at least two of them are significant to the crown, but they are connected with other things as well.

I certainly do not believe I communicate with Vajradhara directly, but, I have an idea what the barriers are.

He does not have a mandala or retinue, and is usually shown with Eighty-four Mahasiddhas, or a whole Refuge Field. There is a Drikung Five Families (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=3318) version. In this Sakya piece, he is over a red deity that is probably Takkiraja:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/3/3/8335.jpg

Note that in Kalachakra, Takki couples with Cunda, whereas in Sakya, it is Bharati.

This Kagyu piece says he is under Samantabhadra and between two colors of Varahi:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/1/2/31229.jpg

This Kagyu goes far enough to name his consort Bhagavani:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/5/4/65420.jpg

In this very rare Kagyu, he appears to be with the Four Dakinis:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/7/1/77163.jpg

Here, the consort is a nicer Light Blue than the previous version:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/8/3/7830.jpg

This Sakya has perhaps one of the most significant details:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/0/1/90137.jpg

The red figure on the right is his personal Bodhisattva, Vira Vajradharma, with Drum and Skullcup. It is not to be confused with the Lotus Bodhisattva, Vajradharma, who just looks like a red Vajradhara.

This shows Hevajra and lineage, Chakrasamvara and lineage (with two Dancers), the Three Red Dakinis (over his shoulders and towards the upper right), and the first known Kalachakra syllable monogram.

Unique Iconographic Features:

1. Vira Vajradharma as a central figure.
2. The group of three Vajrayogini figures.
3. The group of three power deity figures. (Takki, Kuru, and Ganapati towards the lower left)
4. The inscriptions written on the cloth hanging of the thrones.
5. The two Pamting brothers seated on the same lotus seat. (towards the lower right)

So when we see a Drum with Niguma, or on the powerful Buddhadakinis, we know it is something that a Dakini does not automatically have; and Achi shows that it is almost the same as/replaceable with her Mirror. So those should be thought of as very important items.

Dandaron (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/Vajrasattva_tantra_by_Vladimir_Montlevich) tells us that the Guhyagarbha Vajrasattva tradition comes from Indrabodhi twenty-eight years after Buddha's Parinirvana. And, he tantalizingly refers to the "Seventeen deities" as if it were common knowledge, without telling us anything about them.

Sarah Harding had made a point that the number of bhumi went up over time, and that perhaps it was always several higher than one achieved when one achieved the current highest one. There are 10 in the Avatamsaka and it is supposed to be the original document on the subject. But there were quickly more over time.

Yes, again, perhaps no one to understand it. Being born on the Tenth Bhumi means you should accomplish whatever is left in one life. By explaining it as simply another Four-fold initiation, then, it is just describing Buddha initiation. To me, that is easier to ingest than some of the systems of thirteen or sixteen which I have never really examined.

Practice appears to tell us to bundle seven together since the eighth is very challenging.

Maitri--whose version of the Prajnas and Vajradhatvishvari is considered one of the only ones (eighth in his Samgraha) (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/book/82)--has a few songs called Charya Gita (http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BH/bh117517.htm) which retain Vajri terms in his seventh, Vajradhara song:

vajradhara panca buddha raya gatavara jhapa samudra samudra/

mandala sutra samprathana sanjali khamiva bhavasamam//

sasvata vajra sutrameprayeccha mandala sutra saprathayami/

simgasanasthita purna candra dhutiva abhimata sukha phala dayani/

ratnadhrka pita varna dahina varada kara asvarudha virajita/

mahamandala bhumi sutra naya hum/

arolika dahina rddhi siddhi/

dharmavajri rakta varna mayurasanasthita dhyana mudra anbunatha//

sutra patana me sodhayama danapati samraksata/

karmavajri jinavara abhaya mudra dharam garudasana sthita rayana//

tatva jnana vijnana siddhi vara mahamandalam sutrayami/

Mixing it with "-dhrk" and Arolik is from Guhyasamaja, so, it is like he blended this with STTS. Interesting that Aro represents Ganapati's two wives while seated on a Peacock. The phrase about Vajra includes Moon Dhuti--Messenger Initiation Mother Sourse of the Fruitional Bliss.

Hym

23rd January 2021, 12:48

Is there a stop to this thread, no, of course, it isnt.
and thats good.

what?
Its all good

Yes, it's an interesting journey between two scholars and adepts (?). We are happy to listen in on the discourses. May it be blessed and continue without abatements.

And Oh, yes, O.S.,

My transliteration is used for American English speakers only. There is no need to share it with anyone else, especially those used to another transliteration form. As you said, they get it quickly with the system they have.

Old Student

23rd January 2021, 19:45

With Laotze, I am willing to consider "not an individual".

Similar to Zoroaster or Nagarjuna. For instance, Theosophy claims that the "historically known" Zoroaster was the thirteenth one, and that Laotze the compiler of texts did so as a proponent of a much older Laotze lineage. If I were to even try to claim that a single Nagarjuna lived 1,000 years, I would be faced with the difficulty that he attained Rainbow Body in Shantipur, Nepal around 650--so he passed away, at least once, from our point of view.

So here is the deal on Lao Tzu (Wade-Giles) or Laozi (pinyin): Someone penning under that name wrote in about 3-400 B.C.E. That was the time, during the Warring States period, when, "the hundred flowers bloomed," meaning that there was an explosion of thought and writing -- about how to govern society. It is the time when Laozi, Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi (Mencius), Hanfeizi (Han Fei Tzu), etc. wrote. It is the time when the 4 books and 5 classics (sishu wujing) and the Spring and Autumn Annals (qunqiu) were written, the classic of the golden mean, etc.

When Qinshihuangdi (literally: The First Qin (Ch'in) Emperor) unified China for the first time in 229 B.C.E. he ordered the books to be burned, following the philosophy of the Legalists (Hanfeizi). So scholars and adherents hid them in the walls (literally). Archaeology is still turning up versions previously undiscovered when they newly excavate old walls. So, for instance, when I studied Laozi, the latest was that they had just discovered a complete version which was known as the "Cloth Laozi" because it was written on cloth. Discovered much later than that and the newest now to date is a "Bamboo Laozi" which is written on bamboo strips.

Previous to these, the version was one handed down in the dynastic period, and during the reign of various emperors, the characters would change because they needed to substitute for characters or sounds shared by the emperor's name. I read a (not supposed to be) hilarious paper one time analyzing the concept of yuan (元) in Laozi because all the 玄 characters had been replaced by 元 characters for that reason.

So there is a debate over who Laozi is, because the name just means "Old Master". There is no similar debate over the others -- Kongzi, Mengzi are historical figures with lasting lineages. But it is a debate over which person it is, not that the book (which is only 4,000 characters, so shorter than that paper I wrote) is written by multiple sources or is a compendium. The one which is thought to be such is Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) which is a collection of stories and so is thought to be things handed down.

I need to save and come back so I will write more later.

Old Student

24th January 2021, 02:50

Maybe Nagarjuna is a tulku--probably should be. It would be like calling the same reincarnated individual "Dalai Lama" regardless of birth name. Obviously that is not consistent, if we say that Yeshe Tsogyal reincarnated as Sukhasiddhi, then you have a changed name with no apparent connection unless you study how the lineage works. Of course, in Tibet it can be found that feminine influence has been downplayed if not covered up. Only in Shangpa and Bodong is it particularly evident.

I have mixed feelings about the whole tulku system, but I would not be a bit surprised if the reason Niguma and Sukhasiddhi are seen as tulkus of Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal is because they worked together in a similar tag team format as the former two did, and because people were reminded of them. There is no such similar system in Daoism, and part of that is because the goals are different and the system does not have a singular person from whom all writings are supposed to emanate.

Bhrkuti holds the Vessel when she is with Khasarpana Avalokiteshvara; virtually the same Four Arm Yellow Bhrkuti as her personal sadhana. Solo Cunda is Patra Dhara or has a Bowl instead. Bhrkuti does not do a whole lot in her own name, so, her Pitcher is strongly suggestive as equivalent to this Khasarpana state.

When I was looking into Cunda, she always has either the Patra, the Prajnaparamita or the Kamandalu, if she had enough arms for them. She also is portrayed sometimes with dharmacakra mudra, in such a form she is so nearly indistinguishable from Prajnaparamita that art historians and scholars spend pages arguing for one or the other. There is apparently a similar argument on when a sculpture is Sakyamuni and when it is Aksobya.

Old Student

24th January 2021, 06:15

It does not sound to me much like you are stuck in the astral plane, i. e., a phantasmal blueprint of the physical world. So it must be some degree of Impure Illusory Body.

I've gotten the feeling over the past many months that it isn't always the same thing. It is sometimes like a complete substitute for my physical body, a body with similar attributes, and then there are times when it expands to cosmic size, or times when it branches into lots of bodies or I merge with the breeze or many of the other things that don't seem like the same thing, but maybe they are, I don't know.

It still says to me that Mandarava is really your Guru.

One could argue that she reincarnated and should have a new name, such as Niguma.

She doesn't look like Niguma. Certainly Niguma is important, and the connection seems to be involving reading Niguma to 'prepare' for encounters with Mandarava. Mandarava is not in control currently (they shift depending on the subject of training), currently things are being led by Ushas. They are about action, which I find quite difficult and have been making only slow progress.

Manjuvajra may be more complicated than I thought; Manjuvajra emanates four Dhyanis, so he emanates Akshobya, as well as Locana and Cunda. Akshobya however emanates Mamaki and Sattvavajri. This information is a bit different than by default visual appearance. And since Vajrasattva emanates Manjuvajra who emanates Cunda, then, Sattvavajri is an Akshobya deity, and so it looks like here is where Cunda will commandeer Sattvavajri, and then you would get no more Sattvavajri, and a Cunda who has been hypostasized.

If sometimes Cunda is Sattvavajri this (above) seems to confuse things. On a related note, I went looking for some direct connection between Ushas and Marici, other than the belief by some scholars that Marici is a later and more Buddhist Ushas. I could not find one, but I have been having a lot of Ushas lately and there was one distinct vision in which it seemed that Ushas expressed/emanated/birthed Marici. It was in response somehow to a not enunciated question about her and Marici.

Ulkamukhi is a title of Bagala, as is Jvalamukhi. The common Dhvajagrakeyura Dharani calls her Ulkamukhi; here is a Dharani that calls her Ulka Dharani. The version more like a Sutra calls her Ulka Mukhi.

Ulkamukhi literally meaning "meteor face"?

Although she is used on flags, Dhvaja is actually supposed to be on something like this, permanently affixed to a post:

A post or the lintel above a door? This looks like something that people have over a door.

So when we see a Drum with Niguma, or on the powerful Buddhadakinis, we know it is something that a Dakini does not automatically have; and Achi shows that it is almost the same as/replaceable with her Mirror. So those should be thought of as very important items.

Interesting. I would not have made a connection between a drum and a mirror.

Yes, again, perhaps no one to understand it. Being born on the Tenth Bhumi means you should accomplish whatever is left in one life. By explaining it as simply another Four-fold initiation, then, it is just describing Buddha initiation. To me, that is easier to ingest than some of the systems of thirteen or sixteen which I have never really examined.

I haven't gotten to the chapter on the Ten Bhumi yet (I'm on 25 it's 29). If it were dedications (which is my current chapter and there are 10), there are some dedications that have multiple subparts, so maybe this is the explanation. As for "accomplishing the rest in one lifetime", I had thought Sakyamuni had said this for the whole ball of wax.

Old Student

24th January 2021, 06:20

And Oh, yes, O.S.,

My transliteration is used for American English speakers only. There is no need to share it with anyone else, especially those used to another transliteration form. As you said, they get it quickly with the system they have.

Yes, I read what you said about them on the other thread (the one about speaking languages). For that, perhaps it's okay, but for especially languages as far from English as Chinese, it's good at some point to learn the standard transliteration.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Is there a stop to this thread, no, of course, it isnt.
and thats good.

what?
Its all good

Might not happen. Shaberon has a lot of texts at his disposal, and for me, there is new material added daily when I shake.

shaberon

24th January 2021, 06:52

I have mixed feelings about the whole tulku system, but I would not be a bit surprised if the reason Niguma and Sukhasiddhi are seen as tulkus of Mandarava and Yeshe Tsogyal is because they worked together in a similar tag team format as the former two did, and because people were reminded of them. There is no such similar system in Daoism, and part of that is because the goals are different and the system does not have a singular person from whom all writings are supposed to emanate.

Me too.

However there are plenty of cases just around India of some child being intimately familiar with the details of someone else's life who had recently passed away.

If there is reincarnation, there would be tulkus.

The only similar system I am aware of is the five elders of the Druze.

This is why Bodhisattva is really the most sublime concept. Almost everything is really geared towards them, and/or us joining their ranks. HPB said if our third eye really opened during sleep in unity with the heart, we would remember all our past lives. Koothoomi said that some adepts have the ability to see those of others--followed by that he did not like doing it.

I think there is a "real thing", which again may suffer from human mistakes or exploitation. Such as unjustified "recognitions". Should we accept that Mandarava is one or more people right now? Is it really "her" or is it a mindstream in Akanistha which is able to enter the minds of others?

I don't really know the technicalities of how that works, and I think it is a dangerous subject due to tomfoolery. Well, dangerous in the sense of who knows how many "HPB reincarnations" have been asserted, or the ongoing activities of Morya, etc., especially since in Kama Loka if I say..."there is a Morya", then there will be one, and when everybody else energizes it, then you have a bona fide phantom. I bet this happens a lot.

Koothoomi said the adepts serve the Chohans who serve the Bodhisattvas. Since we have figured out what a Chohan is, that is entirely correct--Nechung oracle is like a lieutenant to the tulkus, Bodhisattvas, or Jangchubs who hold Gelug offices.

If I am not a Druze--which I can't be, since it is a closed society that only ever initiated HPB into it--then as a Buddhist, I have to believe that at least some of our Sangha has really succeeded and become Bodhisattvas themselves.

When I was looking into Cunda, she always has either the Patra, the Prajnaparamita or the Kamandalu, if she had enough arms for them. She also is portrayed sometimes with dharmacakra mudra, in such a form she is so nearly indistinguishable from Prajnaparamita that art historians and scholars spend pages arguing for one or the other. There is apparently a similar argument on when a sculpture is Sakyamuni and when it is Aksobya.

Yes...without color, Mahasri Tara is also indistinguishable from that.

The Cunda Mudra or Mula Mudra was said to "resemble" Dharmacakra Mudra without being able to tell the difference.

On Mahasri, it is called Vyakhyana Mudra:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Seated_Boddhisattva_Mahasri_Tara%2C_Tibet%2C_probably_13th_century_AD%2C_brass%2C_silver_wash%2C_blu e_pigment_-_Arthur_M._Sackler_Museum%2C_Harvard_University_-_DSC00850.jpg/483px-thumbnail.jpg

https://lh5.ggpht.com/dK6Pi8RSfPZeB8pQ2ItK31yQknEPd0PDn6-ZaehYA5zhcAnOw-B1tFw0aO4

https://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/boaf2007/alexis/02.jpg

Vyākhyānamudrā (व्याख्यानमुद्रा) is a Sanskrit word referring to “the gesture of teaching”.

The Vyākhyānamudrā (व्याख्यानमुद्रा) is another name for the Chinmudrā,

Also called Vitarka, and Sandarshana; it is not Buddhist in origin, but indicates discussion and transmission of teaching.

According to Wiki:

The Buddha preached his first sermon after his Enlightenment in Deer Park in Sarnath. The dharmachakra Pravartana or "turning of the wheel" mudrā represents that moment. In general, only Gautama Buddha is shown making this mudrā except Maitreya as the dispenser of the Law.

Dharmachakra mudrā is two hands close together in front of the chest in vitarka with the right palm forward and the left palm upward, sometimes facing the chest. There are several variants such as in the Ajanta Caves frescoes, where the two hands are separated and the fingers do not touch. In the Indo-Greek style of Gandhara, the clenched fist of the right hand seemingly overlies the fingers joined to the thumb on the left hand. In pictorials of Hōryū-ji in Japan the right hand is superimposed on the left. Certain figures of Amitābha, Japan are seen using this mudra before the 9th century.

In Sadhanamala, Dharmacakra is used only a couple of times in the intro and then with a few forms of Manjushri, six instances total. Vyakhyana Mudra is there a dozen times, on Manjushri and Prajnaparamita. Green Janguli's first line is:

atha bhagavatyā hṛdayakalpaṃ vyākhyāsyāmaḥ /

Mahasri is not literally what Bhattacharya said; it is:

vyāsthānamudrādharāṃ

Obviously it is a similar word and is in the Abhidharma:

(i) by definition (vyasthana), (ii) by discrimination (vikalpana), (iii) by experience (anubhava) and (iv) by perfection (paripuri)

So Dharma Chakra is Wheel of the Law, which has only been turned three times.

It may not be the best choice of words for Mudras generally, since if someone gives me a teaching or initiation, that is hardly the same as turning the Wheel, which will be done by Maitreya.

If you understand what Mula Bandha is, Mula Mudra (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZzASTU6y0a0C&lpg=PA243&ots=1hOQX8Q9lt&dq=%22mula%20mudra%22&pg=PA243#v=onepage&q=%22mula%20mudra%22&f=false) spawns from it. That article says you are trying to find the androgynous energy in your pranic body. If you do the Zen mudras associated with martial arts, they are all elements, so you are doing Prithvi Mudra.

Yoga Anytime (https://www.yogaanytime.com/show-view/66/Yoga-Show-Mudra-Medicine) uses "Jnana or Chin" for what looks like Dharmachakra. Mula Mudra is of course about the Muladhara Chakra. And if you look at the page, Mula is just a slight push from Prithvi Mudra, which is intended almost the same way.

I can well imagine that Mula Mudra is well applicable to Cunda. Her Sadhanamala form uses Varada Mudra. Twenty-six arm Cunda does Mula Mudra with both of her main hands. She also has a Club--likely reminiscent of her relationship with the Pala dynasty. Here, he bothered to extract her from Manjuvajra in NSP:

"Cunda candravarna sadvimsatibhuja pradhanabhyam hrdi mula-mudram daksinairabhayam khadgam ratnadama bljapuram sararh parasum gadam mudgaram ahkusam vajram tripatakabhinayarh aksasutram ca ; vamaiscintamanidhvajam padam kamandalum pasarh capam saktim cakram khadgam tarjanam ghantam bhindipalam prajnaparamitapusta* karh ca vibhrati. NSP, p 49

"Cunda is moon*white in colour. She has twenty-six arms. With the two principal hands she exhibits the chief mudra l . In the remaining right hands she shows the 1. Abhaya mudra, 2. sword, 3. garland of jewels, 4. citron, 5. arrow, 6. axe, 7. club, 8. hammer, 9. goad, 10. thunderbolt, 11. Tripataka and 12* rosary.

In the remaining left hands she shows the 1. flag marked with Cintamani jewel, 2. lotus, 3. Kamandalu, 4. noose, 5. bow, 6. javelin, 7. discus, 8. sword, 9. Tarjani (raised index finger), 10. bowl, 11. Bhindipala and 12. the Prajnaparamita Scripture".

Bhindipala is a short javelin, similar to sakti--spear that she also has.

If he had not done that, Mula Mudra would have vanished into "the chief mudra".

Cunda is present at Ellora:

Ellora cave shows Sarvavarana (?) Tara. Ellora's Tara is with Mayuri. At Ellora, there is primarily Tara, Khadiravani-tara, Chunda, Vajradhatvishvari, Maha-mayuri, Janguli, Sujata, Pandara and Bhrikuti. Tara and Jambhala are door guardians, but it is at Ratnagiri that Jambhala unites with Hariti. In cave twelve of Ellora, a stout female figure is depicted wearing a waistband and headgear of a cobra. Khadrivani-tara also holds a cobra in one of her hands in the same cave.

There are extant relics of her Eighteen Arm form--and it is Devi Mahatmya which states that Eighteen is the worshipable form of a 1,000 arm deity. Her Eigtheen Arm form is in metalwork at Nalanda, and a stone image from Bodh Gaya. There are multitudes of her at Ratnagiri (presumably lesser forms).

In the Sutra, when you mutter her at a stupa, she is able to summon Aparajita and Hariti.

She is referred to as "Extreme Purity", whereas the word is not very different from chandala. Her origins lie with a yakshini cult in Bengal and Orissa and her name in Sanskrit "connotes a prostitute or other woman of low caste but specifically denotes a prominent local ogress". Her cult spread with the Pala Empire, eventually becoming important in Tibetan Buddhism and Tangmi.

As a Dharani goddess, Namasangiti says:

cundāṃ prajñāṃ ca padmāṃ ca sarvāvaraṇaśodhanīm |

This link (https://artsandculture.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/manjuvajramandala-with-43-deities-unknown/cgHrisi2m6UCbQ?ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.6863679514184137%2C%22y%22%3A0.646438024707565%2C%22z%22%3A13.98850 4698418204%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A0.06053530534351142%2C%22height%22%3A0.03159731108794033% 7D%7D) will show a magnified Cunda in Manjuvajra mandala, and, it is nearly impossible to see what her mudra is. The Mongolian version is clear, but, it does not look like they really understood what it is supposed to be:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/4/40453.jpg

There are several similar images of sixteen or eighteen arms where you cannot see the mudra or it looks like dharmachakra; here may be the only one it looks like Prithvi or Mula (open in tab is *much* larger):

http://www.fodian.net/world/cundi/more/cundi_9.jpg

Evidently, the strangeness about her operating in the "tantricly-restricted" Muladhara is perfectly plain if you know anything about Yoga and look at her large form that way. Kickstarter of Samadhi according to the progression, origin of a Fiery or Fast chakra prodicing Light Blue goddesses? Seems fair to me.

There is a common tale of a male Cunda the Blacksmith, but, in Swayambhu Purana, Buddha enters Nepal and gets a female disciple named Cunda, to whom he tells the history of Swayambhu. If you look in the last chapter (http://www.dsbcproject.org/canon-text/content/7/202), the spelling is Cuda, but, it is followed by Cale Cule and Dharani Parama Vidya, and then:

etanpuṇyānubhāvena cūṃḍeyaṃ bhikṣuṇī satī|

pañcābhijñāvatī varṣairdvādaśabhirbhaved dhruvaṃ||6||

Marit--Anubha--Cum is the seed syllable of Cunda, which becomes the Nun Sati. And then the second line is something about the Five Knoledges being centered and aligned, Dhruvam meaning Pole Star, or, as in Dhruvam Arya Tara, which is Durgottarini.

If that means Sati in any way, they are standing on her vagina. Again, if not literally her, it suggests someone related/knowledgeable of/lineage of, etc., and Sati is the Pithas. Nepal is, of course, commercialized, so even a travel agent (https://www.trip.com/things-to-do/detail/16918379/) can say the Guhyeshvari temple is dedicated to Sati.

Well, I though Cunda was nonsense because she is going into a place characterized by Amoghasiddhi and Wrathful Green Taras such as Candi at a degree whose Peaceful equivalent is Durgottarini. I am not quite sure we can say Cunda "is" Candi, since she is really Sattvavajri or Vajrasattvatmika, etc., part of Vajrasattva, who "starts" this and keeps going to other things. Like Cunda temporarily shares a room with the Candi and Diptachakra types, who stay there. At most, we could say in some tantras, Karma and Jewel Family switch roles and Karma is in Nirmana Chakra and Ratna goes to the base. In most cases, it is an Amoghasiddhi center, meaning everything has been cranked to the stages Extremely Wrathful and Samadhi.

Cunda matches the Samadhi; it starts with "this" intensity, and is able to find new kinds.

Sadhanamala Cunda 130 is crowned by Vajrasattva and tells you to do Saptavidhanuttara first, i. e., what we learned with Mahattari Tara. She, currently, is Nepalese, same as Swayambhu Purana always has been.

Khandaroha is weird. She has all appearances of being in Lotus Family, but she is Mamaki. It is interesting with respect to Padmanarttesvara, since he is a tantric Avalokiteshvara who unites with Guhyajnana, surrounded by the Four Dakinis including Kandaroha. However, Pandara is used with Padmanarttesvara 30 and:

RG 152 is Eleven Face Thirty-two Arm White Amoghapasha, made of Hindu deities, who splits into Vishvesvara and Pandaravasini. His heart mantra refers to Pashupati and Padma Kula Samaya. Pandara is "similar in aspect", so White. She says:

Om Padme Pandaravasini Kunda Kunda Svaha

That is not Cunda, but Agni's fire holder.

Neither one of those represents Union, such as 30:

https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/files/fig112-Padmanartesvara.jpg

Now in going over STTS and Guhyasamaja, we found the West hardly ever changes, it is Red and occupied by Lotus deities. However, we can actually carve out a sequential rotation done by Avalokiteshvara where that is not the case:

Lakshmi Eleven Face Lokeshvara: Vairocana is in the West.

Amoghapasha: Ekajata (Vajra)

Two Arm Red Nartesvara 30: Bhurini (Jewel)

Sabara's Nartesvara and Vilasini: Ram Amoghasiddhi is in the West. He has the normal fire syllable associated with males and the blood symbol of red females.

Padmanarttesvara's consort can be found to be either Guhyajnana Dakini, or Vajravilasini.

Yes, ultimately it is Amitabha + Pandara, but that is on some higher plane; the more active part, the Bodhisattva, goes as described in sadhanas.

shaberon

24th January 2021, 07:09

Yes, it's an interesting journey between two scholars and adepts (?). We are happy to listen in on the discourses. May it be blessed and continue without abatements.

Thank you but I refuse any titles. Yogin, perhaps, or disciple or devotee, but to the Buddhists I am not even an Upasaka, just a lay follower.

That being said, this is the only thing I can vouch for. I can't tell you what really happened on 9/11, or what the secret planet is. Such things are curiosities perhaps, but never did me much good. This does.

Were I to go to a formal Buddhist site, they would shred me for bringing in the Puranas and Upanishads, which I think is to their detriment. I look at it as a cumulative distillation of Sanskrit culture, of which Buddha is the most advanced exponent, who teaches tantra as Vajradhara. Creme de la creme. That might sound elitist or something, but, at some point I have to assert the meaning of our Refuge Vow:

This is the safest and most reliable guide for me.

I used to question it and react against it, which now I just call the Sixth Sin: that it is not important or that it does not apply to me.

The more important it is, and the more it applies, that is Vajrasattva.

shaberon

24th January 2021, 19:43

I've gotten the feeling over the past many months that it isn't always the same thing. It is sometimes like a complete substitute for my physical body, a body with similar attributes, and then there are times when it expands to cosmic size, or times when it branches into lots of bodies or I merge with the breeze or many of the other things that don't seem like the same thing, but maybe they are, I don't know.

The alternate bodies or non-bodies are very unusual. I am not sure I have ever heard of it.

My guess is that they are what we would call Laukika Siddhis, Worldly or Mundane. That may sound unusual since they can be interpreted in terms of subjugating others or finding cash, which is probably their traditional origin. But like the Eight Fears, there is a tantric Buddhist re-interpretation, such as invisibility and rapid travel, which is the closest comparison I can come up with to your descriptions, other than the general worlds-within-worlds metaphor.

There are a lot of deities who are considered capable of granting them, but, only a few seem to really emphasize them, such as Kurukulla.

Illusory Body (https://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/ettt/ettt15.htm) is usually trained with a Mirror and based in non-reactivity. Have someone alternately praise and insult you. This, of course, develops Upeksha.

It says one who spontaneously sees mandalas no longer needs visualization exercises.

She doesn't look like Niguma. Certainly Niguma is important, and the connection seems to be involving reading Niguma to 'prepare' for encounters with Mandarava. Mandarava is not in control currently (they shift depending on the subject of training), currently things are being led by Ushas. They are about action, which I find quite difficult and have been making only slow progress.

Dakinis are Activity, particularly in the sense of pranic currents between the Pithas. Not in the ordinary medical sense, but in the reversed tantric method. Each is like a new door to a different country. They are yoginis of the body until you realize her liberated nature able to move freely through space.

As to their forms, yes, Niguma has a dark appearance; the Purified White Heruka of them all is Siddharajni. She "is like" a white Guhyajnana, but again, by Purified, it means the same thing as the Theravadins talking about any object.

When I can visualize without effort something ordinary, I can just do it with a coffee cup, when it looks like itself--that is the astral blueprint of the material world. Then if I continue the meditation on this astral object, eventually, on its own, it will arise in a radiant condition.

Prior to that, I have an inability to visualize it, followed by a trail of fits and starts until being able to do it with supreme effort.

The deities are the same as the coffee cup, except they are pregnant with meaning and power.

They make mandalas on their own; world-systems gain the ability to realize one or more of these.

The difference between Ushas and Marici would be Method. Of course, we still believe the real, original Ushas is what she is, and may be of benefit to those who realize her, whereas Marici just means using a certain spell to do it, which produces:

Vajrasattva Ishvari

If Cunda is Vajrasattva's sister, consort, or both, Marici is in effect the most subtle wisdom behind all their antics in STTS, Guhyasamaja, etc.

If sometimes Cunda is Sattvavajri this (above) seems to confuse things. On a related note, I went looking for some direct connection between Ushas and Marici, other than the belief by some scholars that Marici is a later and more Buddhist Ushas. I could not find one, but I have been having a lot of Ushas lately and there was one distinct vision in which it seemed that Ushas expressed/emanated/birthed Marici. It was in response somehow to a not enunciated question about her and Marici.

Perhaps mind-born, a Prajapati, an Usnisa.

Possibly even sweat-born, a nectar residue.

Marici underlies the cosmology of all, since, as Dipper Mother, she is mother of the Rishis whose wives are the Pleiades, which is the entire origin of Maya and the descent from mental into physical matter.

I am not too sure we should think of them as "local deities" of our personal sun visible from earth; Surya and his conventional shakti would be that. They are Dawn wherever it happens. First as the visibility of form even from the animal kingdom, then, later, as a Noumenal apparition to consciousness, Luminous Mind and so on.

If success with Vajrasattva means the Dawn of Luminous Mind, it is the beginning of never-ending success under this Ishvari.

The way Manjushri is talking about Cunda best makes sense in the way of him bearing the teaching of Swayambhu Adi Buddha. This is exclusively Nepalese and cannot be borne out by the Bodhisattva Manjushri of the Sutras. I do not know Manjushri at all, but, Vajradhara is my Swayambhu, so it will all concatenate.

Without really having the lineage of Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra, we lack any text that would be more explanatory telling us exactly how it works. It will be almost the same as Akshobya Guhyasamaja, which is what we can delve into by way of learning something about it, but Manjuvajra has additional meanings, and is the method of Jnanapada lineage. I am not sure whether to call it the Yogacara lineage of Yoga or what. It consists of a certain sect which forces us to ingest all of the Kriya-Chara and Yoga vocabulary, techniques, etc., into the appropriate inner meaning which really works. Its philosophy is therefor the same as building all of the real ingredients of Seven Syllable deity, instead of simply initiating us into higher rites and telling us to try. It perhaps could be called the training of Heruka Yoga, until, when you "have" Heruka Yoga, it is self-arisen and purified. At that point you really can do the Seven Syllable, which is like constant fusion in the Bodhisattva Path. When you do it, then you can get the purified self-arisen other deities, you can do Completion Stage in actual realization.

Vajrasattva was originally drawn forth from Akshobya. Eventually, he is able to meander off on his own and emanate other deities, such as his own potential consort. He distinctly emanates basic Cunda because:

A Cause Crown-seals a Result.

There are just a few deities who are crowned by him. One could say in STTS, Sattvavajri arises from Akshobya, but if Vajrasattva gets a little more powerful and blends with Manjushri, he can throw her into alignment with his self-produced Cunda. This is the only place we can even find this apparent path of Cunda, which uses her most impressive form, so we would expect it to be really intricate. Manjushri is a much elder custodian of Swayambhu, whereas we can find historical Cunda initiated into it by Buddha himself.

She is not going to match any Hindu root chakra goddess or the like. This is utterly different, slower, and a lot more difficult. With Nairamta being in the Root of Swayambhu, and, being also the Sixth Principle, she is equivalent to this Vajrasattva class, even if an Akshobya emanation. Vajrasattva is like a personal experience or Atma Vidya of Akshobya deity. That is why he is basically forced to blend with Vajrapani and take on Wrathful Mode. As or with Manjushri, he is capable of displaying the entire Path up to Adi Buddha, which requires a Vajrapani or Trailokya Vijaya role, after his gaining Sword, Lion, Sarasvati, and Blue Sarasvati. The Sword is secretly a Visva Vajra, which implies he must have placed the Vajra Bhumi or Ground.

