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Thread: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain

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    Default Re: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain

    Padma Tara

    I am still a bit surprised there is not something as simple as Red Padma Tara in Lotus Family.

    I never really asked howcome Tara in Karma Family is a Prajna, and yet her invocation is spread world wide, even outside of Buddhism, and even though I practiced her accordingly a long time ago, that is still definitely not the Prajna on her own plane. Because I have experienced Prajna in its own plane, I am prepared to say there is such a thing, but I have only a weak connection why it should be a Tara of any Family and how to make it of the desired strength.

    It appears correct that she became Tara in Karma Family in a prior cosmos, and was projected into our world system by Avalokiteshvara. Well, ok, from there we get Green and White Taras and Bhrkuti, and I suppose Avalokiteshvara is usually white, but then in the tantras, you never get White Lotus Family in the West. You do get an association to Tathagata Family which is usually white, which "reveals" the display, which is the Lotus or Pandara or Dharmodaya, which at some point becomes mostly red.

    Matsyendranath is among the main proponents of Red Avalokiteshvara, and so this form is mainly in Nepal, where he is shown as emanating the cosmos with all of the Hindu deities. The sequence of Sakya Sri IWS plates is similar, except it is a White Avalokiteshvara, however then he is also said to be half Pandara. So, I'm not going to need much origin legend for her personal name. This is Viraj as we have noticed in certain dharanis.


    If I am not from a country that is nationally administered by Avalokiteshvara, I am going to bookmark the guy, and say, okay, we have to see what makes our Buddhist Viraj any different from the Puranic one, because otherwise they are identical. It is more like Buddha's way of experiencing the Viraj coupled with mantras, samadhis, and mandalas.

    Now it is a bit of a strange position that many sadhanas say "goddesses such as Vajra Tara and Padma Tara and so forth" and then there is almost nothing to go by. Especially for those two. If I think of Jewel Family, that is easy, and Karma Family is "Green Tara who is really not from Lotus Family" which makes a ton of sense to someone like me, who had her as a single follower practice without any regard to Avalokiteshvara--who instead, in Kagyu, is daily with Prajnaparamita.

    Because I know what Candali or Tummo is, I know what Yeshe Tsogyal means by the actual Pandara, but it is hard to find the right basic image and name.


    What would be the difference between using Padma Tara, or, Pandaravasini. Although the Pandara we found in the post above is a very simple form, she has been compiled into a pattern for a meaningful reason, and if we cannot tell what all that may be, it is not that hard to see that the sequence is launched by Mani Tara putting a jewel "in", and much further along, Pandara is getting it "out". By name, Pandara is also half of ardhanishvar or the Universal Form or Vishveshvara, but, here, we are less concerned about it cosmically or physically, and more as Tathagata Garbha, or the Womb of Compassion, Karuna, etc.

    There it just forcefed us the whole Cintamani Tara and Jewel Family realm. It wants us to put this in so we will get the tantric Lotus Family instead of a liturgical one such as may be recited by absent-minded children. And so that simple form is probably an "actual" Pandara the way Yeshe Tsogyal means it. That is hard to miss since it is actually after a significant Vajrapani ritual, which is almost exactly the same context we looked at with White Vajrapani in Sarvadurgati Parishodhana versus most of his other kinds.

    Following the IWS pattern, Aparajita is something like a Tathagata Family Vilasini.


    There is a current practice based on a terton which involves H. H. Sakya Trizin, and a Rinpoche who makes several good insights such as about the nature of hell in what they call Red Tara practice, which is very good introductorily and shares the same guideline--if you want to try a basic one in a yoga view, you can, you are just not supposed to self-generate as the deity. So, ok, it is Nyingma and I might not personally use Guru Rinpoche in perspective to it, but, the basics of it are sound, a good way to go.

    What they are directing it towards is Wangdu Rigjema Lhamo, which is Kurukulla; correspondingly, Padmanarttesvara is Wangchuk. Tibetan Wang is Sanskrit Abhiseka or initiation.

    Kurukulla lacking a trident, male, etc., is not a personal love affair manager, but universal love itself.


    For one thing, this name alters her form slightly; which is a simple Kurukulla as Atisa's fifth Tara, having a blue lotus with her bow and arrow:







    Tibetan Art has her with a red lotus and equipment made of lotuses. So that available print is almost exactly like a Red Padma Tara.

    However the basic Red Tara of the Sakya school who uses Tam and Hrih has Hook or is a type of Manohara. Since Kurukulla uses Noose, and the activities go hook, noose, then Manohara really should be first. Secondly, if we conceive of Kurukulla as a non-evocative presence, i. e. something that actually is a corresponding state of Nectar in the body, then like Pandara, we are kind of waiting until she is ready.

    Manohara is all about "asking for it".

    Because she is also a Vasudhara, this also pushes her to earliness in practice. Manohara and Ganapati are probably the most accessible of Sakya's Thirteen Golden Dharmas, which also typically attaches Simhanada Lokesvara.

    Sakya Red Tara with Hook and Lotus:







    Anything in the Family "is" Pandara, in some state of distributed operation. Pandara herself has to do with Simhanada Dharani, which is a Shaivite form of Lokesvara with Deerskin, Trident, etc., and:

    Siṃhanāda (सिंहनाद).—Through the horns of the deer, the Siddhas used to make a sound which is similar to the roar of lion (siṃhanāda). However, sometimes these depictions of deer horns are misinterpreted as ‘Chillums’ which are used to smoke gañja (a dried leaf which will have an intoxicating effect when its smoke is inhaled).


    The dharani is mostly "on" Avalokiteshvara, who could perhaps be said to be trying to get "that" Pandara or actualized.

    It is not out of the question when Simhanada Dharani is using slang such as "Aryavalo", maybe this vernacular became the "renowned master" Arya Palo, in the same way that Sabara's teacher was Karuna, and the Pandara sadhana comes from Devasambhava, there is almost as much reason to suggest those names do not mean human beings. It is the dharani, the nadis, etc.


    But we find her, or, Padma Tara, with certain other Lokeshvara forms, such as Sukhavati, which itself is a bit like a category having multiple forms. By himself, Sukhavati carries a Pitcher like Bhrkuti:

    This is figure 13 in a series of 108 forms of Avalokiteśvara from the Macchandar Vahal, Kathmandu, Nepal.

    13. Sukhāvatī Lokeśvara. He is one-faced, and six-armed, and sits on a lotus in the Lalita attitude. The first pair of hands exhibits the Dharmacakra-mudrā, the second pair carries the rosary and the book, and the third pair shows the Varada mudrā in the right and the water-pot in the left.






    Well, in the sadhanas we have found, he has a heart consort, and then an external one, so something is happening here. When he does this with a Pitcher it means some kind of initiation, same as Bhrkuti usually does, and, others, occasionally.

    Bhattacharya found Sukhavati virtually non-existent outside of Nepal, and extracted information from there:

    A description of the deity occurs in the Dharmakosasangraha of Amrtananda. Nepal abounds in images of SukhavatI Lokesvaia both in stone and in bronze, though his images are not found in any other Buddhist country of the North. The

    description above referred to runs as follows :

    Trimukhah svetavarnah sadbhujah dakse mudrah, saraksepa-japa- mala-varadani, vamesu dhanuh-kamala-Tarorusamarpanani lalitasanah kamalopari, Vajratara-Visvatara-Padmatarabhih parivrtah. Upari caityah.
    SukhavatI Lokesvarah"

    "Sukhavati Lokesvara is three-faced, white in colour, and six-armed. One of his right hands is in the act of shooting an arrow, the remain- ing two have the rosary and the Varada pose. In two of his left hands he carries the bow and the

    lotus, and the third is placed on the thigh of Tara. He sits in Lalitasana on the lotus, and is surrounded by the goddesses Vajratara, Visvatara, Padmatara and the like. There is a Caitya on the top".


    Thanks for the quote, but, he failed to notice that this would make Padma Tara effectively "doubled" in the retinue. This seems similar to Khandaroha. Sukhavati is sort of a Tara-themed equivalent that he also heart-emanates Guhyajnana and the Four Dakinis in other forms such as Jinasagara.


    Fig. 119 illustrates a sculpture from Nepal representing the deity SukhavatI Lokesvara. Here the god is in the company of his Sakti but is without the other companions as prescribed.










    These are recent additions from the museum in Nepal. They are different forms and he is under Vairocana, but, here, you can sense a White Padma Tara who is just holding a flower:












    By contrast, Taranatha says Mamaki removes interferences, like Ganapati and many others. Her single practice is perhaps more approachable. Mamaki is Kulandhari, "upholder of the family", what is the Family, Vajra, which is to call her female Vajradhara.

    In further practices, is she going to wriggle through other families while prana, or Vajradhatvishvari, does the same kind of thing? Yes, that sounds right. Are Vajradhara and Vajrasattva hypostases from Vajra Family, yes. Mamaki is probably the largest hypostasis of all, as Pratisara, Varuni, and Guhyesvari, which reflects her into Varahi, Nairatma, and Mahamaya. That is like the major blend, to which Vasudhara and Parasol are important players.

    Single Mamaki may be the closest thing to a simple Vajra Tara that just means Tara in Vajra Family. Avalokiteshvara has manifested a cosmos with everything you can name, but, Mamaki is sort of doing that with things you can't, she is Vast and Deep,, in an almost completely Buddhist way since she mainly consists of all of the Buddhas and Prajnas. She is not simple for a second, but, she seems capable of this simple form, which is given an exoteric purpose.

    After her in the icons, Pandara then arises from Pam, which is equivalent to the beginning of probably more than half the practices in Sadhanamala. She must be fairly closely related to Simhanada Lokesvara, who is accepted as a Completion Stage in the Sakya Reds system, which seems a little unusual, why wouldn't they pick a fancy one. Well, there is the reason, this Bhairava-esque Lokesvara is very close to Pandara. It is a Red system being encountered by a White Lotus Family Bodhisattva Mahasattva.

    After her are Usnisa and Cunda, although in strange forms, they are quite well-known anyway.

    The next is overlooked and she should not be. Aparajita is highly important to Noose and is an aspect of Parasol. In this case however she has become a close energetic parallel of Vajravilasini. If Pandara is actually manifesting, this is equivalent to Vajravairocani. And so if we start that, it means our Yellow Cintamani who spawned the whole thing has arisen in her true occult form. Then this Yellow Aparajita is also relevant. Something like a nucleus compared to the larger Vilasini.

    If they share inner meaning, part of this according to Elizabeth English is:


    The erotic practices of the Guhyavajravilasinisadhana describe the process whereby sahaja bliss is transmuted into the soteriological goal of mahamudra. The necessary basis of the yogin's erotic experience—as of all his experience—must be that of emptiness. This is a subject treated only cursorily here, however. Instead, the recurring metaphor is of fusion and its power to induce the experience of nonduality. Thus, during the first of the "nine kinds of sexual play" {navapuspiw. 80-92), the yogin-deity is said to "penetrate the body of his lover from head to toe."

    Once a classical love simile, the fusion referred to in this context is repeatedly shown to extend beyond the lovers' bodies to the macrocosm. The rays from the copulating goddess, or from her mantra, are of such intensity that they melt the three
    worlds into a single essence of blood, in the center of which the divine couple is visualized making love.

    "Play" in its original term may likely be a misprint from:

    Puṣpiṇī (पुष्पिणी):—[from puṣpin > puṣ] f. (a woman) in menstruation or desirous of sexual intercourse, [Kāvya literature; Bhāgavata-purāṇa]


    After that, what she calls "pendulum recitation" is Dola Japa, accurate enough in general:

    Dola (दोल).—[dul-ghañ]

    1) Swinging, rocking, oscillating; वेलादोलानिलचलम् (velādolānilacalam) Mb.1.21.1.

    6) The Indigo plant.


    But more specifically in the technical movements of theater, according to the mirror of gesture (abhinaya-darpana):

    One of the saṃyutta-hastāni (Twenty-four combined Hands).—Ḍola (swing): two Patāka hands placed on the thighs. Usage: beginning a Nāṭya.

    According to another book : Patāka hands at the sides. The patron deity is Bharatī. Usage: infatuation, fainting, drunken indolence, welcoming the beloved (vilāsa) , etc.


    "Natya" is certainly what Vajradaka Tantra says you should do at least once a year, and he means it in the sense of "vilasa".

    Bharati is also the patron deity of Sahaja, so, that fits pretty well.

    Those are elaborations and it still means definition one, not just sitting there with flat hands.

    Her term for "fusion" is "melaka", which we already have as "meeting with yoginis", and although this part of the ritual seems...somewhat past that point, she describes it as:

    The experience of fusion, it suggests, is the correlative of the wisdom of sameness: for the yogin who is concentrated on this fact [of nonduality], and "steady in his continual practice of going to sameness," will
    become a siddha and have the great power of mahamudra.

    110—18 prescribe the visualization of the "fusion of the identities"
    of the couple and the entire world in the lovemaking (atmamelakah) with
    the result that the defilements are cut off, all kles'as are burnt up, and everything is dissolved into the ocean of awakening with the end of conceptualization.


    If she means Equality Wisdom and that is Jewel Family, yes, this sounds like their expanded meaning, not just their own Quality but that of Using All Families Equally.

    She noticed "three degrees of dakinis" and they are not always the same:

    "the innate woman" (sahaja), "one born in a field" (ksetraja), and "one born in a site" (pithaja).
    These listings also include those of sky, earth, underworld, as in our texts (here
    described as gandharvari, yaksani, nagani, respectively). Kalff notes that such
    groupings are inconsistent and their origin as yet undetermined...


    From what I can tell, that is because they are applied in different systems, depending on whether "underworld" is going to mean internal to the body, or if it is going to mean the Talas or hell.


    Anuraga is the term for "passion" in a couple of these sadhanas, as well as Canda Maharoshana Tantra.

    For deities in union, gratifying (tosanam) may consist of the rays issuing from their lovemaking (anuraganam).

    That is not a very good translation, since Passion is Raga which we just asked to be free of. I am not sure Anuraga has a translation. It is that word I was always looking for:

    an intensified stage of prema which comes just prior to mahābhāva. In Śrī Ujjvala-nīlamaṇi (14.146) anurāga has been defined as follows: “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.”.


    There is some Adbhuta to that. Ordinary raga is just another form of delusion and subjugation by the senses.

    The Aparajitas arise from Yellow Hum and Yellow Om, and the male has a type of NSV mantra. The female mantricly is Dhika, a massive heap, plenty, cornucopia. He is trampling Raksasas, and she tramples Ganapati, which again is not necessarily an insult, as this very batch of sadhanas ends with Yellow Ganapati. It means something more like she "has" him and is "above, beyond" him. IWS says they are supposed to do swing recitation, one of the only places this can be found at all. Here you get a Vairocana deity that is yellow, much like the Stupa moment of Pratisara, Marici, etc. If this is the real occult yellow, then, yes, we are getting close to the point where the real Divine Stupa is contactable.





