Does Anybody Else Have Clear Body Experiences?

[Old Student]

Perhaps so, perhaps something else towards the androgyny of Vajrasattva. There is a distinct separate example of Param Adi Buddha being, I believe, what Kalachakra deity emerges from.

Then that's definitely it, then.

Interestingly it uses system of Nine and if is related to sadhanas, I would suggest it is to Picuva Marici, because the text does not use dakinis or anything like that, but, Marici is the speaker of the end of the first chapter, with a flock of subtly ornamented birds, Emanations of Light Rays, The goddess of mental pleasure. The text regularly threatens you with falling on a Vajra Needle.

Falling on a Vajra Needle? Is this part of her 'sow the eyelids shut to ward off distractions' needle thing?

The nine spaces
Are the spaces of the root of the mind itself,
Yet they have no mind.

They sound like Spaces of the Winds, or perhaps the Nine Ways or Moods that Vajra Rosary says they convey through six chakras.

Nine Treasuries is mDzod dgu and then:

The nine jeweled spaces[33] are luminescent in our hearts.

[33] gLong

I would guess it is a spelling of Lung as in Longda instead of Lungta.

The "Longda" re-spelling would be (possibly automated) rewrite of Wade-Giles Chinese transliteration into Pinyin. Lung -> Long, ta -> da. At least for the travel agents you linked.

Question: The nine jeweled spaces highly resembles the pearl with nine passages in Chinese stuff. Of the two words in Sanskrit meaning "jewel" one, "mani" also means pearl directly. Do you think there is any relation between the two?

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
Falling on a Vajra Needle? Is this part of her 'sow the eyelids shut to ward off distractions' needle thing?

No.

And firstly this is an English translation of a Tibetan text; there is no Sanskrit original known.

In the first chapter, the Dhyani Buddhas are addressed; Vajrasattva is proclaimed as a Tathagata, so, he is of a similar class as the ones evolved out of STTS whereby there become Five Dhyanis including Amoghasiddhi. So the Five are spoken to, and then Vajrasattva is the main speaker of most of the subjects.

It does not have the same tone as Marici sadhanas, certainly not Kriya ones.

After the Five are finished, the end of Chapter One with Marici's statement is:

Then the blessings of heroic compassion
Showed themselves in a body,
Using their five lights,
As a force of encouragement for people
At the end of the dominion of desire
Who have three names,
For there were three omens.
From atop the throne of a Dharma wheel,
Beneath a shining firmament of blazing jewels,
Vajra proclaimed the unspoken.
Princely people,
Having the resolve of awareness,
Understood what it means,
And that very moment
Was the instant of the ending of time for them.
So it was that the twenty thousand volumes
On the nine spaces[20]

[20] kLong dgu

Were disseminated in the abodes of the fortunate gods.
Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]

[21] ‘Od zer can

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
She was invested with empowerment
With the vase of royal investiture,
From seven fortunate children who were also emanations,
And met with the Bodhicitta without hindrance.
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.
Innumerable Victorious Ones have brought this together
From out of their perfect stores,
And proclaimed its teaching broadly.
There is nothing that is not included in the Nine Spaces.
The fortunate, those who know compassion,
Will understand this instantaneously.
Their bodies will fill the great expanse[22] of the vajra sky.

[22] Kyel po che

They will cut through the complications
Of there being a middle and extremes.
They will carry a wheel of wisdom lamps,
Without being given them.
Their luminescence is unspeakable.
Their inspiration equals the end of the sky.
They are primordially cleansed
From the complications made by definitions.
In the wheel of self-illuminating awareness
They are skilled in the methods
Of thought, speech, and practice.
In the wheel of the awareness of equanimity,
They lay things out with definitions and grammar.
From out of the wheel of self-occurring wisdom
Their fabulous compassion naturally arises.
The Tathagata Vajrasattva
Rises up from out of the wheel of self-occurring secrecy,
As do the teachings on the Nine Spaces,
And demonstrates how the self-occurring
Is clear by itself.
It explains things to itself.
It teaches itself.
It gathers itself,
And brilliantly comes together,
Dwelling as one with the uncontrived circle.[23]

[23] Thig le

The proclamations on awareness are clear by themselves,
And are beyond speaking.
This is well known as the Tantra on Effortless Perfection.[24]

[24] Bya bral rdzogs pa’i rgyud

I only know about enough Tibetan to say Ozercan = Marici and Thigle = Bindu.