Namasangiti starts with Manjuvajra, who is "tied" to his "implied consort", Sparsha Vajra as Vajradhatvishvari.

Again we just follow the meaning that centering Sparsha Vajra means prana has been withdrawn from the surfaces and limbs, which is the Crescent or Bow of Inverted Stupa, which is marked by Banners. To say Vajradhatvishvari means having centered prana in the heart and able to begin a reversed upwards motion. And then you are placing Vajradakini on top of it all.

Those are not the Victory Banner, they are like gating banners, and so when you reverse the wind, they flutter. Therefor we are able to say this Crescent is a type of entity, phase, or stage, represented by limitations on the sadhana structure, and when you achieve this and get beyond into Heat, it is Pranayama, and much more complex. When successful overall to the whole body, it is Victory Banner, the Winds are ready to flow through the allowed exit of the crown aperture.

Ulkamukhi literally meaning "meteor face"?

A post or the lintel above a door? This looks like something that people have over a door.

Yes, Meteor Face, I think so. This is because in her upwards brown hair, Dhvajagrakeyura has an upper Smoky Face:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/2/5/52548688.jpg

I have only seen her "dharani post" set around the edge of a village. I am not sure about home use; chances are, Pancha Raksa would be more popular. Dhvajagrakeyura has precious little use in the sadhana basket overall, so, probably harder for people to connect to. It makes sense because mainly she is tantric Banner and with a Smoky Face must have some amount of Karma Family energy. She does not have any basic or non-tantric forms and does not pal around in evolutionary retinues. The lesser equivalents would therefor be the other minions of Jewel Family such as Vasudhara or Ratnolka or Cintamani Tara. It is like she is a stage of Accomplishment of theirs.

I haven't gotten to the chapter on the Ten Bhumi yet (I'm on 25 it's 29). If it were dedications (which is my current chapter and there are 10), there are some dedications that have multiple subparts, so maybe this is the explanation. As for "accomplishing the rest in one lifetime", I had thought Sakyamuni had said this for the whole ball of wax.

Well, yes, Buddha did it in one lifetime since he was born in the state of Vajradhara.

It is, technically possible, on a Sutra basis, to reach the final attainment in this life, but even most Vajrayana practitioners will say they do not realistically expect this. Mahayana is an acceleration of older practices mainly due to praying to ripen one's karmic seeds. Vajrayana accelerates that intensely with the assertion you can do it in this very life, but, if it were all that easy, it would not be confusing to us about who or what is a Bodhisattva and a tulku; that would become self-evident. They would manifest mandalas and be our company without any effort from us.

Buddha's initiation is a role model of all the tantric sadhanas. This point is not emphasized enough, and it would be the response to the questions of outsiders as to why we have these rites. It is really only mentioned in Vairocana Abhosambodhi Tantra, and maybe one or two other places. So that is a major part in Yogacara-of-Yoga, it says that we are going to emulate whatever Buddha actually did that made him Buddha. Until that point, he was a Hindu, or Vaisnava, or just a generic Yogi.

Therefor I cannot say much about the Tenth, but, a whole lot about the first, Vajrasattva.

The Four Brahma Vihara are the same as in any kind of yoga, and never exit the sadhana arena:

Metta--Mudita--Karuna--Upekka

and these are a mandala ring at higher levels, but, they are basic synonyms for:

All Deities--Vajrasattva--Avalokiteshvara--Vajradakini Parasol

it essentially dictates the framework of all the teachings.

The Tantras do not really contradict Sutra Mahayana, or Theravada, or the Vedas, or this, probably the oldest, "yoga technique". I think all yoga in the sense of Raja Yoga stems from this. The Tathagatas must have accepted the key to their initiation in that Buddha was inspired by the recollection of Joy of the First Dhyana. Nobody gave him a Kalachakra initiation. He put a slight twist onto ascetic yoga which pleased them, and then he was able to emanate Kalachakra in a way that others could see it.

When that Buddha fractal is injected into our world-system, it makes more.

He was able to emanate Parasol in a way that others would know her.

As we can see, the first two names are Method entering non-dual union with Prajna, which is found in the Heart and then governed by Vajradakini.

Subba Row said that Prajna is what is represented by Death at Kashi. Its onset is a very eerie condition that could last for months. It is primarily represented by our blue six-arm deities. Now if we look at the Homa rite then we have a Buddhist Agni Yoga and, if this places him in the position of Smrti, the resultant Samadhi is Annapurna.

It is "usually" Chakrasamvara that is employed in order to do this, but, if you have Guru Yoga, Saptavidhanuttara, and Tri-Samadhi, this would be equivalent.

Annapurna is Parasunya, which simultaneously means Shentong Nirakara Vijnana Vada, as well as the complete operation of the Great Coronal Dome or Usnisa. The way in which Vajradakini and Usnisa are significant to Jewel Family is in the sense of Ratnaketu, Fiery Comet Tail, which is above the head. Dhavjagrakeyura Smoke Face is showing Samadhi as a gate to the large Flame-Swept Tuft. It consists mainly of Vyoma or Void, Higher Yoni Triangle within Void, and then a sort of arboreal paradise which I forget the name of (it may be Purnagiri Pitha), which consists of the Three Voids as discussed in our Yoga, beyond which is Para Sunya, or Maha Sunya, Sarva Sunya, or other synonyms.

There is brilliance of the aperture of the Crown, itself, and from there it relies on the action of Vajra Danda or Staff, which is an extention of the Avadhut or Central Channel.

The Danda is using Rainbow Guru as a propellor, if you see how his centers produce torque, the Danda is aiming this upwards through the aperture. It is affected much like the ray passing between the plates in the original television sets, magnetically, by whatever currents are rolling around in the brain. If you want it to be aimed precisely, Dhruvam, as powerfully as possible, Mahabala, then you should understand these as names of your conductor plates and why you don't want streams of karmic habit-patterns jumping around in the brain.

Part of the whole point in retinues of wrathful male deities is to shear the limbs of Catuskoti, the wrathful mainly means in the brain, so, they grind out these useless currents. The female equivalent is the resultant harmonious dance.

On a male, Rainbow Guru correspondingly does Vajra Surya initiation through the Tip of the Jewel. That probably really is the best way to snuff your karmic winds, they become exhausted and not replaced.

The equivalent deity for both sexes is Khaganana, who has an Eighteen Arm Saffron form.

With the blue, you have to endure that creepiness without any aversion, and for the orange, you have to enjoy it maximally without any attachment. The first results in Light Blue or Turquoise or Turquoise Lamp, the second, in Nectar.

So I think Dhvajagrakeyura really has no outer forms and that the face of smoky samadhi and upwards flame from the head are fairly precise definitions related to Victory Banner; is like a tantric transformation of the entire Six Family Wheel in Peaceful and Wrathful modes. Is like Vajra Varnani, Kama Dhatvishvari, the Lunar Nerve, the Grasped.

Ernie Nemeth

24th January 2021, 20:26

Old Student

25th January 2021, 02:21

The alternate bodies or non-bodies are very unusual. I am not sure I have ever heard of it.

I'm not sure if this is even relevant, but I did run across this in the Avatamsaka, and maybe it alludes to lots of different bodies:

Great enlightening beings also dedicate roots of goodness for the
sake of all sentient beings to the attainment of various pure subtle
bodies -- the body of light, the body of freedom from pollution, the
body of nonobsession, the body of purity, the body of extreme purity,
the body of detachment from objects of sense, the body of ultimate
detachment from objects of sense, the body of freedom from defilement,
the body of beauty, the body of nonobstruction...

My guess is that they are what we would call Laukika Siddhis, Worldly or Mundane. That may sound unusual since they can be interpreted in terms of subjugating others or finding cash, which is probably their traditional origin. But like the Eight Fears, there is a tantric Buddhist re-interpretation, such as invisibility and rapid travel, which is the closest comparison I can come up with to your descriptions, other than the general worlds-within-worlds metaphor.

I wonder if any of those would be connected to this thing of being told to "Act!" which I am still trying to understand and do. So far, the only thing I have actually felt like I have learned from this one is that I am supposed to go to a place inside and effectuate the dissolve.

Prior to that, I have an inability to visualize it, followed by a trail of fits and starts until being able to do it with supreme effort.

The deities are the same as the coffee cup, except they are pregnant with meaning and power.

And they seem to be able to be visualized in several different ways -- in the bright but less distinct near vision, in the crystal clear far vision, or taking control of the body in an identification.

The difference between Ushas and Marici would be Method. Of course, we still believe the real, original Ushas is what she is, and may be of benefit to those who realize her, whereas Marici just means using a certain spell to do it, which produces:

Vajrasattva Ishvari

If Cunda is Vajrasattva's sister, consort, or both, Marici is in effect the most subtle wisdom behind all their antics in STTS, Guhyasamaja, etc.

This is a most interesting relationship when combined with the feeling of Marici as Ushas' daughter in my shakings, and then combined with the fact that in my shakings only Locana, Ushas, and Cunda's Prajnaparamita form are sitting, most of the rest are either standing,dancing or flying, or having sex.

I am not too sure we should think of them as "local deities" of our personal sun visible from earth; Surya and his conventional shakti would be that. They are Dawn wherever it happens. First as the visibility of form even from the animal kingdom, then, later, as a Noumenal apparition to consciousness, Luminous Mind and so on.

That's an interesting question, if someone who was a yoga practitioner were stationed on the Moon, would they do Surya Pranam when the sun came up on the moon or when it came up relative to the earth?

When successful overall to the whole body, it is Victory Banner, the Winds are ready to flow through the allowed exit of the crown aperture.

Are these banners that show up all the time supposed to be thought of like regular banners? Sometimes they end up being made of jewels or flowers or incense and I end up wondering what they are and whether 'banner' is the right translation.

So I think Dhvajagrakeyura really has no outer forms and that the face of smoky samadhi and upwards flame from the head are fairly precise definitions related to Victory Banner; is like a tantric transformation of the entire Six Family Wheel in Peaceful and Wrathful modes. Is like Vajra Varnani, Kama Dhatvishvari, the Lunar Nerve, the Grasped.

I have not heard the term 'Lunar Nerve' before.

Old Student

25th January 2021, 02:28

Maybe shaberon can answer, he's more acquainted with yoga practices than I. If I take from my own meditative practice -- standing -- there are times when either the body or the mind is, as you call it, 'sluggish'. I have to be perfectly honest, during my long time of standing, I've both given in, and overcome. Overcoming is more satisfying at the end of the practice and has its rewards.

Do archetypes hold a grudge? Can they be appeased? And if not, can yoga be done without the mental aspect?

This one I can only answer from my shaking side. I don't have archetypes, I have Dakinis. They do not hold grudges (they are also completely unforgiving if they have asked me to do something (training) and I haven't accomplished it. In my experience they do not allow appeasement. There is no form of spiritual practice I have done which can be done without a mental aspect, even if the mental aspect is to be silent.

Hope this helps, I'm not an authority, just relating personal practice.

shaberon

25th January 2021, 03:48

Does yoga activate the ghosts of the archetypes? I am finding more and more resistance to practice. As my devotion increases so does the resistance.

I would guess so. If that is Jungian terminology, my point is that Jung went as far as he could with our doctrines, but, in the end, didn't completely gel with all of it. My suggestion would be that we out-Jung him.

In Mahayana we generally call it "ripening of karmic seeds", but, in experience, the subconscious is really a cesspool, I have probably erupted and flushed millions of demons, including things like psychically hearing screams from when my parents got hurt when they were kids.

Cemetary Yoga is definitely going to produce awful hallucinations and dreadful voices. There certainly is a "terrible" aspect of the Path, which can potentially be ended. One of my greatest reliefs is simply ignoring the western media and press, which is like sucking neurosis bombs through a straw.

I know people are intimidated by this. I personally intimidate most of them. If I were to say non-mental Yoga, no, in our definition there is no such thing, since that would be a lower or introductory grade. What we call Kriya simply means "action" and that means more of an outer ritualistic performance which is less intense. I would suggest looking at things at this level until one is ready to move on. It constantly talks about Protection and Purification. And so we do want this in unlimited quantities because the truth is that reality is not going to be nice to us just because we would like it to. The Path is not made of butterflies and fairies, it is mud and filth.

Mantra is Manas or Mind + Tra "to protect". I hope that makes sense as an underlying reason why the more advanced rites are made of Mantra. I cannot visualize anything, but, when bad things happen, I can shake off violent rage with mantra in a few minutes. I have just gotten comfortable with it and can use it to delete any disturbing emotions, which is a major part of what we are doing, to prevent them by preventing their causes.

No matter what happens, the Tathagata never gives up on you. The smallest good thing always makes them rejoice.

Ernie Nemeth

25th January 2021, 04:44

They do not hold grudges (they are also completely unforgiving if they have asked me to do something (training) and I haven't accomplished it.

yes, this is our disagreement

Mantra is Manas or Mind + Tra "to protect". I hope that makes sense as an underlying reason why the more advanced rites are made of Mantra.

interesting, I can work with that, thanks

I don't do cemetary meditation but I do do subway meditation. Does that count? Lot of walking dead around...:)

Agape

25th January 2021, 05:42

Does yoga activate the ghosts of the archetypes? I am finding more and more resistance to practice. As my devotion increases so does the resistance.

My body is quickly detoxing and readying itself but my mind is weak. My body says go, go go! I need this.
My mind says no no no! Not sure this is a good idea.

It is not like the first time at all...that time my mind was all in and my body thought it was all too much for it.

I am finding a lot of mental resistance to installing the temple within, again.

Do archetypes hold a grudge? Can they be appeased? And if not, can yoga be done without the mental aspect?

I hope this is not as rhetorical as it sounds when I read this post back to myself.

sorry to break the flow, but could use some guidance

Actually, if your Yoga activates the Spirits of Archetypes, you’ll only experience smoothening of all matters , worldly and spiritual and no difficult or differential pulls at all unless you’re after something else.

Yoga is perfect unison of mind and energy and body and mind, or as Patanjali Yoga Sutras define it, “cessation of mental transformations”,
from simple to the deepest core levels of our beingness.

Whatever your discipline is about, it should make you happy. There’s no other condition to various disciplines than that have to be happy, harmonious and non violent activity to be called yoga.

It’s because mind and its energy is subtle and sensitive to every motion of ours. In its natural pure state, it’s happy and without boundaries.

The same state where we started as children.

So yoga exercises, physical or mental should never be forceful or crude, or done in hurtful way. Focus on your subtle energy and what it says, not on Spirits or Archetypes I suggest.

It’s winter now where I’m, without the heating we are generally used to so I can’t do much physical activity either unless I’d be hurting myself constantly,
it’s hibernation time it seems :) it has to wait till spring.

There are conditions recommended for yoga disciplines, in the Patanjali Yoga Sutra itself and Vedas in general that should be followed such as :

the best times to practice is during spring - summer ( warm climates) but avoiding temperature extremes

sunrises and sunsets are generally the best times of the day or anytime around those hours

practicing either in nature or well cleaned and beautiful room , away from crowds or having anyone watching you is preferable

practice after taking bath, clean cloth and eat light meals on that day

arrange some small incense, flower and fruit offerings that you can either eat or give someone after your practice

Do not drive cars or city transport on Yoga day if not necessary

Yes and never do yoga if too tired.

Take a good nights sleep instead and call it samadhi ( I do that, no pun intended).

Figured out after many strenuous mental exercises of past years that it’s the deep sleep - the non-REM sleep that we are often missing the most even while we are too tired or maybe because of it - and the one item that eventually restores all the rest of our functions once we can “get it”.

You may want to try conscious yogic sleep - the Yoga Nidra - and pretend your physical body is dead for an hour if you’re exhausted.

It works miracles but it too requires willingness and effort.

So cold , so late

🙏😀🌟

shaberon

25th January 2021, 08:33

I'm not sure if this is even relevant, but I did run across this in the Avatamsaka, and maybe it alludes to lots of different bodies:

Great enlightening beings also dedicate roots of goodness for the
sake of all sentient beings to the attainment of various pure subtle
bodies -- the body of light, the body of freedom from pollution, the
body of nonobsession, the body of purity, the body of extreme purity,
the body of detachment from objects of sense, the body of ultimate
detachment from objects of sense, the body of freedom from defilement,
the body of beauty, the body of nonobstruction...

That is definitely relevant!

Subtle Body = Suksma Sarira

Light Body = Rainbow or Heruka

Freedom from pollution = Vimala

Non-obsession I can't remember off the top of my head

Purity, Extreme Purity = Vishodhani and Parishuddhi

Detachment = Vairagya, etc.

And so forth. Again, we know there was an academic impulse which felt all of the Sanskrit had to have a small, exact match in English, which is certainly not the case. If only they would leave the original terms along with their "version" of it, we could decide for ourselves how well they are doing, rather than being told.

Yes, within the body or within Kama Loka there are certainly different states or spheres of mind, and so, for example, if we define one of these as Animal and decide we are not going to regress into it, then the things given are examples of the opposite of that. What is "above" mundane human consciousness?

I wonder if any of those would be connected to this thing of being told to "Act!" which I am still trying to understand and do. So far, the only thing I have actually felt like I have learned from this one is that I am supposed to go to a place inside and effectuate the dissolve.

Although Khadga Siddhi is the name for the Transcendent or Lokottara Siddhis-- Generation and Completion--the Laukika may be described as:

Khadga

Anjana (can see devas and other such beings)

Padalepa (speed)

Antardhana (personal invisibility)

Rasarasayana (nectar, ambrosia)

Khecara

Bhucara (Bali)

Patala

Last time I checked, Flitting appears to be a type of invisibility, and, the majority of what you discuss is a type of Khecara.

The Sanskrit terms I am able to find for Act as a verb are Abhini and Acar, Kriya and Karma being nouns.

Sword apparently having a dual role, the Laukika definition of Sword is "invincible in battle", and, we know several examples of this power being a Dharani which Buddha gave to Kaushika--Indra. Sometimes it was a weapon, sometimes it was protective (Dhvajagrakeyura). I can only come up with one example where a similar thing was gifted to Narayan--Vishnu, which is Mahamaya Vijayavahini, who is an utter violation because her only form is a 1,000 Arm War Chariot goddess in the middle of an army of replicas.

Invincibility is Aparajita, which is Parasol, a total state of combining all of these. At that point, the only thing left is Final Crushing of the Enemy, Pramardani, which is a Tara of Transference. If I can get Tara to work, she will Carry Me All the Way Across, since I can take those Sutras and Dharanis and her on a Yoga basis and I have a gazillion times more information than Buddha did when he did it.

I will fail, miserably, and probably wander in Preta Loka for incalculable eons, it does not matter, Tara will be there and she is able to manifest the same result as Jnanadakini does, Transference. I am so slow I will probably watch the whole earth vaporized by black fire and then I will lie dormant in the Alaya until some other bungling Creator sets up another ball of suffering. Maybe then I will figure out where Turquoise Leaves is, and at least this will quit happening so badly.

Jnanadakini is like a personal instructor of tantric experiences her way, whereas Tara has a form defined as Final Samadhi.

Khadga Siddhi is not discussed much; Skanda Purana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc425703.html) ch. 59:

52-56. Hence, O goddess, the Liṅga has become very famous as Siddheśvara. Those men who devoutly see it get eternal Siddhi. They may gain the Siddhis of Añjana (collyrium), Pādalepa (smearing the feet), Pādukā (sandals i.e. ability to move about anywhere), Guṭikā (magic pills) and Khadga Siddhi (Siddhi of the sword). Mahāsiddhi (Ultimate Siddhi) is rare. There are other Siddhis too, such as those obtained through divine medicines, those through Mantras, Laghimā (weightlessness) etc. Then there are the Siddhis of piety, wealth, love and of salvation which is the most excellent. All these are obtained by visiting Śrī Siddheśvara. Thus the sin-destroying power of Siddheśvara Deva has been recounted to you. Listen to that of Mataṅgeśa.

Lalita Mahatmya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/lalitopakhyana-lalita-mahatmya/d/doc362977.html) ch. 36 Interior Chamber of Cintamani is all about using the Solar Plexus Manipura, which is physiologically identical, and, in its symbols, very close to Buddhist tantra if we think of it as Nirmana Chakra. She mentions what appears to me to be the likely reason for giving Ghri syllable to Mamaki in Vajramrita Tantra:

15-16. Behind that are the sun (named) Ghṛṇi, the temple of Oṃkāra, the deity Turīyagāyatrī (Fourth Gāyatrī) and Cakṣuṣmatī, O Sage—

Then the king of Gandharvas, Pariṣadrudra (Rudra of the Assembly) and goddess Tārāmbikā are stationed behind.

That is some kind of Ganapati and Tara.

The siddhis section will explain that there is Varuni in the Solar Plexus:

There are many Siddhis including eight Siddhis mentioned below and many others honoured by Yogins viz.—Rasasiddhi, Mokṣasiddhi, Balasiddhī, Khaḍgasiddhi, Añjanasiddhi, which is Pādukāsiddhi, Vāksiddhī, Lokasiddhi and Dehasiddhi thereafter.

All these serve Parameśvarī within that space. There are crores of Siddhis, O Sage, in that space between Aṇimā etc.

55. They are full of fresh youthful bloom. Their lotus-like faces beam with smiles (for ever). Their hands (palms) are like radiant Cintāmaṇi gems. They are always sixteen years in age. They have noble and highly exalted nature. They play about in their excitement due to inebriation.

This chapter will also cast Annapurna and Mahalakshmi in the ways that we use them. Siddhi is inexhaustible. There are about eight you can more likely describe and attain, and from there, who knows.

The way we would use them is to increase Prajna or Transcendental Wisdom, so, the Sword gets a double meaning, at first it points toward the center, and then it arises, so to speak, because the center points up. Once that starts happening, we go to and work on Lokottara Siddhis, and this second life is called Sword of Prajna.

Khadga is Karma Family's sign, although it is thrust into the public's face on the readily-visible Guhyajnana Dakini, and on the more specifically-Nepalese Mahacina Krama Tara.

In Sri Vidya, it is the guide or pointer to the center of Sri Yantra. According to a Khadga Mala Mantra (https://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/khadga.html) article:

Kriya Yogis know how to rapidly achieve the evolution of one complete year of healthy living in one day. The chanting of this Mala mantra has a similar effect.

My personal, physical tantric experience is much more in Kriya Yoga or Laya Yoga or Soft Breath Yoga. And so I understand what he means--a type of Anuraga or component thereof. I do no understand his yoginis and chakra system. But I will have to agree that we are working in an 80-90% identical subject.

He says this is one you never chant without initiation. You can listen to it, but don't recite it.

I personally love Sri Yantra even if I kind of look at it with the eye of a Theravadin, as if were just a neat thing I was concentrating on. I would say it is helpful in seeing astral and occult light.

And they seem to be able to be visualized in several different ways -- in the bright but less distinct near vision, in the crystal clear far vision, or taking control of the body in an identification.

Pretty much so. The way tantras work and how they compound is that it may say self-generate as your yidam, or a wrathful deity, it may be specific or it may not care, before presenting you a new thing. Our Mahalakshmi is crowned by Yamantaka. And so that is pretty straightforward what she is asking for.

This is a most interesting relationship when combined with the feeling of Marici as Ushas' daughter in my shakings, and then combined with the fact that in my shakings only Locana, Ushas, and Cunda's Prajnaparamita form are sitting, most of the rest are either standing,dancing or flying, or having sex.

Yes, if you can get that close to narrowing a relationship between Locana and Cunda, that is quite close to the tantra, and if they are relatively immobile, that is a bit like Akshobya. If he is our Vishnu, then, Mahamaya Vijayavahini must be significant to him.

If someone were to say, what has Cunda got to do with Prajnaparamita, we can certainly say that the second simply turns into her own symbolic item, which is carried by others.

That's an interesting question, if someone who was a yoga practitioner were stationed on the Moon, would they do Surya Pranam when the sun came up on the moon or when it came up relative to the earth?

Haha, well, I suppose it would count in the visual sense. Unfortunately I wouldn't want it to touch my skin there.

Are these banners that show up all the time supposed to be thought of like regular banners? Sometimes they end up being made of jewels or flowers or incense and I end up wondering what they are and whether 'banner' is the right translation.

That is a good point, if we are going to say there are different types of Cups and Vases and so forth.

Apologizing for the shorthand, yes, Dhvajagrakeyura means Ornament on Victory Banner, which generally refers to a ring slid on to the upper end of its pole. Others are Cintamanidhvaja. I believe the ones on the Crescent are more like pennants, very sensitive to the forces of Wind.

Banner like the wallpaper-looking thing, or, Flag of whatever kind, are all Dhvaja. And so yes, there are different kinds in the sadhanas in terms of material or shape, but pretty much all under that category.

Like how Jitana is Curtains like decorative silky ones whereas Panjara is a Canopy as a protective dome. Panjara is one set thing in Buddhism, although it could generally mean "tent" or something.

I have not heard the term 'Lunar Nerve' before.

Those are the standards. Solar and Lunar Nerves twisted around the Avadhut. Hence the Sun and Moon at the top of tantric images, over the Parasol and Banner. You can see how it fits as each is protective and representative of the corresponding category. That is why those are the Victory items.

That is why Kamadhatvishvari is kind of singled off from other kinds of Ishvaris, she is the domain of Mahakala who is Panjara, the arcane wizard of them all, handling the Black Sphere.

That is why if you managed to trigger Vairocani and Varnani without being well-grounded and prepared for it, you might wind up completely schizophrenic. Those who actually witness the Dawning of Deities without any training, frequently result in temporary or permanent madness, H. P. Lovecraft style. That whole subject of his forbidden books and insanity may well have been based in his awareness of the Book of the Dead.

That manuscript has simply been handed to Evans-Wentz by some British soldier who got it who knows how. It means that it was possible to somehow pilfer such manuscripts, whether by conquest, theft, bribery, etc., and so when they start going off in the wrong hands, it is possible for someone to press it enough to get it to work, especially by forcing it with Hatha Yoga, and, well, that is more or less what I did as a teenager.

Fortunately, I started figuring out some of the non-dualizing self-corrections like you do, and instead of melting down, I wound up as a Buddhist.

Vairocani and Varnani trigger Tramen, which are animal-headed deities such as Vajravarahi, and, ultimately, Pisaci. It is like having Boars and Vampire Ghosts devour your soul. You generally do not want to see these in their current form. You want one that is specifically harnessed and constrained by magical commands. Like the people who used to summon Djinn or Demons such as Moloch and Azazel. If you slip out of that magic circle (i. e., mandala), then they simply destroy you. If you stay in the circle but your will (iccha or samsara) is submitted (vasikaran) to theirs, they will come in.

They are permitted to appear as hideous as they want, as long as they are on your side, destroying anything of the Skandhas that may try to bubble up. That is the meaning of Queen of Space. If you do not have her, I would not want to be you either during a profound tantric trance, or, when you die.

In knowing Illusory Body is generally co-eval with Dream Yoga, I don't really do either one, but, I might say I perform Sneeze Yoga.

Someone once told me that sneezing was equivalent to death in suspending all your processes for like a microsecond. If my allergies flare, I find sneezing is easily triggered by the sun, and I always do it as powerfully as I can. It is quick, but, tantrists assert it is the same thing, the series of voids or light exercises, and I strain to keep my actual eyes and my inner eye open when this happens, and I think they may be right. Done properly, it jams a lot of force upwards and causes an image, which, probably is an Abhisambodhi sequence at maximum speed.

The real thing would be like catching that pinnacle without expelling the sneeze and the intensity just keeps going.

Now there is such a thing as White Pratisara who is similar to Mrtyuvacana, and is the outer deity of Vajrapanjara Tantra:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/3/2/7/32769.jpg

but, in Sadhanamala, you could call her Sword Raksa of Ratna Family.

In my running conception, I think of her as stage two Muttering or a Crescent Goddess. She shares her syllable with Prajnaparamita (Pram). And so from using Prajnaparamita as a Dhamachakra, or, Vyakhyana or teaching moment of Om Ah Hum in Three Colors, Pratisara is the only place I know of where she changes her Throat Light to Yellow:

evaṃ vicintya tataḥ kāyavākcittacandreṣu
oṃ āḥ huṃ sitapītanīlatryakṣarāṇi cintayet / tataḥ
stānāntare candrasthapraṃkāraṃ vicintya nānāvidhadevatībhi-
r ātmānaṃ pūjitaṃ dṛṣṭvā tāvad bhāvayet yāvat khedo na
japet / khedo sati svahṛccandre muktāhāropamaṃ mantraṃ
paśyan japet / oṃ maṇidhari vajriṇi mahāpratisare huṃ huṃ
phaṭ phaṭ svāhā /

And so that has something to do with the appearance of her Vajrini mantra.

Her next exercise is a concise format of a familiar-sounding hypostasis:

First you Mutter her until she appears, and, then, while crowned in Ratna Family, she:

tataḥ svahṛdayān nirgataraśmibhir akṣobhyādīn sañcodyā-
nīya abhiṣekaṃ gṛhītvā mukuṭe adhipatim akṣobhyaṃ cintayet /

is the Vadin, explainer of Akshobya Abhisekha.

and then on to Vajrasattva mantra.

It then makes a very quick view of the basic Panca Raksa: Six Arm Harita Mayuri Vidyarajni in Srngara Mood, White Six Arm Vairocana Pramardani, Blue Four Arm Akshobya Mantranusarini, and Four Arm Lotus Sitavati. This is the format used in Bari (https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=5920) tradition which states is is from Vairocana Maya Jala Tantra. Jetari and Bari further give a Fifty-six deity Pancha Raksha by adding:

Outer Mandala Deities:
- Guardians of the Ten Directions
- Nine Heavenly Bodies
- Twenty-four Mansions
- Four Guardian Kings

Next in Sadhanamala, a piece begins which is probably their assembled mandala, and it is here the text is missing for a few pages.

Compared to that listing, here are a few versions where Pratisara has a basic Pancha Raksa.

https://anthro.amnh.org/images/full/700/700_6956.jpg

Vajravali version:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/9/4/89468.jpg

On its full thangka with Vasudhara, Usnisa Vijaya, and "unidentified", which we may have figured out somewhere:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/1/3/31323.jpg

It appears to me that the basic Quintessence mode of the standard formats is going to change. There is a triangular rotation, since, it looks to me like Pramardani is going to remain in place. What that implies is that she should greatly resemble the initiation of Final Samadhi. She seems to, because as weird as this may look to artists and historians, it at least makes tantric sense.

Now, because we do have, the famous, the weird Pancha Raksa 206, it specifically states that Blue Pramardani is in the East in Vajra Family. She is the Mahabala Krama, Raudravesa, and:

amṛtavare varapravaraviśuddhe

She is doing a Method similar to that of Ganapati which entails Purification by Nectar. She is in the East, meaning you have some type of prior bond with her, and she starts the process that is being unfolded.

Yellow Mayuri is in Ratna Family in the normal spot, who has something to do with Marici:

aśoka-vṛkṣopaśobhitā

which looks like it has to do with Seven Poisons and Raudra's Skull:

sasaptaviṣasañchādanakarī
saraudrakapilādirākṣasīvidhvaṃsanakarī

and she is a type of Nectar Eye, Amrita Vilokini and the Garbha or Womb of all Raksas.

followed by the big White Mantranusari who is still in Ratna Family and is Vimala and Viraj. These are all Maha forms and this one is staggering, almost as grand as Cunda. Vimala Viraj is Parasol. Who am I to try to tell her to get out of Ratna Family? This is equivalent to saying that Mantra Memory is a critical part of Buddha's initiation and this aspect of the deity is like a Vidyarajni and gets charged up by the best we can do.

Then there is Green Sitavati emanated from Ratna's syllable Tram and is:

tathāgatamukuṭinī

in Tathagata Family, and she is going to do Indriya Bala Vishodani.

Non-dualizing purification of weak sense faculties, Indriyas, into powerful ones, Balas.

Pancha Raksha in the large Bari mandala are like Sadhanamala, except Pratisara is White, and Mantranudharin is Red. By comparison, we found the Sadhanamala's White one from Nepal only a year or so ago. Aside from that, if you compare this to the previous mandala, the change on Pramardani is very evident, since she is still in the East but Blue:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/2/7/4/274.jpg

It is something like a more peaceful meaning of the harsher Cemetery environment. You can harass this rite with any teaching of advanced tantric technique and it is going to refer you to or require exactly that. If I have a hard time with it, then, Mayuri Vidyarajni has volumes of Buddhist and pre-Buddhist material. In Pancha Raksa, any deity is allowed to take the center. You would make the Mayuri mandala by trading her with Pratisara.