    Himalayan Art tries to sort a few Red Taras from Kurukulla, and what we call Pithesvari, they call Uddiyana:

    The first is Uddiyana Tara which is found in the writings of Chogyal Pagpa and later included in the Rinjung Gyatsa of Taranata...

    It has a Tibetan original on TBRC.

    Lineage Teachers: Tara, Dakini Vajrasana, mahasiddha Saraha, Vinatabhadra, Sanghamashri, Lilavajra, Lotsawa Shakya Dorje, Ngonpawa, Wangchug Tsundru, Pagpa Rinpoche...


    Almost as if by accident, they have got what looks to be an appropriate Padma Tara image, which surprisingly is relatively recent, but I guess that means it was not forgotten that maybe she should look like this in her most basic mode. This is from the 18th century by Situ Panchen's influence and not called anything other then Red Tara, and says:

    “By the blessings and strength of the Goddess of Power,
    The three realms animate and inanimate,
    Fulfilling the wishes to posses power;
    May the four activities spontaneously arise.”










    Situ's teacher Tsewang Norbu who is pictured at the top was a hybrid of Nyingma, Kagyu, and Jonang, and is credited with bringing a renaissance of Shentong around 1726. Very nice, it makes a Shentong Padma Tara to go with Parasunya Mrtyuvacana, or modern and ancient names of the same philosophy. That has an interesting resonance to the presence of Mamaki which shows sadhana was transmitted from south India in Taranatha's time.

    We cannot be sure what it means by "power", we call it "shakti", and her power is supposed to emanate the Four Activities, of which Manohara comes first.

    It may have been Vasikaran. It certainly seems like a suggestion to Mutter Jah Hum Vam Hoh as the Four Activities. And if I start with the first syllable, it refers me to Janguli, who in turn uses a White Hrih, which is almost always the syllable of Lotus Family, except she is not in it. And so the idea is, all four, might get going faintly, and then you are going to train hard on the first one until it evidently works, and so on, until the cycle has matured.

    For comparison to a plain Red Tara, here is the basic Cunda whose lotus supports a text, and she is offering Picula, which should have inner and outer colors, and she should have a Khadira Tree:








    Before her in IWS is Kapali Tara, whose backrest is a celestial or wish-granting tree:








    That kind of tree is in the forest of Kurukulla, and, in practice, it is supposed to be Tarodbhava Kurukulla, coming from Tara in Karma Family. So again if starting with Cintamani, then if perhaps the gem reproduces itself with Pandara, then the tree does with Kurukulla. For some reason, Cintamani Tara suddenly perfectly fits when looking at it in the male perspective or Avalokiteshvara.

    I am probably supposed to say it comes from Mahattari in Karma Family, in the sense that some of the newer White Taras were independent visions that did not originate from the tantric system of Green Tara. If we say Mahattari, it legitimately has a place in Agni Homa with Vajrayogini or any Yidam or Completion Stage deity. That is not to say it is her earliest or original practice name. It means the one that starts this particular system, which is still current in Nepal. The main difference between her and the single follower Green Taras is that she has Vajra Feet. Her goal is to make one Tara which is similar to these, but is really in Forest of Turquoise Leaves or Yulokod, which is perhaps the best hygiene because then we have a home beyond death. A Pure Land is not quite the same as Immortality, but is necessary to develop it.


    Suryagupta's Tara Twenty-one is Marici, who is almost Padma Tara, but she has a Trident:







    That probably does tell us something about "Secret Sun" because it does imply a consort.

    We are not Suryagupta initiates, but, it is fair to meditate on Twenty-one Taras in a similar manner. And so for example, you can take Pithesvari and think of her as Tara One, since she is a bit similar to the ones used in different systems, but it is very easy to see she "is" someone because she has an advanced practice.

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    Default Re: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain

    Prajnas


    For something that should have a basic start, they are rather elusive. They are taken for granted as a group in Sadhanamala with no descriptions or any stand-alone sadhanas. Their main origin is in Guhyasamaja, which is very technical, but also in Maitri's or Advayavajra's Samgraha. This one is so simple, it is tough to presume it was his personal vision, and seems more like some oral background commentary that had not been written down yet. Since it is impossible to prove any greater antiquity, all we can do is look at how he put it.

    Indian Buddhist Iconography relied on Maitri due to the lack of any other source. This book unfortunately has a few errors, mostly due to color associations, and on this subject, I cannot see where Bhattacharya determines that Vajradhatvishvari is Yellow in Jewel Family. Not here in Maitri's Panchakara, because it is first centered on Vajrasattva in Vajra Family (which would become "doubled" here) and then at the end, Vajradhatvishvari obtains the form of Vajrasattva, i. e. resembles him. This is an interesting casting pattern which seems to be used with Vajravilasini as well: the principal casts a ring, then another ring is cast, followed by a new principal or central deity. So, at first, Vajrasattva summons Four Buddhas, and then four very simple Prajnas bearing their Cinha or Family Symbol:


    āgneyakoṇadale candramaṇḍalopari śuklalomkārajā śuklavarṇā locanā cakracihnā pṛthvidhātusvarūpā tathāgatakulodbhavā moharaktā | asyā bījaṃ om āḥ lom hūm svāhā iti |


    nairṛtyāṃ candramaṇḍalopari kṛṣṇamāmkārabījasambhūtā māmakī kṛṣṇavarṇā kṛṣṇavajracihnā abdhātusvabhāvā vajrkulā dveṣaraktā | asyā bījaṃ om āḥ mām hūm svāhā iti |


    vāyavyāṃ candramaṇḍalopari pāmkārabījasaṃbhūtā pāṇḍaravāsinaī raktā raktavarṇā padmacihnatejodhātusvarūpā padmakulā rāgaraktā | asyā bījaṃ om āḥ pām hūm svāheti |


    aiśānyāṃ candramaṇḍalopari kanakaśyāmatāmkārapariṇatā tāriṇī śyāmavarṇā śyāmanīlotpalacihnā vāyudhātusvarūpā karmmakulā īrṣāraktā | asyā bījaṃ om āḥ tām hūm svāhā |




    etāḥ catasraḥ ṣoḍaśābdikā asādhāraṇarūpayauvanaśālinyo yathāśobhasaṃsthitā pūrvvavat kāyacatuṣṭayātmikā manohlādinyaḥ sakalajinaguṇādhārabhūtāḥ pañcatathāgatasvarūpāḥ | āsāṃ(asyāṃ)madhye ālisvabhāvā vajrasattvasvarūpiṇī vajradhātvīśvarī nāyikā | iyameva bhagavatī tathatā śūnyatā prajñāpāramitā bhūtakoṭinairātmyeti vyapadiśyate |




    Here, Vajra Family Mamaki is beside Ratnasambhava, but she is not like him. This implies the basic four Prajnas lack a Jewel Family representative, due to the hypostasis. Exactly how Mamaki and/or Vajradhatvishvari is going to interact with Jewel Family is in Vajramrita and Vilasini. At this time, she is most closely related to Prajnaparamita, who is in Vajra Family, and the main Sutra-to-Tantra goddess, especially in the Nirakara system of Ratnakarasanti, and then to Nairatma, who is mainly in Vajra Family and purely tantric. So, there, the arising of a basic Hum goddess to a more profound one must be significant, such as via Mahacinakrama Tara and Ekajati. The others become similar depending on how and when they are featured.

    The Nepalis give the four Prajnas the following characters:

    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.

    Locana is the closest to a scriptural one, i. e. follows the Sutra-based pattern of the arising and purification of the Dharmadhatu in stages, whereas the others are more like refined and subtle aspects of it, further explanations and experiences, since you would not really deal with flasks or lust in any typical Mahayana meditation.


    So basically those four are standard, until you have reason to change them.

    But they have far less artistic presentation than the Five Buddhas, and totally lack, as far as I know, anything like Vajradhatvishvari at the center of Four Prajnas. There are similar groups of Taras or specific goddesses like that, but not really the Prajnas as a unit.

    The standard arrangement of them is with Sarvavid Vairocana from Sarvadurgati Parishodhana. At first, on a sort of generic Meru mandala, you are climbing the southern slope; Vairocana sits at the top facing east. So when you "get there" and become co-eval to him, then in mandalas, you are "facing" east, although as the image implies, you see four directions; at the alternates or corners are Locana, Mamaki, Pandara, and Tara:







    Although these Prajnas are the same as Maitri's, this is centered on Vairocana, not Akshobhya.


    Because the arrangement shifts, there are certain examples of changes:

    Sakya Vajrapanjara and Suryagupta Tara both give pink or white Vajradhatvishvari to Vairocana, and Ratnasambhava is with orange or yellow Locana (which perhaps is Amrita Locana).


    Khasarpana 26 over-writes Tara with Vajradhatvishvari:

    pūrve vairocanaḥ, dakṣiṇe ratnasambhavaḥ, paścime amitābhaḥ, uttare amoghasiddhiḥ, āgneyyāṃ locanā, naiṛtyāṃ māmakī,

    vāyavyāṃ pāṇḍarā, aiśānyāṃ vajradhātvīśarī /


    In the spot corresponding to Amoghasiddhi, Tara should be the same as usual, but she is not.

    And so there is for example an Iconography paper which at least understands that Assemblies are part of a series, and the given changes appear to be meaningful in that context.


    When centered in her personal mandala, Tara has swapped with Vajra Family. Aside from being in a different order, this is the same kind of format Maitri or Sarvavid Vairocana has, a ring of Buddhas with another ring of Prajnas beside them. So this is a lot like Tara's adjustment to Maitri's retinue, having White Vajradhatvishvari, Yellow Locana, White Pandara, and Blue Mamaki, who have also gotten Skullcups:











    From my notes, Vajramrita arose by:


    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.


    Since many of the notes are a re-hash of a synopsis, going back to the original, we see that Taranatha refers to himself in the Tibetan for Anandagarbha. In his History, when Anandagarbha comes up, he and the next Guru illustrate Generation and Completion Stages very well. Bu-ston agreed with Anandagarbha that heavy emphasis in Yoga Tantra and Generation Stage was most important.

    After them, *Mahipala, the son of king *Vanapala, ruled
    the kingdom for fifty-two years. Roughly speaking, the time
    of the death of this king was the same as that of the Tibetan
    king Khri-ral (Ral-pa-can}.

    During the reign of this king lived acarya Anandagarbha,
    the Madhyamika-prasangika Asvaghosa, who wrote SahiVrti
    and Paramartha Bodhicittabhavani-krama, acarya Parahita...

    Now about acarya Anandagarbha.
    Born in a Vaisya family in *Magadha, he belonged to the
    Mahasanghika sect. In philosophy, he was a Vijnana-madhyamaka. He studied the five branches of knowledge in
    *Vikramasila.
    He came to know that in *Bhamgala the disciples of siddharaja **Prakasacandra were preaching all the Yoga-tantras and
    so he went there. He met many acarya-s like Subhatipalita
    and others and became a scholar in all the Yoga-tantras. Then
    he remained firm in the dVadasa-dhuta-guYJa, meditated in a
    forest and had the vision of Vajradhatu-maha-mandala. He
    also received instructions to compose shastra-s and could speak to
    the tutelary deity personally as it were.

    [ Fol 112A] After he became an adept in magic spells,
    he easily acquired the power of all kanna-sambhlira-s. When
    he was about to attain siddhi, his fame reached acarya *Prajnapalita, who came from the madhya-ada to listen to the
    Doctrine from him. He then conferred abhiseka on him
    (Prajnapalita) and explained to him the Tattva-samgraha. For
    this acarya, he (Anandagarbha) composed the Vajrodaya.
    When he (Prajnapalita) expounded this in the madhya-dda}
    the king *Mahipala asked him, 'From whom did you receive
    this text ?'

    'Do you have knowledge even of one who lives in your
    own kingdom? I have, received this from acarya Anandagarbha, who resides in *Bhamgala.'
    Full of reverence} the king invited him to the monastery of
    *Otsayana-cuqamaI)i near Jvala-guha in the south of *Magadha. The number of the listeners to the Guhya-samaja became
    vast. He composed many sas'tra-s, like the Tattva-triloka-kari
    the great commentary on the Tattva-samgraha.
    King *Viracarya of *Odivisa, who was like a real brother to
    king *Mahipala, invited him to a vihara which was situated at the
    place where previously lived King *Munja. He first composed.
    the great commentary on the Sri-paramadi(-vivaraJa). He
    [Anandagarbha] also composed a commentary on the Guhyasamaja and on many other Tantras. According to some of the
    Tibetans, he composed commentaries on one hUndred and eight
    Yoga-tantras. But it is doubtful if there existed at that time
    even twenty Yoga-tantras in India. Further, as correctly said
    by the scholars, there is no basis to say that he composed two
    commentaries on each of the Yoga-tantras, one big and the
    other small. Hence it is clear that it is wrong to consider the
    number to be even a hundred.


    Anandagarbha is attributed with probably more than twenty writings, the first of which showing where he is going with Yoga Tantra:

    Sarva-kalpa-samuccaya-nama-sarva-buddha-samayoga-dakinijala-samvara-uttara-uttara-tantra-tika. rG xxv.2

    along with multiple Paramadya texts, several on Sarvadurgati Parishodana, and a Marici Sadhana.

    Anandagarbha is also cross-referenced into Namasangiti with the Five Secrets of Paramadya in the study on Names of Wisdom.


    So, since he mainly dwells on Yoga Tantra and Generation Stage, but, intends it on dovetailing to Dakini Jala, this is represented by the next acarya who starts at that point:


    [Fol 112B] During this period lived an acarya called
    *Bhago, who attained siddhi by the Vajramrta-tantra.

    Previously in Kashmir a pandita called Gambhiravajra
    propitiated Vajrasurya by the Sri-sarva-buddha-samayoga-tantra in the crematorium of Sitavana. He had at last the
    vision of Vajra-amrta-maha-mandala and attained the
    sadharana-siddhi under its blessings.
    He prayed, 'Please grant me the parama[-siddhi]'.

    'Go to the "'Urgyana country and there in a place called
    *Dhumasthira ask for it from a woman who has the complexion of an *utpala and who bears an emerald-like mark on the
    forehead.'