I did see that Samvarodaya Heruka is also taught as expressing Nine Moods. Marici is here, and, "this" Vajrasattva is on its way to becoming "that" Heruka kind. The text has more of a Mahamudra flavor which begins to reject categories and philosophies and so forth, and so to me that has a lot to do with the attempt to convey this reality outside of the sadhana theater. The book does not exactly say do not do any practices, it is talking about an important engine needed to get them to work which is above and beyond words and ideas.

The threatening needle is for instance first aimed against outer practice without the driver:

If we do not hold to what is holy and victorious,
We might become learned in innumerable Tantras,
But we will die,
And when our hearts are not connected
We will surely fall onto the vajra needle.

Question: The nine jeweled spaces highly resembles the pearl with nine passages in Chinese stuff. Of the two words in Sanskrit meaning "jewel" one, "mani" also means pearl directly. Do you think there is any relation between the two?

The most specific way I can find Nine Spaces described so far is in the Heart, which suggests eight spokes and an axis, or the mystical way of counting Ten Winds.

Mani is a slippery word because, it might specifically mean pearl, which may associate to Nagas, or, it may be any gem or jewel, or:

Maṇi (मणि, “gem”) or Maṇiratna refers to the “gem jewel” and represents the fourth of the “seven jewels of universal monarchs” (saptaratna) as defined in the Dharma-saṃgraha (section 85).

The closest to a Tibetan original for "jewel" anywhere in the book is:

Nine Jeweled Spaces = gLong

So on this one, we cannot take it to task in the same technical way as the ones we can find two or three languages included. Just English, with some Tibetan phrases footnoted. At least the English sounds a little better than some of the old stuff that was done by Orientalist professors.

I am not familiar with the Chinese pearl, and besides the Heart, the main applications of Nine I can think of are the Winds in Vajra Rosary, Nine Moods deities, and the three additional Prajnas of Nepal, which make some form of Nine Buddha Families, using a hypostatic tantric trinity.

It could more commonly be rendered as Nine Planets and Nine Durgas, which is fine, but so far those are the subtle ways I can find in which Nine is employed.

A few ways in which "jeweled" is also used:



The wheel of self-luminescence has a purpose.
This jeweled wheel is All Good.
It abides in the self-luminescent hearts
Of the six kinds of living beings.

I just know enough English to say All Good = Samantabhadra.

In relation to "not getting it" whereas mandala = supreme reality:


They hold their breath and stop breathing.
They count,
And they cleanse their average minds,
Then they join together with their perfected minds,
But they do not get the meaning of self-luminescent wisdom.
They use a fierce introduction into opening and closing
The three channels where wisdom is condensed,
In connection with a structure of four mirrors
To stick the mandala of the sky into a lonely place.
They do not reach the end
Of the true light of burning wisdom.
They draw everything in,
Then join it into a single circle of wisdom.

This string of ropes made of magical jewels
Is like a crystal.
It holds a circle of purity.
Its light pervades and encompasses the three worlds,
Then melts once again into the heart-essence of wisdom.
The ambrosia fills up the dominion of the sky,
Then they savor the tastes of a hundred kinds of happiness
By cleansing the sky with ambrosia:
A great thousand of worlds spread out in clear light,
But this is also a contrivance.
It is a reverted pathway.
The mandala of the dominion of undeceiving power
Exists as a triangle, with what a shape!
There is a jeweled wheel on top of it,
Resting in the style of a construction of mirrors.
It has two sets of thirty-two.
They have a seed of coolness at their centers,
And are surrounded by the wheels of peace.
Both have eight leaves shining brightly.
There is one for each of the three wonders there are
In having the wisdom of the dominion of the Dharma
In our spirits.
Spheres of light rays and Putri Oṃ
Are in the way of tents made of bright silk.
What seem to be magical eyes and Apri Hūṃ
Are in the way of stringing blue crystal beads.
You must know that the sliver of the dark-red moon,
In the shape of a bow,
Is Bridu Oṃ.
The six classes of sentient beings do not understand this.
When we understand,
Our bodies, speech, and minds
Are blended in non-duality.
This is wisdom.