Amoghasiddhi's Sword is the main item in this whole rite, Green Mayuri resembles him but does not mention his name, and he is crowded out of the major version which only has Four Families. It is heavily skewed into Ratna Family and so it would also make sense as a prequel to Vajramrita Tantra.

This is like a Sword Spell from Buddha. Like a charge-up to tantric Dhvajagrakeyura.

Vasudhara is very similar in relating to Vajra Family, but, she also does a wide variety of things. This Pancha Raksa is very focused in a way that sounds highly suggestive to me of round two of Muttering and the Crescent.

So I believe this, too, is directing you to do some kind of exchange between Jewel and Vajra Families. Mahabala is the Method you are training now, which, when successful, is equivalent to opening Amoghasiddhi Family. Pancha Raksa is a bit more compact summary of this same design which appears to be borne out in the tantras.

Mayuri is not done justice by the art site. Sita Tara has two companions, Marici and Mayuri. For a good view of Sadhanamala compared to other systems, here is Mahasiddha Avadhutipa of Lamdre or Marga Phala or Path and Fruit lineage of Sakya. Over his shoulders are White Cause Hevajra and Blue Result Hevajra.

Bari lineage contains Sadhanamala Sita Tara, and here, she is beside Atisha's Seven-Eyed Tara. Her companions are not shown; according to the site:

Along the bottom register beginning on the left side are seven deity figures. The first is Green Tara followed by a yellow female figure, followed by red Padmanarteshvara Avalokiteshvara. At the center is Hari Hari Hari Lokeshvara, white, with one face and six hands, followed by Black Lokeshvara with five faces and twelve hands. The final two figures on the right are both White Tara. The first has one face and four arms and the second, one face, and two arms and seven eyes.

Four Arm Sita does her unique Utpala Mudra:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/0/6/60690.jpg

Chinese Pancha Raksha where she is surrounded by Quintessences:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/2/3/7/23766.jpg

shaberon

25th January 2021, 09:00

I don't do cemetary meditation but I do do subway meditation. Does that count? Lot of walking dead around...:)

It would, or does for me. Technically, anything can be a form of Yoga, whereas by calling it Raja Yoga and the like, means the specific spiritual rites or meditation sessions.

It is horrible. All of those walking dead have Buddha Nature, same as me, and yet I am going to imagine their ribcages falling out, or what happens when you go on the tracks.

Speaking as someone who at times has been able to see auras, some of them are appalling.

This paradoxical collision of love to all beings with the actual atmosphere of disgust and violence that suffuses the world is how we generate Bodhicitta which magically activates Buddha Nature within us; the potential of it is *true* but the realization of it is very difficult. When practitioners have an easy life then yes it seems easy but then when the test comes, hell hits home and you see how weak you really are and better start listening closely.

Old Student

26th January 2021, 05:48

The Cunda Mudra or Mula Mudra was said to "resemble" Dharmacakra Mudra without being able to tell the difference.

I was not aware of this, there are a lot of competing versions of Cunda Mudra I think, but the statuary of Cunda and of Prajnaparamita are close and those which are close have her doing Dharmacakra Mudra.

Marit--Anubha--Cum is the seed syllable of Cunda, which becomes the Nun Sati. And then the second line is something about the Five Knoledges being centered and aligned, Dhruvam meaning Pole Star, or, as in Dhruvam Arya Tara, which is Durgottarini.

If that means Sati in any way, they are standing on her vagina. Again, if not literally her, it suggests someone related/knowledgeable of/lineage of, etc., and Sati is the Pithas. Nepal is, of course, commercialized, so even a travel agent can say the Guhyeshvari temple is dedicated to Sati.

This would certainly line up with your previous post of Cunda being a fire at the base of the spine.

Yes, ultimately it is Amitabha + Pandara, but that is on some higher plane; the more active part, the Bodhisattva, goes as described in sadhanas.

This is the pairing I have heard of.

Old Student

26th January 2021, 06:15

And so forth. Again, we know there was an academic impulse which felt all of the Sanskrit had to have a small, exact match in English, which is certainly not the case. If only they would leave the original terms along with their "version" of it, we could decide for ourselves how well they are doing, rather than being told.

In this case the translation is coming from the Chinese, and Cleary is kind of known for translating everything, so that even the names get translated (Victor Mair does the same thing with Zhuangzi). Some of the bodies have designated Chinese names and can be worked backwards probably.

Although Khadga Siddhi is the name for the Transcendent or Lokottara Siddhis-- Generation and Completion--the Laukika may be described as:

Khadga

Anjana (can see devas and other such beings)

Padalepa (speed)

Antardhana (personal invisibility)

Rasarasayana (nectar, ambrosia)

Khecara

Bhucara (Bali)

Patala

Last time I checked, Flitting appears to be a type of invisibility, and, the majority of what you discuss is a type of Khecara.

The Sanskrit terms I am able to find for Act as a verb are Abhini and Acar, Kriya and Karma being nouns.

"Act!" so far involves pushing myself through something like a dissolve, it has resulted in "traveling" if that's what it would still be called when you "went" to places by being them, and it has involved some kind of pressing outwards that is similar to the dissolve. I think it is related to flitting but I haven't accomplished much yet so I'm not sure.

I will fail, miserably, and probably wander in Preta Loka for incalculable eons, it does not matter, Tara will be there and she is able to manifest the same result as Jnanadakini does, Transference. I am so slow I will probably watch the whole earth vaporized by black fire and then I will lie dormant in the Alaya until some other bungling Creator sets up another ball of suffering. Maybe then I will figure out where Turquoise Leaves is, and at least this will quit happening so badly.

That's an awful lot of failure, the length of those eons will be quite a while.

Someone once told me that sneezing was equivalent to death in suspending all your processes for like a microsecond.

It most surely stops your heart momentarily, I'm not sure that is equivalent to death, at least we are required to revive people who are a lot further down the road.

That is why if you managed to trigger Vairocani and Varnani without being well-grounded and prepared for it, you might wind up completely schizophrenic. Those who actually witness the Dawning of Deities without any training, frequently result in temporary or permanent madness, H. P. Lovecraft style. That whole subject of his forbidden books and insanity may well have been based in his awareness of the Book of the Dead.

I suppose this is a very real fear. Both when I first experienced my clear body and when I had my first shaking with the Dakinis, I worried a lot about what would be the line after which I might not be 'sane'. It wasn't so intense for the clear body experience, it was so riveting and went on so long I didn't really think it was out there for long. But the first couple of shakings I worried first about physically hurting myself because of the violence of some of the movements and about what might happen if I didn't "return" from visions and such. Both turned out to be unfounded fears (well, I'm not the judge of whether somebody with really strict ideas would think me insane).

Now there is such a thing as White Pratisara who is similar to Mrtyuvacana, and is the outer deity of Vajrapanjara Tantra:

Darn, what a beautiful statue. I spent some days at one point looking to see if there was a deity with a sword and a wheel, because one identified in my shaking, and could find none. I guess I didn't know where to look.

Yellow Mayuri is in Ratna Family in the normal spot, who has something to do with Marici:

aśoka-vṛkṣopaśobhitā

which looks like it has to do with Seven Poisons and Raudra's Skull:

sasaptaviṣasañchādanakarī
saraudrakapilādirākṣasīvidhvaṃsanakarī

and she is a type of Nectar Eye, Amrita Vilokini and the Garbha or Womb of all Raksas.

I am not familiar with "Nectar Eye"?

shaberon

26th January 2021, 10:43

Darn, what a beautiful statue. I spent some days at one point looking to see if there was a deity with a sword and a wheel, because one identified in my shaking, and could find none. I guess I didn't know where to look.

Pratisara is "similar" to Mrtyuvacana, but much more active.

Mrtyuvacana is possibly just a synonym for Sita Tara; she just has a basic White Tara form (Varada and Utpala), except she has Vajra Feet, like Mahattari is a basic Green Tara form, except she has Vajra Feet. The only real exercise on Mrtyuvacana is her Mantra Wheel, which is at the heart, having eight spokes, so, similar to that of Pratisara. Then Sita is White Vajra Tara, who has Vajra Feet, and is fiery, this being Nagarjuna's White Tara. So in looking around for the original or most basic White Tara, it is those, and when they say Sita Tara nowadays it no longer means them.

Pratisara has the phrase:

māyāsvapnasamaṃ

Maya and Dream are the same, possibly ending on your word that sounds like "summon".

It is a somewhat infrequent stock phrase, used in Sadhanamala about a dozen times, except for Prajnaparamita who says Citta Maya Samam.

Pratisara is a bridging deity from Mayajala Tantra to Hevajra.

Her Maya phrase otherwise exists in only a few tiny little corners of the universe, such as Vijnana Bhairava (https://www.pranavameditation.com/radiancesutras/radiance/vijnanabhairava.html):

tat asaara tayaa devi
vijneyam jalavat shakra
maya svapna upamam chaiva
gandharva nagara bhramam 9

which is identical in Tantra Rasa (http://tantrarasa.com/radiancesutras/radiance/vbt.html).

Maitreya (https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/28884/1/10673053.pdf):

evam svabhavaparinispanna mayasvapnapratibhasopamah

Lankavatara Sutra (https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/Suzuki_Studies_in_the_Lankavatara.pdf):

4. maya - svapna - svabhavasya
dharmakayasya kah stavah,
bhavanam nihsvabhavanam yo
'nutpadah sa sambhavah.

And in Anupamaraksita's Sadanga Yoga (http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php/The_Sadanga_Yoga_by_Anupamaraksita) which is a bad scan; this is a cleaner copy (https://www.academia.edu/5713085/%E1%B9%A2a%E1%B8%8Da%E1%B9%85gayoga_by_Anupamarak%E1%B9%A3ita).

There is the Dream of Maya.

I am not familiar with "Nectar Eye"?

But you are familiar with goddess Locana.

You said you see her in a normally meditative pose along with a type of Cunda arisen from Prajnaparamita.

Locana's name refers to Eye and her special technique is Dharmadhatu Parishuddhi, i. e., non-dualizing purifications which reveal the Dharmadhatu in stages.

In terms of a magic eye or vision that a person possesses, there is an initial kind called Divya Caksus which is Divine Eye.

Locana is Buddha Eye.

As we follow the sadhanas, there are a few places where the quality or degree of Eye appears to increase, until there is an Amrita Locana or Nectar Eye which is Prasanna Tara, a Golden Maha Ghora deity.

So if you go back to the Avadhutipa image, you find the two White Taras, One is Athisha's Seven Eye Tara which is the most popular, nationalized one. The other is the only one named Sita Tara in Sadhanamala, and it is this one, Ngor lineage, which has images of some of the other obscure Sadhanamala Taras, such as Prasanna. The Sanskrit material I talk about can be found around Sakya Town and Ngor, which, do not, relatively speaking, go all that far into Tibet, and some material in Bhutan. You can say it had momentum coming from Nepal and then went kind of squish, splat, around the Tibetan frontier, i. e. due to Atisha and Kadam and Gelug influence.

Janguli for example never gained traction because Tibet has no snakes. I suppose they overlooked the unusual statement that calls her a Mountain Girl despite all of her known history being from the south and east.

And so, yes, having Locana then means we can ask if she is of Vairocana nature or of Akshobya.

It does not matter whether Akshobya emanated her as to whether she is his consort.

If you thought Manjuvajra's hypostasis was difficult, look at Dhamadhatu Vagisvara:

Vajrasattva emanates Manjughosha.

Manjughosha emanates Akshobya and others, and Usnisa and Locana.

Akshobya emanates Vajrasattva and three others and Mamaki.

Ratnasambhava emanates no Prajna.

Amitabha emanates Pandara.

Amoghasiddhi emanates no Prajna.

Mamaki appears given to Ratnasambhava by Akshobya, Locana to Akshobya by Manjughosha, and then Tara is given to Amoghasiddhi by "someone" who must be among the "others".

This mandala is considered Vairocana Atman, Dharmakaya.

The previous, Maha Vajradhatu, is Vairocana Sambhogakaya.

The first stage is really in another book, Vairocana Abhisambodhi, where Locana is with Vairocana and so on, Nirmanakaya.

The Amitabha--Pandara couple are never really said to do anything because Amitabha is on a higher plane. The Dhyani Buddhas are almost like Vajradhara, Unmanifest, the difference being that they more directly are able to refer their agents into human consciousness. They are lords of Dhyani in that they are basically always meditational.

Amitabha emanates or remanifests himself as Amitayus and Avalokiteshvara.

If Amitabha is Infinite, Avalokiteshvara is all possible states of consciousness in our solar system.

Avalokiteshvara has a lot of forms, 108 in one Nepalese collection alone. His main tantric form is Padmanarttesvara. This is also the same name used by Amitabha in Dakini Jala. It is a very all-encompassing and powerful name for Lotus Family. It is part and parcel with the Four Dakinis. They, themselves, are a mobile ring, from Guhyajnana to Chakrasamvara to Samputa to Padmanarttesvara to Hevajra, you find them. That is why a Guhyajnana-based understanding is key to all of the Highest Yoga tantras.

One can find, for instance, her name deleted and the Four Dakinis mantra stuck in Padmasambhava Guru Yoga (https://lhaseylotsawa.org/assets/texts/The-Practice-of-Trinley-Nyingpo.pdf):

harinisa radza hriya tsitta hring hring dzahÎ
sarva siddhi pala hungÎ

HARINISA RACA HRIYA CITTA HRĪṆ HRĪṆ JAH
SARVA SIDDHI PHALA HŪM

It is in the section where heart-rays fill the universe and hook the four classes of dakas.

The odd salutation, Hriya, is followed followed by Citta and Hrim (Maya), then Hook All Power and Fruit.

It sounds to me a lot like solo Guhyajnana is mainly about heart-summoning the actual presence of dakinis. If Raca is "to arrange, place in order", and Hriya seems to be timed with heart-hooking, then it is like saying Four Dakinis, I summon you with my Heart, arrange yourselves neatly in your proper places.

If I had a good bond to Lotus Family, I would do it, but I don't. That is why I take Ganapati as an outer Avalokiteshvara. His consort Sumukhi is Hrim. Hrim is Maya which is one of the first syllables that can be taught, whereas Hrih, for some reason, is an exclusive variant for Lotus Family. Hrim mainly has characteristics of Vairocana Mayajala, it is the Mirror syllable, however the beginning of Sadhanamala gives Amitabha this Hrim for his seed.

Avalokiteshvara and Manjushri use it a little bit, and then it is found on the following goddesses:

Mahacina Krama Tara

Durgottarini

Laughing Ekajati

Marici Vajradhatvishvari

Kurukulla

Armor Deities

If I look for a basic, outer goddess, we are back to Sword Yogini or Mahacina Krama. And, then, it is actually linked through various Ekajati forms. So, in that pronunciation, it mainly seems to fall into her hands.

Amitabha does not have that many Taras. There is Bhrkuti. Avalokiteshvara however has Guhyajnana Dakini in his heart; she is not a Tara, is not necessarily easily approachable or nice.

There is such a thing as Lotus Family Varahi. She is with Nagarjuna's Green Tara IWS 145. It is a basic Tara with White Pratisara holding a gem and a white lotus marked with a flask, Yellow Marici with a Vajra and Asoka branch, Red Pig Face Varahi, and Very Wrathful Black Ekajati, these latter two being tantric deities with knife and skull.

That retinue explains why untitled image 40336 is linked on the Pratisara page.

Therefor, the previous one is Nagarjuna's Tara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40335.jpg

then Pratisara:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40336.jpg

Marici:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40337.jpg

Varahi:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40338.jpg

and Ekajati:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40339.jpg

This retinue follows after Svapna Tara. We have identified their book for them. All you have to do is match the names to the numbers, Not very hard. But that is very unusual that Pratisara is shucked from her home base and shows up here. Then it cranks out a full-on Tramen. I think it will take you to that level.

This is an usual Tara I never paid attention to because she doesn't have a name. It is still just Tara, although apparently a devlopment of Nagarjuna's Khadira Tara with Ekajati and Marici. This lineage passed to Atisha and it says there is another through Chandragomin where the attendants differ slightly--who knows what that means.

In this case, Ekajati is in Vajra Family in the North. So it is as if Amoghasiddhi Tara entered the center of an Akshobya mandala and bumped out Vajra Family. Pratisara is in Vairocana Family which is unusual but acceptable, Marici is in Jewel Family which is unusual but acceptable, and Red Varahi is almost never in Lotus Family, but, she never has full pig face unless as Artha Siddhi. So that is also weird.

Basic Marici seeks tantric Varahi in order to hyopstasize. Even though it is a simple Marici, it is unique, and suggests thinking of her as a type of Vajra Surya, because if sometimes deities can be named for their primary item, this would be Vajra Marici.

Pratisara appears to be doing a Flask Initiation. Porting the results of her Mahabala Krama here.

You rarely see mixed appearances in a ring. This is like the Gauris of Dakini Jala who are in various moods.

shaberon

26th January 2021, 22:33

In going through Sadhanamala, most of what I am doing could be described as "geometrical", i.e. I try to find the patterns and connections; plus, when there is a singular or rare use of something, I figure it pares down to what the intended entity actually is. So for example, in thinking of Nagarjuna as one of the most important Mahasiddhas, then we see what comes up as "White Tara", and that even his "Green Tara" plainly shows an outer-to-inner transition by accumulating tantric deities in a strange way.

Even so, we lack much understanding of what the book actually says, especially considering it has a mediumishly-long introduction, which may not quite be as demanding as Hevajra Tantra, but it does appear to presume familiarity with the STTS to Guhyasamaja trend. NSP is a small collection of mostly difficult practices used for Completion Stage; Sadhanamala rather appears to bridge Yoga and/or Generation Stage into it.

Among the academics, there is what is classed as an "older style" called NSB mantras, because in tantras such as Vairocana Abhisambodhi, the stock phrase is Namo Samanta Buddhanam, which then disappears and is not found with Akshobya or more complex rites. This is entirely related to how Buddha realizes Enlightenment by operating the Dharmadhatu.

Sadhanamala instead is dealing with Namo Samanta Vajranam.

This has almost only one meaning: Canda Roshana Vajrapani and Acala.

A Japanese whisper (https://vetus.wordpress.com/mantra/) says:

The Unmoving Curse, part of the mantra of Acala. By calling on the name of the mantra of this fierce Vidyaraja, Kaede is exercising a highly offensive houjutsu.

People will include it in their own smorgasbord (https://powerofsunflower.wordpress.com/2014/07/05/akala-vidyaraja-yagya/) of Vedic, Buddhist, and Aramaic ideas while stating that Manasa is Vasuki's sister.

Or it is in a more canonical version of Fudo the Immovable (https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/267922429.pdf).

Or it is in a smattering (https://ucchusma.wordpress.com/2010/05/16/ucchusma-mantram-2/) of looks at Ucchusma, Maha Pranaye, and Mahabala. That also tosses in "suru, suru", which is instantly recognizable to me as an obscure phrase from Ganapati Hrdaya. Even in a terrible article that is a strand of mantras tossed into a Japanese and Indonesian salad, the associations are pretty clear.

From my previous notes:

Pratisara is considered to be particularly beneficial for the laity, i. e. non-monks.

Manjushri has a wrathful form named Acala or Vidyaraja Chandra Maharoshana considered the consort of Mamaki. This one is called Fudo-myoo in Japan.

But more directly, it is Vajra Name initiation. And, from VAT where we talk about Buddha's initiation, it is going to overhaul NSB mantras into this NSV format. Again, this is completely based on summoning the Dharmadhatu and "opening" it:

VAT First part of Enlightenment

Describing from, what we take to be Arapacana sources:

Mantra fills all hopes (i. e., needs for enlightenment) in the enormous mandala whose perimeter is Speech.

Then He enters the samadhi called: Viewing the pure peak (i. e. Mt. Meru) of the wide banner of Dharma.

Emanations, the Nirmanakaya fill the outer worlds.

This empowers the Dharmadhatu and He proceeds to the samadhi called: Having the treasure womb of the Dharmadhatu.

He then states the mantra whose source is the Dharmadhatu:

Namah samantabuddhanam
Dharmadhatu-svabhava atmako ham

It will bring in Vajra Kavaca (Armor), Tathagata Caksur (Buddha Eye), Gagana Samasama which would more or less mean the same as Khasama, "Equal to Sky", which appears to purify the Dharmadhatu with Jvala and possibly Nirajan, i. e., fire, light, and heat.

So this really all is Akasha Garbha or the King of Space or the male equivalent of Queen of Space Mamo Botong/Ekajati; he is Vajra Garbha in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. Note the reverse, Garbha Vajra, in rare circumstances used for Sattvavari. But until you need their subtle points, Acala Vajrapani Akashagarbha is pretty much one beast.

The beginning of Sadhanamala appears to take Gaganaganja Samadhi and increase it to Lion's Roar Samadhi, while forcing Amoghasiddhi to arise from Wrathful Vajrapani. It appears to have to do with the inevitable male seed, and something closely corresponding to Vajrakilaya or any of the tantras via wrathful nature progressing into Karma Family. The book is making sure you have Five Families and then offers you various Samaya Beings and Ista Devatas available for the various operations.

In Sadhanamala, Vajranam is quickly coupled to Vajrasana Mudra or Vajrosnisa Mudra, and Vajra Mandala, Panjara--Vajragrabhuvana, Vajra Jvala, Mahasimabandha with Vajre and Vajrini, and then on to Acala Mudra which comprises of Offerings like Gandha:

bhagavati sphura himaṃ gaganakaṃ mahodeyesarvārthasādhani

Puspa:

sarvatathāgatānāṃ āvarttāvarttamahāpuṣpavati

Dhupa:

agraśikhe dhūmaśikhe

Dipa:

jvalante dīpajyotiśikhe

Naivedya:

baliṃ dadāhi mahābali

That represents what we have been calling the second group, Inner Offerings, corresponding to the senses and converting Indriya to Bala. If it is Bala enough, then, they can continue to represent up to Five Dissolutions. We can see it begins with a type of Gagana Samadhi which is the source of meaning, Artha, in the sadhanas. Then you get stages of Flower Garden, Smoke Tuft, and Fire Tuft progressing to Mahabala.

Followed by the Ten Directions. Then it sounds like the two thumbs gesture is equivalent to upwards hair along with Six Syllable mantra, which then compresses to a Five Syllable mantra based on Vira or Hero. Next:

sarvamudrāsaṅgrahabhūtaṃ samantāvabhāsoṣṇīṣaṃ dharmacakraṃ

Dharmacakra Mudra gains the unusual mantra:

āḥ maṃ haṃ

and then there is a recitation of a mantra involving:

cchinda cakreṇa vajriṇi

recollecting that Chin Mudra = Dharmachakra Mudra, this leads to an Urdhva Dharmodaya Mudra. In this section, there is:

balandade tejomālini

"Give us power, Fire Garland".

Then it gets to a Rasmi Malini Mudra involving:

dharmadhātvabhyantarasaṅgate

Yame or Yama seems to be present; it is at that point you ask for the Anuttara Siddhis.

The Dharmadhatu Mudra seems to be "baddha", or locked in, and you go to Sva Devata Mudra, using its mantra in a way that looks like the 7 x 8 Ganapatis of Kashi:

saptāṣṭavārān

It doesn't care if you use Manjushri, Tara, etc., it just matters to use the appropriate forms and mantras geared to your arena of practice. Like if you are indicated to focus on Vadiraj Manjshri, it may be flexible enough to provide you a few options, but you wouldn't just turn to Vajananga for no reason.

It is a Cakra Puja for Samantabhadra.

It looks like your Flower Forest transforms into the Buddha Ksetra.

At that point you go to a Vidyadhara initiation of the Five Knowledges.

It appears to say the wisdoms are made from Visaya and Patala, i. e. Poison and the Underworld, by this sadhana.

The Vidhi of this sadhana becomes an Anu for Yathasakti (corresponding, relative, like, such as Shakti), and perhaps the Nine "Spaces":

nāvasāditavyam

Virya Rupa and Karma Rupa spill forth from this, and Amoghasiddhi is Tri-samaya Raja.

It accomplishes Sima Bandha and was written by Pandita kumudākaramatipādānām and is the Tri-Samaya Raja explanation here.

So if you only know Trisamadhi of Three Families as "mere" ritual or blind repetition, that is not going to cut it here, you are relegated to Kriya--Chara until they really have Bhava and Atma Vidya and you are ready to use them to, shall we say, trigger a volcano.

Section Two takes Acala and then gives Karunatmaka as the antidote for Suffering. Acala--Space or Void is not just nothingness, but, is where the One Element, Buddha Nature, lives, and why we hustle Karuna out of it.

The Tri-samaya as a whole goes into:

Vajradharasangiti Stuti

So yes, that is basically like saying Vajradhara Namasangiti, or, Chanting the Names of Vajradhara Together. As we know, he hasn't any names. It is indirect. He can wait behind the Curtain while the Meditation Lords of various Families disperse Bodhisattvas to give us something to work with.

Then you have the Five Dhyanis to begin with. Now your practice has upgraded from Kriya--Chara to Maha Yoga Tantra. Written by Pandita ratnākaraguptapādānām.

Section Three gives a Sadanga Nyasa, brings in Buddha and uses Akshobhya as Vajrasana Rupa, then has self-identity with Dharmadhatu, does Completion Stage, and is considered Vajrasana Bhattaraka Explanation, and then Section Four is Vajrasana Sadhana. Section Five is another Vajrasana Sadhana. These are relatively brief.

In Section Six, it uses Sadaksari Mahavidya. Seven is a Karanda Vyuha Amnaya sadhana, and then it proceeds to the many kinds of Avalokiteshvara. So if the intro told me to use a Six Syllable mantra, my instinct would not be to try Om Manipadme Hum Hrih, which is not how it is supposed to work, but Om Manipadme Hum tied to this Mahavidya who will explain Six Families to us on at least a conceptual level, and back it up with any of the information we need for it to make sense, it is all intended to work with her, even if her article is only a couple of paragraphs.

Vajrasana is only mentioned again by Manjushri Vak Sadhana, and then more elaborately in a model appearing to correspond to the whole intro under Manjuvajra 83.

Vajrasana (Seat or Throne) would be Bodhgaya, or, Vajrasana is a lineage master of the singular Locana and Medicine Buddha practice, or, it just means Vajra Feet.

It looks to me like Sadhanamala begins with a stripped-down, somewhat generic practice equivalent to the more detailed Sarvadurgati Parishodana. I would just call this Vajrapani, but that would have the weakness of being able to just be some kind of protective Bodhisattva with little meaning. So it is more like that Vajrapani which Vajrasattva has increased to.

Since we can say in parallel that Mahabala Krama is handled by Ganapati and Pratisara, then, it is not too difficult to say it could be accomplished in a Dharani and Mahavidya style, as opposed to a formal school and rigid adherence to its procedures.

I saw something else in there reminiscent of odd phrases such as Kula Akula, except it sounds something like circle and not circle: Vartta Avartta. This is from Puspa or Flower Offering mantra:

traiyadhvikānāṃ sarvatathāgatānāṃ āvarttāvarttamahāpuṣpavati

An old Theosophist (https://universaltheosophy.com/pdf-library/oriental-department-papers_1891-1897.pdf) article will tell us one of the names for "India" is "Arya Varta", meaning the spread of Brahmanical civilization from the level of Kshetra, individual plantations, to Vartta, or circles of plantations, and then Arya is the grand unity of all such Vartta.

Sama Vartana is like a prodigal return circle, at the end of his school while he is a Brahmacarin, he returns home, undergoes this ceremony, and then is considered ready for marriage.

It could also be said that Vartta is a complete circle, whereas Avartta is not, it is twisting or curling; and so even in a Newari lexicon (http://www.newari.net/srch_word.php?skrit_font=1&ntry_font=1&srch_corpus=1&char_first=a-&word_ndx=a-vartta&srch_type=1&srch_term_beg=a-vartta&srch_term=a-vartta&match_type=comp&show_ms=A1&show_bn=2744&aks_srch_type=1&aks_srch_term_beg=&aks_srch_term=uhmkkmeos&kanda=3&varga=1&sloka=37&sequence_no=1&mssimg_on=1), it means twisted hair between the brows, that is, between the eyes, which are Vartta, and then by further implication, it just means between the brows.

An example of "twisting" is in another old Theosophist article, manava avartta (https://books.google.com/books?id=9qBVAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA699&ots=NS5rI-cuRu&dq=avartta&pg=PA699#v=onepage&q&f=false), "whirlpool of human life", that is, the law of reincarnation due to ignorance.

It must be an uncommon phrase or pilosophy, having few sources. It is in Markendya Purana (http://astro121.com/index.php/markandeya-puranam-in-english/chapters-1-to-70?showall=&start=40):

CHAPTER - 40

DATTATREYA said: - There are many obstacles to the Yogin's realization of the spirit. Hear I shall describe them briefly. (1) He longs for actions of desire, objects of human enjoyment, women, fruits of charity, learning, magical powers, wealth, heaven, the dignity of the celestials, the station of the king of celestials, chemical works, the raising of winds, sacrifices,

entrance into fire and water, the fruits of all sorts of gifts and Sraddhas, religious regulations, and as well as that of fasting, the performance of Purta acts, the adoration of the deities and all other pious observances. He longs for all these being surrounded by those impediments. (2-4) If his mind is inclined towards this the Yogin should withdraw it; and then uniting his mind with Brahman he should liberate it from all these evils. (5) All these impediments being remedied, other evils again overtake a Yogin originating from the qualities of goodness, passion and ignorance. (6) There are five dreadful impediments which the Yogin meets with in (the way of his) Yoga - they are Pratibha, relating to intellect; Sravana, relating to the organ of hearing, Daivi, belonging to gods, Bhrama or wandering, and Avartta or whirlpool. (7) That by which the meanings of the Vedas, of the Kavyas (poetical literature) and endless learning and mechanical arts are unfolded to the Yogin is called Pratibha. (8) That by which one understands the endless meanings of the sounds, and catches sound even from a distance of a thousand Yoyanas is called Sravana. (9) The wise designate that state as Daiva in which, he, equal to a deity, sees completely the eight quarters like a mad-man. (10) The shortcoming by which the mind of the Yogin wanders about without definite object and trangressing all sacred injunctions, is called Bhrama. (11) The whirlpool of knowledge, agitated like that of water, destroys (the equanimity of his) mind and this impediment is called Avartta. (12) All those born in the order of deities, having their Yoga destroyed by these dreadful obstacles, repeatedly turn round and round. (13) Thus covering himself with the white blanket of his mind, the Yogin, fixing his mind upon Him, should meditate upon the Great Brahman. (14) Restraining his senses and living on restricted food, the Yogin, intent on practising Yoga, should conceive in his head the seven subtile elements1 such as earth etc.. (15) Let the Yogin meditate upon the earth and he would attain to felicity. He should first conceive himself as earth and then shake off its fetters. (16) In the same way he should comprehend the property of savour or taste in Apas or water, the property of form or colour in Tejas or fire or light, the property of tangibility in Vayu or air, and sound in Akasa or ether and he should afterwards cast off these conceptions from his mind. (17-18) When again by his mind (Manas)2 he enters into the minds of all creatures, his mind by such steadying becomes subtle. (19) After attaining the intellectual perception of all creatures and then the most subtle intellect, one versed in Yoga should cast it off. (20) O Alarka, the Yogin, who, after duly comprehending these seven elementary particles, drives them away from his mind, does not suffer from rebirth. (21) Observing gradually the subtlety of the seven elementary particles by Dharana or steadying of mind and dismissing them gradually, the self-controlled Yogin attains to the most accomplished state. (22) O king, by being excessively attached to things which he holds dear, he is deceived. (23) Thus after comprehending that these subtle elementary particles are connected with each other, the man, who dismisses them, attains to a great state. (24) The distaste for elemental creation, engendered in the mind of a man conversant with the knowledge of truth, by the perception of seven elementary particles, leads to his liberation.

That is the basis of the Theosophical doctrine in nearly a nutshell, being the Five Elements, Buddhi, and Ahamkara.

Buddhism has a strand of Atreya and Dattatreya both in the ancient connection in Matangi, and in whatever may be considered the admixture of Nath.

Ahamkara may be similar to what we call Asta Vijnana, or maybe the eighth consciousness. General yoga is saying there is something there to be destroyed. Buddha says something more like no, there isn't anything there to begin with--these are the remedies against things which make it seem like there is.