    This being done, he received it [the siddhi]. This dakini
    conferred on him the abhiseka of Catulr ( -vajra)-amrta-mandala. She herself explained to him the Tantras and gave him
    the treatises on these. Among these, he meditated on * Heruka
    and attained maha-mudra-siddhi. 'After this, he resided in
    "'Malava. He came across eight beggars and, finding them
    fit, conferred abhiseka on them and led them to meditation.
    The acarya himself attained siddhi of eight vetala-s in the
    crematorium and gave a vetala to each of them. All of them
    also attained maha-siddhi. He also made a gift of his sadharana
    siddhi to others. Though there were many who attained siddhi
    for themselves, it is said that only the greatest among the great
    siddha-s could make a gift of their siddhi to others.
    Further, this acarya had once four disciples. He led
    each of them to meditation on the Catur.-amrta-mandala.

    [ Fol113A ] He also preached sampannakrama to each of them
    and thus they attained Vajrakaya and became invisible.
    Later on acarya Amrtaguhya became his disciple. He conferred abhiseka on him and preached to him the Tantras.
    After this he went to the realm of the gods to work for the
    welfare of the living beings.
    Acarya Amrtaguhya also attained siddhi and he was a
    maha-yogi. He attained the siddhi of the a~!a-kosa-kalasa and
    satisfied all the poor people. He received wealth from the
    god of the sky and maintained without interruption eight big
    centres for the Doctrine.

    There is no definite account of the king to whose period
    they belonged. But by collating the different reports, it becomes
    clear that they lived after king *Devapala.
    Acarya *Bhago was his (Amrtaguhya's) disciple. He also
    attained vetala-siddhi. With its aid he succeeded in many
    auspicious kosa-kalasa-sadhana. He satisfied everybody all
    around and built a big temple of Pancagotratathagata near
    the city of *Prayaga and also a big temple of Vajramrta in
    *Karnataka in the south. He preached the Tantras to *palita
    Vimalabhadra and many others.
    It is said that under the auspices of these acarya-s, this
    Tantra was widely spread also in *Magadha.


    So, with Gambhiravajra, we get to Vajramrita Tantra and Sampanna or Nispanna, i. e. Completion Stage, pursuant to Dakini Jala. As we can see, Yoga and Sarvadurgati Parishodhana and so forth are the basis or input "into" Dakini Jala, which itself becomes the springboard to advanced tantra such as Vajramrita and Chakrasamvara. Dakini Jala is like a huge dividing line, which uses Vajrasurya within it.


    Vajrasurya is an old name for Ratnasambhava, and of course the Sun, and is used this way in Sarvadurgati, from which an analysis says something similar to Use of Six Families Equally:


    Great colour, with great beauty means Vajrasurya. [He has the name great colour {maha:varnah} since he is endowed with six colours. He has great beauty {mahaiyapuh} because he has the Awareness - consisting of Hearing, Thinking and Realising - of the Dharma-Sphere as his halo.

    The name found in Vajradhatumandala of the STTS and NispY is Vajratejas rather than Vajra­ surya, though the STTS gives Vajrasurya as an alternative (see STTS 36, 13). The explanation of mahavarnah makes the karmadharaya analysis puzzling; a bahuvrihi, "Of great colour", would be more appropriate. Wayman (1985, 70) reports that Smrtijnanaklrti identifies the 'six colours' as the six colours of sunlight. An alternative would be the colours of the six Buddha families.

    The Jewel Assembly works something like:


    This is because he, [that is, Manjus"ri,] causes the illumination of the three worlds. And so, [that mind] has as its nature the tetrad [of deities], Vajraratna, [Vajrasurya, Vajraketu] and [Vajrahasa] - the retinue of the Awareness of Equality. This is due to the lack of appearances as [previously] described - such as the [division into] subject [and object] - in the Awareness of Equality, which has a reversion from the defiled mind as its nature. And because, via the abandoning of their respective obstacles, they cause: [the bestowal of] consecration [as Vajraratna]; increase of radiance [as Vajrasurya]; the enjoining of the Perfection of Giving [as Vajraketu]; and attainment of joy [as Vajrahasa], this, beginning with Vajraratna, is their order. That same [mind] is [of the nature of] the Emptiness of the Endless (atyantaSunyata) because it does not cling to the desire for [achieving] the aims of endless beings.


    Vajrasurya is also in a Thesis on STTS which is useful for having arranged the contents in a good summarizing way. It Says:


    Mahamudra Rite


    The maha-mudra representing the body of deity can be defined as visualising the image of the deity in samadhi. Thus, the evocation-ritual (sadhana), which guides the sadhaka to visualise the image of his deity effectively, is essential to this maha-mudra rite. The method of evoking all the five Tathagatas begins with the five abhisambodhis.

    “Beginning with examining thought, one should meditate upon Vajrasurya {Vajra-sun). While (uttering) ‘ Vajradhatu', one should transform oneself into an image of the Buddha.”

    The phrase “beginning with examining thought” refers to “the five abhisambodhis” . Thus, the means of the five abhisambodhis, the sadhaka, at first, should recognise the nature of the five Tathagatas. Then, he should bind the karma-mudra of Vajrasurya (alias Vajratejas) and visualise a luminous circle which is called the sun-mandala. Concentrating on it, he should diffuse its brightness up to the space-realm. Finally, he should visualise the five Tathagatas bodily images as himself while reciting the mantra “VAJRADHATU’ which is regarded as a common mantra to all the five Tathagatas. According to Anandagarbha, before the sadhaka visualises the five Tathagatas' bodies, he should form the hand gestures {samaya-mudra) of the five Tathagatas. As the result of the above rite, the sadhaka can attain knowledge, longevity, power, youth, omnipresence, and even Buddhahood.


    This Mahamudra is then used to acquire Vajrasattva--Vajra Garva. He becomes a subject of rather large treatment.

    So the Mahamudra, or state without words and practices, is determined to arise in words and practices.


    Just as Anandagarbha-->Bu-ston is a type of clarifying lineage, or point, with STTS and Yoga Tantra, so is Manjuvajra Guhyasamaja, or a line from Jnanapada-->Nyen Lotsawa. This lineage is closer to Profound View, which is that school of Nagarjuna more favorable towards Inner Meaning or Atma Vidya over Vinaya or strict discipline, and, has more bearing towards the Nirakara system, since the Extreme Deeds and Arya Lineage of Akshobhya Guhyasamaja are more entwined with Prasangika. Nyen was able to see Tara and Vajrayogini and for instance contributed Sadanga Tara and Zhiro Bhusana sadhanas.


    Manjuvajra mandala has another text I was unaware of:

    Shri Vajra Hridaya Lamkara Tantra-nama, Toh 451 and No.44 in the Gyu de Kuntu set of mandalas.

    Manjuvajra has three known transmissions, starting with that 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.

    One recorded list of practitioners includes:

    Manjuvajra, Buddha Jnanapada, Shri Deva, Vimala Gupta, the two Rinchens, Risul Yogini, Nyen Lotsawa Chogyan, to the Five Masters, Dampa Kunga Drag, Tashi Pal, Kunga Sonam Shap, Do Pal Kirti Shri Khanpa, Sazang Kupon, Ngorchen...

    Another sorting mentions Pendapa who was hugely significant in Nepal:

    Vajradhara, Arya Manjushri, Acharya Buddha Jnana, Marmedze Zangpo, Shri Deva, Vimalagupta, Ratnavajra, Ratnakirti, Lama Pendapa, Lama Nyen Lotsawa, Lama Nang Kaupa, The Lord of Dharma Sakyapa (Sachen Kunga Nyingpo 1092-1158).


    The second reason Manjuvajra is noteworthy is because it is only here that we find Twenty-Six Arm Cunda. And in this case she is hypostatical from Sattvavajri in STTS.

    There are at least two kinds of Manjuvajra mandala. It increases in degrees of union, and it also shifts the floor or ground colors. So, if we look at this as a way to see simple aspects of Prajnas, again they are in the intermediate directions. Just offhand, it would be pretty easy to say that Mamaki is with Ratnasambhava at the first level of Union.



    None:







    And so, for once, Pandara is Red and simple, although Four Armed, similar to Sitabani. I am not sure if it is from this first point, but, in some way, Manjuvajra is said to become attached or tied by a thread to Vajradhatvishvari.

    Many of the better images zoom well so you can make out details on small figures.

    In the next case, the Prajnas are still very simple when Union is enjoyed by

    Himself:










    Something drastic happens to the colors, and Twenty-six Arm Cunda has appeared in the northeast, when Union is enjoyed in

    Four Directions:







    The pattern is the same when this mandala is shown in its Relationship with Lokeshvara Guhyasamaja, upper left, and Akshobhya Guhyasamaja, lower left, Manjuvajra in upper right:










    Evidently the colors "re-normalize" when the level and intensity of Union is

    All Around:








    We would have to go back to the source to figure out whether it means the Prajnas are bi-local, or if it has osmosed additional goddesses, perhaps the Vajris:







    This is not a mandala, but, it is extremely old, 1300s, and impeccable. The Prajnas are in a row over the head of Manjuvajra, and they are Six:









    That is one way of doing one tantra, which is generally considered the basis or Secret Community of doing all Union and Completion Stage practices. Although we can get write-ups of Vajrabhairava, Heruka, etc., Guhyasamaja remains far less accessible. It is considered Father or Method, i. e. knowledge and practices, compared to which, Yogini Tantra is more about Purification of Nadis or directly employing the subtle body.

    If we were in a culture which offered the standard Akshobhya Guhyasamaja as a high school elective, that might be one thing, but, as a diaspora of persons with Yoga interest who largely lack close transmission or personal monitoring by a Guru, that is why we would lean towards Profound View and the perhaps slower track of grinding everything through personal experience.

    Manjuvajra is a mix of Vairocana and Vajrasattva. Plain Sutra Manjushri is a Bodhisattva who may seem like an object of reverence above and beyond us, hard to reach without a personal connection, but, when he is operating Dhyanis defined as part of the human aura, suddenly he is a lot closer.

    From what I have seen, Friends of Western Buddhism does develop a basic Five Prajna sadhana where they have been altered and associated with things like Polar Bears, because they could not find one in the original sources and so on. But obviously Maitri has one which has been centrally-relied upon for centuries, and, probably well before him for unspecified time, although we do not have a thangka or mandala for specifically this.

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    Default Re: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain

    Lotus and Karma and Malini


    In the current revealed treasure sadhana, I saw that "Red Tara" is supposed to be an emanation of Kurukulla. This would not be physically possible for a novice. Kurukulla first must be emanated by Tara. So that seems a little backwards. You can have a preiminary invocative Red Tara; Kurukulla is something more.

    If a minor red or Padma Tara is really Pandara, on a Sutra and Dharani basis, she is probably closer to Malini.

    Part of the point is that Kurukulla is part of Hevajra Krama; she is doing the Third Activity, which is Chain, but just as it is hard to find an extremely basic Padma Tara, there is not such a thing as a Chain item in Lotus Family. There is one on the generic Vajrasphoti Gatekeeper, but none of the Yidams use it. Kurukulla is a "love goddess" who has no consort, and a "chain" goddess that has no Chain. So she is more of a specific and powerful thing than a general Lotus Family Tara, which is why we are trying to "split off" a more preliminary Padma Tara meaning a Red One, because Sragdhara is probably Green, although similar to Malini.

    The Chain is in Karma Family in the hands of Vajrasrnkhala; and as these kinds of deities can be "markers" for stages, this one seems to indicate Samadhi of the caliber intended by Karma Family Candi or Tara as the Sixth Yoga. Then you have Hevajra, which Kurukulla is preparatory for.

    For some reason, it looks like Malini is also going to help this cross-talk between Lotus and Karma Families.

    Now, to be fair, if like me you had done some Green Tara meditations with only a hint of background to her, then you may think of her in Lotus Family, in which case she has Crescent Moon and Amitabha in her hair. Otherwise she mostly hails from Karma Family. And so it is also possible to have already been meditating her that way.

    In that sense, Mahattari Tara is not the "first" Tara in a literal way, however, she is the first in a major system using Karma Family.

    It is true that in a historical sense, Mahattari means the Matron of a harem, but also her name may have various meanings, based in Mahat or Mahant. This is exactly what HPB spoke of, also calling it World Soul and other synonyms, and appears that in sadhanas it would also be equal to Mahatattva with a similar meaning as Mahat:

    (-hān) 1. The second of the twenty five principles of creation according to Sankhya philosophy.

    (rarely n. [scilicet] tattva), ‘the great principle’, Name of Buddhi, ‘Intellect’, or the intellectual principle (according to the Sāṃkhya philosophy the second of the 23 principles produced from Prakṛti and so called as the great source of Ahaṃkāra, ‘self-consciousness’, and Manas, ‘the mind’.


    Mahat (महत्).—A tatva or principle;1 identified with Brahmā;2 a name of Rudra;3 absorbs the ahaṅkāra4 covered by Pradhāna.5 Ten times greater than bhūtādi; the order of evolution of the universe according to Sānkhya;6 evolution of Prakṛti in its vikāras.

    Mahat (महत्) or Mahattattva refers to a primordial principle of the nature of both pradhāna and puruṣa, according to the 10th century Saurapurāṇa: one of the various Upapurāṇas depicting Śaivism.—[...] From the disturbed prakṛti and the puruṣa sprang up the seed of mahat, which is of the nature of both pradhāna and puruṣa. The mahat-tattva is then covered by the pradhāna and being so covered it differentiates itself as the sāttvika, rājasa and tāmasa-mahat. The pradhāna covers the mahat just as a seed is covered by the skin . Being so covered there spring from the three fold mahat the threefold ahaṃkāra called vaikārika, taijasa and bhūtādi or tāmasa.

    Mahat, Ahaṃkāra and the five Tanmātras are in themselves unable to produce the orderly universe which is effected through the superintendence of the Puruṣa (puruṣā dhiṣṭhitatvācca) and by the help of Avyakta (avyaktānugraheṇa). As the universe grows up, they form into an egg which gradually expands from within like a water-bubble, and this is called the materialistic body of the Lord.


    Theosophical Glossary:

    Mahabuddhi (Sanskrit) Mahābuddhi [from mahā great + buddhi consciousness, spiritual soul] Great buddhi or consciousness; synonym of mahat (cosmic mind or intelligence).

    Mahachaitanya (Sanskrit) Mahācaitanya [from mahā great + caitanya consciousness, intelligence] The living consciousness or intelligence of the universe or of all nature. Daiviprakriti is, strictly speaking, the mahachaitanya “of the whole cosmos, the one energy, or the only force from which spring all force manifestations” (N on BG 71), this one energy or force being essentially and inherently conscious and intelligent.

    Mahat (Sanskrit) Mahat [from the verbal root mah to be great] The great; cosmic mind or intelligence, the basis and fundamental cause of the intelligent operations in and of nature considered as an organism. Blavatsky called it the first product of pradhana, the first-born of the Logos, universal mind limited by manvantaric duration, the cosmic noumenon of matter, the one impersonal architect of the universe, the great manvantaric principle of intelligence, the Third Logos, and the divine mind in active operation.