It is, in some way, trying to "pull" one through the complexities of the tantras:

The magical door of an awareness inclusive of methods
Holds heaps of self-originating jewels.
We open the door of this miraculously occurring awareness
With the key of self-luminous awareness,
And on a golden ground of precious jewels
There is the door to the elixir of jeweled awareness.
The stake of unchanging luminescence is planted there.
The illuminator is presented as a blazing jewel.
We do not turn back.
We must hold to our resolve.
We join the words to the meaning
To find the meanings of the symbols.



That is why I do not take the Mahamudra tone as saying not to do practices, but actually means to "get" the inner meaning of the practice *and* carry this through mundane life at the same intensity.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational. It is not something like Cintamani Tara where we can go, oh, this is pretty specific, it has the yellow color and a Jupiter syllable which does not itself continue in sadhanas but gets combined; Khasama lacks any such role or action. It is more along the lines of how you would know you were getting any of it right. You would try to fuse all the developments from Kriya--Charya and attempt to use this as an overall method for translation into inner Yoga and realize the luminescence which we also cannot get an original term for, even though the stem "lumin-" comes up 469 times.

"Self-luminous" may be Svaraj, or, if not, probably some combination with Sva or Atma. Rocana mayb be "bright sky or luminous sphere". "Prabhasvara" however has no form of sva, it is Pra Bhas (light) Varac (the above, upper, or outer part, or instead of). But I do not see any way to get whatever particular original term may have been used.

So just by way of familiarity we are able to say that the main deities involved in the subject are Marici who speaks, and Samantabhadra who is only described in terms of essence. Here, he is not evidently in "White" mode or center of Pancha Jina, but more as an extension of the sixth principle.

In having gained some familiarity, if I could go back and set up the best way to learn the tantric system, it would be 1--Khasama and 2--Sarvadurgati Parishodana. As we see in the Kriya--Charya instructions, the lower tantras lack the specific intent of cleansing death, bardo, and rebirth, which is what Sarvadurgati is doing and what makes it Yoga or the next level. It is doing this while it is giving a primordial stamp both on the Tri-samadhi of Body, Speech, and Mind, and the nature of Kama Loka.

Being in that we do see something that perhaps could be called a System of Nine, I do not think it diminishes Seven, I would lean towards the interpretation that Khasama is a valid depiction of the Sixth Family's Gnosis Wisdom and that Vajra Rosary describes the Seventh. Both seem to leave you grasping at nothing if you try to hammer down what should be their details. They are sphinxes. Khasama does not definitely plot such a thing as Nine Families by naming any more Tathagatas.

The title itself is Khasama Anta, Kha "sky" plus sam "same", followed by Anta "end", opposite of Ananta. For whatever reason, it is not conjoined into Khasamanta.

There is a similar-sounding Khasa goddess, daughter of Daksha, wife of Kasyapa, mother of Yakshas:

A consort of Kaśyapa; mother of two sons, Vikarṇa and Vilohita, one of four hands and four feet and the other of three hands and three feet, who were born in the evening and Uṣa period respectively. The eldest wanted to make a meal of of the mother herself and this the younger prevented. The father who noted this, named the elder Yakṣa, and the latter Rakṣa and said ‘tri’ it is said a son serves his mother and a daughter her father; and that the sons take after their mother. Seeing them ever hungry, he blessed them to get strength in the night and weakness in the day time and eat meat and flesh and disappeared. They married Brahmadhanā and Jantudhanā, daughters of two Piśacas, Aja and Śaṇḍa, and gave birth to a number of Rākṣasas, all given to fierceness; mother of Rākṣasa clans and of seven daughters who in their turn produced Rākṣasas.

or:

Khasa was one of the hundred daughters of Daksha. She was married to the great sage Kashyapa. The Yakshas are her children.

Name of a daughter of Dakṣa (one of the wives of Kaśyapa and mother of the Yakṣas and Rākṣasas), [Harivaṃśa].



However her meaning is not light, but, a heap or pile, similar to Skandha. It has other meanings similar to Kirats or people near the Tibetan border, and is perhaps related to Kasya or Kashi.