The Purana goes on to describe Laukika Siddhis. I am not aware if that system has anything resembling what we call Lokottara Siddhis.

Halahala Lokeshvara is distinctly the Samvartana in Sadhanamala; however, we would immediately call to mind the first attendant of Marici 134:

varttalīṃ raktāṃ varāhamukhīṃ caturbhujāṃ sūcyaṅkuśadhāri-dakṣiṇahastāṃ pāśaśokadhārivāmahastāṃ raktakañjukāṃ

It is relatively common as an adjective, but, operationally, appears confined to these two.

Its relative is less common, and, in a mantric sensse, Avarrta relates to Kurukulla, Dhvajagrakeyura, Jvalamukhi, and the Vina Mudra somehow done by Usnisa Vijaya.

And so on a weighted basis it comes out as most meaningful to Marici and this is her Kalpoktam or how she explains her sadhana method and so we should appreciate her title here which is:

niruttarasukhāsaṅgaprajñāpāraṅgatān gurūn /

She is the Guru of the Prajnaparamita Sangha interested in Highest Yoga (niruttara) Bliss (Sukha).

Before she even mentions her companions, she is going to call for Fist, and, so, she has just knocked us back to this subject which is like a "synthectic" mudra developed by Vajrapani or Vajra Abhisekha.

If so, her role becomes:

mārīcyai vighnānutsāraya

In a Three Face Eight Arm form that is Gauri colored, arising from Yellow Mam, crowned by Vairocana, and evidently an extension of Vajra Marici, having that as her primary item. This is also a Caitya application. That means a special teaching moment in the Akanistha.

She has her regular gear Needle and Branch, and, so, if you do this, piggies will come. That is why we better take her requisite seriously. You can follow Yoga more or less up to Vairocani and Khandaroha, which enable Heruka and Vajravarahi. Similarly with Vajra Fist and this Marici. If you understand her summary, it just means to understand and accomplish this stage, using *any* of the methods, which are not randomly made-up, but, drawn from a particular scheme.

Old Student

27th January 2021, 05:39

Mrtyuvacana is possibly just a synonym for Sita Tara...
My dictionary, with a slightly different spelling, MrtyuvaJcana, translates the name as "Death cheater".

Maya and Dream are the same, possibly ending on your word that sounds like "summon".

It is a somewhat infrequent stock phrase, used in Sadhanamala about a dozen times, except for Prajnaparamita who says Citta Maya Samam.

Pratisara is a bridging deity from Mayajala Tantra to Hevajra.

So then the Prajnaparamita phrase is, "Mind and Maya are the same?" When I see these things, I remind myself that maya also means 'magic'. Interesting that she links to the Mayajala Tantra (aren't there 8 of these?). I spent quite a bit of time trying to get a translation one specific of these at one point. Niguma is also the Mistress of Illusion which I think is also Maya in her works.

But you are familiar with goddess Locana.

You said you see her in a normally meditative pose along with a type of Cunda arisen from Prajnaparamita.

Locana's name refers to Eye and her special technique is Dharmadhatu Parishuddhi, i. e., non-dualizing purifications which reveal the Dharmadhatu in stages.

In terms of a magic eye or vision that a person possesses, there is an initial kind called Divya Caksus which is Divine Eye.

Locana is Buddha Eye.

As we follow the sadhanas, there are a few places where the quality or degree of Eye appears to increase, until there is an Amrita Locana or Nectar Eye which is Prasanna Tara, a Golden Maha Ghora deity.

If Locana is Buddha's Eye, would she also be the "One True Eye" of the Buddhas referred to in the Avatamsaka? (I apparently had the chapters wrong when I wrote the other day, Chapter 26 is the Dasabhumika not Chapter 29, which means I am about to start reading it.)

And so, yes, having Locana then means we can ask if she is of Vairocana nature or of Akshobya.

It does not matter whether Akshobya emanated her as to whether she is his consort.

She is always together with flying over snow. Usually flying over snow is related somehow to the Pamir Mountains, for some reason. Or maybe that's a metaphor for something.

You rarely see mixed appearances in a ring. This is like the Gauris of Dakini Jala who are in various moods.

And Ekajati has all her teeth. Her name means 'One Braid' so I've never understood the teeth thing.

Old Student

27th January 2021, 05:57

So this really all is Akasha Garbha or the King of Space or the male equivalent of Queen of Space Mamo Botong/Ekajati; he is Vajra Garbha in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. Note the reverse, Garbha Vajra, in rare circumstances used for Sattvavari. But until you need their subtle points, Acala Vajrapani Akashagarbha is pretty much one beast.

(assuming Sattvavajri).
So from the other piece you had done, I got the distinct impression that reversal plus feminizing the name was an older way of constructing the consort name and just feminizing was newer. If I take that to be the case, then Akasha Garbha is also Vajra Garbha, then Garbha Vajri would be his old form consort, and if this is Sattvavajri, then Pratisara and Ekajati would be related somehow.

When she (Pratisara) identified to me (twice), her wheel was turned by 90 degrees so that the axle would be horizontal parallel to her body.

The Purana goes on to describe Laukika Siddhis. I am not aware if that system has anything resembling what we call Lokottara Siddhis.

The list you gave was for the Laukika Siddhis, is the list similar for the Lokottara Siddhis?

shaberon

27th January 2021, 11:28

My dictionary, with a slightly different spelling, MrtyuvaJcana, translates the name as "Death cheater".

Maybe I said it backwards.

Versus "Sita Tara" as would be found in any current definitions, from which you would get Atisha's Tara and others related to Long Life Trinity, in Sadhanamala, Sita Tara most literally as a personal name means the Four Arm deity doing her unique Utpala Mudra, and as an internal name within the sadhanas, it is Mrtyuvacana and Vajra Tara.

Mrtyuvacana's name totally has that dual meaning. She is Explaining to you how to Cheat Death.

Philosophically, that is not quite the same as asking for a long life, it is more esoteric and suggestive of Vajra Kaya, which makes this all seem like a progression, since Amaravajra is only found in the same Sakya and Ngor branches, and she is the par excellence Vajra Kaya goddess of really doing it in full awareness.

So then the Prajnaparamita phrase is, "Mind and Maya are the same?" When I see these things, I remind myself that maya also means 'magic'. Interesting that she links to the Mayajala Tantra (aren't there 8 of these?).

There are several, Vajrasattva Mayajala is Guhyagarbha/Book of the Dead, Vairocana Mayajala is closer to VAT and Namasangiti Manjuvajra, and I think there was a Padmanarttesvara Mayajala, or, at least, Avalokiteshvara.

Krsnacharya's Kurukulla is Maya Jala Maha Yoga.

Prajnaparamita is brief enough that we can look at this whole piece. This is a Two Arm (presumably) Yellow Form, and, from voidness, Pam arises, then, the deity arises from Dhih which is her special or compound syllable.

157.

kvacin manorame sthāne niṣadya ca sukhāsane /
maitrīkṛpānvito yogī mantarm uccārayet tridhā //
oṃ śūnyatākjñānavajrasvabhāvātmako 'ham /
iti sthiracalān bhāvanātmadehaṃ ca sarvathā /
śūnyaṃ vibhāvya cittena svapne svapnasamena tu //

That is not her, yet, it quickly refers to carrying Maitri, etc., into the Void, which is standard, so then you do the Voidness or Void Gnosis mantra, and it looks like in the setting of voidness that you dwell on Mind having a Dreamlike quality. I am not completely sure about the syntax, but it should be close to that.

Color is not given but when it is, Pam is red, and I have not come across an explanation for this other than if it is Pandara as the Dharmadhatu. First, it makes a Lotus and Moon Seat, upon which a Yellow Dhih transforms into Prajnaparamita:

paṃkārākṣaraniṣpannapadmacandrāsanasthitaṃ pītadhīḥkāram
āropya tenātmānaṃ bhagavatīṃ prajñāpāramtiāṃ dvibhujāṃ
vicitrabhūṣaṇāṃ vicitravastradharāṃ vyākhyānamudrayā samupeta-
satkārām -
śṛṅgāraikarasopetāṃ vajraparyaṅkasaṃsthitām /
sapustakanīlābjaṃ [ca] bibhrāṇāṃ vāmapārśvataḥ //

She has Vajra Feet and next it is going to put the Three Syllables in her Three Places:

śiraḥkaṇṭhahṛdaye[ṣu] sthāneṣu candrasaṃsthitaḥ //
tritattvakaṃ oṃ āḥ hūṃ,

The chanting seems to make Dhih emit Yellow Rays:

oṃ āḥkārayor madhyacandre dhīḥkāraṃ pītaraśmikam /
vibhāvya ca tataḥ pītāṃ rūpiṇīṃ bhāvayed(t) [vratī] //
prajñāṃ prajñāpāramitāṃ prajñāsambṛtiyogataḥ /
paramārthaṃ gataṃ rūpaṃ vakṣye prajñātmakaṃ mahat //

That suggests her common Gate Gate mantra is being referred to and that it is the Paramartha or Ultimate Meaning of her Speech Body, and then it looks like a contraction of Prajna Atmako Ham similar to Voidness mantra, and Mahat at least Puranically refers to cosmic Manas, i. e. self-less or bounday-less.

yanniṣṭhāṃ prāpya sambodhir jāyate kramayogataḥ /
vibhāvya sitaṃ citteśam śaraccandrasamaprabham //

That sounds like filling the Mind with Moonlight.

The next part relates the senses to Grahya Grahaka or Grasper and Grasped:

viśvaṃ sacarācaram tādṛk paścāt tad api khopamam /
niḥśeṣakalpanāśūnyaṃ svayaṃ śūnyamarūpi vā //
rūpaśabdagandharasasparśādigrāhyagrāhakakalpanairanāliptaṃ
cācintyapratyayodayaṃ samyaksambodhipadaṃ cittaṃ sarvajñatāpadam /

It is the Foot of Samyak Sambodhi and the mind's root of all real knowledge.

tatrāyaṃ japyamantraḥ oṃ prajñemahāprajñe śrutismṛtivijaye
dhīḥ svāhā / prajñāpāramitābhāvanāṃ kurvatā mayā
yatpuṇyam avāptam -
tenāstu nikhilo lokaḥ prajñāpāraparāyaṇaḥ /

// prajñāpāramitāsādhanam //

She is fusing Sruti (Hearing) and Smrti into her Dhih syllable.

If Locana is Buddha's Eye, would she also be the "One True Eye" of the Buddhas referred to in the Avatamsaka? (I apparently had the chapters wrong when I wrote the other day, Chapter 26 is the Dasabhumika not Chapter 29, which means I am about to start reading it.)

I expect so, unless it means the Divya Caksus which is mostly similar but not completely under her dominion. When it becomes deified, as far as I know, that would be Locana.

She is always together with flying over snow. Usually flying over snow is related somehow to the Pamir Mountains, for some reason. Or maybe that's a metaphor for something.

Locana over snow. Snow is a form of Water. Pristine mountain snow is *the* premier "recorder" of astral light and can be used to witness events of the past. Steel is similar, though far weaker.

Ice may be Earth of Water. If you go back to the Markendeya quote, it basically describes a similar beginning as in Vishuddhi Magga meditation, whereby instead of any random object like in Theravada, you use the Elements. It then however instructs you to practise them backwards, and then in all sorts of weird orders and build bigger sets of patterns, and so instead of thinking Earth is just Earth, then you have Earth of Water, Earth of Fire, and so on.

Locana is said to be Water just in that limited series of mandalas which place Water as the first element in the East. Otherwise she is Earth. You are over the snow which covers the earth and have stopped short of saying Locana "is" snow by simply associating her with a certain scene.

And Ekajati has all her teeth. Her name means 'One Braid' so I've never understood the teeth thing.

That is why I lean towards "synonymous with Ekaggata". In certain Tibetan images, she has a single braid, one tooth, one eye, and one breast. Like many of their Taras, I do not find this one in an Indian source. I think they may have run with the metaphor. There is no requirement it means anything to do with her form since as "One More Birth", Ekajati Pratibaddha looks to have been an old, widespread Sutra term, versus "state of Vajradhara" which probably only comes from the tantras.

When Sadhanamala wants to refer to her hairstyle, it says:

jvalatpiṅgalordhvakeśāṃ

piṅgalajaṭā

supiṅgaikajaṭā

āpiṅgaikajaṭāṃ

piṅgorddhvakeśāṃ

ūrddhvakeśāṃ

atipiṅgaikajaṭāṃ

So, I am kind of wrong, because anywhere it has -aikajata is just using the combining form of Ekajata.

Only one more deity seems to have -aikajata hair, which is Mahacina Krama Tara.

Whether this has to do with tantric flame-swept hair looking like one braid, or, if it is supposed to mean she just does not have that much hair, I am not sure.

Lokottara Siddhis only mean Generation and Completion Stage, i. e., is the Lokottara Vada or Transcendent School of Buddhism which has no Hindu equivalent that I am aware of.

Buddhist practices are always only based on Bodhi Mind, which becomes Vajrasattva, and intensifies the Lokottara Siddhis to the level of Buddha's performance, by using Six Limb Yoga.

It is like we already have all the knowledge and information about the highest Jana, Infinite Nothingness of Nothingness, the subject is complete.

We can neither perceive it with a completely purified mind, nor manifest perfection when we stop doing it.

It cannot be much different from the types of tantric experiences I have had, he was just much better at it than me.

Once we describe what it takes to get to Completion Stage, there is nothing to add, only a small handful of simple maneuvers. Anything else that sounds like some kind of Siddhis would just get lumped in to Laukika which "are" eight, to put an easy mark on it, but, really, they are vast in number.

Lokottara has no other kinds, it is just preparation for, and doing, the Complete Ritual, Nispanna Krama. To call it "Completion" makes it sound like you are doing something to complete something. The "completion" is the Generation which is like developing an embryo, from which a "complete" person is born. It means you are complete with the knowledge and abilities to actually do the rite. You have Heruka Yoga. The Heruka is that gestating-then-complete thing.

You can train in Suksma Yoga prior to Heruka's arising, and then you just continue Suksma Yoga with the Complete Ability.

The idea of "consort" is not automatic and has to be earned, and, according to Katyayani, by a fight.

And so if you are able to see couples in union, that is a Yoga view of Union, in other words you see them as separate entities from yourself.

As disciples, we are not supposed to think of that, we use the Bhava and Anuraga to cultivate love and it is like a story of approach.

As an initiate, you yourself would become such-and-such a deity, and, if it says they would enter union, then you do.

In the case of Karma Mudra, it will be a person doing it, but the ultimate sense of Sparsha Vajra is Contact, as in contact the deity, meaning from the practice of Inverted Stupa, your Earth Square finally touches their Earth Square, and it is a Caitya moment. It is a divine contact which isn't necessarily sexual but is on another plane altogether.

I was modestly successful with Maha Ganapati as I was able to obtain some useful information, which assists the Karuna, maybe it is half the needed information, but it wasn't the half I was looking for.

As a mantric couple with his consort, they would be Hrim Gam.

According to a post (https://www.facebook.com/424910937646895/posts/goddess-vinayaki-one-who-has-no-nayaka-or-lord-above-her-is-a-prominent-goddess-/1366209656850347/), most "female Ganapatis" are Upa Vidyas (Near or Approach Knowledge) but there are only a few who are Mahavidyas, including:

Vinayaki= Ganapatya Adi shakti Vinayaki is the Shakti of purna Brahma adi Vinayaka, who gave birth to this whole universe. She is indifferent with Kali ( the eighth head of Goddess Guhya kali is adi mata Vinayaki). She holds this whole universe in her belly thus she is Lambodari. She became Siddhi and buddhi to help Lord Ganapati in Sristhi leela. Her mantra is equal to all 10 Mahavidya combined. Her mantra is given to Ganapatya sadhakas after completing all other sadhana.

Sumukhi or Pisacha Sundari ( guhya vidya of Ucchista Ganapati also known as Hadi 15 Ucchista Ganapati ).

They say she is a Pisaci...Sumukhi is Matangi...Matangi is an eldritch crossroad where Buddhism meets Dattatreya's lineage and is a likely source of Mantrayana and thereby Tantrayana as a whole. Matangi is then called a Pisaci in Buddhism directly by her name, i. e. it is not concealed behind a special Red Ucchista with a different name, it is just that Matangi is a Pisaci which can then be shown to transform into the Gauris of tantrism.

shaberon

28th January 2021, 00:03

It is like being hit over the head when you see Marici in Stupa requires mastery of Vajra Fist.

She has not yet become Vajradhatvishvari and it looks to me like Fist has a lot to do with opening the way for this.

It perhaps could be said that currently, Prajnaparamita is appropriating Marici. When she has thus murti in a purified, i. e. self-arisen and luminous state, they both become Vajradhatvishvari.

Prajnaparamita becomes Vajradhavishvari by appropriating Marici and radiating light.

Fist is a system built on the original "flagship" mandala of Prajnaparamita and is known across the orient as Vajrasekhara, whereas we can find a central Asian Dharani variant as Guhyavajradhatu. The Fist or Musti is really a high power seal over anger in Kama Loka. It is Kriya-Chara if you get all the instructions and follow them; it is Yoga when it acquires its inner meaning of actually working.

If I look at Vajrasattva, he is going to be forced by Vajrapani to become Vajrahumkara; If I look at tantra, Akshobya is going to force me to take Fist. If I look at this in Sadhanamala, it will make Amoghasiddhi the Lord of Tri-samaya. If this is bizarre, weird, and unnerving to me now, I can take Mahattari as the directress in her Saptavidhanuttara. If I do that it will no longer be weird. If I take Tara, Amoghasiddhi will no longer be weird and difficult. Natural.

Vajramusti (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vajramushti) is a giant in Ramayana, and a Kinnara Maid in Karanda Vyuha 6.4; it is also a weapon, and synonymous with martial arts generally.

Rather than saying "names of Bodhisattvas", the definition specifies Vajramusti is one of the sixteen samādhi deities appearing in the Vajradhātu-mahāmaṇḍala, according to the Nāmamantrārthāvalokinī v5.32-35. That is Namasangiti commenting his own Vajradhatu.

So it is not too hard to see that Fist is also a Mudra developed by Akshobya initiation, and, overall, it is the male-based Vajrosnisa system of Vajrasekhara, and so anyone in Shingon would likely agree we have the Indian names from their practice.

And so if it seems critical for Marici, elsewhere it does appear in an uncommon manner in Sadhanamala. Involved, but maybe not quite as specially as for her. However, there are a couple spots where it comes close. First is Halahala Lokeshvara:

pṛthag muṣṭidvayaṃ baddhvā madhyame kṛtaśṛṅkhale /

And if he is referring in some way to Vajrashrnkala, it turns out in her tiny little piece she has:

hastadvayena pṛthak pṛthak vajramuṣṭiṃ kṛtvā
kanīyasīṃ tarjjanīṃ ca śṛṅkhalākāreṇa bandhayet /

And in all the literature, Shrnkala is some weird divestment of Chain from its expected use in Lotus Family on the more generic deity Sphoti. And then Vajrashrnkala has no simple samaya or anything and just appears as a bridging goddess into Hevajra Tantra.

The only exception is that it appears you could force her if you could navigate three Dharanis with Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra.

She is an Amoghasiddhi Tara, and, she has Fist. That is more precisely applicable than the fact of it perhaps being with a couple wrathful male deities.

If I get Vajrashrnkala, Marici in Stupa will have me.

Now in looking at Guhyasamaja it may be hard to draw a "steady state" as the theme appears to be motion, i. e., entry into union and then rotation of partners. And so it would be misleading to say "the Guhyasamaja mandala" since there are multiple kinds, and, Manjushri has some special duplicated Manjuvajra mandala which underhandedly employs Dharanis such as Cunda which are not seen in the other formats.

If you really look at the magnified Manjuvajra (https://artsandculture.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/manjuvajramandala-with-43-deities-unknown/cgHrisi2m6UCbQ?ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.501536342070778%2C%22y%22%3A0.5011614490887265%2C%22z%22%3A11.98850 4698418204%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A0.24217038133825944%2C%22height%22%3A0.1264044648326914%7 D%7D), it is a bit perplexing compared to the description (https://artsandculture.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/manjuvajramandala-with-43-deities-unknown/cgHrisi2m6UCbQ) by the museum in Torino which is taken from NSP.

They say Vajradhatvishvari--who does not appear in the list of deities--is "tied" to Manjuvajra, except it looks like Union without any tying feature. I think we recently saw something recently where it looked like there was some kind of pre-union tie, but, I will have to go back and look, I cannot remember what that was.

Locana is the Eight Arm Yellow figure in the southeast. Who is Akshobhya bumping?

They say the five Prajnas in union with the Dhyanis are not counted in the list of deities.

Okay, well, the second ring starts with Sattvavajri in the East, who is a relatively small figure "underneath" Akshobya, followed by the other Vajris, and then Cunda in the northeast, Ratnolka, Bhrkuti, up to Vajrashrnkala.

The Vajris and Prajnas are already deployed.

The colors are weird, the South is Red and the couple has a reversed color scheme of the central one. West is totally White, whereas in the East, the deities at least seem light blue. The North is its usual Green, but has Red Deities.

Red Amoghasiddhi was in the West in Vajravilasini's rite.

Red Amoghasiddhi is probably Paramasva.

Who are those Dhyanis' consorts?

If the central is "Sparsha Vajra as Vajradhatvishvari", I would guess they are Rupa Vajra, Sabda Vajra, etc., not redundant Prajnas as the article states.

If I understand this, Sparsha or Contact means the sense of touch has been applied to the upward life wind, and the rotation of yoginis flows from this and so you would get Sound Object as Vajradhatvishvari and so forth until Dharmadhatu Vajra as Vajradhatvishvari was established.

The movement of the sense of touch is due to Nirmana Chakra and Locana commandeering Earth Element.

So not only is this already a bit weird since Manjuvajra runs some esoteric format of Guhyasamaja, but, even in Bhattacharya's "Bodhisattvas Comparison", he makes a transition from the older, Samantabhadra-based ring, which then makes another change into a very esoteric format--which ends with Samantabhadra.

Manjuvajra's male Bodhisattvas start with Maitreya and Manjushri. In Sarvadurgati Parishodana, it is similar, but, knowing that Maitreya will begin Amoghasiddhi's planetary cycle, it is of note that this group begins with Maitreya and Amoghadarsin, who is in Akshobhya's Family, followed by Surangama and Gaganaganja (the first two samadhis), progressing to Vajragarbha in Amoghasiddhi's Family, and ultimately ending on Samantabhadra, who was not in Manjuvajra's roster. The Sarvadurgati version is also used in Vajradhatu. Manjuvajra temporarily suspends Samantabhadra.

Manjuvajra 20, the NSP description of the linked mandala, makes no mention of Vajradhatvishvari, union, or Rupa Vajra, etc., not listed whatsoever, but someone is obviously in the mandala. The first, Manjuvajra 1, is simpler, with Ten Wrathful Ones, regular Dhyanis and Prajnas, and then the six Vajra Objects up to Dharmadhatu Vajra. You can easily find these six in his second ring, as corner goddesses, except two extras are stuffed towards the lower or eastern side:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/2/4/5/24514.jpg

Okay, That one was made for the transmission of Guhyasamaja, and, matches NSP--but it also follows the same shady secret.

Since it is easy to recognize by the unusual lower two deities, then we can find the central deity may enter union:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/3/5/1/35115a.jpg

Then you can find them all doing it:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/3/0/8/30833.jpg

Or possibly doing it with Pink Vajradhatvishvari ejected to the East:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/9/6/59699.jpg

And then what is unusual, in the Vajravali relationship, there is Lokeshvara Guhyasamaja upper left, the more common Akshobya Guhyasamaja lower left, and then Manjuvajra seems to have discarded his Guhyasamaja mandala altogether and moved to 20 with the big Cunda in the Northeast:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/7/7/2/77208.jpg

There are three principal lineages for this form of the meditational deity Guhyasamaja. The first is the lineage of Abhayakaragupta contained in the Vajravali text. The second lineage is that of the Yogini Risul and Nyen Lotsawa, no.44 in the Gyu de Kuntu set of mandalas. The third lineage belongs to Marpa Lotsawa and the text is found in the Kagyu Ngag Dzo.

Nyen is in the Jnanapada lineage, Vajradhara to Manjushri to Jnanapada started this.

In the recent stuff about Buddha's initiation, when said that is is "probably from Arapacana sources", it means that Arapacana is a specialized script of a lost language. It probably was Gandharan or Khotanese and is part of Arapacana Manjushri as used in Namasangiti.

Old Student

28th January 2021, 01:44

I expect so, unless it means the Divya Caksus which is mostly similar but not completely under her dominion. When it becomes deified, as far as I know, that would be Locana.

So I chased these three terms down, and got the following:
Caksus is a vidya
Locana is a prajna
Vilokin is becoming aware of and included both sight and touch (sparsha).

Locana over snow. Snow is a form of Water. Pristine mountain snow is *the* premier "recorder" of astral light and can be used to witness events of the past. Steel is similar, though far weaker.

That's interesting. The "events of the past" would comport with the Pamir mountains, they were a some kind of icy burial place and they are also sort of one of those places where Shambala was supposed to have been.

You are over the snow which covers the earth and have stopped short of saying Locana "is" snow by simply associating her with a certain scene.

I have recently been 'traveling' by being the scenes, rather than flying over them or looking over them. It's interesting you would say that.

Whether this has to do with tantric flame-swept hair looking like one braid, or, if it is supposed to mean she just does not have that much hair, I am not sure.

She's not the only one, Manjushri is supposed to have a specific number of locks on his forehead, too. But the one tooth thing makes her look like a can opener.

Old Student

28th January 2021, 02:00

Vajramusti is a giant in Ramayana, and a Kinnara Maid in Karanda Vyuha 6.4; it is also a weapon, and synonymous with martial arts generally.

That's quite a range, especially if you add in what you said about the mandala.

They say Vajradhatvishvari--who does not appear in the list of deities--is "tied" to Manjuvajra, except it looks like Union without any tying feature. I think we recently saw something recently where it looked like there was some kind of pre-union tie, but, I will have to go back and look, I cannot remember what that was.

I don't see any tying, either.

In the recent stuff about Buddha's initiation, when said that is is "probably from Arapacana sources", it means that Arapacana is a specialized script of a lost language. It probably was Gandharan or Khotanese and is part of Arapacana Manjushri as used in Namasangiti.

I have not heard of this one.

shaberon

28th January 2021, 09:29

In the recent stuff about Buddha's initiation, when said that is is "probably from Arapacana sources", it means that Arapacana is a specialized script of a lost language. It probably was Gandharan or Khotanese and is part of Arapacana Manjushri as used in Namasangiti.

I have not heard of this one.

Arapacana or Enlightenment? Arapacana (http://www.visiblemantra.org/arapacana.html) is Gandharan possibly Aramaic in origin. This one is actually one of the most commonly-practiced Manjushris, which is why I have not dealt with it much. But yes, evidence chases it down to some of the oldest copies of Sutras and the northwestern area, as you have mentioned a few times for, apparently, other reasons. Arapacana Manjushri is another hypostasis of Dhih, which I correspondingly used with Sarasvati and Prajnaparamita, or, the female equivalent.

Just a few posts above (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?111346-Does-Anybody-Else-Have-Clear-Body-Experiences&p=1407072&viewfull=1#post1407072):

VAT = Vairocana Abhisambodhi Tantra

it is one of the few arenas in which Buddha's Enlightenment is portrayed.

And so we see we get to the section about Vajra Name Initiation.

There is a question of some debate amongst lineage masters as to whether Buddha was born having this initiation, since, he was "in the state of Vajradhara", or, if it was necessary for the Tathagatas to give him a fresh one.

Because of that issue, a few tantras may describe Abhisambodhis or Initiations slightly differently; they still are in the same order and the higher ones are like specific-to-Buddha initiation or could not be obtained from his Aryan path alone.

VAT means Buddha Initiation is an Abhisambodhi Sequence.

If I understand that from the Sanskrit view, it is a bit more explanatory than the later more technical descriptions about Three Lights and so on. I know that it is something like the genetic material of Buddha's Initiation and that the technique is sharpened by performance of the Six Yogas to which, the Abhisambodhis could probably be said to be attached around the stage of Dharana.

VAT does not encompass all details about Lokottara Siddhis, but, it is crucial for Kaya Vajra, or Nirmana Chakra, the physical body as encompassed by the Gold nature of Locana. More or less equivalent to Body Mandala in any practice. It does have an esoteric shifting from Prajnaparamita to Locana and I believe a "doubling" of something related to that.

The "standard" version of Buddha Body I suppose is Buddha as Sarvavid Vairocana in Sarvadurgati Parishodana. Sarvavid is still the principal for Vajradhatu, it is still the same nature of the chakra or kaya. Perhaps one could say if an interest in samadhi from withdrawing the winds is shown, then, a type of fundamental Ignorance about the body has been dismissed, and therefor Ignorance Vairocana has taken over the Earth Element.

In Locana's terms you mentioned:

Caksus is a vidya

Locana is a prajna

Vilokin is becoming aware of and included both sight and touch (sparsha).

Yes, the sense of vilokin there is similar to why we would say Avalokiteshvara does not mean "He is looking down at you", it has more to do with the adjective or quality or you having this type of enhanced vision or perception.

Usually if something is Vidya it can be ordinary, mundane knowledge, such as the vidya of absorbing poison with charcoal, or of culturing yogurt, and so here we can fairly ask if you have Atma Vidya in these and it means do you have the knowledgeable aware experience. It is not itself really an occult term. Yes or no.

A demi-god or worldly sprite could therefor actually assist you in such matters.

If the pursuit of Vidya turns to esoteric matters, then the designation Maha Vidya more appropriately means something that assists in supra-mundane knowledge or spirituality, and Samadhi from its Mantra Japa is this practice. And so Vidya legitimately functions as an arc from anything in the world to "vidya of the rite". The more meaningful it is to rites, the more it generally means Mantra, until you get to the state of Vidyadhara which is produced by the extraordinary Throat Energy that the average person does not have.

Similarly, yes, I would think it is roughly that Caksus could be Worldly, it could be limited to the astral copy of the physical plane, and so it is a physiological apparatus that is not necessarily getting spiritualized until Locana sinks in. As a Prajna, one could perhaps say that Locana is Dharmadhatu Wisdom. If she starts in the center when only Five Families or Wisdoms are taught, and, her career is Dharmadhatu Parishuddha, this is in keeping with the notion of the skill of a transcendental Eye increasing. At a certain point, the Bodhisattva Path is called the Path of Seeing, I believe having to do with not having to exert so much effort to compose a Samadhi, but to actually see signs of fruit.

We have many Buddhist Mahavidyas such as Janguli, Grahamatrika, or Sadaksari. The interesting thing about Sadhanamala being a Sadaksari-triggered outburst of Avalokiteshvara is in its being compiled by Abhayakaragupta, who also did NSP and Vajravali. Abhayakara is said to be an emanation of Avalokiteshvara. Prior to but possibly the last before the attempt to set up tulkus in Tibet as what we call Dalai and Panchen Lamas.

Wisdom Library is misleading in calling Sadhanamala "a 5th century text". That is not the case, this one was completed in 1165, which could reasonably said to contain some material that probably does go back that far. And so accordingly, we would probably say something like Sutra Nagarjuna transmitted material that has to do with Tara, whereas tantric--alchemist Nagarjuna had realization of her in Akanistha and transmitted a sadhana basket which involves a slightly different White Tara than ordinarily practiced now--as well as a Green Tara equivalent to Samadhi that has a correspondingly unrolling retinue and plane of existence. That is what is in Sadhanamala.

The actual Sita Tara does a rare Blue Lotus Mudra, and Mahattari holds a special Fiery Blue Lotus and certainly appears to be the progenetrix or intended root of Tara Samadhi and Tri-samadhi.

They have Vajra Feet.

As one can see that will settle into place as utterly unique in the overall pantheon of Tara iconography.

The Marici referred to as her Kalpoktam form is two things. Highly distributed. She is in medieval Indian stonework as well as spread across China in this form. It is in Ngor and Bari lineage in practically the same version that is in Sadhanamala. Marici is so powerful that her version in NSP is just the same Kriya tantra mandala available to neophytes where everything else is "forbidden". And so this Kalpoktam is easily visible as a public standard of some kind of higher or more powerful Marici.

The second thing is that is The End of such esoteric Maricis as found so far anywhere in the world except Bhutan. Her even more majestic forms are only in Sadhanamala.