    Eternal in its essence and periodical in its manifestations, mahat combines the ideal plans and prototypes of all beings and things in the manifested objective and subjective world. In another sense it is the entire aggregate of the dhyani-chohanic host, and therefore the source of the active organic cosmic intelligence controlling and directing the operations of fohat; it is likewise the direct source of the manasaputras, a class of the dhyani-chohanic host.

    In Brahmanical philosophy, mahat is the father-mother of manas. In Sankhya philosophy, it corresponds to kosmic buddhi or mahabuddhi and is called the first of the seven prakritis or productive creation, the other six being ahamkara and the five tanmatras.

    When a ray from mahat expresses itself as the human manas (or even as the manasic attribute of the finite gods), it then because of surrounding maya involves the quality of egoity or aham-ship. Thus it is said that the great Tree of Life has parabrahman as its seed, mahat as its trunk, and ahamkara as its spreading branches.

    HPB is also not far from Parasunya--Nirakara--Shentong:

    Mahasunya or Mahasunyata (Sanskrit) Mahāśūnya, Mahāśūnyatā [from mahā great + śūnyatā emptiness] The great void; when considered in its positive aspect, boundless space, including all the spaces of space, and therefore the universe and all that is in it considered from the spiritual and divine standpoints, which to intelligences living in lower realms seem to be the great Void. When considered from its negative aspect, cosmic illusion (mahamaya) because the entire boundless objective universe with all its visible or invisible planes is, from the standpoint of the divine-spiritual, unreal and illusive, i.e., impermanent and transitory, although lasting spans which to human comprehension might seem almost an eternity. Thus both the positive and negative significances are based upon the fundamental idea of the utter reality of the divine-spiritual, and the unreality, impermanence, and fleeting character of all that is objective.


    I cannot find a discernable difference if her prefix is Mahat or Mahant, and that this probably is somewhat shared with Kubjika, from Satsahasra Samhita according to Kamakoti:

    The most peculiar vidyA of mahAntArI of 15 syllables is used with fire oblations in the Ajyahoma. The manifest form of mahAntArI for all those who know the vidyA emerges directly out of the aNgas of kArttikeya. She has 6 heads and twelve arms as result.

    This is related to Pratyangira Siddhalakshmi up to Saptakoteshvari.


    Originally in looking for background to Mahattari Tara, there was an article from Kubjika Tantra which seemed to include her, but I am not sure now if this was just "bad internet scan". She had seemed to appear as a sort of Queen of:


    Astavimsati Krama is a "Series of Twenty-eight", which is similar to Thirty-seven Point Enlightenment in Buddhism. It makes categories, such as Tri-shakti and Buddhi, Five Elements, Six Families, Four Mahapithas, Five Senses, and Four Gunas.

    It places coupled deities in the body, describes Kulakula as "Union", which "starts" in the Khecari Chakra (above the head, not the Khecari point), but is supposed to be fulfilled in other chakras as well.

    This is, of course, the same "compiling" as in Dakini Jala Rahasya and elsewhere, where Skandhas, Elements, etc., are grouped and assigned deities. Saivite tantras do the same kind of thing with Tattvas, often Thirty-six. Sadhanamala uses Nairatma and Vajra Tara to do the organizing.

    So we are examining it for linguistics and similarities. The archive now gone was the same as Satsahasra Samhita ch. 1-5.

    Early on, it uses "place of Matanga" (Forest of Srisaila) as an unidentified superior of Four Pithas in the Khecari Chakra.

    Devi is the querent who seems to be considered a bit of an "Ucchusma", that is, I suppose, ignorant of the answers.

    "Place of Matanga" is somewhat mobile, as the explanation is really in Samvarta Mandala, which looks like it moves, conditions, or influences the other chakras. It and some of the other vocabulary goes:

    Samvarta, the Anda or Egg, inhabited by Parameswara and Ananda Shakti.

    Eight Mothers in the Nepalese style ending on Mahalakshmi

    Other epithets for Devi include:

    Malini (Letter Goddess or Kubjika related to Phrem) or possible parallel sadhana of Pandara

    In the Mâlinistava (K m T 2, dandaka) Màlinî is called mahocchusmayâgapriyâ.

    Chakradevi, Vajravarnini


    Mahattari may be buried in there, but Malini is prominent. This is really a precursory examination of a single Kubjika text, of which the vast majority, sixty-five are housed in Nepal.


    The article is a study on five chapters, of which there are more than twenty. The previous version may have been more complete, as my notes tell me:

    This suggested addition [Mahattari] to the standard group of five is barely hinted at, not mentioned until halfway through, so it is still semi-esoteric where it is mentioned at all.

    So Mahattari may have been in Chapter Eighteen or something.

    The index shows "Mabantari" at 2,26, but I cannot find it. A link to a perhaps cleaner subscription-based scan tells us:

    In the SatSS this goddess Mahan tari kâ or Mahantârî is only mentioned in...

    The spelling mahantari appears once as a general word in a Pali Vinaya text; and once in Pali Sacca Sankhepa. The spelling Mahattari however occurs in Essence of Soundaraya Lahiri in a way starting from Red Kubjika, Six Dakinis, as a sort of finalizing devi related to Bahula and Kundalini. So that appears most supportive towards Mahattari or Mahantari as is somewhere in SatSS.

    In general usage:

    Accordingly, “women who, for the protection of the entire harem and for the king’s prosperity, take pleasure in singing hymns to gods, and in performing auspicious ceremonies, are known as mahattarīs (matrons)”.

    Mahattarikā (महत्तरिका) in Sanskrit (or Mayahariyā in Prakrit) refers to a “superior in the religious hierarchy”

    In a Vinaya Pitaka where a monk is not supposed to touch a woman:

    "Older woman": Mahattarī. This is comparative of mahant. The Sanskrit form is mahattarā, but Pali has -ī, after therī.


    Because Mahattara is a male village chief, the name is almost certainly a compound of Maha plus Uttara. It could refer to age or supremacy, or, in the inner sense, an aspect of Tara.


    Of Oddiyana Pitha:

    The Mahâpitha Odiyàna seems to he the most important one here. We have already remarked that it is situated in the centre of the Malini Gahvara [sloka 42 Notes). Here in Odiyâna resides Sivânanda who is identified with Siva Himself, and who is united there with His Sakti (61 ab).

    The "first pitha goddess" (Oddiyana) is simply called Rakta or Devi. Subsequent to her, Karâlâ Devi, while the K m T has Karâlï (Km T 2,57d; 63a). Since the goddess can obviously endure Devi’s tejas, she is also called mayâjâlaniyàmikâ (45d).


    It traces Devi's "manifestation and movements" starting with:

    Sriparvata, north of which is situated a great forest full with lingas (2,25d : lingapûrm mahâvana) \ the Mt. Triküta; the Daradandt, the Western Himagahvara; Karâla; the great forest of Sahya; the river Ucchusmà; a place not mentioned by name, but described as mâlaàgakulasambhava (2,102d) and possibly identified with the river Trisrotrà (2,111b); Devikota; Attahasa; Kollagiri; Ujjenï; Prayâga. Varanà ( = Vara­ nasi); Viraja; Ekâmraka, and other places. The most important of this enumeration are the Western Himagahvara, Karàla, the Forest of Sahya, the river Ucchusmà, and the locality not mentioned by name: in these five places Devi obtains daughters, sons and guardians, all of whom are mentioned by name. The five places are, of course, identified with the five Mahâpîthas (Odiyàna, Jàlandhara, Pûrnagiri, Kâmarüpa and Matanga).

    The fifth, Matanga, has no "real" locality.


    All the daughters, sons and guardians are connected with specific parts of the human body, or with a particular physical phenomenon. Moreover, the sons of Devi are provided with a sakti of their own. The names of these saktis are the same as the different manifestations of the goddess Màlinî, and their respective location on the human body is the same as in the Mâlini-system as it is explained in the seventh chapter of the SatSS (Appendix I). The order, however, of the Malini-iait/ir as given in the present chapter differs widely from the order of the Mâlinî-system proper (cf. p. 225).

    The Sriparvata or Srigiri (36b) is identified with the 'Eater of Oblations’ (40a hulâsa), another name for Agni, who appears as a column of smoke (40b dhumravartt) on the top of the head. As the T explains here, the Sriparvata is the Brahmarandhra or the abode of Dhümâgni (sriparvatam brahmarandhram dhümâgâîsthânam). This Dhümâgni, ‘Smoky Agni' has the shape of a column of smoke with a length of twelve àngulas. It leads upwards from the Brahmarandhra to the base of the inverted pyramid, on which the Santànabhuvana is located (cf. sloka 15 Notes). The twelve angulas are identified with the series of A, U, MA, Bindu, Ardhacandra, Nirodhikâ, Nâda, Nâdànta, Sakti, Vyàpini, Samanà, and Unmanà, which constitute the Dvâdasânta (SatSS 28,2-3; cf. Padoux 1975: table opposite p. 346). At the end of this column of smoke, e.g. above Unmanâ, resides Para Sakti consisting of (ur text and elsewhere) five Mahàpïthas, five Mahàbhütas, five Tattvas etc.


    Ganesh has an Elephant Woman consort, but, in other interpretations, the images are said to represent Malini, who was Parvati’s elephant-headed companion and Ganesh’s nursemaid.

    The secret of both immanent Kula and transcendent Akula is called Kulakulamnaya. The twelve-fold goddess of this tradition is identified with the powers symbolized by the twelve vowels and is called Malini of the Sequence of Exertion. Prabhakali or Twelve aspects of Kali behind the Sun, with Kumari at the center of them. Malini, the power of letters which holds the entire universe within itself. Sabari was in her previous life named Malini, an Apsara, daughter of a Gandhari king. Malini is the first female Ganesha who suckles Ganapati. She is Ganesh Jnani who only wears a mala of flowers. As Sabari, she helped Rama and Bala rama unearth Sita. This is Vinayaki, "no lord (nyaka) above her", Elephant goddess, including Pisacha Sundari, guhya vidya of Ucchista Ganapati. She holds this whole universe in her belly thus she is Lambodari. Gajamukhi and others.

    Gahvara cremation ground brings us right back to Satsashara Samhita which has a "Prastara and Gahvara" system that is part of Kubjika Kula. It starts with a Malini (Para Yoni or Matangi) Gahvara, which is a grid of forty-nine letters for the Sanskrit alphabet--this is a code system, required to read the Pascimamnaya. The grids are switched around and re-shaped and follow algorithms like Tibetan astrology.

    Kubjika Pithas table with goddesses including Candali (Matangi) and Sabari.


    In Buddhism, Sword or Khadga is also a symbol for Crossed Vajra. In Sri Vidya, it is like an assistant in penetrating Sri Yantra. There, it is perhaps a bit sacred:


    Khadgamala should never be chanted without initiation into Srividya. They say Kurukulla will destroy one and one's family. You can listen to it, but, evidently, Kurukulla isn't necessarily friendly if you are not prepared. According to the Yakshas, Khadga Siddhi is from Malini.

    Buddhist Sword Dakini is the opposite, if you can get her, use her. This includes Guhyajnana Dakini, and Mahacina Krama Tara. Cf. Sadhanamala, Vol. I, p. 156: “When there is siddhi, he gains mastery of the
    khadga-vidyadhara ” (siddhe sati khadgavidyadharadhipatir bhavati).


    In Buddhism, Kurukulla has restricted external appearances. Kurukulla is in Siddhaikavira Tantra, Chapter Four, fifty-fourth mantra. She does "Enthralling" with Hook and Noose and the Yam-arisen Wind Mandala. With practice, one can attract Pinda.


    She does a great deal on her own, and is in Sadhanamala around sixteen times.

    Kurukulla Kalpa is the most comprehensive canonical scripture of her. It says she is Magnetizing, and more specifically Enthralling. She is a form of Tara:

    But her particular quality is related to the “activity” of enlightenment. Many Great Vehicle scriptures describe the spontaneous and effortless activity of buddhas for the benefit of beings. In Vajrayāna that enlightened activity is spoken of in terms of four modes, or types, of activity: pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying. It is the third of these, magnetizing, that is the special field of Kurukullā, and it is to deploy that particular quality of enlightenment that a practitioner would undertake her practice.

    There are over thirty extant Kurukulla articles, and the Kalpa is a compendium:

    the text declares that it is a direct literary descendant of the Tantra of the Arising of Tārā (Tārodbhava)

    As the presentation starts, something happens which is reminiscent of times Tara stamps her hands or feet:

    Taḍit (तडित्).—f. (-ḍit) Lightning. E. taḍ to strike or beat, Unadi affix iti striking the earth, &c.



    The Lord, hearing these words of the assembly,
    Pronounced the secret mantra, which he himself mastered,
    And upon hearing this king of mantras, all the females there
    Experienced numerous forms of the bliss of final buddhahood.
    1.­11
    By the touch of the vajra their bodies released the juice,
    And casting sidelong glances,
    They impatiently stamped their feet on the ground.
    Carried away by the bliss of passion, they let their juices flow.


    For those who in turn master the practice:

    Rati from Kāmadeva and Pārvatī from Śiva;
    Similarly, Śrī from Nārāyaṇa, Śacī from Ākhaṇḍala,
    The white Amalagīśvariṇī from Vācaspati, and Lakṣmī from the Sustainer of the Earth‍—
    These they win by means of the mantra.


    "Enthrall" is about the same as her name:


    The Enchantress
    dbang du byed ma
    དབང་དུ་བྱེད་མ།
    vaśakāriṇī


    Wangdu Jema, "Power" often being understood as that of Wang or initiation by goddesses.

    As a general noun, it is shared for example with Maha Mohini Vasikaran mantra.

    Kurukulla does not directly consort Hevajra; Srnkhala does.

    The phrase for the Fourth Activity is "Vasikuru Hoh" as from the yogic symbolism of Sixteen from Yoga Nidra:

    Anandagrabha’s Vyakhya on the Tattvasamgraha sets forth that one accomplishes with
    the Symbolic Seal, arranges with the Law Seal, attends to mar¬
    vellous action with the Action Seal, and stabilizes in the manner
    of consecration (pratistha) with the Great Seal; and that, moreo¬
    ver, each deity must be evoked by way of all sixteen ways: the
    four Seals; the fourfold process of attracting' (akarsana), ‘draw¬
    ing in’ (pravesana), ‘tying’ (bandhana), and subduing’ (vasikara):
    both Initiation (abhiseka) and 'offering' (puja): both seal’ (mudra)
    and heart' (hrdaya); and both 'incantation' (mantra) and wis¬
    dom’ (vidya).

    Kurukulla may practice the Third Activity and sort of automatically be conveying the fourth, which is then "wrapped up" by Shrnkhala carrying the third item, chain, and being in the fourth, final position. In other words, Shrnkhala is not a basic Green Tara or generic or practice Bell Goddess--it is more like you force her to work.

    Even the mantric portion of Lotus Family's Activity, Bandhaya Vam, does not seem to be administered by them personally.

    It has been called "Magnetizing", in which case we see Buddhism has probably totally refused Shakti's or Krishna's Klim syllable. Easiest parallel meaning in India, and it is not there, instead, Vam.

    Mamaki is certainly Bandha to Vajra Family. In Sadhanamala, "bandha" is so common it is almost indistinct; there are a few places where it stands out:


    Mahattari is Samayamudra bandhayet. Vajra Tara 93-94 is Bandhamuktim. Mahasri Tara is Utpalamudra bandhayet. Marici 137 is a Jnanasattva mudra bandhayet. Before a Jnanasattva, this usage of the term samaya-sattva is general in these texts and is consistent with the explanation in the Shags rim chen mo (388a-3, 4): “The samaya-sattva
    is the body of the deity graced with face and hands, actually the manifestation of one’s own mind, a transfiguration of ordinary ego”.

    The Samaya Sattva is our intent here. Generally described as "yoga view" or "front generated" like a normal conversation. Such as Mahattari in Karma Family. Kurukulla "has" a samaya sattva, but she is not one herself, she is produced from the Mahattari line. Samaya Sattva is similar to Devata Tattva in Kriya-Charya which, itself, culminates in Vasikaran. And so we have Thity-seven Tattvas which are not Thirty-seven Point Enlightenment, but, rather, its basis, or the way to do Devata or Deity Yoga at all. Copied at the end of the post.


    Vajra Tara 97 or 110 has the Four Activities mantra; Marici 142 says:

    oṃ vajrāṅkuśi jaḥ
    ity anena jñānasattvam ākṛṣya purato arghapādyādikaṃ dadyāt /
    mārīcīmudraṇam / tataḥ oṃ vajrapāśa huṃ ity anena praveśayet,
    oṃ vajrasphoṭa vaṃ anena bandhayet, oṃ vajrāveśa hoḥ
    anena toṣayet /

    So the command "vasikuru" as in subjecting another to one's will, means, in the inner sense, the Fourth Activity, the Devata has arrived and my will that it is subject to is that it has Tosana, which is contentment and fulfillment when resting in this place. It is "that" which is entreated for Avesa or possession. In a Fierce Rite, this would be Destruction, but in a peaceful rite it is more like saying I want my friend to be comfortable so we can talk. In STTS, you subjugate the Families.

    In other words, these activities, in particular, are getting stronger, and when they do, then you aim them at a Jnana Sattva.


    Kurukulla 171 has the Four Activities and Jnanasattva and then:

    anena bandhayet samayonayā jñānacakraṃ praveśayet /

    in other words, shifting to the Jnana Cakra to cause Wisdom Deities to remain in the retinue. In Yoga tantra you may summon these but then you are supposed to dismiss them.

    Kurukulla 181 has Pranabandha.

    Srnkhala 207 has...Srnkhalararena bandhayet; 208 has her as Amnaya Antarena. 209 has Suryabandhacchedanim.



    Arya Tara Bhattarika 115 is a blend with Kurukulla, and uses a Sikhabandha mantra, as well as "Tr" syllables, and a Vasikaran Mandala. This one seems to be bundled with Sragdhara in the Dharani catalogs, however she is a Four-Arm Multi-color Visvarupa form with Noose, Sword, Utpala, and Hook. She seems to be blending Tam and Rum into Trum. Kurukulla is just a Nyasa here. There are some mantras and then some use of the "power":

    upahṛdayaṃ
    tā(ti te / anena) ayaṃ vaśakarmaṇi prayojayet / vaśīkaraṇamaṇḍalam
    ālikhya śmaśānāṅgāreṇa prakṛtiṃ kṛtvā
    śikhāyāṃ tāṃ, tāṃ guhye, ti pādayor evaṃ vinyasya karavīrapuṣpair
    bhagaṃ tāḍayet / anena mantreṇa sā vaśyā bhavati /


    Then another phase with a different Nyasa, and then a colorful Tara who is a Four Armed Sword Devi like Guhyajnana and Mahacina arises. The other Tara Bhattarikas are White Vajra Tara, Mahacina Krama, Marici, and Ekajati, whereas Kurukulla seems to be her own Bhattarika. This one uses a Padma Mudra and refers to Raja Kula in the same line as Avalokya. Then she does Pravese or Noose to Raja Kula and Bandha to her personal syllable Tam. With Colors Tara, your will to subjugate sin:

    yaṃ icchati taṃ vaśam ānayati /

    and I missed it due to spelling, but, her main mantra which seems to focus her Blue Lotus is a form of Abhisekha Bandha.

    "Sikhabandha" would ordinarily be another Nyasa, i. e. to the hair tuft. That is probably not an esoteric teaching of "bandha" here. The fact that Bandha is still in her mantras, is. What is also strange is that one or the strand of them are called "Dipamantra". This has a technical meaning from the beginning of the book, where for instance an Incense Offering results in dhumasikhe, the Lamp mantra conveys:

    dīpajyotiśikhe

    So I can think of what this might look like with regards to the goddess's hair, or, it turns into the actual thing in your own body.

    She is not Red, but, Sragdhara is perhaps an effective Malini to the Sword Deity Bhattarika, which will make our Kurukulla more approachable than what Khadgamala says. Bhattarika so far most closely resembles an exercise in Bandha, itself, as compared to most everything else, such as with Mahattari, the point seems to be Samaya Sattva.

    Bhattarika is shortly after Vasyadhikara Tara, similar meaning to vasikaran. If this is more like the fourth activity, she is in Karma Family. What she subjugates is Anaya, which, I guess, is evil outside of you, or sin within you. If I think in terms of inner meaning, that I can probably be more effective against my own mental stains than on an earthquake, I gain confidence in her mantra. I believe she will work this way.



    Tosana as "the final rest state" is also described by:

    Candamaharosana 88:

    jaḥkāreṇājayet ācamanaprokṣaṇādikaṃ dattvā huṃkāreṇa tatraiva praveśayet, vaṃkāreṇa bandhayet, hoḥkāreṇa toṣayet /

    Vajra Tara 95:

    ākarṣaṇapraveśanabandhatoṣaṇaṃ

    Noose is a bit like "Tie of friendship", Chain or Lock is the Request to Remain, Bell is them actually doing it. The Fourth Activity is nothing new, in terms of activity, lack of exiting motion, but then the Bell is really the Prajna or Wisdom they are, which is infusing one's mind, possessing it, replacing the Pudgala with Vajra Garva.

    In Zhitro, the Four Gatekeepers include:

    Shrinkhala (Skt. Śṛṅkhalā; Wyl. lcags sgrog ma or seng gdong ma) also called 'Lion Face' or 'Iron Chain', guarding the west gate

    They may have "assumed" it was Srnkhala from Iron Chain, but this is Sphoti in the sadhanas. Tibetan name is Lion Face, i. e. Wrathful Simhamukha. Instead, this is where I personally place Lion Face Ziro Bhusana Vajrayogini, as a mistress of the Third Activity. She has no chain, either, but she is in "power or subjugating deities". She is not a Gatekeeper but perhaps a bit like the big momma of it. She is doing a similar Three Worlds to Kurukulla. As we recently saw, the three are supposed to melt into a gooey golden blob. Kurukulla has:

    jāpamātrena trailokya vaśam

    or perhaps most telling in the first line of 183:

    hevajratantrasambandhāṃ trailokyavaśakāriṇīm /

    Universal Love as recently observed is not too far from that. This one also has a sequence from Red Lotus through Bandhaya into Vasam and the Fourth Syllable:

    raktotpalakalikānibhena śareṇa sādhyaṃ punaḥ
    punar vibandhayet / tatrāyaṃ mantraṃ - oṃ kurukulle hrīḥ amukaṃ
    vaśamānaya hoḥ svāhā /






    There is another variant name perhaps similar to Mahattari from mantras of Shakta Devi Rahasya:

    Maheshvari's should be concealed; it refers to Scraps and to Pisacha. Bagalamukhi refers to Kilaya. And then they give a shakti spelled Mahaturi, described as "the Transcendent Fourth", who uniquely uses "tr" based seeds as:

    Om Trum Traum (Trom) Mahaturyai Namah

    An alternate spelling Mahaturiya makes her look a little familiar. "Fourth" has to do with Within and Beyond the Three Cities or Tri-pura or Manipura. Everything to do with form vs. transcendence. Turiya is short for "chaturiya", meaning "fourth", in the sense of the silence around Triple Om. Her seed "tr" looks vaguely similar to "turiya".

    There is no etymology as to why Chatur, "Four", is sliced away to make Turiya "Fourth", which itself can reflect back on the "to go or to go swiftly" blends of Tur-:

    1) Turīya (तुरीय):—[from turāyaṇa > tur] 1. turīya [Nominal verb] yati, to go, [Naighaṇṭuka, commented on by Yāska ii, 14.]

    As a sacrifice, "Tura Yana", Tura's way:

    E. tura speed, haste, ay to go, affix lyu; speeding towards a given end or in a certain cause


    Tara or Tari has its origin from:

    E. tṝ to pass or proceed

    Tari or Tarini has a stronger connotation of a boat or basket, like the -yana in Mahayana, and is generally interchangeable for Tara, as in the translated Prajnas from Advayavajrasamgraha:

    “On the disc of the moon on the petal in the Agni corner there is Locanā originating from the white germ syllable Loṃ. She is white in colour, bears the recognition symbol of the discus, and is the embodient of the cosimc element of Earth. She belongs to the Tathāgata family an is steeped in delusion”.

    “On the orb of the Moon in the Nairṛta corner there is Māmakī originating from the blue germ syllable Māṃ. She is blue in colour and has the blue Vajra as her recogntion symbol. She is the embodiment of the element of Water and she belongs to the Vajra family. She is full of enmity”.

    “In the Vāyu corner on the orb of the moon there is Pāṇḍaravāsinī originating from the (red) germ syllable Pāṃ. She is redin colour and has the Padma (lotus) as her recognition symbol. She is the embodiment of the element of Fire. She belongs tothe Lotus family and is full of attachment”.

    “In the īśāna corner on the orb of the moon there is Tāriṇī originating from the germ syllable Tāṃ of golden green colour. Her recognition symbol is a green night lotus. She is the embodiment of the element of Air. She belongs to the Karma family and is full of jealousy”.


    The syllable Tam is a bit close to Tamas, or, in another sense, similar to Cinta or the mental principle of wishes versus anxiety:

    Tam (तम्):—(ya, u, ir) tāmyati 4. a. To desire; to be pained in body or mind.

    So it is probably Tam plus Ram (Ramate, playful) that combines into Tram (protection) and Trim (transcendence).







    In Mahamayuri Vidyarajni, there is also Malini and in the total dharanis you can find:

    matamgi candali malini

    She also invokes Gauri, Gandhari, and Janguli, and eventually Pratisara followed by Sitabani, described as something like the vows that Raksasi adhere to.

    Yaksa General Samjaya, who resides in Mithila and is the eldest son of Kubera, also invokes Matangi, Candali, Gori, Malini, Gandhari. So this is a pretty specific location for a Yaksha general said to ride a man as a vehicle.

    Mayuri is a Hiranyagarbha like Sitabani.

    In an Indic dissection of her Sutra, the critic is exploring the same subject of sabaris inculcated into yoginis:

    After more of such mantra-s, the tathagata is said to expound the famous vidyA of mAta~NgI. This goddess emerges early in a mantra in the kAshyapa saMhitA of the medical tradition. Subsequently, she has a long history in the Astika world as uchChiShTha chaNDAlini, a deity in the dasha mahAvidyA system and also as the saMgIta-yoginI of the shrIkula system:

    bale balkale mAta~Ngi chaNDali puruSha nichi nichi nigauri gandhAri chaNDAli mAtaNgi mAlini hili hili Agati gati gauri gandhAri kauShThikA vachari vihAri hili hili ku~Nje svAhA ||


    It does not, ever, say "Vidya of Matangi" that I am aware of; but he seems to think it is the same.





    Back to Lotus Family and what seems to be a rare if not unique recording.


    For Malini, in a Sutra preserved in Vietnam, we find Malini's invocation just prior to the Wrathful Ones and Amritakundalin:

    OM- AMRTAM GAME ‘SRÌ MÀLINI SVÀHÀ

    "Gama" has the sense of going, marching, E. gam to go.


    And in a few lines, the dual Pandara and Simhanada mantras are used:

    Lại nói Chân Ngôn Bạch Y Bồ Tát Quán Tự Tại là:

    - Án, ca trí, vĩ ca trí, ca tra dựng, ca trí, sa-phạ hạ.

    ( OM- KATE VIKATE KATAM KATE SVÀHÀ )

    * Một Bản khác ghi là: OM- KATE VIKATE NIKATE KATAM KATE KAROTE VÌRYE SVÀHÀ.


    I don't know what they are saying, but I know what the Sanskrit is, because I found it recorded in Tibet. "Kat" is difficult as it is also "to go", but, as a participle of Karoti, is more like "made, done", and then Vikata:

    (-ṭā) A female divinity peculiar to the Baud'dhas. E. vi implying separation or expansion, kaṭ to go or be

    Probably less like "hideous" or "undone" and more like Vibuddha and Vistara, the Expansion of made/done, thereby a Vidya in Vajramrita Tantra. Although these terms have other interpretations, as verbs, they are almost the same:

    Kaṭa (कट).—1. v. vikaṭa.

    Nikate as said for Simhanada is near, close.


    An auto translation of the Sutra is hilarious because I am not sure this is about France, but, in a few areas it can help with some...suggestions.

    It begins with a Mani or Padma Cintamani Avalokitesvara. A prior Devi mantra goes:

    OM PADMINI BHAGAVATI MOHAYA MOHAYA JAGAD MOHANI SVAHA

    also:

    OM VASUMATI ‘SRÌYE PADMA MÀLINI SVÀHÀ

    OM VI MA LA SVA HA

    OM KU RU KU RE SVAHA HA

    followed by Vajra Agni Pradipta and eventually Om Arolik from Guhyasamaja.




    It refers to Smoke and the other Signs. This is in combination with Medicine:

    As soon as the solar eclipses and lunar eclipses are full, the medicine will appear: warmth, smoke, increase, light will make the medicine successful.


    Near the end is something like a combined Pandara--Simhanada mantra which makes the word Kamkate as a new twist.

    Finding that its title, Nhu Y Luan, is equivalent to Cintamani Chakra, there we go.