Kalpoktam is something of an incredible threshhold.

I cannot imagine why she is attended by Varttali, except Vartta has something to do with Flower Offering and Marici is an Asoka gardener like in Ramayana, and then this Varttali is the beginning of something like a pig farm. Is it a zero or bindu? I am not sure. I am sure it is not being used to say something like "round eyes" in these cases, like when it is her name, if you want to call me Circle, why don't you call me Chakra or something. This sub-pig has Marici's Needle and Asoka herself. Needle as Avadhut and Varttali as Aura?

If I try to ignore Tramen Varahi as long as possible, she will intervene, when, according to Nagarjuna's Green Tara, one approaches a tantric form of Ekajata, or, according to this, Kalpoktam Marici. The two seem to be secretly related since Green Tara brings in Vajra-holder Marici, and Kalpoktam largely corresponds to this, also holding it.

Ganapati and Hayagriva are not Tramen because they are artificial.

Varahi is also related to Vasudhara and we can see Vasudhara also asks for Musti and is a Stupa goddess.

I believe we could say Parasol is in Stupa as Grahamatrika.

Kalpoktam Marici has already come up as a subject, but, without the awareness of what it means for her to want you to have this Fist or Akshobhya initiation, which is the very beginning of the book where she is among its major features.

We have seen this before, Indian prior to 1100, which makes it obvious about the Stupa, her Vajra, and the presence of Boar:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/5/7/1/57140.jpg

Here, her Vajra is a bit more meditative:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/9/3/49369.jpg

Her worldly-interactive form uses Bay Green Horses in the Tibetan records:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/1/6/81639.jpg

However in this Kagyu Stupa moment, she is on Mother Sow sleeping with Piglets:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/9/0/0/90016.jpg

who take over:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/1/0/0/100132.jpg

Her retinue attendants come in the order Red, Yellow, White, Red:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/3/8/83801.jpg

In Sadhanamala she has Seven Boars and is in Pratyalidha in her chariot. She uses Yam to generate a Vayu or Wind Mandala--usually a Crescent--and then:

haṃkārajacandrasūryyagrāhimahograhāhu-samadhiṣṭhitarathamadhye devīcatuṣṭayaparivṛtām

Ham syllable emanates a moon and sun and Marici is in Samadhi in her chariot surrounded by friends.

She ostensibly is in the place of Triangle of Inverted Stupa. Not the design or visualization, but, in the role of it.

Vadali is a Kumari Rupini. Varali is a Surupini in Pratyalidha. Varahamukhi is a Divya Rupini. If this means "seated Pratyalidha" then it could be Tara-posed as in the mandala picture.

After they are cast, Lion Vairocana shows up doing a Bodhyanga mudra, and, it looks like he self-generates you into this Marici form out of an Asoka branch and then you give variations of the mantra to "your" four attendants.

The mandala artist may have ignored the pig faces, although this is his Tibetan-to-English version:

[30] Kalpoktam Marichi. "Inside a vase stupa ...Marichi, with a body yellow in colour, three faces and eight hands. The main face is yellow, the right red and the left a blue pig face. Each face has three eyes. The four right hands hold, a vajra, hook, arrow and needle. The four left, a branch of the ashoka [tree], bow, thread and a wrathful gesture. Wearing a red inner garment and adorned with jewels and a garland of small bells. In the east is red Vettali with a pig face. [With] four hands the right hold, a needle and hook. The left, a lasso and [branch of] the ashoka tree. Wearing a red inner garment. In the south is yellow Vadali with four hands, the right hold a branch of the ashoka [tree] and a needle, the left a vajra and lasso. In the west is white Varali with four hands, the right [hold] a vajra and needle, the left a lasso and branch of ashoka [tree]. In the north is red Varahamukhi with three eyes [and] four hands. The right hold a vajra and arrow, the left a lasso and branch of the ashoka [tree]. Also, all are youthful maidens, adorned with all ornaments. Seated in a posture with the left leg extended." (Ngorchen Konchog Lhundrub 1497-1557).

I see a misspelling that would make you think Varttali is Vetali.

Varttali's Red Inner Garment is really a Kanjuka or Underwear, which is hard to see, the only other one is Red Oddiyana Marici 139 in Yellow Underwear. Well, this one, Kalpoktam, may be emitting the red light from her underwear:

raktāmbarakañcukotarīyāṃ

The attendants are nearly identical, unless we identify them as Underwear, Kumari, Surupini, Divya.

With the spelling Kancuka, it is on Sita Tara, multiple Maricis, and Kurukulla 177 and 181.

The clothing of the retinue is not mentioned, it would seem to follow the principal, especially if their items are also the same (although maybe in different hands).

If Sita is also some kind of Underwear Samaya, we can see a bit about how or why she has a Five Buddha Crown. That is another reason she is not the common Amitabha goddess. I believe she is the first one to show Pancha Jina like this.

I have always thought this was legitimate since to Shiva, Kancuka--Bodice means the Veils of Maya over Shakti.

These are the Subtle Veils and she is really attacking Vajra Ignorance, which becomes almost as if saying ignorance of Vajra Kaya. Mundane ingnorance had more to do with placing Locana in the Nirmana, and this Marici and Pigs is occult ignorance. And so when we get to this part, we must be doing Amoghasiddhi's work. What?

Yes, it will take dakinis and pranic energies to get it to work, which would be examples of his field, Activity.

The closer you get to a full manifestation of Varahi, the less the clothing will be. Although these attendants appear to be Tramen, they are not horrible, as if they are currently restrained and prepared to remain so. Marici is not a Tramen since the Ghona specifically represents a "tiny residue" of ignorance. If Parnasabari was not a safe Pisaci they would not broadcast her on a worldwide basis. These are Yidams or Ista Devatas that include the power level Gauri--Pisachi. The dangerous Pisacis are one's own personal components or ingredients.

The kancuka is something like a tunic, and it is underwear in the sense that usually one or more wrapping scarves or shawls are added to it. It is conceivable that maybe you see their cleavage now. When you do them individually it is a form of Jah Hum Vam Hoh. So it is like Vairocana is setting up the Four Activities of Marici here. They are with Eight Arm Yellow Marici 137, the larger Kalpokta Marici 142 that for example adds Kha Khahi as Bali mantra, and the relatively brief Samskipta Marici 146.

The only thing much similar to Marici is War Chariot Mahamaya Vijayavahini, who is perhaps mostly associated with Kunkuma, the Red Powder of Kumari--Varahi.

Vadali has, is, or takes, a Kumari. As a female Vadala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vadala), she is damage, weather-beaten, maybe a whirlpool. Kunkuma is said to un-damage the female by relieving her A-Dhih or Adhim or sexual anxiety. It does that. I don't know if Vadali is in some kind of damaged condition. I don't think so. I think it is more likely that she may be damaging. Kumari may be Wrathful Varahi.

Varali (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/varali) is most likely the Moon. If she is a Surupini maybe she is Sumukhi. Hard to say. The last one Varaha Mukhi is like saying Boar Face is a Divine Form. In no case do any of these have the specific name Vajravarahi, whose original conversion name was Vajramukhi.

Solo Pig Face's name is Arthasiddhi, again more or less suggesting the pig stands for ignorance of the siddhis.

Again if the Family and relationships seem complex, the Boar power is simple enough, is all the insatiable forces erupting from Hell, and, you have to heal them by solarizing them. If successful it is not a nightmare and you are considerably liberated with respect to the subtle world.

That is a Tramen.

It is the same power as Pisacis or tantric Gauris. Those also seem to have the motif that reverting it to a human face is like finding its peaceful side and overcoming the related ignorance. The wrathful side is the brain, so, yes, if you do not purify and control it, all kinds of terrible things follow.

That again is why if we approach the tantras then the basic Gatekeepers of Nirmana Chakra--Cuckoo, Goat, Lion, and Snake--these are not real Tramen because they are explanatory ideas to get one to begin the process of Pranayama blending mantra and wind there. It gives the sense of rhythm and the impression of Four Activities. They can become like the Paramadya goddesses. This is incredibly calming, Shamata, leading to "the cathartic", Prasrabdhi or Tranquility. And so you do get a Little Red Lion here in the West with a Chain. But then if we go into sadhana practice, two things will happen, the Lion Face will vanish, and the Chain will become like a papery image, generic, until it can be found that its power is intentionally gained in another Family, and handed over. The installation of Amoghasiddhi as Tri-samaya Raja means that the strength of Mudras has been increased to Bandha or "Locked" and Chain Activity is also Bandhaya, the Chain is the Lock, not a catching or pulling implement.

And then we would find Lion Face actually does return on the pure red Zhiro Bhusana, like Sumukhi, completely red.

She is not Wrathful or a Tramen. How does she do it? Does she have Hindu Pratyangira--Narasimhi's head grafted on??

The commonly-known Lion Face is Simhamukha who is always a Wrathful Jnanadakini. Even in the very rare instance of Red Simhamukha, she is still not as red as Zhiro Bhusana.

Zhiro Bhusana is Nyan's Vajrayogini. It is evident she is a Guru to Guhyajnana Dakini. And those are all about numerical increase, like this Circle, or Zero, or Flowers, or Pigs, this one is Dakinis.

Varahi is like the admixture of this essence with something that was sealed by Bhu--Vasudhara in a different realm for a reason, it is dangerous to us.

Zhiro Bhusana rather has the feel of a maturing of the Little Red Lion Gatekeeper.

That first small ring of Gatekeepers is really just so someone who may be disoriented can harness their forces. You are going to center it in the abdomen and then when something seems to kick in, you are doing a meditation to essentially Pave it with Golden Ground like Marici, except it is Vairocana and Locana who emerge from some kind of ethereal dormancy in Space and take over your earthly body.

Further along, this gets turned into a furnace, so, we can honor the quality of Sita Vaideha who glowed like luminous molten gold while she was immune to fire during doubts about her integrity. Daughter of Bhu--Vasudhara.

This is not the same Marici and is utterly unidentified as to even what country it came from. It appears to be an Amitayus Marici with a Vase, and maybe a Pig in her hand. Here she is over a Naga bearing a platter of gems:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/0/8/30803.jpg

Old Student

28th January 2021, 17:33

shaberon

28th January 2021, 19:55

Quick note, I will finish later,

How are you parsing the first line here:

haṃkārajacandrasūryyagrāhimahograhāhu-
samadhiṣṭhitarathamadhye devīcatuṣṭayaparivṛtām

Ham syllable emanates a moon and sun and Marici is in Samadhi in her chariot surrounded by friends.

If I break it
haṃkāra jacandra sūryyagrāhi mahograhāhu
it is
haṃkāra "the sound of ham" which seems right and then,
jacandra "light of the moon" or "born of the moon" which is okay and then,
sūryyagrāhi "sun-seizer" or "eclipse of the sun" which is what?, and then,
mahograhāhu = maha ugra hāhu = great fiercest or great most wrathful.

One could almost think this is talking about 'ham' creating the solar diamond ring of an eclipse?

I haven't! I am not that good at it.

The "-kara" I am not sure means "sound". Very standard with any syllables, such as "sitahrihkara". So I think it is supposed to mean the visual. I personally cannot visualize syllables and do not know what they even look like, so, at most, usually I might have a red or white glowing dot or something, but, I actually do focus on its sound.

It would be hard to do Nyasa or Armor Deities that way, but, one by one, it works.

Suryagraha could be eclipse, or, more specifically, Eclipse should be Suryagrahana.

I thought the second word was some kind of Maha Graha, but, I think you are right, it probably has the combined form of Ugra and that would make Maha Ugra:

Hahū (हहू).—A Gandharva with the sun in summer.*

* Vāyu-purāṇa 52. 7.

hāhū (हाहू).—f hāṃhūṃ n (hāṃ & hūṃ Imitative words.) "Ahem" or other audible expiration as made to intimate wakefulness, attentiveness, presence &c.

Grahi is feminine for Graha.

Karaja refers to: “born of kamma” in karaja-kāya the body sprung from action, an expression always used in a contemptible manner, therefore=the impure, vile, low body'.

I am not sure it is always "contempitible" here, as it is common with nearly a hundred instances such as:

candrasthahuṃkārajavajraṃ

āḥkārajapadme

The latter being something like "Ah becomes or transforms into a lotus". It is like the difference when a syllable transmutes into something, versus it sprouting another stem where the lotus grows and makes something else.

Those phrases are near the beginning of Sadhanamala in Vajrasana sadhana followed by:

śirasi candre sita-oṃkārajāṣṭāracakre candrastha-oṃkāram iti kāyaviśuddhibhāvanā /

So a similar phrase is used with White Om at the head which purifies Body or Kaya.

What is unique for Marici is Hahu. Only one. Anything similar is just in a phrase of "hahumkara" like the one above, which does not seem intended with Marici. This is also the only Grahi. So I am guessing:

Suryagrahi = Surya female spirit

Maha Ugra Hahu = something unique from the Puranas.

Vayu Purana ch. 52 (https://soolaba.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/vayu-purana-cosmography-32-53-sharma.pdf) is Deities Attendant upon the Chariot of the Sun. Every two months, there is a rotation of Gandharvas, Apsaras, Nagas, Yakshas, and Sages--the latter almost certainly being the Vairajas or Jivanmuktas. These beings cause the sun to produce radiance. Some of what the Vayu says about these:

The twelve groups of seven (Saptaka) are the presiding
deities of them with their place of residence.
These make the Sun inflated by their radiance.
Their radiance is excellent.

By the distinguished hymns of prayer, the
sages adore the Sun. Gandharvas and Apsarasas
attend upon him with dance and music.

Gramanls, Yaksas and Bhutas, organise a
terrific gathering. The snakes carry the sun and
the Yatudhanas follow him. Worshipping the
Sun from the time of rising, the sages
Balakhilyas lead him to the mountain of
Sunset.

The way that sun shines forth for them, well accomplished by radiance and in accordance
with the powers, penance, Yogic power,
truthfulness, righteousness and strength of these
deities, in the same way, these abide herein for
two months each over the Sun.

The sages, the gods, the Gandharvas, and the
groups of Pannagas or snakes and bevies of
nymphs, the Gramanls and likewise the Yaksas
and Yatudhanas manifoldly. These gleam forth
and rain forth, shine forth, emit out breeze and
generate or procreate, herein proclaimed as such
drive away (lit. refute) the inauspicious acts of
the Bhutas.

...

The Sun pleases the gods by the means of
nectar and by means of the ray (Susumna), the
Sun develops the Moon in the bright half (of the
moon) day by day and it is complete (full of the
full moon days). Devas imbibe its nectar during
the dark half.

After being sucked thus, the moon has only
two digits left at the end of the dark fortnight
and percolating down by rays, the manes
consume the nectar by Svadha, the manes, the
gods and the Saumyas drink that very way the
oblation of kind of the deceased.

By the sun, the rays or kine, consolidated as
such and by waters well-distilled by rain and by
well-grown medicinal herbs, the mortals satiate
their hunger by food and slake (the thirst) by
waters.

By nectar becomes the satiety for half a
month of the gods and of the manes; for half of
a month by Svadha (call) by food constantly
sustain (themselves), the mortals, and the sun
bears all that by the beams.

The Sun moves ahead by the horses in the
form of rays consumes waters by the rays. At
the hour of their release, he discharges them.
Thus the Sun sustains the mobile and immobile
beings perpetually.

The Sun by the green horses is carried
along, consumes (lit. drinks) waters by the rays
thousand fold. While being carried by green
horses, he (Sun) showers it again.

Hahu (https://ia600205.us.archive.org/26/items/cu31924071128825/cu31924071128825.pdf) was once cursed to become a Makara, and attacked Gajendra.

Arthur Avalon (http://lukashevichus.info/knigi/Karpuradi-stotra%20Avalon.pdf) uses Hahu in an expression about how a sadhaka masters music, dance, and song, a Pandita, that singing makes a Gandharva.

This involves the Vairajas, i. e. what HPB considered a sort of Hindu Nirmanakaya, and, which, may be associated with the deity Viraj. Again this is like a concatenation of Vimala, which is a relatively common title from Katyayani to Manjushri. However as Viraj, we only have Parasol and maybe one more.

Viraj is likely the oldest type of Shakti, honored at Jaipur.

Mahogra (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-skanda-purana/d/doc423810.html) could even be an individual name, as in an army of Daityas subjugated by Durga.

It may be that Moon and Sun become the Grahis Mahogra and Hahu.

Such entities "refute the inauspicious acts of the Bhutas".

Again this basic term Graha is like asking whether the planet "grips" you or vice-versa, and, it is the same root for Grasper and Grasped terminology in Buddhist philosophy and the tantra of the two nerves, Vairocani and Varnani, Solar and Lunar.

The sadhana does seem to say that whatever this/these entity/entities is/are, dwells in samadhi inside the Chariot.

The Purana just said they are in the Chariot. It has Green Horses. Remind the Tibetans about Vayu Purana.

This may be simply to associate Marici with the strongest summer sun. It may be a code for two important Bija mantras. It does, however, roll right back in to Svaha and the Solar and Lunar Pitris, the Triangle or three formless planes and square or four form planes. Saumya apparently has to do with Lunar Pitris, which makes sense as to why they seem peaceful and lunar in Buddhism, but, do not seem to represent all possibilities or the Moon as a whole. Satisfied-by-oblation aspect of it.

Old Student

29th January 2021, 05:50

Arapacana or Enlightenment? Arapacana is Gandharan possibly Aramaic in origin. This one is actually one of the most commonly-practiced Manjushris, which is why I have not dealt with it much.

My guess is that it's one of several attempts to make Persian easier to write that were subsequently used as lingua franca scripts everywhere by sailors etc. This one apparently was ordered the way it was so that people could remember their prayers.

In Locana's terms you mentioned:

Caksus is a vidya

Locana is a prajna

Vilokin is becoming aware of and included both sight and touch (sparsha).

Yes, the sense of vilokin there is similar to why we would say Avalokiteshvara does not mean "He is looking down at you", it has more to do with the adjective or quality or you having this type of enhanced vision or perception.

Part of the reason I flagged this is because that makes vilokin something similar to what I use in my notes which is 'listening' because that's what it is called in push hands, but it's an attempt to push awareness further than the senses are offering, which I thought it was cool that this concept exists related to sight instead.

I cannot imagine why she is attended by Varttali, except Vartta has something to do with Flower Offering and Marici is an Asoka gardener like in Ramayana, and then this Varttali is the beginning of something like a pig farm. Is it a zero or bindu? I am not sure. I am sure it is not being used to say something like "round eyes" in these cases, like when it is her name, if you want to call me Circle, why don't you call me Chakra or something. This sub-pig has Marici's Needle and Asoka herself. Needle as Avadhut and Varttali as Aura?

Interesting thing: I talked to my native source about Marici's pigs pulling her chariot instead of Ushas' horses. They said it makes a lot of sense since Marici is light. The pigs are ignorant and they pull the chariot into the darkness of ignorance, whereupon she is light so she brings light to that darkness.

I would never have thought of it that way.

Yes, it will take dakinis and pranic energies to get it to work, which would be examples of his field, Activity.

I have something to report about the word "Act!" that I keep hearing. It is a specific action a kind of voluntary flitting -- except that while I put myself through it, it did not seem that I chose the place or person. The traveling to and from is the thing I described to you before, where I seem to travel by embodying places instead of just visiting them. The form at least for now (only happened once) is the same, as a silvery skinned or maybe lightning skinned dakini. The context was a death, I was there as a first light of death or a last light of life, it seemed. As usual, over in an instant but with a lot of afterwards rumination.

Old Student

29th January 2021, 06:01

Suryagraha could be eclipse, or, more specifically, Eclipse should be Suryagrahana.

Apparently, Suryagraha is still eclipse even in some modern Indian languages.

After being sucked thus, the moon has only
two digits left at the end of the dark fortnight
and percolating down by rays, the manes
consume the nectar by Svadha, the manes, the
gods and the Saumyas drink that very way the
oblation of kind of the deceased.

Maybe the passage is related to something like this process.

I'm glad you had all that on 'hahu', I couldn't get anything except that it can be a superlative ending. Since the line starts with hamkara(ja) perhaps it is just ending with ham-hum.

shaberon

29th January 2021, 10:48

Part of the reason I flagged this is because that makes vilokin something similar to what I use in my notes which is 'listening' because that's what it is called in push hands, but it's an attempt to push awareness further than the senses are offering, which I thought it was cool that this concept exists related to sight instead.

Yes. Eye is visual at first, but, then, it is Whole Body. And then with the senses purified things can change and Sound will likely become major. And so if you keep opening it, even better. Know something that you have no way of knowing.

Interesting thing: I talked to my native source about Marici's pigs pulling her chariot instead of Ushas' horses. They said it makes a lot of sense since Marici is light. The pigs are ignorant and they pull the chariot into the darkness of ignorance, whereupon she is light so she brings light to that darkness.

I would never have thought of it that way.

Yes the Horses are more like raw power and the Boars are the Noumenal Path.

Ignorant Pigs = contaminated senses = Gauris or Tramen that may be repellent if not dangerous

You can harness the Pigs but not from Mortal Desire but from Divine Desire subordinating the Iccha, Will, or Samsara.

Horse is the regular symbol of Jewel Family and so an obvious solar mark.

Marici is mainly a blend of Jewel and Tathagata Families.

Tathagata Family is Ignorance which is why Vajravarahi is primarily of that family.

I have something to report about the word "Act!" that I keep hearing. It is a specific action a kind of voluntary flitting -- except that while I put myself through it, it did not seem that I chose the place or person. The traveling to and from is the thing I described to you before, where I seem to travel by embodying places instead of just visiting them. The form at least for now (only happened once) is the same, as a silvery skinned or maybe lightning skinned dakini. The context was a death, I was there as a first light of death or a last light of life, it seemed. As usual, over in an instant but with a lot of afterwards rumination.

I was doing something like that.

Not so close.

It is hard to slow down and savor these processes. Again by Enlightenment, it means a nice slow look at something that is natural but instantaneous and unconscious.

Once you start finding yourself at the threshhold where souls leave their bodies for the other side, then you are in something that sounds more familiar to me.

I put credence in Vayu Purana since that is where we take the existence of Vairocani to be described.

We ignored the Vairajas until their explanation was demanded. Marici has spoken of a particular one of some eighty-four beings.

If Marici may be saying Ham Hum by borrowing a summer Gandharva...which she could access these as her Kriya mandala appears to include timekeeping units...well we have studied how Hum is considered a solar syllable, unlike Om, which is universal dawn, Hum is individualized and resides in the Heart and resonates through Sesha and Varuni at the bottom of the Talas. Mirror-ish.

Ham is a relatively standard syllable for White Bodhicitta. If one has done Pranayama up to the point it may activate the head, then a white syllable is visualized there. it may be Om, or other things, but, Ham is a viable option and moreso because it is not used for much of anything else, and if thought of as an abbreviation for Aham or ego, that is the idea. Line it up in your sights and burn it, power of Ananga (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ananga), Kamadeva, incinerated, body-less.

And so Ham or other syllable is like the secret location of where did 1/8 of Surya's rays go when Samjna demanded he be tempered?

In the Moon, relatively speaking, the personal White Moon.

Melting Ham is the First Joy.

If I wanted to summarize the Fist and Akshobhya Abhiseka I just told you to figure out, I would probably say Hum, and if I wanted to aim for the next bullseye it would probably be the White Moon or Ham. And then beyond this you mainly just have Picuva and Oddiyana and Vajradhatvishvari Maricis. It seems to me like a reasonable frame for Kalpoktam and the Eight Arm forms and Stupa moment using Ham and Hum.

In the grammar it seems normal to write 1-2-3-4 is A-B-C-D, and I am guessing Marici here may be saying 1-2 is A-B:

haṃkāraja [candra sūryya] grāhi [mahogra hāhu]

Mahogra may be symbolic of the Lunar Pitris--Barhisads and Hahu of the Solar Agnishwattas.

Susumna personally is the Avadhut, while, in esoteric astrology, it is the Ray from the Sun to the Moon, which is why everything alludes to the waxing and waning cycles and Purniman or Purnamasa, the human spirit or monad, is Full Moon Sacrifice. And so Vajrasattva is the first part of the practical path of the reflection as he wanders to the White Moon or First Joy and/or First Void. It is also the Vowels.

In sadhana practice, what happens is, the following is Mandala, and then after that you have opening the Dharmadhatu like Buddha was doing. There is not much variety to this except maybe the names of a few of the countries. You cast Ground or Vajra Bhumi and then you are going to raise Mt. Meru and populate it:

...on an earth, completely pure, of great power with a ground of gold, ...surrounded by an outer wall of iron mountains, in the middle is ...the king of mountains Sumeru. East Purvavideha; south Jambudvipa; west Aparagodaniya; north Uttarakuru; Deha and Videha; Chamara and Apachamara; Sata and Uttaramantrina; Kurava and Kaurava; treasure mountains, wishing trees, wishing cows, uncultivated crops, precious wheels, precious jewels, precious queens, precious ministers, precious elephants, precious excellent horses, precious generals, great treasure vases; goddesses of beauty, garlands, song, dance, incense, flowers, lamps and perfume; sun, moon, precious umbrellas, banners - victorious in all directions..." (Extracted from the long mandala offering prayer written by Chogyal Pagpa).

The Sun and Moon are in the sky above the respective protective items, umbrella and banner.

Parasol is a wildcat, and from the standpoint that Six Arm forms are a tantric barrier within the Akshobhya process, what happens is she loses her Parasol item and therefor has a form that artists refuse to paint since that is too confusing. She also has the six arm form Maha Pratyangira, and, I suspect it is likely to say, Grahamatrika.

She continues emerging and when she has Eight Arms she gets her stuff back and has also acquired a Banner and we can find her pointing the items at the targets:

https://anthro.amnh.org/images/full/70/70_9946C.jpg

Her basic form is popular in Mongolia and has Vajra Feet and a form of Amoghasiddhi's Abhaya Mudra:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/6/8/8/68850.jpg

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/3/6/3/36301.jpg

https://anthro.amnh.org/images/full/700/700_6953.jpg

In the last one you see Atisha's Seven Eye Tara. It is correct that Mongolia is hers. Parasol however could not originally have had this association. Metamorphosis particular to them.

I am not quite sure what this Kalpoktam Marici is up to; there are four virtually identical forms having the same Four Attendants and the sadhanas are clearly associated, they seem like degrees.

In looking for something distinctive, there is for Eight Arm Yellow Marici 137:

upaviśya svahṛdaye rātridinabhedena akārā-kāraniṣpannau śaśisūryyau

Sasi (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shashi)surya, one word, Moonsun.

This Bhagavati arises in a Flower or Puspa and Others Sampujya.

It says something like Night is broken when Ah becomes the two orbs.

A more serious Yellow Lion Vairocana comes up, who is:

padmagarbhasiṃhāsane

and whose Mudra Locks the Seven Jewels of Enlightenment:

bodhyaṅībaddhamudrakaṃ

He brings in Eight Arm Marici, who uses a similar process as before but it manifests her Charioteer:

yaṃkārajavāyumaṇḍale haṃkāranirmmito rāhuḥ /

so Eclipse is built in. Despite Vairocana's presence, Marici is crowned by Ratna.

Now she is with Bandhuka Flower and has Raktam Varttulam which in this case would mean round red eyes.

It looks like all of the retinue are in caityas in red underwear:

sarvvā etāścaityakūṭāgārasthā nānālaṅkāraratnamukuṭarakta-kañcukottarīyāstrinetrā

You do Four Activities mantra and make Jnana Sattva Pravesa Mudra. And afterwards you Mutter Vajrasattva.

Samskipta Marici 146 is the briefest one with less details and has the following:

vāyumaṇḍalaṃ haṃbhavarāhuṃ candrasūryau grasamānaṃ

and it refers to Hook with respect to the attendants, so, would obviously be placed prior to 137.

If Hahu was maybe, perhaps, a kitschy Gandharva for Ham and Hum, well, there you go. It may have been but there is the simpler version Ham becomes Rahu who holds a moon disk and a sun disk.

Kalpokta 142 is significantly longer.

Right at the start it says she is in Vairocana Family (and has his crown) and that Kalpokta Vidhi is the sadhana krama here. Then is seems to say she is the source of the initiatory mandala:

śrīmārīcyudayamaṇḍalābhiṣikto

She mentions Sakala (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/shakala)sattva, which is among her running topics, and again she requires Fist which seems to Noose:

bhagavatīm avatāryya mārīcīvighnotsāraṇamantreṇa gandhodakaṃ

Offering Goddesses present themselves, everything returns to Voidness, and it then seems to say why Pam is in the majority of spawn sequences:

bījaṃ māyopamākāraṃ traidhātuṃ ca viśeṣataḥ /

It is Maya Bija of the Three Worlds.

Vairocana coes up again, and conjures Marici from Ardhendu Bindu, i. e. a Crescent and Dot. Her Lamp Body is a Mountain of Luminous Gold:

jāmbūnadaprabhākārāṃ dīptadehāṃ

and evidently has a kati--waist sutra--cord and Kinkini (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/kinkini) bell girdles.

She has a sneaky Kadamba Tree:

Lalanapriya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/lalanapriya)

She has Utphulla (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/utphulla) Locana, very wide open eyes.

She conjures a more complex Charioteer:

yaṃbhavaṃ vāyavyamaṇḍale haṃkārapariṇataṃ rāhugrahaṃ hastābhyāṃ
grastaṃ candrasūryyau vidā dinakāraṃ niśigataṃ candramasaṃ

It seems to be identifying Rahu with the Moonsun entity, if that is what has been hinted at. The second part refers to divinity and full moon.

Her first attendant is for:

kalpoktavidhinā abhipretasiddhim

Abhipreta (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/abhipreta) is dear to, wished for, loved, desired, etc.

next:

mukhacakṣuṣīṃ sīvantīṃ dakṣiṇato

The third one does Stambha and last is for:

sarvvasattānupasa

Noose and all Sattvas; Noose closely corresponds to Entering the Mandala stage; and Eight Arm Marici mostly acts up to Noose, but here, it specifies something about Shrnkala before reciting Four Activities:

tarjanyaṅkuśabandhena kaniṣṭhayā sahāṅkuśī bāhugranthikaṭāgrābhyāṃ
śṛṅkhalāpṛṣṭhayoś ca pīḍanād iti /

There is a Marici Mudra and Samaya to the devata.

The initiation is a Ghrni (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ghrini) or Ray of Mahamudra.

It is interesting that the relevant mantra just says Earth, Sky, Sun:

samamadhyamottamāṅgā śeṣā vajrāñjaliprabhā //
iti mūrdhni sthāpya oṃ bhūḥ khaṃ māṃ abhiṣiñceti mantreṇa
vairocanaḥ kanakābho nodhyaṅgyavasthitaḥ śirasi dhyeyaḥ /

Vajrasattva is Muttered and finally:

prāpnuvantu padaṃ sattvā mārīcījñānanirmalam //
oṃ kha kha khāhi khāhi gṛhṇa gṛhṇa gṛhṇantu sārvabhautikā
baliṃ mama śāntiṃ kurvantu svāheti balimantraḥ /

She takes something like an Usnisa Dharani for her Bali mantra.

Abhipreta has nothing to do with Preta--Ghosts and is more closely related to Artha Siddhi. From an Arabic interpretation of Patanjali (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bulletin-of-the-school-of-oriental-and-african-studies/article/abs/albirunis-arabic-version-of-patanjalis-yogasutra-a-translation-of-the-third-chapter-and-a-comparison-with-related-texts/7EC8B118A0933D6487A9D2B8DE23DE7A):

videhānām indriyāṇām abhipreta-deśa-kāla-viṣayāpekṣo vṛtti-lābho vikaraṇabhāvaḥ ‘Extra-sensory perception consists in accomplishing the function of the senses with regard to (any) desired place, time or object independently of the body’.

Abhipreta Artha Siddhi (https://zenodo.org/record/3716014#.YBRf51ZKi1s) as a Buddhist stock phrase exaplining "artha".

In a general definition of Kamya (https://www.sanskritdictionary.com/?q=k%C4%81mya).

Abhipreta (http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/indexes/term-sa.html) six times in a glossary translating to Chinese characters.

Padma Purana 1.65.10 (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/padma-purana-sanskrit/d/doc438914.html):

abhipretārthasiddhyarthaṃ pūjito yaḥ surairapi |
sarvavighnachide tasmai gaṇādhipataye namaḥ || 10 ||

That is instantly recognizable to me because Ganadhipatiye is used in Ganapati Hrdaya.