    There is a complete translation--which has defective, missing, or different mantras.

    A short version says it contains the Eighteen Methods of Amoghavajra. The very short version starts the Chinese Daily Dharanis that ends on Sri Devi. And so in these cases, it is increasingly masculinized, relevant to male Avalokiteshvara. I suppose we had found the most thorough version first. With some work, its mantras could be supplied into a translation.

    In Shangpa Kagyu, Six Arm White Mahakala is an emanation of Cintamani Lokesvara.

    Lineage: Vajradhara, Jnana Dakini, Shri Shavaripa, Lord Maitripa, Mahasiddha Rahulagupta, Khedrup Khyungpo Naljor...

    In Nepal, he has the behavior of Cintamani Tara, and apparently Pandara does as well:







    In IWS, he has a red form:






    This one comes right after Cittavisrama, Resting in the Nature of Mind, or, in between two of them, followed by Jinasagara with Guhyajnana. Cittavisrama is specifically "reflected" as per the text:









    The Mind at Rest Khasarpanas are Mitra's lineage. IWS 116 is Atisa's Cintamani Lokeshvara with Vajrapasi, Vajraratna, Ekajati, and Bhrkuti. He and Bhrkuti are both Pitcher deities. However IWS 120 is a White Cintamani Chakra with three stacked faces two hands, standing with feet together, although the art site messed up his name:







    In Tibet, a comparable sadhana's placement is in:

    Vol. 22. Sodasabindu mandala of the Kadampa, Jnana-Mahakala with Four Arms, Jnana-Mahakala with 30 Deities, Cintamani Jagadamara Avalokitesvara.



    In Sadhanamala, Sragdhara is an Amitabha deity who is also Cinta Vacana. Only one of those in the book. The author, Sarvajnamitra (disciple of Suryagupta or Ravigupta), also wrote a long, thirty-seven verse Sragdhara song. Or Twenty-five verses for comparison. Original 1908 publication appears to be the beginning of the Bauddha Stotra Samgraha from which we get many of our online versions.

    Sragdhara (स्रग्धर).—a. wearing a garland; Gīt.12.

    Mālinī (मालिनी) (lit. “the garlanded one”) refers to a deity and personification of the Sanskrit alphabet.—Mālinī appears as an alphabet goddess whose letters are not in the traditional order. The appearance and development of these other alphabet deities are often inseparable from the ways in which the concept of Mātṛkā evolves.

    Sragdhara seems to be aware of the Swan or Breath mantra:

    yā bhagavatī so 'haṃ sā bhagavatīty ahaṅkāram utpādayet /


    In a recent retreat:

    According to Sarvajnamitra, a tantric Buddhist who lived in Kashmir in the eighth century and who wrote the Sragdhara-stotram, or A hymn to Tara, she has a “universal form” (visva-rupa) that encompasses all living beings and deities, and which changes with the needs of each being.

    Similar to a partial translation:

    'Some have a vision of you (Tara) as red as the sun with rays
    more brilliant and red than the lac and the vermilion. Others see
    you blue like the sapphire. Some again see you whiter than the
    milk churned out of the milky ocean. Still others see you golden.
    Your visva-rupa is like a crystal which changes its color with
    the change of the things around it.'


    Sragdhara has described the form of Arya Tara Bhattarika.

    These are almost certainly supposed to have bearing on each other and be a part of the Mahakarunika cycle.


    I, personally, like Shentong Rakta Tara in terms of Bhava of Bandhaya, something like cultivating the feeling of friendship you would like to stay. She may be interested in the development of Four Activities and different colors, but does not need to do that yet. Just settle in as a Samaya Sattva. That is what we want some basic ones for, such as Cintamani and Mahattari, as templates to explore what the families are about. If you have one, a related kind is easy. If I have no real relation to Lotus Family, it is not. So, going back to the Yoga instructions, by contemplating intensely the earth, water, fire, and wind mandalas at their positions within the body, one accomplishes the rites of Appeasing, Increasing, and so forth; and as it teaches Enlightenment does not occur on Earth but Akanistha, not all teachings are given on earth:


    Vairocana, dwelling in the Akanistha Heaven, does not proceed else¬
    where because he is the Sambhoga-kaya possessing the five certainties.
    But with the magical apparition (nirmita) of a Vairocana Nirmana-kaya
    having four heads, he proceeded to the summit of Mt. Sumeru and took
    his place in the eaved palace ( kutagara ) of precious thunderbolts.

    In STTS, the Fundamental Tantra teaches the common means of accomplishing mundane and supra-mundane siddhis .

    Furthermore, that work has four sections, namely,

    (1) Diamond (or Thunderbolt) Realm ( vajra-dhatu)'?

    (2) Victory over the Three Worlds (trilokyavijaya);

    (3) Training the Living Beings ( jagad-vinaya );

    (4) Achieving the Objective ( siddhartha ).


    We understand Vajradhatu much better than to put a question mark beside it, we can just say Six Families as per Sadaksari Mahavidya, and then stage two does represent itself in Sarvadurgati Parishodhana, Sadhanamala, etc., very wrathfully and not quite like it may be in Yogini tantra; and these are two parallel sides of the Knower and the Nadis or Net, or 13 and 12 below.


    The following is like a group of topics that "make" a deity or Samaya Sattva; mantra and vidya are male and female, Atma Tattva and Devata Tattva are the basis of the deity formation, and it ends with Six Wisdoms, or Families, and then Four Activities, similar to saying you have composed a set of these and operated it on the deity fully. That is why we need a little bit of each Family to boost a single Devata.

    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) devatatattva,

    (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) visuddhadharmadhatu-jnana,

    (34) akarsana, (35) pravesana, (36) bandhana, (37) vasikara.
    Last edited by shaberon; 8th July 2021 at 19:01.

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    Default Re: The Serpent, the Black Sun, HPB & St. Germain

    Kubjika, Padma Tara, and Pranayama


    Kubjika is a "genre", similar to Heruka:


    Kubjikā (कुब्जिका) is the name of a Goddess elaborated in Tantric texts such as the Manthānabhairavatantra: a vast sprawling work that belongs to a corpus of Tantric texts concerned with the worship of the goddess Kubjikā.—Accordingly, “Formed between the 9th and 13th centuries, the cult of the goddess Kubjikā bloomed during the period in which the Tantric phase of the development of the major Sanskritic religions of South Asia attained its greatest height to then succumb to the upheavals and changes brought about by Muslim domination in the north of India.


    Its explanation that we have been flailing with is the rarest and largest:

    Ṣaṭsāhasra-saṃhitā (षट्साहस्र-संहिता).—Closely related to the Kubjikāmata-tantra is the Ṣaṭsāhasra-saṃhitā which contains approximately 6000 ślokas, as its title indicates, in fifty chapters. Of the Ṣaṭsāhasra-saṃhitā there appear to exist only three manuscripts. The Ṣaṭsāhasra-saṃhitā is an enlarged version of the Kubjikāmata-tantra.


    It also exalts Agni:

    Kubjikā is implicitly identified with the sacrificial fire into which the worlds are offered and from which they arise again. This is the Fire of Kula [Shiva] that burns in the Liṅga. It is the same energy, identified with the goddess [Akula] who resides in the middle of the maṇḍala, the Wheel of the Skyfarers (khecarīcakra).


    It has a similar esoteric principle to our Mahasukha Cakra, and also a similar principle with its Dhumasikha or Column of Smoke to the Vajra Danda, an energetic extension through the Brahmarandra which is trying to reach Higher Yoni:


    The cakra is associated with the element Ether and is located on or just above the head.

    The Khecarīcakra consists of four maṇḍalas (the khecarī goddesses are seated in the first three):

    the sūryamaṇḍala (which contains twenty-four khecarīs),
    the somamaṇḍala (which contains thirty-two khecarīs),
    the vahnimaṇḍala (which contains eight khecarīs)

    and the ādimaṇḍala (which contains the ādiyoni, the primeval source of creation).

    The fourth maṇḍala (ādi) is occupied by Śiva (manifested as Asitāṅga), who is identified with the Navātman. He is accompanied by Devī or Kubjikā, manifested in different forms. Above the Khecarīcakra is the Goddess of Supreme Form, to be realized only through the Navātman by intense and persistent meditation.

    Sun, Moon, and Vahni do not seem that different from the Three Channels.

    "Above" is a goddess who is not specifically named, which may have been Mahantari, which is similar to Visvarupa. Now in her case she in appearance is closer to our Sanmukhi Marici, or, perhaps, a female Manjushri. She is Kamakhya Devi, which is inside the jargon of our Mahacina Krama Tara.

    So, I think that what is going on here is that in Buddhism, we are willing to move this whole semi-secretive "sixth principle"--at a basic, conceptual level--"up front" and the same name, Mahattari, is then the basic Samaya being, from whom the actual or direct realization of a devi within or beyond the Brahmarandra is given by us another name. We could similarly say the Sixth Yoga is a Karma Family devi, subtle re-statement of Mahattari associated with Smoke, and it is very nearly the same as their Mahantari and Dhumasikhe.

    "Supreme" could be Maha Uttara = Mahattari, or, "Supreme Form" is perhaps Visvarupa.

    For the color-shifting Visvarupa ability, Arya Tara Bhattarika 115 is the only one who has this in Sadhanamala; and she is also the only one who appears to affect Aranya (The Forest), which suggests either the Aranyaka literature or the Forest described in the holy site beyond the head. Here, we have Cittavisrama and Manobhanga and the Forest of Vajrayogini. As we see, the slopes of Mt. Meru are forests full of Sabaris which are Generation Stage goddesses, the peak of Meru is where teaching and meditation takes place, and then we have a few verdant Taras and Vajrayogini which are the only Pure Lands of this kind, and again similar to the forests related to yoni and voids in Nath and Kubjika.




    In the Nath tradition, different names are associated for the structures of the above-the head cakra; there is a Forest, Three Peaks, and Purnagiri Pitha, and the Beyond is Parasunya, which, as a philosophical principle, is identical to ours. Even with different names, the same thing seems ingrained with the "phases of creation" here:

    Thus para ('beyond’) is in the Dvàdasània, or rather at the 'End of the Twelve’; süksma (‘subtle') is in the Brahmarandhra; stirida ('gross’) is situated below the Brahmarandhra, i.e. on the human body.

    There again, reversing creation, it is Suksma Yoga to enter the Parasunya.


    The study says Samvarta mandala has the appearance of blue hemp, but it actually says Atasi, which gains the favor of Visnu according to Siva Purana. This mandala is explained as the destruction of the world and formation of a new one. Anandashakti lives through it and this is why it is the Egg or Anda. There are mantric details based on Sun, Moon, and Fire at the End of Time (i. e. riding on Vahni). But because we have already dealt with Destructive Fire in the Puranas, we already expect something like this in the mandala's name:

    Saṃvarta (संवर्त) (more commonly in these sources the feminine—saṃvartā) is the fire that burns within the Cosmic Ocean in which the universe floats and imparts to it the energy that sustains it. Literally called the Fire (that issues) from the Mare’s Mouth (vāḍavāgni), the Doomsday Fire flares up at the end of each cosmic cycle to consume the universe and make way for the next one generated at the beginning of the next cycle by means of its energy. In the mythical universe of the Kubjikā Tantras it burns in the centre of the Island of the Moon, a place that in other contexts is called the Ocean of the Yoni—thus reconciling the two perceptions of its nature and location, the one Purāṇic that places it at the bottom of the cosmic ocean, and the other Tantric. Thus, the energy in the centre of the Circle of the Fire of the Aeons (saṃvartā-maṇḍala), the main maṇḍala of the Kubjikā Tantras, is said to consume the Ocean of Kula.


    On that particular subject, Buddhist mandalas take a great deal of poetic license and call it many things, as visualization-of-concept, however we would agree there is an actual one that happens to you when you reach the targets of the energized smoke or mist that is all that is left of "you" going beyond the head in, hopefully, as much of a Dhruvam, i. e. aligned to north, manner as possible.




    Now, just as we say the Four Dakinis are in the Mahasukha Cakra, at other times we may say they are in the Heart. That is not very different from the locations of the Samvarta mandalas:

    1) in the Brahmarandhra, 2) in the heart, 3) in the Àdhâra Cakra, 4) in the Tradition (T sarti va riamandola vyâ varnanam \ brahmarandhrasihani hrdistham ûdhârasîhant I tathâ kramagatam ca)






    The ‘honouring of the deities of the body’ actually means that the teacher consecrates the body by means of nyâsa for the following ritual, the body thus becoming consecrated to Màlini ( = Sakti) and Sabdaràsi ( = Siva). Another group of ‘deities of the body’ which might be intended are the gods and goddesses of the five Mahapithas among which we also find the goddesses of the Malini-system.


    Matanga appears to be a semi-secret part of the Khecaricakra, not above it:

    The first Samvarta mandala is located above the Brahmarandhra (5b), whereas the T situates it in or on the Brahmarandhra (T brahmarandhrasiha), a location which agrees with SatSS 1.29. Furthermore this first Samvarta mandala is situated in the middle of the Khecarlcakra (5c).

    In pâda 5d the first Samvartamandala is said to be in the centre of the abode of Mâtanga (mâtangapâda). this refers to the fifth Mahâpitha, which is called Màtanga. Like the first Samvartamandala it is situated above the Brahmarandhra, and in the centre of the Khecaricakra (4/5,119ab). While the first Samvartamandala is located in the Forest of the Srisaila (6a srisaila vanamadhyasthitam), the Srisaila itself is stated to be in the Mâtanga Mahâpitha (4/5,119c). and above the Brahmarandhra ( 19,63cd brahmarandhrasya ûrdhve tu srîsaihm yatra parvatam).

    Srisaila "forest" is simultaneously a small mountain:

    Śrīśaila (श्रीशैल) is another name for the Kaumara mountain (identified with Śrīśaila in Andhra) and refers to one of the ten places visited by the Goddess on her pilgrimage, according to Tantric texts such as the Kubjikāmata-tantra, the earliest popular and most authoritative Tantra of the Kubjikā cult.—Accordingly, as the Goddess said: “I am (now) going again there to the Kula mountain in India that has been praised by those who know it as Śrīparvata from ages without beginning. (Also) called (mount) Kumāra, it is adorned with an umbrella for shade”.

    Like Kailāśa and Meru, Śrīśaila, also known as Śrīparvata, is projected into the End of the Twelve, to crown the sacred body.

    “situated in the Karnal country in the Balaghaut Ceded districts and on the south side of the Kṛṣṇā river, at the north-western extremity of the Karnul territory, about 102 miles west, south-west of Dharanikoṭa and 82 miles east, north-east of Karnul and 50 miles from the Kṛṣṇa station of the G.I.P. Railway.... It is an isolated hill about 1570 feet high surrounded on three sides by the river Kṛṣṇā and on the fourth partly by the Bhimanakollam torrent”.




    The Samvartamandala Sutra is composed in Sragdhara meter (so is Kalachakra Tantra).

    It thinks of the Cosmic Egg or golden Hiranyagarbha (in the synonym Anda) and results in something like where we saw Padmasambhava begin an ocean voyage:

    born from the yoginïgarbha is The Mother, Konkanâmbikâ

    Koṅkaṇā (कोङ्कणा).—Name of Reṇukā, wife of Jamadagni, mother of Parasurama.

    kōṅkaṇa (कोंकण) [or कोकण, kōkaṇa].—n (S) The country westward of the Sahyadri-range, north and south of Bombay

    According to the Ṣaṭsāhasrasaṃhitā the Siddha who brought the teachings to Koṅkaṇa established there on a hill a Circle of the Mothers, in the middle of which he installed the goddess Koṅkaṇā. Clearly, the intention is to identify Kubjikā as the patron goddess of Koṅkaṇa, the ancient Śrīdeśa, the Land of Śrī now understood not as being of Lakṣmī but of Kubjikā. [...] By the time the Kumārikākhaṇḍa was redacted, the seat Trisrota / Tisra, mount Trikūṭa and the Island of the Moon are all identified externally with the land of Koṅkaṇa and share a common inner identity as the location of the goddess's Triangle in the End of the Twelve.


    Koṅkana (कोङ्कन) is the name of ancient country where once stood the Jñānabimbakāysa-stūpa, according to Sakya Paṇḍita (12th century).—[The Jñānabimbakāya-stūpa] is said to be present in the form of rainbow-colored light, in the sky above the so-called “town stūpa”, in the land of Koṅkana, which hugs the ocean shore in South [West] India. The venerable Sakya Paṇḍita has referred to the whole region that lies beneath this stūpa in the following verse: “This land, known as Cāritra, is located by the ocean shore, in the south”.

    With regard to that land known as Cāritra, it is where Vajravārāhī is known to have ritually summoned or brought together all the ale of the three levels of existence. After she had mixed all the yeast and grain liquor that there was, the quantity increased manifoldly, and when the essence of that yeast had been exhausted, she let it set for a while, so that its potency was renewed. After this had happened on seven occasions, subsequently at auspicious times, the whole region of Koṅkana was permeated by the fragrance of the wine.

    Furthermore, it is said that in the place where this stūpa is located [i.e., Koṅkana] there is an abundant harvest of grain, and it is endowed with an abundance of food and beverages—fruits, molasses, wine, and so forth.


    Near Sahya, identified here as Purnagiri, where:

    She went to Sahya, the great forest ; [there] She filled the three worlds with the lustre o f the Sampürnamandala, — ‘world ’ means [in this context] the hum an body, [or] the kalà which is above the palate: it is the quintessence o f the ‘world* beginning and ending with the Rudras, and subsisting on Amrta — [filling] completely, entirely and wholly [the three worlds] which encompass both the worlds and beyond.

    It says the standard devi here is Ekavira, and this text changes it.

    That was the only "garbha", hiranya only shows up as a synonym of heramba in the list of Nyasa where for some reason they have found it wise to involve a Pisaca:


    Herambha, the one called Dhüli (or Culi), Pisàca, Kubja, and Vâtnana; these will be the five guardians,

    Or: hîranyamukho

    Sumukhi is in the center of the navel.

    If so, we know her as a Pisacini.

    Vira is a synonym of Matanga in this book.

    Instead, by defining Hiranyagarbha as the Samvartamandala, they have turned it into a yogic practice rather than a philosophical statement.



    It is difficult to explain how the clairvoyant experiences I have had, happen, but in my more stable and better perceptions, humans have such a golden egg. It lives outside of time when everything else is destroyed. And so it seems rather more correct that the egg is the real being, which at times makes a tiny atom that contacts the physical world and unites with an embryo.

    It is covered by veils or layers, i. e. colors and forms, etc., and so even if you are able to perceive some rather interesting lights, you are not going to find the gold without subtle yoga. And so just by relatively simple non-Buddhist means, I was able to pursue this; but then, if I turn around and there is Cintamani Tara, Golden Light Sutra, Mayuri, Sri Devi, Kamala, and so forth, this is like an immediate ability to teach that there is such a thing. Buddha describes it as the most important fire, Completer of Wisdom.



    Hiranyagarbha is scarce in Sadhanamala. Saraha composed a couple of things for Trailokya Vasankara Lokeshvara. He invokes Hariti and also is doing a type of Vajrayogini Abhisekha which involves:

    hiraṇyagarbhanānāyoginīgaṇā

    Candamaharoshana 88 also does...something...with it.


    Elsewhere, Buddha himself says it the first time he invokes Namo Maha Mayuri Vidya Rajni; in other words, one might have argued, "the mayuri is just a recitation", but, now she is named as an entity at par with the Three Jewels and Peacock King Suvarna Vabhasasya.

    Although "hiranya" shows up as a color sometimes, the only other similar mantric identity to Hiranyagarbha that I have found is Sitavati in Dharani Samgraha.

    Gold obviously matches Mayuri in PR206, which is the standard kind of Pancha Raksa in Nepal, where the Dharani Samgraha is from, although it matches ancient literature from far to the west, whereas the color doesn't match Sitavati at all. But this mandala is already set to have quite a few non-matching features.

    Gold would not match the ordinary Green Mayuri who perhaps resembles her Sabari origin. That one is probably closer to a yogini or Nirmanakaya, and part of the point to PR206 is that it is a Sambhogakaya.




    So, it still seems strange that there is hardly a plain Red Padma Tara anywhere to be found.

    TBRC Dhanada plainly uses Padma Tara with a Lotus. It also includes Puspa Tara who seemed to be missing from Sadhanamala. With Dhanada, there is no need of a basic Karma Tara with a Crossed Vajra, but it takes Padma Tara for granted.

    Trying to probe another source, Dharani Samgraha is difficult to work with; of course, it has a few examples of Cintamani and Lotus:


    Cintamanikalpa and Kamala in Ratnadhatu Lokesvara; Cintamani Dhara as Vasudhara; Grahamatrika that includes Bhattarika Mahadevi; Ugra Tara related to Pramardini; Arya Tara Bhattarika samaptam; Tara Bhatta rika Sragdharaksaram samaptam; Vairocani devi samaptam followed by Cinta mani lokesvara and Suvarnaprabha; Simhanada; Pandulavasini in Mahamegha


    Ugra Tara is Ekajati, and uses Mamaki's Kulesvari Kulandhari phrases; appears to be the Tapasi for Vasudhara.

    Ugra Tara and Bhattarika look like they are threads from elsewhere which continue to weave here in the Samgraha. I am not sure that it deals with a basic Padma Tara form, but that is a slightly weird match to the two south Indian Prajna Sadhanas stuck in Rinjung Gyatsa and IWS. Although some of the Dharani Samgraha pieces are fairly brief, Sragdhara and Bhattarika are massive, right before Ugra Tara--Ekajati.

    Its Twenty-one Taras salutes Ekajati, and appears it may have Pramardani in the place Suryagupta meant it, and Bhrkuti as Fourteen. Its Golden Light Buddha is Padmottama or Buddha from a prior universe.

    Likhir in Ladakh is nominally Gelug, but has Nyen's (Gnan's) Green and White Taras; the only Red mentioned is that of the Sakya. It is probably out of order, Marici is probably last, nevertheless it represents Twenty-one Taras which are neither Suryagupta's or Atisha's, but some of all kinds.


    According to a history of south India, Rakta Lokesvara was already present at Ellora, therefor Matsyendranath probably did not originate it. Also:

    A study of the provenance of
    Buddhist sites in South India would show that there were
    five main ancient routes which converged in the Vengirastra
    and led to Kalinga, Dravida, Kamata, Maharastra and to
    Kosala respectively. Necessarily the lower Krishna Valley
    was a particularly propitious zone for the proliferation of
    the Buddhist creed and River Krishna (Maisolos of the
    Greeks) was the life giving arterial water-way that united
    together the trading patrons given to far flung voyages and
    devoted monks who annihilated distance to spread the gospel
    of the Buddha. The valley of Nagarjunakonda (in Guntur
    District) was discovered in 1936.

    ...the hundreds of sites of early Buddhist faith, mostly of Mahayana
    that dotted the valley have revealed an outstanding and new
    chapter in the history of Andhra Pradesh and of early Buddhism
    at Vijayapuri, as the city here was anciently caBed, and at
    Sri Parvata as the hill range from here to Srisailam was
    also perhaps called.



    I found that Wayman says:

    That work is the most important one among the Tantras of the Mother of the Padma
    kula. Its Sanskrit title: Sarvatathagatamatrtaravisvakarmabhava-tantra.

    The copy is crooked, but, that is the subject of Martin Wilson's In Praise of Tara or, i. e., a full translation, where all the Mother Taras of the Families are Four Faced and Eight Armed, and of course the stand-alone version chosen for comparison is Vajra Tara. However in this tantra, some of the Mothers do not match the usual colors.

    Manjushri is the querent and Buddha teaches it in Tusita with Kurukulla, Parnasabari, and others; in fact, Tara descends onto Kurukulla's crown. It is based on Twenty-one Taras Song. It emanates the syllables she also uses for Dissolution. The main Tara arises from Green Tam and then a multi-colored Tam and she is just a Varada Tara. Green is doubled in the North, where she holds a Parasol. This is similar to, but actually smaller than Dhanada's mandala, which adds Offering Goddesses.

    "Rite for Subjugating" uses a simple Padma Tara, whereas the Mother is the large form. This "subjugation" is third, followed by Fierce, i. e. Destruction.

    The "Rites" Taras appear to be stand-alone, not retinues. You make an environment and do an alteration of basic Tara mantra with them. There are Four Activities, and then All Activities, one activity per Family. Some have Amitabha and the Moon in their hair. "Subjugation" seems to mean summoned from anywhere in the three worlds. But this is really in the place of the Third Activity, Magnetizing, or bonding or locking. Although this Tara is described as rising gracefully (lila), smiling and laughing with darting eyes, that may not be necessary, if I do not think it means bringing anyone from "out there", but magnetizing my own inner kings and so forth, which are subconscious and stained. Her Japa in Lotus Family is:

    Om Tuttare Ture Ture Svaha

    although even this may have "two Tures", or, several different endings in various manuscripts:

    Ture ture D, ture B, tiire ture P, tu tiire ture LN, tu tiire T.


    The subjugation activity mantra is:

    Om Tare Tare Tuttare Hum-kara-puritasa-dig-antare

    sapta-loka-kramakranti asesakarsana-ksami Hrih


    So she actually has Akarsana or Hook there, not Vasikaran. It is not Kurukulla, but more like Manohara. This was originally translated by Dharma Sri Mitra, and back to us from Tibetan, and I am not sure of the original word for "subjugation". In Nepal, Dharma Sri Mitra had an interesting encounter with Manjushri, in more detail here, but that cannot be the same one. The Tibetan Lotsawa was Gelong Chokyi zang-po (ca. 1012-1088).


    The Padma Tara in the mandala perhaps has a different item, but, this solo one arises in the tantric tradition of Green Tara, and, her subject is the Third Activity itself. It has hook power in the mantra, but does not say she carries one.


    In the narrative, Tara is even older than Avalokiteshvara, who received her when empowered by the Tathagatas, hence his interest in expounding her in this world. That certainly reverses the understanding you would get from only one story which would make it appear he created her. He just knew her and asked for help.

    This copy ruins the Sanskrit, but is straightened, with mostly legible English.

    In Vietnamese, it is clearer and we get the same Sanskrit mantras, and what is interesting is that she permutes Mahakarunika Dharani in each Family, with the correct phrase Vyuha Raja, i. e. King of the Magical Display, and so the standard verse, Namo Arya Jnana Sagara Vairocana Vyuha Rajaya, is just a special case that can be replaced by Akshobhya or Amitabha, etc.

    That is the closest thing that would suggest this is like Sragdhara and Bhattarika, a Green Tara in Lotus Family, because she makes a Quintessence of Mahakarunika. That and connecting to Kurukulla. Wilson admires Sragdhara from among the songs he found:

    The outstanding work among them is certainly the famous Sragdhara (Garland-bearing) Praise of Sarvajnamitra. It has an unfair advantage over the others as it is the only one for which I had the Sanskrit text; though philosophical texts may survive translation into Tibetan unscathed, poetry like this loses a great deal-besides the impossibility of transmitting word-play and ambiguities, Tibetan has perhaps a tenth of the vocabulary of Sanskrit, so the most dazzling masterpiece tends to come out sounding rather flat.

    He did not notice the significance of Thirty-seven verses.

    That is long, will post separately.


    Concerning the main force here, Karuna, looking at how it works is similar to Wrathful Deities, who are not themselves angry, but have this appearance in order to annihilate anything that infringes on Peace--which, for some reason, was not "officially" (?) counted with the Moods until Abhinavagupta's time ca. 10th century. But we have it in Dakini Jala, older than that. That is why sometimes there are only Eight Moods, and in this case, Karuna appears to simultaneously represent the troubled one as well as the one motivated to respond:

    1. Sorrow, affliction, one of the eight sentiments.

    Moving compassion, one of the rasas, or sentiments of a poetical production, [Rāmāyaṇa]


    That is the emotion, but, in Buddhism, it is defined this way:


    Karuṇa (करुण):—n. an action, holy work, [Ṛg-veda i, 100, 7; Atharva-veda xii, 3, 47; Taittirīya-saṃhitā i.]

    In other words, not really counted unless you actually do it.

    E. kṝ to send or cast, unan

    Kr is perhaps similar to Kriya and other terms, and has various active implications such as:

    12) To fulfil, accomplish.

    13) To have sexual intercourse with

    and then una is lacking, want of, deficient, defective, so it is along the lines of "failure", and of course one tries to reverse that.

    Worldly beings lack Bliss, let alone Complete Enlightenment, which is why we as a Sangha try to perpetuate it. That is why the Karuna is this esoteric teaching, which contains, but is not only, the sentiment.




    Wayman did not flush out much of anything about Padma Tara, either, although there are a couple of Padma synonyms:

    padmabhajana (lotus vessel) is
    kapala (skull)

    vola (gum myrrh) is vajra (thunder-
    bolt)

    kakkola (perfume) is lotus


    is the four wheels {cakra [of the
    body] [one of which] is either the
    wheel at the head or the wheel at the
    navel; or it is the kakkola of the
    karmamudra. ... the four wheels
    are the padmabhajana . . .