So, although it sounds like ghosts and due to the wrathful prerequisite, we might think she was talking about Bhutadamaru or something, it is much closer to Artha Siddhi, the only form of Vajravarahi that has a full pig's face like her retinue.

I think it is Puranic, and Ghrna must be the secret sun which appeared to be used as a syllable in Varamrita Tantra. Hahu may be a misprint for Rahu. Maybe not.

It kind of just says "may you accomplish the desired object", which is not really that different from Vajrasattva mantra, in the part Sarva Siddhim me Prayaccha, Sarva Karma sucha me.

Marici is supposed to show a lot more vivid detail about it than he does.

She does have a six arm form that is similar to this one and probably meant as an intermediate practice.

White Marici is above this, along with a few others. Marici is pretty similar to Parasol in having a collection of forms that change attributes and grow in power. In most other cases, if you take a single name like Cunda or Ekajati, they have huge gaps in the middle. Or Bhrkuti just stops. Vasudhara has a thorough and solid beginning and gets six arms and a stupa and does not appear to proceed into a correspondingly major form. Meanwhile, Parasol is a very relevant item to Marici, when it becomes supported by Brahma, Indra, etc.

Kalpoktam Marici seems pretty close to the ability to do Stupa meditations, which are grounded in Akanistha, whereas Vajradhatvishvari Marici by adding the Parasol attribute really seems to have accumulated *everything*.

She lacks much of the "dark side" represented by Mahacina Krama Tara --> Nairatma --> Ekajati --> Kama Dhatvishvari.

But again, these are mainly the two nerves, Solar and Lunar, Vairocani and Varnani.

When we use those names we become highly aware it will unleash something called Vajravarahi, but, ultimately they are really the constitution of Tri-kaya Vajrayogini which is Cinnamasta.

The simple Green Tara with Marici and Ekajati evolves through Amoghasiddhi rites into this. According to Sadhanamala, Akshobhya initiation turns Amoghasiddhi into Tri-samaya Raja. He will establish the bonds which open Tri-samadhi and establish Tri-kaya. Then you start getting more intense actually-manifested deities and a very subtle, but farily well-mapped practice.

Old Student

30th January 2021, 06:08

Tathagata Family is Ignorance which is why Vajravarahi is primarily of that family.

Why would the "Thus born" be ignorant? I thought they were enlightened.

It is hard to slow down and savor these processes. Again by Enlightenment, it means a nice slow look at something that is natural but instantaneous and unconscious.

Once you start finding yourself at the threshhold where souls leave their bodies for the other side, then you are in something that sounds more familiar to me.

I don't see how it is any different than enlightenment things. I arrive, try to pull someone towards enlightenment and leave. It is what I was doing even though they were dying. I felt I had to say something. I said, "If you can see me, you have nothing to fear." Which is true. I spent hours afterward thinking of all the ways that could be taken.

upaviśya svahṛdaye rātridinabhedena akārā-kāraniṣpannau śaśisūryyau

Sitting one's own heart night-day are the same, the 'A' syllable completed Moonsun.

I'm not really understanding that, it seems like one sits until night and day become the same completing the 'A' syllable and then 'Moonsun"?

so Eclipse is built in. Despite Vairocana's presence, Marici is crowned by Ratna.

So the only thing I can think of that is like a ray of light in the eclipse is that diamond ring light formation when the total eclipse starts to end.

Abhipreta six times in a glossary translating to Chinese characters.
It translates each time to 可愛, which means beloved or lovable. My Sanskrit dictionary also gives "something or someone dear."

I think it is Puranic, and Ghrna must be the secret sun which appeared to be used as a syllable in Varamrita Tantra. Hahu may be a misprint for Rahu. Maybe not.

This is an interesting idea, given how the two characters are written.

shaberon

30th January 2021, 10:22

Much of this has been posted before, but, I am trying to get a good look at "the instructions". I try to interiorize most everything, repetition helps, and my career is still like an attempt to move a Laya Yoga experience into Buddhist practice. Some of these basics are much, much more difficult than ineffable Bliss! I can almost just breathe and get that when conditions are right. Getting Buddha's Wisdom has more to it. Perhaps it is more like directing a play. We are given the script, but, if I cannot get some recalcitrant actor to make a stellar performance, then I am just a reader without much power.

Wayman's "Introduction to the Buddhist Tantras" has this material, and, I think, we are less interested in the "divisions" of Kriya/Chara/Yoga/Yoganiruttara, less interested in Father/Mother/Non-dual, and more in the guts of what makes it tick.

It is "how to do tantra", instead of Sutra with meditations, or what an Ngondro is. It is Deity Yoga with visualizations. So it pre-supposes Ngondro and Guru Yoga.

It begins with the subject of "the Six gods", which is a bit misleading, since no particular entities are named. It is more like six aspects of Vajrasattva or "a deity".

The first one of these is a formula, Atma Tattva + Devata Tattva = Tattva Devata.

Atma Tattva is the first step in Kriya-Chara. It is a continuance of Samkhya which says there are twenty-five tattvas, to Shiva who says thirty-six, which is the model for Thirty-seven point enlightenment. Thirty-six (https://www.saivism.net/articles/tattvas.asp) is of profound numerological significance, a third of a rosary (108).

Siva says there are five pure tattvas, seven pure-impure ones consisting of Maya, Five Kancukas, and Purush, and then several lower tattvas.

These tattvas are described as the process of creation:

The vibrant creative energy of Parashiva, known as Spanda, moves him to manifest himself these 36 tattvas as a līlā or divine play.

Beneath Purusha are the aspects of a person in general Hindu philosophy:

Consciousness within the limited purusha forms the citta made of Intellect (buddhi), Ego (ahamkāra), and Mind (manas), known collectively as the antahkarana, or "inner organ". Buddhi is the first evolute of prakṛti. It represents the capacity of discernment. It evolves into ahamkāra after buddhi differentiates a notion of a limited individual self. That external sense of self is then experienced through the sensory mind (manas). Ten indriyas (five sense organs and five action organs), five tanmātras (subtle elements such as Smell), five mahābhūtas (gross elements such as Earth), and the sensory mind evolve from ahamkāra.

The main difference is that the same type of skeleton is used by Gaudiyas and Vedantins who say there is a god and a permanent soul/self, whereas Buddhism just says there is activity of Skandhas, but they do not constitute any type of abiding personal entity. This Buddhist un-teaching was prevalent enough that around the tenth century, it was necessary to write Atma Tattva Vivekha (https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/atma-tattva-viveka-with-sanskrit-commentaries-NAI848/) to refute it. Same subject. They say "it is a thing", compared to which, we only have the center of Catuskoti.

So although the "higher" part of Shiva's tattvas may be disputed by Buddhism with perhaps a few name changes or differing definitions, the lower group of Indriyas, Tanmatras, and Mahabhuts is close to the same.

Our definition of Atma Tattva--a reality where no "self" is believed to administer the skandhas--should be understood along with a Sutra-level recognition of Voidness.

According to Mkhas grub-je:

The Self Reality ( *atma-tattva ) is the contemplation (bhavana) that (1) is
free from such concepts as singleness and multiplicity by recourse to
the reasoned formulations of the Madhyamika; and (2) which decides
that one’s own mind is void because accomplished by intrinsic nature.

This Atma Tattva poses itself with Devata Tattva, i. e. the contemplation of a deity.

They are equivalent to the contemplation of voidness in the higher Tantra divisions that attends the muttering of such expressions as svabhava and sunyata.

I have never Muttered svabhava, it has always seemed like a one-use eraser. Sunyata is much different, e. g. for Vajra Tara, and so I am already doing a Devata Tattva on her.

In Tson-kha-pa’s Shags rim chen mo, 60a-6, ff., the first god is called the don dam pahi lha ( *paramartha-deva ) and consists in the pride that oneself is one with the god (bdag dan lha gnis gcig par na rgyal byas te), indissoluble like the mixture of water and milk.

The combination makes a Reality God: Tattva Devata. This is "the first god".

"You" are not a permanent entity, neither is it, you are a witness of "some processes", and the Deity is one that is not dependent, nor false, nor bait for some new suffering; it lacks faults. Neither one of you have intrinsic or truly-established existence, you are united by being mutual outcroppings of Void.

As we have seen, this Kriya-Chara Devata has six iterations, related to Abhisambodhi, which are:

Abhi. no. 1, meditation on sixteen kinds of voidness, and God no. 1, contemplation of voidness;

Abhi. no. 2, symbols of consonants, and God no. 2, sound god;

Abhi. no. 3, sees directly the Samantabhadra, and God no. 3, the God seen on one’s own mind;

Abhi. no. 4, beams of light from all three realms enter thunderbolt of his heart, and God no. 4, the rays, together with the gods, withdrawn;

Abhi. no. 5, transformation into body with Characteristics and Minor Marks, and God no. 5, blesses spots in his body.

After the five Abhisambodhis, the Buddha appears in the world of men,; this phase is indicated by God no. 6, the yogin returning to the world while holding on to a divine consciousness.

Voidness, whether as one or sixteen kinds, has to be appreciated in order for any of these tantras to work. If it does not make sense, you need to recite Prajnaparamita Heart mantra or something, until you get it. But then if we were to assert there is voidness or no-self, then we are just kind of advertising this first step. It is a necessary preliminary, but is not really what the rest of this material is about.

Second:

And so you get this Tattva Devata and subject it to Dharani, which is male--mantra, and female--vidya:

his aspect (akara) is the intonation of the sounds of the dharani to
be muttered. That [aspect] as the mind’s sole meditative object ( alam -
bana) is the Sound God (*sabda-devata).

That is a Sabda Vajra, a mental-only object made of sound. Here, you Mutter until it is the only object. And so when I mutter Ganapati and in between the lines, I can feel other sounds or thoughts bubbling up, then I am stuck here.

Third:

Then one imagines that his own mind ( citta ) transforms itself in the sky
into a moon disk ( candra-mandala ) upon which the god to be contem¬
plated is that very god in essence. The contemplation of its aspect as
the aspect of the letters, the color of liquid gold, of the dharani to be
muttered, is the Letter God ( *aksara-devata) .

The Shags rim chen mo, 60b-4, makes it clear that the Letter God is the inseparable
union of oneself and the God Reality like the attachment of pure quicksilver to golden
sand.

For those Sound and Letter Gods, it is satisfactory to use either the
long ( dirgha ), the essence (hrdaya), or the near-essence ( upahrdaya )
dharani.

It doesn't matter what deity or mantra. You need to be able to see the letters and make a much stronger link than stage one where it was "accepted" or "believed".

When I can get my Ganapati mantra to calm down and not be subject to subconscious pressure, then I am stuck with the fact that I cannot really see Gam, I can barely remember what an Om looks like. I may know perfectly well, physiologically, how to raise prana through the crown aperture, but that does not mean I can do a proper Deity Yoga since I cannot see this stuff.

Fourth is really Hook Rays, common to sadhanas, which for Letter God means they issue from the Letters, but, it is a general principle of filling space with purification and returning to manifest something:

Then the rays, together with the gods, are withdrawn, absorbed by the
letters; and the moon, together with the letters, transforms itself into
the perfected body of the god to be contemplated. This as the meditative
object is the Form God (*rupa-devata).

At the time of doing service through contemplation of Self Generation,
one need only contemplate the Lord ( *prabhu ) but not his retinue ( pari -
vara ), palace ( vimana ), etc.

I think that is why some of these sadhanas appear to conjure the same deity twice. They hook everything in and "transform into a perfected body". I should try that. At first I am trying to get a dancing Ganapati at the Khecara point, and then a calm one in the heart. I am no good at this, either, but a batch of Hook Rays might be more helpful than a blank re-appearance.

Fifth is a Nyasa god:

If one does not know [them] to that extent, he touches
those places with a single dharani and seal of that particular Family
among the three Families. And having been [thus] blessed (adhisthita),
they are the Seal God (*mudra-devata).

That is equivalent to the blessing of the sense bases (ayatana) in the
higher Tantra divisions.

You do not really even have to know a Nyasa and can just use Family bonds. Almost anything will work here, if you are good enough to actually get the blessing. Jinajik, Arolik, and Vajradhrk are the main Guhyasamaja Three Families' mantras. If you have Ganapati or "some deity", it would be ok to work with this basic format. Ganapati has a Hindu Nyasa; I am not sure whether to try that, it may be fairly extensive. But these patterns are accessible on basic Taras and Manjushris and so forth before becoming complex.

Sixth is a Luminous god:

Then, while the aspect of the god is bright, one fortifies the ego ( aham -
kara or garva). That [aspect] taken as the mind’s sole meditative object
is the Sign God ( *nimitta-devata ).

This sixth obviously cannot differ much from Vajrasattva and Vajragarvi. One meditates in the luminosity while working on the pyshological mind rather than the intellect within the senses.

So then there is a debate about how many technical aspects of Buddhism are allowed in or are taught in Kriya-Chara. That matters less if we look at the distinction between Yoga and Highest Yoga:

In the Yoga Tantra one generates the self into a god, draws in the
jnana beings, is conferred Initiation, applies the seal of the Master of the
Family, and finally asks the god to depart. In the Anuttara Tantra one
generates the self into a god, draws in the jnana beings, is conferred
Initiation, applies the seal of the Master of the Family, and at the con¬
clusion the gods are not asked to depart.

Without the empowerment, one does not self-generate, and so we are trying to get as far as possible in Kriya--Chara--Yoga without it. Sounds odd. Well, Devata Tattva is obviously not a self-generation. How much of this can be performed while viewing an "external" deity that is "inseparable from me"?

That is like reversing their argument. They are trying to say that self-generation may be allowed in the lower classes of tantra. But if those classes can be done without it, what is the limit?

We already have initiations in Guru Yoga. Nothing new about this technique. It may be done without generating any other Devata. So, a similar process with "someone else" should be fine.

I am not sure we should draw in Jnana Sattvas. They are supposed to blend with our Samaya Sattva, a Pledge or Symbolic Being. Ultimately, the Samaya is like a good mental image of a coffee cup, and the Jnana is like its self-arisen superior form. I would think it is useless to contemplate or visualize with effort a Jnana Sattva. It needs to be ready to go on its own. That is why we mainly focus on Samaya beings. So for instance if I have no real communion with Cunda, then I take her minor red form and attempt these techniques with it. If she ever stabilized then maybe I try going further.

If she "clicks" and starts working, then, maybe we try a Jnana Sattva--and this separate/other/upgraded form is something unique to Buddhism which distinguishes it from other tantras. And even Jnana Sattvas are not pat or are not static or a form of praise:

The symbolic being is the one united with the image of deity through the
force of fierce striving for union, resolute application, and samadhi on that sole object.
There are two kind of knowledge being: (a) the being born from the perfections {para-
mita) and (b) the being born from knowledge ( jnana ). The being born from the per¬
fections is the one disposed to seek in ever higher steps by way of the stages (bhumi)
[usually ten in number] and perfections ( paramita) [usually six in number]. The being
born from knowledge is the corporeal manifestation of the Lord and retinue arisen
from the higher comprehension ( adhigama) of the pure Mind of Enlightenment.

If you cannot exhibit Paramitas or Jnana, it is futile to attempt working with a Jnanasattva. You are still Aryan.

in the Dhyanottara-tika (Toh. 2670) he [Buddhaguhya] quotes the * Vajrosnlsa-tantra and the *Vajravidarana-vaipulyatantra ,
showing the method of contemplating the six gods...

Vajrosnisa, as a total system, subsumed in Kalpoktam Marici's Fist, is not different from the Kriya--Chara basics.

Without self-generation, we would mainly be sacrificing siddhis:

Acarya *Varabodhi explains in his lucid exposition
(i.e. Toh. 3066) of the Susiddhi that if there were no revulsion from the
ordinary pride by means of the contemplation of the self as a god, or
if there were no contemplation of voidness in the sense of the natural
state of all things, there would be no siddhis , such as ‘appeasing’, at all;
and he points out that the Vajrapany-abhiseka-tantra says the same.
Therefore, if there were no Self Generation in the Kriya Tantra, no
siddhis whatsoever could be accomplished through the Kriya Tantra.

That is part of the argument for allowing self-generation in Kriya. But again, if I perceive a front-generated deity as "non-different", mentally, and it causes a revolt against mundane Pride or Ego, I am not sure what I am missing by it not desending on my body. I cannot see my back. If I tried 360-degree vision, I could probably see an Amitabha deity behind me much easier than I can see my back.

Another "shift" going into Yoga is Pranayama because:

The Anuttara pranayama means the abolition
of the coursing into the right and left channels; the present pranayama [i.e. of the
Kriya Tantra] means the abolition of the coming and going of the wind (vayu) riding
on discursive thought (vikalpa), as well as the inner containment [of the wind].

On what occasion should that [particular pranayama] be contemplated?
On the occasion of yoga with signs (sanimitta-yoga). And on what
occasion within that [yoga with signs] should it be contemplated? It is
contemplated on the occasion of service ( seva ) in the Kriya and Carya
Tantras, either after completing contemplation of the six gods, or after
accomplishing Generation in Front, as the case may be.

For the sake of what requirement is it contemplated? The requirement
to solidify the meditative object involving the abolition of the craving
for ordinary appearances and involving the transfiguration of one’s
body into that of a god. For solidifying that, the requirement to inhibit
the escape of the mental elements.

What is the profound means of inhibiting that? The mind’s steed is
the vital air (vayu); therefore, when the vital air is contained within,
the mind is held with no freedom of its own. That is why one contem¬
plates the prana-ayama.

What is the procedure in this contemplation? Controlling the vital
centers of the body, one draws the upper vital air (urdhva-vayu) inside
to the navel, pressing it down; and draws the lower vital air (adhas-vayu)
up to the navel, holding it there. The mind is fixed solely upon the god.
Thereupon, when one is no longer able to retain the vital air, it is emitted,
and while one is relaxing, the mind is fixed solely upon the god. Then
he again holds the vital air within and contemplates in the same manner.

It looks like you have done well in Yoga when it becomes easy to draw the prana into the Three Channels. In Kriya-Chara, it is mainly just to "hold still" and get rid of distractions and stop it from leaking; in Yoga, you bind these doors and pull it inwards in reverse, from elaborate networks to more basic pathways until it centers in the navel.

So in the many stages of progress, Pranayama at first smoothes Vikalpa or discursive or distracting thought, until, eventually, energy is restricted to the Avadhut.

And even with a Yoga view or Front Generation, one may:

There are six things, offering and so on, to be done while accomplishing
the Generation in Front: generation of the residence; invitation to the
gods to be residents and offering of seats; exhibition of the seals; offering
and praising; confession of sins; contemplation of the four boundless
states.

"Residence" includes Flask, Golden Ground, Ocean of Milk, Mt. Meru, and everything up to stupas of the nature "victorious" and "radiant".

Invitation requires oblations and uses the two thumbs gesture.

Exhibition of Seals uses Vajra Samaya Mudra, then the seals of Three Families, and Removes Obstacles.

Praise uses the more formal Offerings.

The last two are fairly familiar, Confession is just that, with generation of Bodhicitta, and the Brahma Vihara.

This is considered part of Muttering.

It is the Ground, only varying by Front or Self Generation:

For the genuine muttering
one must complete the four members of muttering. Consequently, the
Dhyanottara says, “Immerse yourself in the sound, the mind, and the
ground.”

The “ ground ” member : The “ground” (T. gzi , S. *vastu ) is the body
of the god in whose heart the dharani wheel is deposited. Of the two
kinds, the “subjective ground” (bdag gi gzi) is the contemplation of
oneself transfigured into a god; and the “objective ground” {gzan gyi
gzi) is the contemplation of the god generated in front.

The other two members of Muttering are visual--the Shape of the syllables--and their Sound:

The member of immersion in mind (*citta-nimna): This has the vivid
meditative object (< alambana ) consisting in one’s mind (citta) in the shape
of a moon -mandala in the heart of the deity generated in front.

The member of immersion in sound (*svara-nimna): This has the vivid
meditative object consisting in the letters of the dharanl to be recited,
located upon that [moon -mandala].

in the first case (T, the first kind [Ground]),
there are three meditative objects: the god, the moon, and the dharani -
garland; in the second case (T, the second kind), there are two medita¬
tive objects: the moon and the dharani-garland; in the third case,
there is only one meditative object: the sound [of the dharani]. A single
person must proceed by these three steps.

The way in which one concludes the four members of muttering is to
offer his roots of merit (kusala-mula) as a cause ( hetu ) for siddhi to the
deity by means of the seal of the flask (kalasa-mudra ).

Having recited for the main part of the watch, the steps of release at
the limit of the watch are this: One releases in reverse order to the se¬
quence in which the six gods were contemplated.

Thus, from hearing the Sound, one goes back to seeing the Letters, and then goes to dwelling on only the moon. The moon is released by dwelling on just the body of the deity; that body in front, by thinking only of one’s own divine body.

That divine body of Self Generation is released by thinking only of
the syllables in its heart; that, in turn, by dwelling on the sound; the
sound, in turn, by dwelling on the Knowledge Body of the god; that, in
turn, by dwelling on the Dharma-kaya. In turn, unsupported by that,
one should dwell on the Self Reality (*atma-tattva). That, in turn, is
released by thinking of the Maturation Body ( vipaka-kaya ) which ap¬
pears as an illusion, mirage, and so forth.

Having summarized by steps those meditative objects, finally he is
equipoised (upeksha) in voidness ( sunyata ). Thereupon, because he emerges in
the fashion of an illusion, even at the time of giving up the watch, he
should not release his hold on divine egoity. This procedure is equiv¬
alent to the unification in the phase of the Anuttara [Tantra ].

When you get to the "limit" of the Six Gods meditation, you transit to Flame (ignoring bodily sensations except for Tummo), then Sound (using Concentration Hero), which is different from Muttering because you hear the Sound in the Flame, rather than producing it. You do this until every detail of the deity is vivid; this is Sanmitta, Yoga with Signs. The details may be "Rough"--his general shape and location--or "Fine", where the eyes, etc., are vivid.

At the limit of that Sound is the practice of Yughanadda. The Flame and Sound Yogas here are Generation Stage (Utpatti).

Even when one reaches the limit of the meditations with signs he is
still without the basic antidote that eradicates the root of the ‘cycle of
transmigration’ (samsara). For eradicating the root of samsara, one
must have the yoga without signs (animitta-yoga). In the latter contem¬
plation, one does not contemplate any conventional aspect, such as the
body of a god, but contemplates according to the precepts through
becoming skilled in the analyzing contemplation (dpyad sgorri) and the
stoppage contemplation (hjog sgom) of voidness.

That is necessary for Maha Siddhis--such as life for eons--but not minor siddhis like assuaging illness or demons. When it manifests Prasrabdhi, the physical and mental cathartic, you are on the Path of Insight.

The Susiddhi explains that when one is in the phase of yoga of the
deity, these are the omens that his muttering and contemplation are
succeeding: trifling hunger, freedom from illness, outstanding awareness,
great and strong nimbus ( tejas ), good dreams and prophetic dreams,
rapture during the muttering, negligible fatigue, emission of fragrant
odors, earnest application to acquiring merit, deep reverence toward
the deity.

The Dhyanottara explains the causes for departure of the deity to
be these: lack of faith, slothfulness, discomfiture by hunger and thirst,
distraction, downheartedness, doubts concerning the rite, disinclination
toward the muttering and meditation, delight in idle talk, prohibited
pursuits, demonic obsession, the dreaming of bad dreams, and so on;
and explains the causes for approach of the deity to be these: the allaying
of craving, hatred, pride, deceit, and so on, and the continuous dwelling
of the mind in the muttering.

Buddhaguhya’s extended commentary on the Mahavairocana-tantra (Toh. 2663,
the Hgrel bsad) states in the commentary on the first chapter that of the four bodies
of the Buddha, two do not teach, namely, the Dharma-kaya and the body residing
in the bodhicitta. By the blessing ( adhisthana ) of those, the other two bodies, the
Sambhoga-kaya and Nirmana-kaya, teach the Dharma. The first two bodies are
beyond speech, the other two, expressive. To use the terminology of Junjiro Takakusu,
The Essentials of Buddhist Philosophy, 2d ed. (Honolulu, 1949), p. 149, the first two
are the Buddha’s static aspect, the other two his dynamic aspect. The Diamond Realm
(vajra-dhatu ) and Nature Realm ( dharma-dhatu ) correspond, respectively, to these
two aspects. These two realms are represented symbolically by the two chief mandalas
of the Japanese Shingon Sect. Buddhaguhya explains in the same place that dharma
is of two kinds: dharma of full comprehension and dharma of scripture (rtogs pahti
chos dan luh gi chos). The dharma of full comprehension is, in turn, of two kinds:
supreme ( paramartha ) and conventional ( samvrti ). The supreme kind has the char¬
acteristic of thusness, the void intrinsic nature.

Chara Tantra is mainly expressed by VAT which takes place in a flowery realm like Avatamsaka:

Kusumatalagarbhalamkara

which is similar to ones described in Vajrapani Abhiseka Tantra and in what they call Buddhavatamsaka.

Of this Chiliocosm:

The object is to merge one’s stream of conscious¬
ness ( citta-sarjjtati ) with that of a Bodhisattva of the tenth stage in the retinue of the
Sambhoga-kaya (cf. Chapter I, p. 21, above) and thus to receive the teaching of the
Sambhoga-kaya.

VAT apparently only has three mandalas, the three tiers of Vairocana's palace, starting with one where he looks West.

Vajrapani Abhiseka Tantra is accepted as Vajra Family Chara tantra; no corresponging Padma tantra exists in Tibet.

Chara takes the Samvara and Samaya of Kriya tantra and adds Purva Seva.

It re-iterates the stages of Muttering and adds the moon-disk like a mirror with two surfaces in the deity's heart, Manas and Buddhi:

The other side of the buddhi-mmor reflects the revived residual
traces ( samskara ), as in remembrance and the dream state. In the present Buddhist
nomenclature, the first side of the buddhi is called the manas- face; the reverse side of
the buddhi , the buddhi- side. Hence, the limit of Yoga with images is still involved with
the first side of the “mirror” but with eidetic or “realistic” imagery. Thereafter, Yoga
without images is involved with the reverse, or inward-directed, side, on which one
cognizes things as arising dream-like or as void.

This is the habituation in the decisive knowledge that concludes through
higher cognition that all things ( sarvadharmah) are void and not isolated,
as regards accomplishment by intrinsic nature.

The “signature” {lag rjes) of that intense contemplation is the trans¬
figuration of the body of the deity on the manas-facQ (yid no) as though
before the eyes, after reaching the limit of Yoga with images. And when
he contemplates in the manner by which that brightness appears only
on the buddhi- side {bio kha phyogs pa) 10 without leaving it, and the body
of the deity appears to be like the illusion of a void accumulation, he
is able to attract the complete characteristics of higher vision {vipasy-
ana). 11

The method of intense contemplation in Yoga without images is
explained intensively in the above way by the Vairocana (Toh. 494) as
well as in the concise commentary (the Pindartha, Toh. 2662) by Buddha-
guhya. Moreover, it is consistent with the Madhyamika BHavana-
krama.

In the Carya Tantra section of Tsoh-kha-pa’s
Shags rim chen mo, only the last of the three works (sgom rim tha ma ) is cited. This
is a passage including a quotation from the Arya-Ratnamegha-sutra, and Tson-kha-
pa’s comments (92a-l): “This states that the analysis by discriminative insight (pra -
tyaveksana-prajha) is the engagement in Yoga without images, and states accordingly
that if one gives up the discriminative insight, he does not engage in Yoga without
images.”

Tson kha pa has exchanged Amitabha's Wisdom for the non-tantric Higher Vision, Insight, or Vispassa.

To increase to the level of Yoga Tantra, it says that Sambhogakaya Vairocana does not move from Akanistha; but he emanates a Nirmanakaya to the top of Mt. Meru. There, he Turns the Wheel of the Law of Yoga, which emits STTS.

Buddhaguhya says the combination of Jewel and Karma Families therein is from Jewel being the Wishes of living beings, and Karma the action that grants them, rolled into one family here.

Yoga is intended to filter those candidates who delight in Samadhi. The Jewel-like candidate loses interest in siddhis other than Lokottara siddhis.

In Yoga, the Seals become very important, although there are different ways of doing them. The tantras state that effective seals, Samaya Mudra on up, depend on Vajrabandha. Vajrasattva is a dharani for Vajrabandha, whereas Vajradrsti is a dharani for the eyes. It is the Action or Karma Seal that is Vajra Musti (Fist).

One mutters Vajrasattva, executes the Vajrabandha, and then sees with Jnana Caksus. In Yoga, it focuses on Vairocana Vajradhatvishvara, and in Highest Yoga, on Vajradhatvishvari.

Here, a White Vajra on a Moon becomes equivalent to Five Families. You mutter that, and then do a samadhi that annihilates Skandhas.

Paramadya says you should have Anuraga towards the deity.

It says there is a third aspect of Highest Yoga besides Generation and Completion:

purification of attendants ( *anucara-visuddhi )

This refers to deifying the Skandhas, Pithas, and so on. That is built in to practically everything, so I did not realize it was a "subject".

When you have used Tantra of Cause to begin a Completion Stage practice, eventually, hopefully, you enter:

Tantra of Effect. This is the rank of Vajradhara, which is the supreme
attainment. The terminology ‘pair combined beyond learning’ (asaiksa-
yuganaddha) and ‘rank possessing the seven members of the samputa ’
has the same meaning.

The seven members of the samputa are as stated by the acarya
Vagisvarakirti [presumably in his Saptariga, Toll. 1888, Derge Tanjur Rgyud]: ‘(1)
Sambhoga [-kaya], (2) samputa , (3) Great Beatitude ( mahasukha ), (4) no intrinsic
nature ( nihsvabhava ), (5) state of being filled with compassion, (6) non-interruption,
and (7) no cessation’.

Somehow, for the famous and/or arbitrary "Seventeen deity retinue", In Lui-pa’s Sri-Bhagavadabhisamaya-nama (Toh. 1427), the female deities of this mandala are made to correspond to the thirty-seven bodhipaksya dharmah.

That is Thirty-seven point Enlightenment which has a standard format--but this is the "Yoga transition" version:

According to Padmavajra’s Tantrarthdvatdravydkhyana (Toh. 2502), which we cite in abbreviation as
Avatara-vyakh , there are thirty-seven categories (tattva), which we give in Sanskrit
reconstruction:

(1) hrdaya, (2) mudra, (3) mantra, (4) vidya, (5) adhisthana, (6) abhiseka, (7) samadhi, (8) puja,

(9) atmatattva, (10) devatattva, (11) mandala,

(12) prajna, (13) upaya, (14) hetu, (15) phala,

(16) yoga, (17) atiyoga, (18) mahayoga, (19) guhyayoga, (20) sarvayoga,

(21)japa, (22)homa, (23) vrata, (24) siddhi, (25) sadhana, (26) dhyana, (27) bodhicitta,

(28) sunyata-jnana, (29) adarsa-jnana, (30) samata-jnana, (31) pratyaveksana-jnana, (32) krtyanusthana-jnana, (33) visuddhadharmadhatu-jnana,

(34) akarsana, (35) pravesana, (36) bandhana, (37) vaslkara.

It has given us Six Wisdoms, which is difficult for Five Families.

The four degrees of approach seem inverse to Kama Loka in Manjari Amnaya:

it is said that the joy of the laughing
deities is illustrated by that of the Nirmanaratis; the joy of the gazing deities, by that
of the Paranirmitavasavartins; the joy of the embracing deities, by that of the Tusitas;
and the joy of the deities in coitus, by that of the Trayastrimsas, the Caturmahara-
jakayikas, and humans. These joys are also called the four joys {dgah ba ~ S. nanda
or ananda ).

Laugh or Smile implies at a distance with furtive, coquettish glances, whereas Gaze means in each others' eyes with tons of "I like you". Embrace can be holding hands or any kind of touching.

I am not sure what "illustrated" means here. It has written planes in the order 5-6-3- 2 and 1 combined.

Tsem Rinpoche (https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/me/vajra-yogini-daju-or-self-initiation.html) has a completely uninformative Vajrayogini self-initiation.

That is a real thing, and why there is "Vajrayogini for the West". Even though he doesn't explain it, he does place Khandarohi over Vajrayogini:

https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/v1/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/235Kandarohi-L.jpg

and then comes Ucheyma:

https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/digitalucheyma-s.jpg

Same subject. We lack his extensive background, but, if followed closely, it will work.

shaberon

30th January 2021, 12:30

Tathagata Family is Ignorance which is why Vajravarahi is primarily of that family.