    But in seeking, I found other good notes anyway. One is that the Samaya Sattva--Symbolic or Pledge Being--also works with Concentration Hero or "nested dolls":


    in Padmavajra’s commentary on the Sri-Dakarnava called
    Vahikatika (Toh. 1419), Derge Dza, 152b-2: “The Dharmakaya of the yogins is the
    Samadhi Being; the Sambhogakaya, the Knowledge Being; the Nirmanakaya, the
    Symbolic Being, because one creates [those Beings] in direct vision in this world by
    means of those Bodies that way”

    The Samadhi Sattva is in the Heart of the Jnana Sattva or Knowledge Being. And so you use the Samaya Sattva to summon that, and then they merge. So again that is why we focus on a well working Samaya Sattva to begin with.


    Morover, the tantric power implied by Red Tara as above, directly plays to where we are trying to go.


    The Third Activity may be a form of Magnetization which for practical purposes, I take as the following on the closeness of Lotus Family, Speech, and Sambhogakaya, related to the elusive Jnana Mudra:


    The procedure of conferring the initiation is as follows: the red-and-
    white element of the “Father-Mother” union are taken from the “lotus”
    of the Mother with the ring fingers of the “Father-Mother” and placed
    on the tip of their own tongue.

    As to the essential nature [of the initiation], when that element reaches
    the throat, the guru, by reason of being the basis for the combination
    of Bliss and the Void by way of “Father-Mother” union, and by reason
    of being the molten nature of all the deities, is able to produce concretely
    a special Bliss and at that time executes the seal of the visualization [of
    the Void], so he has the knowledge of Bliss-Void.

    Nowadays, a person with keen faculties has Bliss produced concretely
    through a conviction that the guru and the “Knowledge Seal” ( jnana -
    mudra) have united at the time of placing on the tongue the “ambrosia”
    (amrta ) generated into the essential nature of the red-and-white element.
    And even if a person does not have such faculties, he certainly must
    arouse the conviction that Bliss has been born and combine that with
    visualization [of the Void].

    Rasa or Taste of Ambrosia is, I suppose, the highest part of the sadhana we want to try as outer disciples.


    it reaches the locations of his ‘veins’
    (nadi) and blesses (i.e. empowers) the red-and-white element and the
    wind of the speech ‘vein’ located there. Taking recourse to the service¬
    ability, he contemplates and controls the samvrti-maya Steps of Com-
    pletion, which are the arcane state of body, of speech, and of mind
    [phases] of the Steps of Completion. 8 Also, through the “gate” of being
    a fit vessel for that, he contemplates in piercing the “centers” [i.e. lotus
    or cakra centers] of the body. Thus, in the time of the path, he makes
    the wind enter, dwell, and dissolve in the “middle vein” (avadhuti);
    from that the four Voids are produced; and through their power he
    accomplishes the “illusory body” (maya-deha) that is accomplished from
    the Winds and Mind-only. Thereby he establishes the capacity of ac¬
    complishing ultimately the fruit, which is the Sambhogakaya of the pure
    wind of the speech “vein”.

    8 The Sadanga-yoga of the Steps of Completion are these six: pratyahara , dhyana,
    pranayama , dharana , anusmrti, and samadhi. Tson-kha-pa’s Mthah gcod (Toh. 5284),
    Vol. Ca, 116a-4, ff., gives the views of his own school {ran gi lugs). Here we find that
    the arcane state of body is prevalent in both pratyahara and dhyana , the arcane state
    of speech in pranayama, the arcane state of mind in dharana. (So much for the efficacy
    of the secret initiation: the arcane state of mind means the four voids in the forward
    direction). Furthermore, the reverse order of the four voids takes place in anusmrti
    (which concerns the insight-knowledge initiation); and the “coupling” ( yuganaddha )
    occurs in the last anga-samadhi (treated in the discussion of the fourth initiation).





    The Tantric procedure is to master the
    techniques of passing through the three Lights to the experience of the
    Clear Light, to thus carry away the three bodies of a Complete Buddha;
    and Tson-kha-pa teaches that if one does not know how to proceed with
    skill he simply has momentary experiences of all these states when dying,
    passing through the intermediate state, and being reborn.


    The Groups of Four and Five

    A fine summary statement of the goddesses considered as consorts in
    the Anuttara-yoga-tantra is given by the Tibetan author Klon-rdol bla-ma :

    The “means path” of another’s body is the four families of “seals”
    (mudra), namely: Padmini, Sankhini, Hastini, and Mrgi. Moreover,
    each of those has the three varieties “together-born female”
    (sahaja), “field-born female” {ksetraja), and “incantation-born
    female” (dharanlja). The “together-born female” enables one to
    attain the illusory body and the Goal Clear-light. The “field-born
    female” enables one to attain the Symbolic Clear-light with the
    arcane state of body, of speech, and of mind. The “incantation-
    born female” is the yogini at the final limit of the “stages of produc-
    tion” {utpatti-krama).


    The object to be summoned is (a) the god maiden (surakanya),
    (b) the demi-god maiden {daityakanya), (c) the four kinds of human
    maidens— Padmini, Sankhani, Hastini, and Mrgi. They on all
    circles (mandala) of earth, are summoned from everywhere. The
    first is summoned from above the earth; the second, from beneath
    the earth; the third, from upon the earth.


    The stage of Pranayama is:

    arcane speech, and involves visualization of the mantras (mantranidhyapti). Along
    with this muttering there is Tantric manipulation of the winds.


    Dharana is much different:

    one proceeds to the Cittavisuddhi-krama, namely to visualiza-
    tion of the mental substance (cittanidhyapti) as the three light stages or
    three voids, the arcane mind. The arcane body or illusory body consisting
    of the winds and that mental substance is the topic of the Svadhisthana-
    krama (stage of personal blessing). Stationed in the illusory-like samadhi
    {mayopama-samddhi), one enters the Clear Light with the illusory body by
    means of the two simultaneous meditations called “contraction” {pinda-
    graha) and “expansion” (anubheda), described in the Abhisambodhi-krama.


    Generally, what they call the Flask Initiation is part of Generation Stage, and so it is this we are emulating with Varuni and others:

    1. The incantation-born female. — She is called a vidya and is evoked by
    a vidya-dharapi. The male deity can be called a mantra and the incantation
    evoking him is called a mantra-dharapo, Lva-va-pa, when speaking of the
    five initiations of the flask, says:

    Those five initiations which have the nature of the five Tathagatas
    (i.e., Buddhas) are also referred to by the expression “wisdom
    initiation” {vidya-abhiseka)~-because they accomplish the five
    “wisdom knowledges” (vidya-jnana) whose natures are the trans-
    mutation of the five unwisdoms {avidya} and because in every case
    the initiation is conferred by the vidya goddess, Buddhalocana
    and so on.

    The meaning of this last remark is clarified in Mkhas grub rje’s treatment
    of the initiations of the flask. He states that when the hierophant
    (vajrdcarya) sprinkles the disciple with the “diamond water (vajra-udaka)
    of the Victorious Flask (vijaya-kalasa) it is imagined that in reality the
    vidyas, Locana and so on, hold the flask and pour the initiatory water.


    Something similar to that, using Samaya Beings for the Families. If you get the hang of it, you may experience Dharana:


    The expression “three knowledges” means the three lights, Light, Spread
    of Light, and Culmination of Light, constituting the arcane mind.


    And then it says you need this one to get the Four Joys:


    3 . The together-born. Candrakirti in his commentary on the

    Guhyasamaja cites this verse about her:

    The great goddess located in the heart,

    Causing the yogin’s yoga—

    The Mother of all the Buddhas —

    Is called Vajradhatvisvari (Queen
    of the Diamond Realm).

    As the incantation-born female yielded a predominance of void, the field-
    bom female a predominance of pleasure, so now the together-born female
    yields the experience of pleasure-void (sukha-sunya) in equal measure.
    This pleasure-void involves a sequence of four joys (ananda), produced by
    the melted white element in the central channel of the body.


    It is the last of the four which is actually Sahaja. Then the reverse, or second four, making Eight Joys, is all in a Sahaja state, and is the Fifth Yoga or stage of Anusmrti or Sadhana.

    Generally speaking, many more people can get themselves going towards or into Pranayama, than those who can easily accomplish it and get Dharani. So if we take the beguilingly simple Padma Tara and task her with the Third Activity which is really Bandha, and with the Third Yoga which is Pranayama, this is what she and her Family are made for. Wangdu is Magnetizing according to Mipham. Wang is the Tibetan term (Tib. དབང་, Wyl. dbang) often translated as 'empowerment' or 'initiation'. "Abhisheka is a Sanskrit term, and its two fundamental meanings have been translated into Tibetan as torwa and lugpa. Torwa is usually translated as “dismantling” and refers to the cocoon of ignorance in which we are wrapped and that needs to be dismantled; and lugpa is translated as “pouring”—as in “pouring blessings”—and more obliquely, as “discovering our buddhanature.”" Of course they mainly talk about literal empowerments, but, we can do something similar internally.




    In what he calls "Inner Zodiac", he gets a bit beyond me. I can say I know that Eight Joys are real, but those who have realized the following, have reversed and doubled that as well:



    The Sixteen Digits of the Moon

    Returning to the directional orientation with Aries in the East, this is
    consistent with Padmavajra’s exposition (again the Vahikatlka-nama,
    309a- 1 to 309b-4) about the sixteen digits (kala) of the Moon as yoga
    experiences. His remarkable passage is now translated in full :


    Accordingly, he increases his own ocean of knowledge, as do the
    digits of the moon, because he cultivates the praxis. The cultivation
    of praxis will be explained here. By contemplating the letters of
    glorious He-ru-ka in the cakras belonging to the moon, i.e. the
    mind (manas), they arise as the sixteen joys. Their establishment by
    digits of the Moon will be here set forth as they are. The text says,
    “first of all,” and so on; the transits {'pho ba) number sixteen;
    first of all arises joy. As to “knowledge” (jnana), it belongs to the
    yogins who apprehend the Aries transit’, this is to be known; when
    one is truly aware of it, there is knowledge. By entering the second
    one, the Taurus transit, he has a body which proceeds in the sky,
    that is, he rightly proceeds with a body made of wind. By the third
    one, Gemini, he arises in the form of that mind, like the shaft of an
    arrow, as though incorporeal. In the fourth. Cancer “image of the
    target,” he penetrates the mind, that is, he opens up all entities. In
    the fifth one, the Leo transit, he with the nature of the five peaks,
    that is, with the nature of cittavajra pleasure, penetrates the five
    aspects, to wit, recollects the five strands of desire, form, sound,
    etc. In the sixth, Virgo, called “origination of the six elements,”
    with the mind of enlightenment he arouses the joy of the Great
    Person. In the seventh, Libra, he is said to have the form of the
    ocean ; this means those in the middle of the ocean, who have the
    ocean of knowledge, as previously explained in the chapter on
    characteristics of (the goddess) Lama. In the eighth one, the
    Scorpio transit, named “Lotus,” he has the form of joy of those
    very eight spaces of the heart lotus, and arises together with the
    moving and non-moving (worlds). In the ninth, Sagittarius, called
    “elixir (rasayana), because he refrains from laboring in the nine
    veins (probably the nine orifices), all the elements of the body get
    the elixir along with ecstasy. In the tenth one, Capricorn, called
    “desire of the Capricorn Moon,” he has the nature of all the ten
    (intra-uterine) states, superior to them with the conatal body
    (sahaja-deha). In the eleventh, Aquarius, called “tranquil form,”
    he has the distinguished joy of arising in the form of liberation,
    transcending the fourth (i.e. as Siva). Having entered the twelfth,
    the Pisces transit, called “form of the wheel,” his mind has the form
    of the Visnu lineage, which means the seed of enlightenment from
    the enduring form of all joys. In the thirteenth, he is in the food of
    the rising Sun (the solar vein). In the fourteenth, he is in the food of
    the rising Moon (the lunar vein). In the fifteenth, by praxis of Rahu
    (the eclipse planet) all the quarters melt into the Avadhuti. The
    sixteenth is called “bindu-nama” for which reason it is said to be
    “free from time,” and so it is called “introspection,” and so on.
    One should understand all those characteristics.


    That takes tons of commentary, but one can at least see the sixteenth might not be represented graphically or phonetically, and of course it is hard to squeeze more than fifteen days into the moon's waxing phase.

    Around here, for the fifth, sixth, and seventh transits, he refers to Indrabhuti's Samputatilaka and observes:

    That passage shows that in this system of Mother Tantra, to the fivefold
    groupings, a sixth element of knowledge is added (Padmavajra: “with the
    mind of enlightenment” [Jnana]), and finally a seventh, the possessor knowledge
    realm (Padmavajra: “who have the ocean of knowledge” [Dharmin, possessor of the natures]).

    That is in reference to Thirty-seven point Enlightenment, with the seventh element as the all-pervasive thirty-seventh tattva.

    1) Dharmin (धर्मिन्).—A thing possessed of properties, द्रव्यः (dravyaḥ)

    Seven Elements means Seven Families, of which, from Dharani Samgraha, the massive Pratyangira Sitatapatra gives:

    namo bhagavate tathāgata kulasya || namo bhagavate padmakulasya || namo bhagavate vajakūlasya || namo bhagavate ratnakulasya || namo bhagavate maṇikūlasya || namo bhagavate rājakūlasya || namo bhagavate kumārakulasya ||

    Very similar to, I believe, Sarvadurgati, which added Kumara and Naga Families.


    Here, Jnana is similar to the First Joy. In the Buddhist sense, at least, yes this is Vajrasattva or a Sixth Family, whereas the seventh isn't exactly anything new, but an evermore subtle refinement and accomplishment, which requires, is based on, and operates by, the First Joy. Again, a whole heap of yogic literature may drive you there faster, but then it kind of drops you off, and you may get stuck in a loop or misguided. It is nearly impossible to get the First, and from there, without good guidance, the Fourth may be considered non-existent, or, it is almost as difficult to attain, and this is Sahaja. From that point, the next four are relatively straightforward, and--I didn't know it didn't stop there. I am not sure I could do any more now that I do. Maybe another lifetime.



    In the eighth house:

    Drawing (the winds) from head down, and from feet up, into the
    heart, the yogin enters bhutakoti (the true limit): this is called
    “contraction”.

    Having first rendered the stationary and the moving life into the
    Clear Light, he then renders that into himself: this is the stage of
    “expansion”.

    Since this is the mystical experience of “death” it agrees with Scorpio’s
    fruit (death).





    This is an unidentified Manjuvajra which has many non-iconic simple Taras; perhaps they are Atisha's. Most of the rest of them have six arms, except the topmost devi, probably Usnisa, and the lower one, probably Vajra Tara. What caught my eye is a white Tara beside her, who has an arc of multi-colored lotuses:


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