Why would the "Thus born" be ignorant? I thought they were enlightened.

It is accepted to name a Family for its opposing sin.

Moha Ignorance = Tathagata

Dvesa Rage = Vajra

Lobha Greed = Ratna

Raga Attachment = Lotus

Irsya Jealousy = Karma

and by extension:

Sakkaya Ditthi or belief in skandhas = Vajrasattva

Atta Dristi or any view of separate self or duality = Vajradhara

Because we are mostly impure, names like Moha and Dvesa are quite common. Most of these things operate "by way of axis", i. e., if I can prevent Rage even when tested by a serious disturbing factor, then I am exhibiting or learning a bit of Mirror Wisdom.

I don't see how it is any different than enlightenment things. I arrive, try to pull someone towards enlightenment and leave. It is what I was doing even though they were dying. I felt I had to say something. I said, "If you can see me, you have nothing to fear." Which is true. I spent hours afterward thinking of all the ways that could be taken.

I can imagine.

I used to live near a hospital, and, so, in opening Bardo consciousness, I was sensitive to the same plane where all that death was taking place. Although I never got that close to anyone. It was more like "programs running in background".

It is interesting that in the projection, you could think of something to say, whereas the things that are more direct with Dakinis do not seem to grant much verbal access.

upaviśya svahṛdaye rātridinabhedena akārā-kāraniṣpannau śaśisūryyau

Sitting one's own heart night-day are the same, the 'A' syllable completed Moonsun.

I'm not really understanding that, it seems like one sits until night and day become the same completing the 'A' syllable and then 'Moonsun"?

You are right, Dina is Day, I mixed it up with Divya.

I took bhedena = bhedana, "break", but this could be wrong.

The unusual spelling can hardly be found, such as in Candi Vachaspati (https://kosha.sanskrit.today/word/sa/caNDI/itrans):

dina phalabhedena

which is in her line about Varnane.

then she has a kramena dinabhedena, apparently referring to seven days of the week.

or it is in an Angiras (http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/4_dharma/smrti/angirspu.htm) text:

evamanyeṣu navasu jātahomātparaṃ pṛthak /
dinabhedena tannyūno datto bhavati putrakaḥ // Ang_1.406 //

As bhedena (https://sanskritdictionary.org/bhedena), "with separation, different" in Srimad Bhagavatim; or, diversity (http://sanskritdictionary.com/bhedena/67939/3). Or, in Trika (https://www.sanskrit-trikashaivism.com/hu/shattrimshattattvasandoha-1-trika-szovegek-nem-dualis-kashmiri-shaivizmus/544), division (into two sections). Or:

Bhūta (भूत) refers to “living beings”, according to the Śivapurāṇa 2.2.43.—Accordingly, as Śiva said to Dakṣa:—“O patriarch, listen to another statement of mine with a clear conscience. Although it is based on the qualitative aspect it is esoteric. [...] In that supreme, sole, universal God which is the pure Self, the ignorant sees different living beings (i.e., bhūta—bhedena bhūtāni), Brahman, Īśvara etc.”.

So I would guess the phrase means the "split" of night and day, i. e., Dawn.

Kara Nispanna usually means "arises as the complete...", and so if Ah is the complete Moon and Sun, it is like a primordial syllable emanating all the Vowels and Consonants.

First, you are Sukhasana Upavista, seated in Sukhasana, which otherwise has a standing equivalent. Sukhasanamurti (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/sukhasanamurti#shilpashastra) is a red, wrathful Shiva. Even for him, the pose means:

https://www.wisdomlib.org/uploads/photos/figure-16-sukhasana.jpg

Tara.

The Sukhasana pose may be taken as Rajalilasana or Lalitasana with one leg resting flat on the seat and another knee is raised upwards from it and the right arm, as danda-hasta or gaja-hasta, is stretched out and is placed on the raised knee.

You do Musti this way, and then, wash your face it looks like, and Punar Upavisya, "again, sit". And then probably Ah syllable is in your heart, and it may mean to do this at the time of Dawn. The preponderance of "sakala" may mean dawn, or, the first of Shiva's fifteen steeps of reversing the Tattvas. Chances are Bhedena is just the time, if it is describing outer ritual like "wash your face", it may be speaking in simplistic terms here. Or, it may mean that night is in your heart and you are letting light in. But I would tend to think it is the time, since then Ah becomes forms of Moon and Sun, and next a Yellow Am becomes the first Marici; she gets erased, and Am makes the eight-spoked wheel.

Vairocana's heart has a Moon with Mam syllable which becomes an Asoka Flower, or, rather, it grows one and Mam emits rays. Then Ah becomes a sun disk and Mam becomes Marici. And so it seems like an example of Hook Rays inviting her major form, as, in her first appearance, she was not described.

Vairocana's bija here is Mom which I believe is from Armor Deities, is the center of his wheel here.

This one is really difficult! At least to read it when you don't know the language very well.

so Eclipse is built in. Despite Vairocana's presence, Marici is crowned by Ratna.

So the only thing I can think of that is like a ray of light in the eclipse is that diamond ring light formation when the total eclipse starts to end.

Well, the commentaries want us to remember that her Charioteer is Rahu, not Rahula.

According to the museum (https://tibetmuseum.app/index.php?w=coll&cat=S&id=507), the bronze Marici pictured previously has Rahu with a Makara head over the boars, and Marici is holding a Ganapati in her Vandanabhinaya Mudra.

A Six Arm Marici from Bihar has Rahu, and some other female over him:

https://himalayanbuddhistart.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/9th-c.-india-ne-marici-stone-55-cm-photo-iris-papadopoulos-m.-fucc88r-asiatische-kunst-berlin.jpg

I think it is Puranic, and Ghrna must be the secret sun which appeared to be used as a syllable in Varamrita Tantra. Hahu may be a misprint for Rahu. Maybe not.

This is an interesting idea, given how the two characters are written.

Sometimes, we can find things that are mistakes or definitely wrong. Others, we just look the wrong way.

In Brahmanda Purana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brahmanda-purana/d/doc362916.html), Varuna and Stuta or Suna had a son named Vaidya, father of Ghrni and Muni, who devoured girls, then devoured each other, and, after devouring, they met with destruction.

There is also a Vyaghrini, Tiger Face. In many of these cases, "ghr" still means to grab, to seize. However, Ghr (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/ghri) could mean "to sprinkle", as well as shine.

"Which" Ghr, and whether Hahu or Rahu, is difficult to say.

I am however glad that Marici tells us to back-engineer Fist, and, we don't have to, since that recently came out on its own.

That is like the whole Shingon system, except, when you have a potential seventh Family, female deities, and a lot more information, you can see how Shingon is "bounded" by the tantric system. Even if Marici is the Rising Sun of Japan. If they do not see her as taking Fist and making inroads to Vajravarahi, they have only partial use of her.

If we put the four Eight Arm sadhanas in order, it would definitely be a thing that elaborates itself. Pretty straightforward. Except for the meaning of it. Subtle.

Old Student

31st January 2021, 06:07

I can imagine.

I used to live near a hospital, and, so, in opening Bardo consciousness, I was sensitive to the same plane where all that death was taking place. Although I never got that close to anyone. It was more like "programs running in background".

It is interesting that in the projection, you could think of something to say, whereas the things that are more direct with Dakinis do not seem to grant much verbal access.

I've been a physical participant in death before, CPR that did not work. It wasn't as close as that (there's hardly anything that is as close as that).

Among the goings over what happened, one of them is definitely whether I thought of saying that or not. I'm usually not that eloquent on the spot, on the other hand it felt very 'heart felt' as it it were coming from the deepest part of me. So I don't really know whether I thought of something to say or just said something. Since it was the second such scene (the first was a while ago), I spent a lot of yesterday wondering whether this was my 'new job' to go attend deaths like this. Like I said, I spent a lot of time ruminating about it.

You are right, Dina is Day, I mixed it up with Divya.

I took bhedena = bhedana, "break", but this could be wrong.

Ah, there's my mistake. I took 'din' to be 'day' like in Hindi or Bengali, it's 'dina' like you say so the following word is 'bhedana' and not 'abhedana'. So it's the break of dawn, not night and day becoming the same.

Tara.

The Sukhasana pose may be taken as Rajalilasana or Lalitasana with one leg resting flat on the seat and another knee is raised upwards from it and the right arm, as danda-hasta or gaja-hasta, is stretched out and is placed on the raised knee.

I read somewhere that Tara's pose is slightly different, that her foot is on a lotus so that she can step down to help someone at a moment's notice, that she is actually ready to spring rather than relaxed.

Well, the commentaries want us to remember that her Charioteer is Rahu, not Rahula.

I have to believe that at least some Indian astronomers knew that the eclipse was the sun and the moon together, even if they didn't see it as one in front of the other.

According to the museum, the bronze Marici pictured previously has Rahu with a Makara head over the boars, and Marici is holding a Ganapati in her Vandanabhinaya Mudra.

So when I was working on the previous quote, one way to break it was with kAraja as a word. One meaning for that, was elephant. Now that you've got Ganapati there, it seems like that might have been a possibility.

shaberon

31st January 2021, 09:55

I'm usually not that eloquent on the spot, on the other hand it felt very 'heart felt' as it it were coming from the deepest part of me. So I don't really know whether I thought of something to say or just said something. Since it was the second such scene (the first was a while ago), I spent a lot of yesterday wondering whether this was my 'new job' to go attend deaths like this. Like I said, I spent a lot of time ruminating about it.

I understand.

I also used to lack this Eloquence.

Using these powers I have found some. I am still not that great at it, but, I have had my moments and made marks. This is the Bhrihaspati. Same thing inside the sadhana or out.

Perhaps you will gain experience in consciousnesses permanently leaving bodies.

I read somewhere that Tara's pose is slightly different, that her foot is on a lotus so that she can step down to help someone at a moment's notice, that she is actually ready to spring rather than relaxed.

Yes, technically that is correct in the majority of cases. Same basic pose with nuances. That is why Vajra Feet is a noticeable trait. Maybe Action is not what she is showing today. Maybe it is Increase. Maybe it is Void Gnosis.

My relationship to Tara changed when I started to realize that she had helped me mentally and emotionally, and, I thought, there must be more to it.

I have to believe that at least some Indian astronomers knew that the eclipse was the sun and the moon together, even if they didn't see it as one in front of the other.

Yes, since the Nodes are the main ingredients in Vedic astrology, compared to Western. Rahu and Ketu are the main agents of Karma in one's life.

Ketu is Karmic Wind, i. e., the habit patterns that will drag you down and tear you apart, which is why it is considered malevolent, but it is just Law.

According to the museum, the bronze Marici pictured previously has Rahu with a Makara head over the boars, and Marici is holding a Ganapati in her Vandanabhinaya Mudra.

So when I was working on the previous quote, one way to break it was with kAraja as a word. One meaning for that, was elephant. Now that you've got Ganapati there, it seems like that might have been a possibility.

Vandana (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/vandana) is a complex term for worship and a Ray.

Abhinaya (https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/abhinaya) is all modes of drama, dancing, expression, and so on.

The following is the main exegesis of Vairocana incorporating a term we recently looked at:

Vairocana Abhisambodhi Tantra commented by Buddhaguhya in Pindartha

Namasangiti commented by Vilasavajra in Nama Mantra Artha Avalokini

It is Yogacara doctrine:

... when the MVT [i.e. Mahavairocana Tantra] speaks of knowing your mind as it truly is, it means that you are to know the inherent natural state of the mind by eliminating the split into a perceiving subject and perceived objects which normally occurs in the world and is wrongly thought to be real. This also corresponds to the Yogacara definition ... that emptiness (sunyata) is the absence of this imaginary split. ...

The tantra is Mahavairocana speaking to Vajrasattva.

Nagarjuna received the text of the Mahāvairocana Tantra directly from Vajrasattva inside an iron stupa in South India.

Superficially, it is simple, having Three Families and Three Mandalas, Body, Speech, and Mind. There is also a Secret Mandala but it come from Mind.

The first one is usually called Garbhadhatu or Garbhakosha or Womb Realm:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Taizokai.jpg

There are no known surviving Sanskrit copies. There is a Tibetan to Japanese comparison which runs over 2700 pages and has fifty-five Lokesh Chandra articles.

There is no Marici but there is a Vajrasuci so I wondered what this was. For one thing, it is the item of her third attendant, Varali, in the way that all four have the same items, but in a different order. So they all have "suci" somewhere, but, Varali has Vajrasuci.

A study (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.730.7584&rep=rep1&type=pdf) says that in the ninth chapter of Mahavairocana Sutra, Vajrasuci is the instrument for acupuncture.

I do not know if by Sutra they mean this tantra.

It is a tricky subject because most information is that it is a late upanishad (http://omahayogapath.net/significance-of-108/) about breaking the varna or caste system, and for some reason, it is filed near Savitri.

Otherwise it is not an obvious devi name.

VAT is a massive system using countless mudras that I probably would not ever want to actually do. Sounds like it is for senior graduation or something like that.

I am however interested in a samskipta or summation of the salient features of how its mandalas work.

It starts with a Hundred and Twenty-two deities in what the translation calls:

That Arisen from the Matrix of Great Compassion

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/2000px/8/8/5/88555.jpg

It has one gate.

A five -pointed vajra should be drawn within it, on the
western side. A hundred-pointed vajra in the centre-. This indicates that he has the
hundred Awarenes s Dharanis of liberation during his causal phase . Also, with regards
to these hundred Awareness which are the gates to liberation , it says in the chapter
011 the Revolving Wheel o f Letters that there are twenty four letters f rom the Ka
group down to Ya. Ra, La and Va, which make twenty five when headed by A.

Likewise those with A, Am and Ah also each make up twenty five letters. You should
draw in it a hundred - pointed vajra which by its nature links o n e with the hundred
Awarenesses through those hundred gates to liberation . Sa, Sa. Sa and Ha are
included within the second area .
Upon it, a lotus should be drawn, full-bloom, with seeds. Upon that vajra, you s hould
draw a lotus with four petals and with its seeds . Upon that also there is a great lotus,
perfected with eight petals, adorned with mudras and anusvaras, and it has anthers, very
fine- You should additionally draw an e ight -petalled great lotus on top of that. Adorned
with mudras and anusvaras: Since the 'anusvara' is the sign which indicates emptiness ,
this refers to the Twelve-membered Vidya King and it shoul d be linked with the
words, 'the twelve component syllables ( pada ) are arranged The mudras are the eight
secret mudras and this should be linked with the words , 'by the entourage of eight
mandalas' You should know that since the upper lotus is distinguished by its
Slze and by having eight petals , the one below it appears to be much smaller than it
and has [only] four petals . Secondly, you should know that since it is the lotus of the
causal phase , it is smaller . The great lotus with eight petals is the eight Awarenesses -'
On all the petals are arranged the twelve component syllables. The eight paired essence
and sub-essence letters o f the Twelve -membered Vidya King should be written upon
the eight petals.

The abode of Bhagavat Vairocana is the center.

I have gotten a little twisted in the retinue because it is actually replicated in symbol form. So I may have gotten fuzzy here. I will go back over it and try to figure it out.

East is the Tathagatas' mandala--which is a white lotus with a white triangle (sunya, animitta, and apranidhi), which is marked with anusvara and vajra. Two rays of light arise from it and go to the Ten Directions. The rays are sambhoga and nirmana kayas arising from the dharmakaya. Or it is encircled with white rays and Gagana Locana is to its north. She is Gold Dressed in white, has the nature Prajnaparamita of Abhisambodhi, Mother of Protectors--Buddhas.

North, Avalokiteshvara is with Light Green Tara dressed in white, Three-eyed white Bhrkuti with white, yellow, and red rays, Pandaravasini dressed in white, Vidya Vasumati, Maha sthama prapta, Gold Yasodhara; Hayagriva the color of the rising sun.

South is a Cintamani and Yellow-Green Vajradhara; Vajrapani serves as Accomplishment of Activities here. Mamaki is his consort, Greenish-Yellow Vajrashrnkala the Noble Path who is the Summoner, Vajrankusi, Vajrasuci Is the Immediate Path of Mother Prajnaparamita in nature, Candra Tilaka, Sixteen Vajradharas, Acala, Trailokyavijaya.

The second ring starts in the east with Sakyamuni in a Mahendra mandala;Buddha Locana, is to his east; her symbol is a Fiery Yellow Triangle. She appears to be doubled in this mandala.

He emits five Usnisas, and then there is Urna, Aparajita and Aparajita, and the other three Usnisas. Aparajita is Sakyamuni's Immediate Path in nature and Aparajita reveals his power.

There is a batch of Hindu entities from Prithvi to Camunda he has female Jaya and Vijaya.

Then there is Vajravarada which is Manjughosha. He has four male Heroes and five female Messengers, Kesini, Upakesini, Citra, Vasumati, and Akarsani. Then several male Bodhisattvas such as Ksitigarbha and Akashagarbha.

Here we would guess it is Weeping Avalokiteshvara who emitted Day--Night Tara. Perhaps Wrathful White Night Tara is Bhrkuti.

Vajradhara is serving as a conflux of Jewel and Karma Families hypostasized to Vajra.

Vasumati is already a Vidya so no wonder she begins the Dharanis in Namasangiti.

In the latter portions there are given a few seed syllables like Gam Gagana Locana, Bhrum Urna, and in the secret portion you find Vidya Queen Sumbha, and Maha Yoga Yogini Yogesvari Khanjalike (Kha Anjali). Space is supposed to be bluer than Wind because it has all the powers of samadhi. This is Upholding Yoga Mudra.

There are more mandalas and maybe something else interesting in the tantra, but, I, at least, get a sense that maybe Locana is something fundamental that increases, and Vajradhara is a little weird like he is going to do some refining later on. If someone just said Kha, it raises Amoghasiddhi. Maybe they know that. Maybe they don't.

What her mudra does is Uphold the Secret Mandala or Pancha Jina with the Tathagata retinue Ratna-ketu is white, Samkusumita-raja is yellow, Dundubhi-ghosa is maroon and Amitabha is red.

In the southeastern
comer there is the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, in the north-eastern
comer there is the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, in the south-western comer
there is the Bodhisattva Manjusn-kumara-bhuta and in the north-western
comer there is the Bodhisattva Maitreya. On all the stamens you should
depict the Mother of all the Bodhisattvas, the Six Perfections and the
Samadhis. Below, you should depict the crowds of Vidyadharas and Wrathful
Ones. At the stalk is Vajrapani. The remainder is a great ocean.

Countless gods and nagas are on the peripheral ground.

Old Student

1st February 2021, 05:55

Perhaps you will gain experience in consciousnesses permanently leaving bodies.

So far not, I didn't experience this in a way that differed from the usual witness of death.

A study says that in the ninth chapter of Mahavairocana Sutra, Vajrasuci is the instrument for acupuncture.

I do not know if by Sutra they mean this tantra.

Most likely. Wikipedia records that the Mahavairocana Tantra is called the Mahavairocana Sutra in Japan.

In the latter portions there are given a few seed syllables like Gam Gagana Locana, Bhrum Urna, and in the secret portion you find Vidya Queen Sumbha, and Maha Yoga Yogini Yogesvari Khanjalike (Kha Anjali). Space is supposed to be bluer than Wind because it has all the powers of samadhi. This is Upholding Yoga Mudra.

There are more mandalas and maybe something else interesting in the tantra, but, I, at least, get a sense that maybe Locana is something fundamental that increases, and Vajradhara is a little weird like he is going to do some refining later on. If someone just said Kha, it raises Amoghasiddhi. Maybe they know that. Maybe they don't.

What her mudra does is Uphold the Secret Mandala or Pancha Jina with the Tathagata retinue Ratna-ketu is white, Samkusumita-raja is yellow, Dundubhi-ghosa is maroon and Amitabha is red.

Is "yoga mudra" here the exercise?

Gagana Locana is 'sky' so is space part of sky here or is it different -- the one which is bluer than the winds?

shaberon

1st February 2021, 08:41

In the latter portions there are given a few seed syllables like Gam Gagana Locana, Bhrum Urna, and in the secret portion you find Vidya Queen Sumbha, and Maha Yoga Yogini Yogesvari Khanjalike (Kha Anjali). Space is supposed to be bluer than Wind because it has all the powers of samadhi. This is Upholding Yoga Mudra.

What her mudra does is Uphold the Secret Mandala or Pancha Jina with the Tathagata retinue Ratna-ketu is white, Samkusumita-raja is yellow, Dundubhi-ghosa is maroon and Amitabha is red.

Is "yoga mudra" here the exercise?

Gagana Locana is 'sky' so is space part of sky here or is it different -- the one which is bluer than the winds?

The exercise as a whole is Eight Secret Mudras. Let us take the beginning of Ch. 15:

1. Then the Bhagavat Vairocana gazed upon the circle of the entire assembly
and spoke to the Bodhisattva Vajrapani, ‘There are eight secret mudras which
are most secret, which create the divine abode A, which are marked with their
own mantras, which have mandalas and which should be used for the yoga
o f one’s tutelary deity.’
Now the eight secret mudras should be described. These mudras are used in order to
make stable the mantrin s transformation into the body-image of the deity. Also the
transformation into the body-image of the deity is of two types: transformation into
a Tathagata’s Body and (18‘2a) transformation into a Bodhisattva’s Body. At the time
of transforming yourself into a Bhagavat's Body, the throne, the members, the light
and so on should be formed according to the stages appearing below, with the
following secret mudras. Also when transforming yourself into the forms of Bodhisattvas
and so forth, they will become stable if you do the transformation with these
mudras. If you transform yourself with these mudras while changing yourself into the
Body of a Tathagata, you will become a Tathagata in nature, because these mudras are
the mudras o f the Tathagata.
The Body of the deity, which is to be perfected, is also of two types: the place which
is to be perfected and the body which is to be perfected. The place is perfected with
two mudras, the Mudra of the Indestructible Vajra and the Mudra of the I.otus Bud.
The remaining six bring ahout the perfection of the body. They are divided into three
types: those which perfect the body, the speech and the mind. Those which bring
about the perfection of the body are the Mudra Producing All Limbs and the Mudra
Producing Brilliance. Those which bring about the perfection of mind are the
Dharani Mudra and the Mudra of the Abiding of the Bhagavat’s Dharma. The
Adornment of the Array of Buddha Speech is the Mudra which brings about the
perfection of speech. The Mudra of Upholding the Bhagavat's Yoga is that which
brings about the perfection of the samadhi yoga.

As for the steps in which these are to be used, you should first transform the site
where you are sitting into an earth mandala. a vajra seat, with the Mudra of
the Indestructible Vajra. Then having made the Samaya Mudra, you should carry out
in the specified sequence: the protection of yourself and the place, the requisite
worship, the transformation into Vajrasattva and so forth. Then following the steps
after thal, you should transform yourself into the Body of the deity. First you should
create the lotus seat with the Lotus Bud Mudra ( 182b) Then you should transform
yourself with stability into the Body of the deity with the Mudra Producing All
the Limbs. Then with the Mudra Producing Brilliance, you should create the aura of
light. Then with the Dharani Mudra, the unforgelling recollection of the Dharma
should be firmly established. Then your speech should be transformed with
the Mudra of the Adornment of the Array of the Buddha Speech. With the Mud*0
ol Abiding Dharma, the nature itself of Suchness is made ahide firmly-
Finally, wilh the Mudra of Upholding Yoga, ihe samadhi is made to abide firmly-

The chapter has a caommentary on this along with the details of the mudras. The last one is for Yogeshvari, who is saying two things to the trainee, Maha Yoga, and Kha. So it implies a more powerful yoga practice than currently known, and represents Kha as deep blue space.

The chapter shortly ends and then Entry to the Secret Mandala is Vairocana entering a new samadhi called Entry into All. Here, it is taught as an inner mental mandala. It says the self-inherent mandala is limitless and inconceivable, whereas this is a representative mandala. So you would know you are being given a Krama or technique to make a rudimentary mandala with effort, and, you could easily imagine that if you master the Krama, there would be more samadhis with different kinds of mandalas.

Gagana Locana refers to Samadhi of Entry. If we look at this tantra and the early stage of Yoga Tantra, then, we have already had the opportunity to go over Kriya or Sutra and Sitatapatra Dharani which is for Shurangama or Heroe's March Samadhi. The second, Gagana, Samadhi of Entry, means Entry to Mandala.

And so Locana is hidden in the petals of the lotus of the secret mandala with Six Paramitas. She is like a first step in the whole tantra, and then she resides in a somewhat mystical manner.

Meanwhile, the key to this, so to speak, is Kha, which sounds like the same word for Sky and is the same material, but, this is the tantric term for it. You should begin perceiving a living Akash. You must lasso the Sutra-level understanding of Voidness to this tangible condition.

It has a lot to do with the head and the suffusion of it with the Akash. Tantricly, Varuni then takes this Kha and blends it with intoxicating liquid which is the special operation of Mamaki. Then you have a real tantric Varuni. That of course is not discussed here. The only unusual thing about the Secret Mandala is the appearance of "other" Tathagatas instead of mostly Bodhisattvas and it makes a crude stamp of tantric Pancha Jina.

That is why Nepal is said to only have tantric Buddhism, since Pancha Jina is really the standard representation and practice. That is not the case elsewhere, and it probably is seen as a difficult subject that takes this and/or STTS, etc., to train a devotee into first conceptually and then practically experiencing it.

And so a lot of students were probably prepared and accepting of male Bodhisattvas as objects of reverence and now they are being told that a Yogini holds some reins over the transcendental aspect of mind. And then you do this new mandala which involves Vajrasattva exercises such as Armor Deities, and when the mandala arises, it has four gates, and the Western one is always open.

It just says the Buddhas are there; Ratnaketu is Ratnasambhava, even though it does not say that here, then Samkusumita Raja and Dundubhi Nirghosa are both using obscure forms of Amoghasiddhi's names, Kusuma and Dudubhi Ishvara. Amitabha is not in the West but at the end in the North.

Although this is one of the older tantras, I get the sense that the tantric details and subtle yoga explanations have been compressed out of it, rather than saying they were unknown and must have been spun from this.

I think it has been stepped down and intentionally places Prajna Locana in such a light because it is going to force to to begin making a Nirmana Chakra without exactly telling you what that is.

That is the same way the Kagyu Ngondro appears to me. It gives you Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra as soon as you start, without even informing you that it pertains to a large Sutra.

Himalayan Art was spiffy enough to attach Locana's name to her individual practice form from the Six Dharmas of Vajrasana along with Medicine Buddha, etc.:

https://www.himalayanart.org/images/items/resized/1800px/4/0/3/40389.jpg

This is the only known entity where she is not really described as curing disease--she stops pain.

That sounds appropriate for her role in this tantra which is insuring the Noumenal process takes over the body.

Most of the details are in a Body Mandala, whereas Speech and Mind mandalas are relatively simple.

VAT is probably the thing that goes most quickly and directly to the point of definitely "getting" Emptiness as Sky--Gagana and aligning it to an Inner Mental practice involving Yogeshvari of a Kha nature, which pertains to Amoghasiddhi as well as Varuni--Mamaki.

Same thing, more comprehensive, more subtle, more profound. It is like saying no Prajnas are going to work without "this" Locana.

There is limited use of Gam syllable in Buddhism, and she gets it. Buddhist Ganapati is Gah, although he does have the title Gaganapati. Hindu Ganapati is Gam.

If you go through the Secret Mandala then you are going to toss a flower and it will land on your new Yidam.

So the tantra goes through all this and then you are left in the conundrum, well, if Vairocana is so real and so omniscient, why am I moving to some other thing?

It is teaching you to do the Vajrasattva process to be able to lock down any of them.

Vajrasekhara is the companion explanation for "any of them".

As we have found, it is allowed to have a female-centric Dharani-based version, which is equivalent to Vajradhatu mandala. And if so if we are not in Shingon or anything like that, we know that Namasangiti runs from this same core and it is compatible with Dharanis.

At the time VAT was written, it practically had to have had Dakini Jala Tantra running in the background.

Again it is doubly-significant by revealing Abhisambodhi as the actual method of Enlightenment.

shaberon

1st February 2021, 23:51

I am trying to get a concept of Speech Mandala as explained in Vairocana Abhisambodhi tantra.

It is complex yet simple at the same time.

The translator believes that the Homa Activity rituals were added later and that ch. 6 draws from Tri Samaya Vyuha:

The earliest core of the MVT most probably
comprised the three blocks of chapters dealing with the Body Mandala (II—VI), the
Speech Mandala (X-XII), and the Mind Mandala (XIII-XVI), together with some of
the remaining chapters which cover related general topics.

The related section insists that there is a Buddha Image meditation with six attributes, and that is also necessary to have an image-free state. The teaching of mantra assists in this. It teaches to move tho Whispered and Silent/Mental recitation as the way to do it. It is replete with Mudras, which each have a mantra and visualization. Too many details. The basics with most of the meaning are what I am trying to extract. It appears to retain "Four Members of Muttering" as expressed by the "Six Gods" technique of Kriya-Chara, and these are also permutations of A, like Manjushri does.

Ch. VIII Samadhi without Perceptual Forms includes:

From whence do perceptual forms arise? Is it from my body, or from my mind, or from my
manas? First the question concerning where the perceptual forms might arise from.
From my body f (138a) You should investigate whether such perceptual forms (nimitta)
as blue and yellow arise from your body which has the nature of the great elements,
unconnected with both the mind and manas. From my mind? You should investigate
whether the perceptual forms arise from the consciousnesses related to the six gates
[of perception]. Or from my manas?: 'Manas' refers to the mental processes associated
with perceptual images (akara), that is, with the perceptual images of colour-form
(rupa) and so forth which are generated from the consciousnesses of the six gates of
perception.

4. ‘Furthermore, Lord of the Secret Ones, foolish ordinary people imagine
that the manas has perceptual forms. But this is just a designation
(adhivacana) for what is falsely imagined. They do not know that that which
is not real is unarisen.’

This teaches the investigation into the non-arising of perceptual forms from the
mannas. It is an erroneous concept of foolish people that the six consciousnesses
related to the six gales such as the eyes and so on give rise to the appearance of the
Perceptual images of colour-form and so on, and those foolish people do not know
that this is erroneous. That which is not real is unarisen. This means that since the above
consciousnesses related to the six gates also do not really exist, they are not, on the
absolute level, the cause which gives rise lo the perceptual forms.

Just as when you have changed your body into the impure deity, (139a) you have
changed to resemble the colour and shape of that deity, so also when you have
changed yourself into the intrinsic nature of the deity without perceptual forms, you
change yourself into the intrinsic nature of the pure deity, if you have entered the
samadhi which is without perceptual forms. He will attain the samadhi which is without
perceptual forms. He will reside in the intrinsic nature of the pure deity.

6. ‘Lord of the Secret Ones, when he abides in the samadhi without
perceptual forms, the mantra deities uttered by the Tathagatas will draw near
and come into his presence.’

When he abides in the intrinsic nature o f the pure deity, the deities of the techniques
spoken of by the Tathagata will be accomplished. 'Come into his presence' means that
those deities will come face to face with that mantrin.

I have explained the four members [of recitation]
which combine the inner and outer:
that is the mundane [recitation],
best of those with cognitive objects0.
The excellent whispered recitation
engrossed in the drawing-in of the syllables,
with your manas focussed on the deity,
I have prescribed for that with cognitive objects. (155b)
The supramundane is that done mentally,
ceasing to do the drawing-in and so on.
You should make yourself one with the deity,
perceiving both to be identical,
it should be inseparable from the nature of your manas.
In no other way should it be done.

And so that is Nirakara Vijnana Vada in a Yogacara teaching. It is then taught as the one link to the Dharmakaya via the Speech or mantric aspect.

Ch. 10

THE WHFEEL OF LETTERS

1. Then the Bhagavat Vairocana gazed upon the entire assembly and then
also gazed upon all realms of beings with his eyes of kindness and compassion,
and then entered the samadhi called ‘Arising from the Deathless’. No
sooner had he entered it than there arose from all his members the Queen
of Vidyas which has strength unhindered in the three times: GAGANA-SAME
'PRATISAME SARVA-TATHAGATA-SAMANTANUGATE GAGANArSAMA-VARALAKSANE
SVAHA.

[Hej entered the samadhi called ‘Arising From the Deathless’ (amrtodaya): Amrta
signifies ‘deathless’ and also the dharmakaya, emptiness. This samadhi arose after he
focussed his attention upon thal, so il is called ‘Arising from the Deathless’ Or else
this could mean ‘Source of ihe Deathless’ since ihe Deathless arises from this samadhi
This means that the dharmakaya Awareness arises from Enlightenment. Having
entered that samadhi, he spoke ihe Vidya.

No sooner had he entered it than there arose from all his limbs the Vidya Queen which has
the strength unhindered in the three times. From all his members. This means that it arose
from all the members of the sambhoga-kdya, the nirmana-kaya and the embodiment of
the core of Enlightenment (bodhimanda-kaya), and the text says 'from his members' as
it was impossible for the words lo be uttered verbally as he was abiding in a nonconceptualizing
samadhi of emptiness.

There is a standard Gathering, and, before the mandala is presented:

How does that embodiment of the core of
Enlightenment, which they see, appear? It is ‘devoid of proliferations, like space’ and so
forth. Like space: Its intrinsic nature is emptiness, luminous by nature and without
impurities. Without proliferations ( nisprapanca): This means it is free from all internal
selective concepts (vikalpa) of the intellect (mano-vijnana). In non-dual union with
practice. It is the non-dual union of practice by the configurations of his Body, Speech
and Mind, and the embodiment of the core of Enlightenment {bodhimanda-kaya) ,
because the two are inseparable in nature. The embodiment of the core of
Enlightenment is ’like the fruition of karmic action’.

The speech mandala begins with the use of pigments, and does apparently refer to other unfamiliar Jinas or Buddhas:

White flaming Ra = Tathagata

Red Ah = Durdharsa

Yellow Ka = Kanaka Muni

Emerald Va = Maha Bodhimanda Muni

Black Ha = Trailokya Vijaya

We at least know that Kanaka is someone.

Further along there is samadhi called ‘Infinite Victory. No sooner had the Bhagavat entered that
samadhi than there emerged the Vidya Queen called ‘Universally Unimpeded
Power’ which arises from the sphere of all the Tathagatas: NAMAH SARVATATHAGATEBHYAH
SARVA-MUKHEBHYAH ASAME PARAME 'CALE
GAGANE SMARANE SARVATRANUGATE SVAHA.

‘Having done the ritual to transform the colours, he should make the
mudra or mantra of the Blessed Lady Prajna-paramita and recite this Vidya
Queen eight times. Then arising from [that samadhi], he should circumambuate
the Mandala and enter within. With the power of great kindness and
compassion, he should focus his attention upon the trainee practitioners
and transform himself into the Action Vajra-sattva with Va,
together with Varada-vajra, and then he should draw the Mandala which
arises from Great Compassion.

It then goes through seed syllables, mudras, etc., for what looks like the Hundred and Twenty-two deity retinue:

A = Gold Mahavairocana

East = Am

Northeast = Ga Gagana Locana

Southeast = Ka Cintamani symbol of Bodhisattvas

North = Sa Padmapani with Ekajati Pratibaddha Bodhisattvas

South = Va Vajrapani, Hum and Vajradharas, Ham Acala

Northwest = Ha Trailokyavijaya

Four Great Guardians in the Four Directions:

East = Ca Gold Abhaya

North = Ga White Srava Trasa Vinasa

West = Red Sah Durdhasa

South = Black Ksa Vajradanta Damaka

There is a "move outward" and transformation, and then you add:

East = Mam Saffron Vajra Varada Manjushri with Cha Jalini Prabha

South = Gold A Sarva Varana Vishkambin

North = Green I Ksitigarbha

West = White I Akasagarbha

In the following explanation of Mudras, there is emergence of:

The Vidya Queen endowed with three strengths - universally unimpeded strength,
unequalled strength and the strength which causes entry into samaya.

At that point you get the mantra of "I have the nature of Dharmadhatu" and also "I have the nature of Vajra".

Then you do:

The Sword Mudra is the symbol of the Awareness that realizes the absence of
autonomous existence to both phenomena and the individual. By this Awareness,
belief in an innately existing person (sahaja-satkaya-drsti) will be severed.

So that is a direct assault on the Sixth Sin for which I have been keeping the Pali spelling Sakkaya Ditthi. It is still the same as a Sutra subject, but, here, it is being treated more powerfully by tantric methods.

Sword Mudra is followed by that of Conch, Bell, Vajra, Usnisa, Urna, Bowl, Fearlessness, Boons, Fist/Mahabala, Eye becoming Buddha Eye, Noose, Hook, Tathagatas' Heart, Tathagatas' Navel (Amrtodbhava), Tathagatas' Legs, Tathagatas' Treasury, Boundary (Sima Bandha), Great Protectoress called Unbearable, Universally Shining (Jvala Malini Tathagata Arci), Armor (Pracanda), Tathagatas' Tongue, Tathagatas' Mouth, Tathagatas' Tooth, Tathagatas' Eloquence, Ten Strengths, Tatagatas' Smrti, Sameness of All Phenomena, Samantabhadra's Gem, Maitreya, Akasa Garbha, Sarva Nivarana Viskambin, Avalokiteshvara, Maha Sthama Prapta, Tara, Bhrkuti, Pandara, Hayagriva, Ksitigarbha, Manjushri, Jalini Prabha, Vimala Prabha, Kesini, Upakesini, Citra, Vasumati, Akarsani, Female Servants, Kautuhala, Abhayamdada, Apayajaha, Paritranasayamati, and many other Bodhisattvas until you get to 74 Canda Maharosana, Mamaki, Vajrashrnkala, Candra Tilaka, Vajrasuci, Vajra Fist, and it keeps going through the retinue through Locana, Aparajita, all the Hindu deities out to Nagas, Pisacinis, until out beyond the Planets it ends on Raksasas and Dakinis, who are Hri.

And, so, we could try to review that, but I think it will continue to have these Hri-arisen dakinis as some sly capstone on all the "nicer/more presentable" Bodhisattva material. Their only other mention is as something to be subdued by a fierce rite along with wrathful, arrogant humans (but not those whose faults are small). And so it would be an almost irrelevant subject to a student, here, but we already know that Hri and dakinis have a ton to do with Lotus Family and Speech in all the tantras.

The Letter Wheel is explained as "all consonants have A".

A, Sa, and Va denote the Three Families.

And so the four forms of "A" are cross-iterated so you get letter classes that are spelled Sa, Sa, Sam, and Sah.

After this section which is like the basis of Dharma Speech, the next chapter is Secret Mandala:

That Mandala which is the transformation of his Inexhaustible Body is the Mandala Arising from the Matrix of Great Compassion, the transformation of his Inexhaustible Speech is the Mandala of the Revolving Wheel of Letters, and these have both been explained already above. Now the Mandala of the Inexhaustible Mind, which is the transformation of the dharmakaya,
will be explained.

This format is noteworthy for the retinues of Manjushri, Avalokiteshvara, and Vajrapani.

You do not really have a Karma Family for Tara to join. You do have the presence of Camunda and Kusuma deities. You are sort of "here" until you can do the more intense Akshobhya initiation that hypostasizes the power of Fist which, so to speak, manifests Karma Family. Here, you have the ingredients such as a few related deities and the Kha syllable. You actually have the full path from Locana to Aparajita. But this is mainly written in a "teachers to trainees" format. And so you get the unit of Pandara with Tara and Bhrkuti. Meanwhile, Mamaki is close to Vajrashrinkala, who will get migrated into Karma Family, and, the most intense Nepalese Adi Prajna is Guhyeshvari who mainly combines Mamaki--Nairatma of Vajra Family, with Vajrashrnkala and Karma Family.

Old Student

2nd February 2021, 06:17

Yellow Ka = Kanaka Muni

Emerald Va = Maha Bodhimanda Muni

Black Ha = Trailokya Vijaya

We at least know that Kanaka is someone.

Shouldn't it be a someplace? Shakya muni saint of the Shakyas, Maha Bodhimanda Muni saint of the great place of enlightenment. Kanaka muni saint of Kanaka?

Sword Mudra is followed by that of Conch, Bell, Vajra, Usnisa, Urna, Bowl, Fearlessness, Boons, Fist/Mahabala, Eye becoming Buddha Eye, Noose, Hook, Tathagatas' Heart, Tathagatas' Navel (Amrtodbhava), Tathagatas' Legs, Tathagatas' Treasury, Boundary (Sima Bandha), Great Protectoress called Unbearable, Universally Shining (Jvala Malini Tathagata Arci), Armor (Pracanda), Tathagatas' Tongue, Tathagatas' Mouth, Tathagatas' Tooth, Tathagatas' Eloquence, Ten Strengths, Tatagatas' Smrti, Sameness of All Phenomena, Samantabhadra's Gem, Maitreya, Akasa Garbha, Sarva Nivarana Viskambin, Avalokiteshvara, Maha Sthama Prapta, Tara, Bhrkuti, Pandara, Hayagriva, Ksitigarbha, Manjushri, Jalini Prabha, Vimala Prabha, Kesini, Upakesini, Citra, Vasumati, Akarsani, Female Servants, Kautuhala, Abhayamdada, Apayajaha, Paritranasayamati, and many other Bodhisattvas until you get to 74 Canda Maharosana, Mamaki, Vajrashrnkala, Candra Tilaka, Vajrasuci, Vajra Fist, and it keeps going through the retinue through Locana, Aparajita, all the Hindu deities out to Nagas, Pisacinis, until out beyond the Planets it ends on Raksasas and Dakinis, who are Hri.

This seems like some of everything or one of those lists, like in the Avatamsaka where they are listing everyone in attendance of something for which everyone is in attendance. What is Samantabhadra's Gem?

I have told you that I have had some experiences 'traveling' which isn't real 'travel' so much as embodying places -- I become a village, or I become a place in a city, something that spreads outward from my center. I have also had experiences with lucid dreaming in the form of I dissolve into something in the shaking and from there I have a place where I can access dreaming and return from it. Last night, I had a dream of a place, a building I recognized from a sightseeing trip to Europe, and I sort of transmuted the dream into shaking and was the place. Shaking is waking stuff, dreaming is sleep. I sort of woke seamlessly into a shaking of the same place, and walked down the street there. Very not sure what to make of it.

shaberon

2nd February 2021, 11:05

Shouldn't it be a someplace? Shakya muni saint of the Shakyas, Maha Bodhimanda Muni saint of the great place of enlightenment. Kanaka muni saint of Kanaka?

He is the fifth of the Seven Historical Buddhas:

Koṇāgamana Buddha (Pāli), known as Kanakamuni in Sanskrit.

Kanakamuni is associated with the (Mortal) Buddhaśakti named Kaṇṭhamālinī, and together they bring into existence the (Mortal) Bodhisattva named Kanakarāja.

He is from Kapilavastu, Nepal. During Asoka's reign, his Stupa was enlarged. According to Xuanzang, Koṇāgamana's relics were held in a stupa in Nigali Sagar, in what is now Kapilvastu District in southern Nepal.

There are many ways of classifying the long stream of previous Buddhas, but, relative to our planet, the main one is Dipankara who led to a reincarnating wave of followers called Kasyapa Gotra. He and other previous Buddhas are known for visiting the Swayambhu, whereas Kanaka simply lived around there. This is either within or remembered in Jana Bahal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jana_bahal) which is now a White Avalokiteshvara temple and believed to have been a Buddhist practice center since 400 B. C.

Seven Historical Buddhas has always been the main meaning of "Sangha" in Nepal.

Golden Sage sounds appropriate for many of the themes in this tantra.

This seems like some of everything or one of those lists, like in the Avatamsaka where they are listing everyone in attendance of something for which everyone is in attendance. What is Samantabhadra's Gem?

The way I understand Samantabhadra is All Good, which means Gift Waves emanated from the sixth principle.

Gem is about Wishes.

So they are sort of combined here in a representational mode of Jewel Family which itself is not explicit in this tantra. Jewel and Amrita, in terms of their functions, are, and so is the name, Ratna Ketu.

Samantabhadra is like an exhilirating pulse of, not so much just beautiful forms, but good moods and feelings and inspiration and so forth. An ecstatic rush of ideas beyond words.

As if he were related to Vajrasattva at the Dhyani Buddha level.

Mind Mandala is in Ch. XIII - XVI, and is a bit of a detour between most of the book which seems mainly about Letters.

XIII is Secret Mandala, being the massive list similar to Speech Mandala, and the others are about the Eight Mudras and Upholding the Secret Mandala, so we already have an idea about this one.

Body Mandala in Ch. II is Five Jinas, the Mother, and a few Bodhisattvas, Then it is re-done with the full retinue. Then there is a section on Mundane and True Siddhis. Then there are questions about Transformation into the Deity in ch. VII, Leading to Samadhi without Forms and into Speech Mandala as previously mentioned.

It looks to me like almost the same mandala is being described three or more times, along with different emphasis and commentary. That is why I started feeling sloppy when first trying to pick things out of the tantra, with them coming from different areas.

After the Mind Mandala, the majority of ch. XVII on out deals with the Letters and Mantra Wheel.

VAT has thirty chapters which end with a section about Agni:

You should know that when the Bhagavat was formerly engaged in the Bodhisattva practice, the
Bhagavat himself taught the virtuous instructions that appear in the Tirthika
scriptures, such as, ‘You should not kill creatures apart from doing so as ofTerings
(huh) to the gods' The explanations about Agni in the Vedas of the Brahmins were
taught in order to reduce the amount of slaughter of creatures among the
Tirthikas and so forth, who being disposed to perversity, engage in such evil deeds.
How is that known lo be so? Because as it says in the Noble Manjusri Tantra. ‘Even that
wilh a small amount of truth was taught by me.

He says that Abhiman Agni was self-arisen and then enumerates Agni's descendants.

The other rites Pacifying etc. are in Vairocana Uttara Tantra with its own chapter list.

VAT is consistent with the Agni Homa format which is the main teaching of Abhayakaragupta, which is why Vajravali is arranged how it is, and also NSP and Sadhanamala.

What stands out to me right now is the sequence Mamaki--Vajrasuci--Vajrashrnkala.

Mamaki is Prajnaparamita endowed with Krtyanusthana Jnana, Accomplishing Activities in nature, Wisdom of Amoghasiddhi.

Suci is below Mamaki, whereas Shrnkala is beside Vajrapani.

Vajrasuci must have been meaningful to this centuries before the anti-caste Upanishad.

I cannot come up with any trace of her as a devi. Here, she is not holding any items, she is named for her disposition.

Suci is Solar Fire in VAT as it always is elsewhere.

She mantricly Penetrates all Dharmas:

NSV Sarvadharma- Nirvedhani Vajrasuci Varade

VaJRasUCI (Vajra Needle). Because she is the Immediate Path of the Mother
Perfection of Insight in nature, she is drawn below her. She is called 'Vajrasuci
because it is her disposition to pierce through to reality. (71b) Completely surrounded
by her assistants: She has the branches of the Immediate Path, and since this is a roval
entourage, ii is possible for there to be servants and so on.

She sounds important but we know nothing about her really.

Immediate Path of Mamaki.

Varuni is Mamaki and we know how that works. But this goddess is aimed at someone who does not. From the glossary:

Immediate Path ( ananlarya-marga): According Buddhaguhya this is the interim period from the
Tenth Level up to the attainment of Perfect Enlightenment.

but also:

2) Ānantarya (आनन्तर्य) refers to the “concentration giving immediate result” and represents one of the “four concentrations” (samādhi) as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 101).

which is the following set:

2) Samādhi (समाधि) refers to the “four concentrations” as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 101):

āloka-samādhi (concentration on light),
vṛtāloka-samādhi ((concentration on enclosed light),
ekādaśa-pratiṣṭha-samādhi (the eleven establishments of concentration),
ānantarya-samādhi (the concentration giving immediate result).

The "grand" set we have been mainly using moves from Gaganaganja to Vimalaprabha. And so maybe this one is about Luminosity and so on. Obviously Gagana is essentially the beginning of this tantra which is not a static image, it does a transformation to Body, Speech, and Mind.

If this is for a trainee we cannot claim we are Vajradhara, the Vajradharas are in the retinue around this. Perhaps if we gain the samadhi then Gagana as an initial contact comes out as Kha having the quality of Luminosity and so on in a more subtle state. They are roughly the Alpha and Omega of the deities appearing here, Locana and Yogeshvari.

I have told you that I have had some experiences 'traveling' which isn't real 'travel' so much as embodying places -- I become a village, or I become a place in a city, something that spreads outward from my center. I have also had experiences with lucid dreaming in the form of I dissolve into something in the shaking and from there I have a place where I can access dreaming and return from it. Last night, I had a dream of a place, a building I recognized from a sightseeing trip to Europe, and I sort of transmuted the dream into shaking and was the place. Shaking is waking stuff, dreaming is sleep. I sort of woke seamlessly into a shaking of the same place, and walked down the street there. Very not sure what to make of it.

I am not sure either.

Generally, there are various "modes" to dreaming, such as some who dream as if they are inside their body, and those who see themselves as if by a camera.

When you say "becoming a place", it sounds a bit like camera view without a human image in it. Is that accurate?

Old Student

2nd February 2021, 19:08

Koṇāgamana Buddha (Pāli), known as Kanakamuni in Sanskrit.
Got it. Kanaka is also the name of a forest at the base of Mount Meru, I wonder if that's where the name comes from.

Samantabhadra is like an exhilirating pulse of, not so much just beautiful forms, but good moods and feelings and inspiration and so forth. An ecstatic rush of ideas beyond words.

This is interesting. I do get told about the beauty, I didn't know about the other.

It looks to me like almost the same mandala is being described three or more times, along with different emphasis and commentary. That is why I started feeling sloppy when first trying to pick things out of the tantra, with them coming from different areas.

Maybe they are the same mandala created of different things, and therefore experienced differently.

VaJRasUCI (Vajra Needle). Because she is the Immediate Path of the Mother
Perfection of Insight in nature, she is drawn below her. She is called 'Vajrasuci
because it is her disposition to pierce through to reality. (71b) Completely surrounded
by her assistants: She has the branches of the Immediate Path, and since this is a roval
entourage, ii is possible for there to be servants and so on.

She sounds important but we know nothing about her really.

This is where, to me, it makes a very big difference when 'vajra' is interpreted as having lightning and weapon qualities, and when it can just be used, as so many translator do, as 'adamantine' or 'diamond'. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes unless it is given all of the meanings at once, it doesn't work well.

I have told you that I have had some experiences 'traveling' which isn't real 'travel' so much as embodying places -- I become a village, or I become a place in a city, something that spreads outward from my center. I have also had experiences with lucid dreaming in the form of I dissolve into something in the shaking and from there I have a place where I can access dreaming and return from it. Last night, I had a dream of a place, a building I recognized from a sightseeing trip to Europe, and I sort of transmuted the dream into shaking and was the place. Shaking is waking stuff, dreaming is sleep. I sort of woke seamlessly into a shaking of the same place, and walked down the street there. Very not sure what to make of it.

I am not sure either.

Generally, there are various "modes" to dreaming, such as some who dream as if they are inside their body, and those who see themselves as if by a camera.

When you say "becoming a place", it sounds a bit like camera view without a human image in it. Is that accurate?

So I guess this tells me that some of my notes are getting too ingrown and the language in them is becoming sort of a private language that I understand and maybe nobody else does.

Here are the different states in the above:

1) During shaking, if I go through the dissolve, I 'end' and I become someone else, usually in a scene or a place. In some cases, I and the place do not stay separate -- in particular, there was a scenario that happened again and again (often every night for weeks), which was the beginning of the 'pillar', which now has three different ways of manifesting, including as my centerline between the base of my spine to my crown. But in that scenario, I dissolved to someone known in my notes as "brown-skinned woman", who was as described, lying on my back and then nearly immediately beginning to decay and become mud and decaying woods (branches, leaves, etc.). That left a scene that I usually describe as 'pastoral' because it looks kind of like a 19th c. painting, but in the center is a pillar, I believe the column type is "Doric" fluted, but the top is up past the clouds so I don't see that. Up near the top is a rainbow, at the very top is a sea of clouds. The rainbow was a frequent sight and always ended with seeing a single droplet of the cloud and the sun on the droplet in such a way as to see that it was the rainbow's seed.

The relation to dreaming is that I could go into the inside of the pillar (by walking into it) and be in a lucid dream. And then walk out again and be back in the above scene. That was something that was in my notes a lot, over a year ago, so that is what I was describing as I have been able to lucidly dream within my shaking before.

2) The 'traveling' by embodying, is something that has been happening over the last month or so. I did tell you a while ago about becoming the breeze. This isn't entered the same way but it is kind of an extension of that and of a few other things. When I sort of bleed out into the breeze, if the birds sing outside my window, it feels like they are singing inside of me, or at least inside of the perimeters of what I 'am' at that point. And when I had had the visions of the multiple bodies at one time, one of them was expanded to great size so that all the other visions were going on inside of it. So the latest along that kind of thing is that I get this rushing of images in my abdomen and then I am a piece of a town, or a hillside, or a part of a city block. The people that are in that place are perceived as inside me, like the bird is inside the breeze. Just like the multiple bodies thing, I can also be an embodied person inside of the me which is the scene itself.

What happened the night before last, was that I went to sleep and was dreaming and in the dream, I (as me, no shaking visions, like I said, those are a waking state thing) was standing in front of this building in Europe which I recognized. And then I went through a very strange kind of waking where I went seemlessly into shaking in which I was the same scene. Just like all of my shakings, I was now awake, and so when I did listening at the same time as doing an awake move -- I do mundane things all the time during my shakings: turn off the alarm, move the bedclothes around, look at my watch if I need to be up soon -- I sensed briefly in that way that my whole body was shaking very fast, especially my lower abdomen and pelvis.

So I was definitely now shaking and not sleeping, and I was the scene that I was formerly dreaming about, an just as I just described, I embodied within it as my clear body and walked down the street. In my notes, I am quite clear that I am at a real place and that I am really embodied there, and that people do notice to the extent that they acknowledge, alter their walk to pass each other on the street, etc. But I have only the visual of myself as my clear body, I do not know exactly who they saw or how it looked. But nobody was staring or anything, so I could not have looked like I looked to myself to them.

So with that in mind, no, it is not accurate. That is a dreaming state, this was a shaking and very much waking state. The dreaming state which went seamlessly into this state had been one of the ones you mention where one is not a camera but a person in the dream. And it was not a lucid dream, I did not know I was dreaming until I made the transition and realized I had previously been dreaming. The 'concreteness' of the scene, and its level of detail changed noticeably and my mentation changed from that of a person dreaming to my listening state which is my shaking mentation.

shaberon

2nd February 2021, 22:25

Got it. Kanaka is also the name of a forest at the base of Mount Meru, I wonder if that's where the name comes from.

I am not sure off the top of my head. Those "countries" on the slopes all have esoteric significance which I have mostly swept under the category of "Forest Maiden". Usually it is due to the tinkling of their bells and you can't see them, that you go chasing after them. But more generally I think it is all in the process of "Sutra to tantra" conversion of the individual.

In meditation, it is probably more like a "class" of Vasudharas and Sabaris that are considered active guides here.

That is the real "Forest", the axis of whether you are climbing Meru, or falling off of it.

Again closely corresponding to the Crescent of Inverted Stupa.

Samantabhadra is like an exhilirating pulse of, not so much just beautiful forms, but good moods and feelings and inspiration and so forth. An ecstatic rush of ideas beyond words.

This is interesting. I do get told about the beauty, I didn't know about the other.

Gift Waves (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZWWEqmgaCH4C&lpg=PA152&ots=d629__YbAm&dq=samantabhadra%20gift%20waves&pg=PA152#v=onepage&q=samantabhadra%20gift%20waves&f=false) are sbyin rlabs in Tibetan, in an article expressing the dynamism of Samantabhadra, explaining this is what is usually translated as "blessings".

VAT is centered on Mahendra mandala and does something similar with Indra and countless Indras causing elephants, fields, forests, gems, and all sorts of things to manifest for the welfare of sentient beings.

You get a sense of this in Samantabhadra Pranidhana (https://thubtenchodron.org/2011/06/extraordinary-aspiration/) the King of Prayers, which, I would strongly suggest as a candidate in anyone's Ngondro for Generation of Bodhicitta. Since that is a "stage", which can be commensurately handled by anything appropriate for it, I feel it is best not to stick with one way; Samantabhadra and Santideva are reliable standards, but, many things could work.

The Prayer is obviously a conceptual invocation, whereas the real Samantabhadra is happening right now, and we are numb to it. And so I, personally, do not see that Samantabhadra as exactly a Yidam or anything other than the actual state of having flummoxed the manas and replaced it with this fountain of wonder.

The way he appears in most of the First Transmission makes him equivalent to Vajradhara in Sarma.

I can, at times, see what appears to me as astral light taking on countless random, useless forms, which can hardly have anything to do with Indra or Samantabhadra. They represent having converted this into something that is enlightening and actually beneficial.

In sadhanas, in practice the main thing is we love ourselves and we are asking for this to be done by them to us personally. The fact that it may benefit others is secondary to the fact that if I am not highly expert, I cannot pass on or cast Samantabhadra on others, it will be attached with worms and demons which is what I really still have to give, weak and contaminated. I am trying to become like a Bodhisattva, who can do it safely and wisely.

I can stumble my way through one small thing at a time. Such as Ganapati and Karuna. I don't have much bond to Lotus Family and that is why King of Prayers is a bit rote to me because it specifically goes to Sukhavati and Amitabha. If you have a thing that says going to Akanistha or the Pure Lands, then it is generic, referring to any or everything there. As soon as we specify an abode, it becomes specific to that form of deity accessed by particular practice.

What is unusual is that Vajrashrnkala is Parasol, and we can find her on a mission for Mamaki in the VAT retinue. But ultimately, Parasol is Pandara. And so it is a bit like Pandara Quintessence; she emanates Bodhisattvas but some act in other Families, if Pratyangira is in Vajra Family, and Shrnkala is a motion from Vajra to Karma. Bhrkuti must be her main, common approach, and, after a few years of denying there was any such thing as Wrathful Bhrkuti, I have to take that back, because it is--it just, so far as I know, is *only* Tara Fourteen, and not her solo or retinue forms anywhere else. If they accept this in Nepal, then we will take it.

It is also possible the basic Red Cunda is intended as part of Lotus Family, Doesn't specifically say.

The Three Families all have some kind of claim on the East or Dawn. To me, it says there isn't exactly a "first" one, it means something more like you have a Dawn to be experienced with each characterization.

Even VAT is quick to assert that, for instance, if Vajra Family is dominant, that does not mean they do not have the power of Lotus Family or that they are somehow sliced off or isolated in various compartments, it just means they strongly reveal things of a Vajra nature. And so again, this is why the outer tantras are establishing a samaya or "something with" each Family, and it is their progressive, cumulative total which becomes Activity or Dakini, Vajrashrnkala, etc.

I can't personally go back and re-build in the standard way of a person whose culture is hosted by Avalokiteshvara or anything like that. I am already heavily branded by Vajra and Karma. That is perhaps why it is such a heavy-duty exercise for me to take Ganapati to do a Karuna which, I would think, in most circumstances I would ordinarily do quite naturally.

Maybe they are the same mandala created of different things, and therefore experienced differently.

I think it may be something like that. It is very difficult to see and compare such things easily in the text. The computer is great for keyword searches, but, once you are at the point of trying to cross-examine large blocks, you would want multiple paper copies.

This is a living transmission, H. H. D. L. transmitted it in Kyoto a few years back, but I think it is relatively rare in Sarma. I would say it is some of the points raised in its philosophy and commentaries that are indispensible.

It defines itself as Yogacara which is not Cittamatra (although it may accept this provisionally) because it is Nirakara Vijnana Vada. It designates this as a Siamese twin of Manifest Perfect Enlightenment, Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, which is achieved by the practice of Abhisambodhi, which is Direct Revelation.

Nirakara is the same as Parasunya, which is Shentong.

Gagana is the Method of Entry, which is Conceptual-to-Experienced Voidness.

Experienced Voidness is the Womb of Karuna.

For the most part, VAT is saying the same thing as H. H. 3rd Karmapa Rajnung Dorje in Luminous Heart, which can then be shown to be a sort of standardized, schoolish, Sutra-based version of the lived experience of Achi Dharma Tara.

It is almost the same as Yeshe Tsogyal et al, except that stream is almost wholly Lotus Family.

We, of course, do not resist them, I think we are just saying Lotus is not the only Family, and Vajra does not mean only grotesque blood-drinking Herukas. The trends in art, literature, etc., make these seem like exclusive blocks.

This is where, to me, it makes a very big difference when 'vajra' is interpreted as having lightning and weapon qualities, and when it can just be used, as so many translator do, as 'adamantine' or 'diamond'. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but sometimes unless it is given all of the meanings at once, it doesn't work well.

It has probably never been translated. Most of the Japanese translations carry Sanskrit mantras in Siddham script. So even with something like VAT where there is no Sanskrit original, the foreign copies, for the most part, still have Sanskrit operational details.

I would tend to guess that Acupuncture Needle is not the same as "Immediate Path of Mamaki", which is Varuni. Does the large Varuni have a Needle? I cannot remember that many aspects, but, I do not think so.

Marici does, but, we cannot show written evidence of her that is as old as VAT. If she was in Ellora, that would be something; I cannot remember. I got some of her information from detailed studies on her stoneworks, but, most of those are Pala era and thought to have been made around 900-1,000.

If Vajrasuci's role is to "pierce through to reality", then, we might suss out some non-Sword goddess who corresponds. Sword obviously has a role in VAT similar to Devi Mahatmya and Sri Yantra. Marici's outer Needle form is not about that, but, again, I would take it that she tantricly translates the item into an inner purpose.

In terms of samadhi and what Englishmen of the time did not understand about Eastern spirituality, Koothoomi said something like:

"I mean that consciousness which can remain on the tip of a needle indefinitely".

If I take a Needle in the most general Theravada sense, this is highly useful. Can I do that? What happens? I start perceiving a Point. It then seems to be an echo or correspondence of some similar point in my mind. But the two are non-different. That is the Sutra teaching of Voidness.

There is no "other" Point. When you start perceiving it everywhere, this is more like a tantric experience of Voidness.

In this sense it is still Ekaggata and is being honed.

Most people can't even try. They have the universal Ekagatta but you can see it shift and slip every few seconds if not faster. So we are reversing or inverting this.

To me, Needle has an immediate, esoteric meaning that has nothing to do with Marici. We can get Ganapati or whoever we want to Remove Obstacles. The more significant basic Marici is the Tree or Flower Asoka Marici.

Vajrasuci is a Duti of Vajrapani in MMK, which, again, only tells us so much, since the vast majority of sadhana entities are given in this work. I am not sure if we can even see a copy of it though. On this, again Wisdom Library is off by calling it a 6th century text, as, in this case, it is considerably older.

It does mean that she *was* "someone or something" in those days.

If we denote Marici's attendants by what appears to be the main item, you get:

Varttali -- Vajrankusa

Vadali -- Ankusa

Varali -- Vajrasuci

Varahamukhi -- Sara

The practice, at least at first, focuses Ankusa or Hook for the purpose of attracting Jnanasattva, which later changes. This version is Samskipta which appears to be among the more basic. Oddly, their left hands are mentioned first, while in the other sadhanas, it is normally second.

Aside from Marici having it, it is the main item of Varali--Moon. VAT Vajrasuci is pretty close to Candra Tilaka which is Moon-marked Vajrapani. Since this Marici really requires a significant fusion of Vajrapani, then, one might reason that the Vajrasuci personal name is abosrbed into it. Marici is like a Vairocana tantra which has accomplished the Wrathful rite up to Fist and then raises Jewel Family. Samskipta Marici is an All-Jewel retinue, but then she appears to re-grow into a Vairocana emanation.

So with that in mind, no, it is not accurate. That is a dreaming state, this was a shaking and very much waking state. The dreaming state which went seamlessly into this state had been one of the ones you mention where one is not a camera but a person in the dream. And it was not a lucid dream, I did not know I was dreaming until I made the transition and realized I had previously been dreaming. The 'concreteness' of the scene, and its level of detail changed noticeably and my mentation changed from that of a person dreaming to my listening state which is my shaking mentation.

Those are very technical moves, difficult to express.

I am able to understand shaking, reasonably well I think, as a sort of overall Push Hands against internal obstacles, which I would say is a reasonable description of stuff that I do as well. I just have not carried it to the extreme which starts the micro-muscular process. I don't really have intuition on that.

Illusory Body and Dream Yoga generally take place at the same time after generating Tummo. Surreal and weird blending things are to be expected.