Khasama does not show any meanings in language, is only a name. It just has the syononym of Khasarpana deity:

(-ṇaṃ) Gliding through the air. E. kha heaven, and sarpaṇa who goes to or in.

His retinue has the different Bhrkuti who looks like Prajnaparamita, but with an initiation vase instead of a book:

Here Bhṛkuṭī has four arms, is resplendent like gold, has matted hair, carries the staff with three horns and the Kamaṇḍalu in the two left hands. The two right show the mudrā of bowing in one and the rosary in the second. She has three eyes.

It is possible she is the one with Seven Syllable deity.

Khasama has no such details, but we are already familiar with Khasarpana. It is correct that their names do not have the same literal meaning, and that Khasarpana is an Avalokiteshvara.

If Anta is a stand-alone word, who knows:

Anta (अन्त) is the name of a Vākchomā (‘verbal secrect sign’) which has its meaning defined as ‘caṇḍāla’ according to chapter 8 of the 9th-century Vajraḍākamahātantrarāja.

Marici's appearance was at Dhanakosha:

Dhanakośa (धनकोश):—[=dhana-kośa] [from dhana > dhan] m. treasure of wealth or money, [Rāmāyaṇa].

It seems to me that it is also in the tales of Garab Dorje or some of the Mahasiddhas as a mystical lake which historians try to locate in Kashmir or Orissa or something like that.

Given the theme, we could say Khasama is not too far from Dhanada Krama, which, as a sadhana, is something like "Method of Mandala".

It seems to proclaim its "lack of details" and tell you to figure that out somewhere else:

This awareness treasure subsumes all the secrets.
It is a Tantra that does not exemplify self-luminescence
Through words, writing, symbols, or definitions.
It is called: “The Unwritten Tantra."


So it seems to me to be the "subject" or "krama" about making symbols "come to life", i. e., it is "found in" any and all of the other sadhanas. It is a lot like saying Varuni is the energetic kernel of all tantras, or that "seven lines" is "the root of all sadhanas". The Khasama is something like what you are doing with Vajrasattva which has arisen as Prajna--Upaya as per Paramadya and the like, and Vajrasattva begins all sadhanas, so if Ganapati is an "optional assistant", Vajrasattva is the "real operator" in Buddhist practice.

[Old Student]

Then, through the blessings of their compassion,
A flock of subtly ornamented birds,
Emanations of Light Rays,[21]

[21] ‘Od zer can

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.
[...]
This wheel of secrets is a treasure of awareness.
It is most significant,
And does not require the assembly of the pieces of signs.
We achieve it by settling into whatever pleases us,
Without looking for anything.

I picked out these lines because this is somewhat like what happens in visions during shaking, something becomes birds becomes light rays becomes form..., and then the essence of what is being taught always comes down to that it isn't a specific assembly of things but doing without expecting anything.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational.

I didn't get this feeling, is it because it contains no prescriptions for how to do anything? It does contain that one should settle into what pleases one, without looking for anything. That is an interesting prescription in itself.

The pearl of nine passages is a metaphor for how qi should move, without breaks around bends, and supposedly is about threading such a pearl, it is this movement which is why in my notes almost anything that has a pattern but no symmetries or overt rhythms gets described as "like push hands".

[shaberon]

Dharani-speak is difficult to read, but, you can get an impression such as the beginning of Ganapati Hrdaya:


|| 84 || om namo bhagavatyai āryyagavaṇāti hṛdayāyai || sumukhaścai vadantaśya kapirogaja karṇukaṁ likhādaṁsalaścaṇikato ghna rājovināyakaḥ ||

For example, he has something to do with Sumukhi, Likha, and Vinayaka in the first line.

In thinking of the name Khasama it registered that we have heard this somewhere before, in Sitatapatra Dharani. So I pulled up Dharani Samgraha which was something like 535 of them. We already know this name is "similar" to Khasarpana so we are not interested in that. Where else in the world is there such a thing as Khasama?

There is not. There is no other kind, the closest is part of 31 Nilakantha Lokesvara:

śaṁkhaśadvanirnno danakarāya svāhā||


It can, perhaps, be found elsewhere, but offhandedly, we would say it is parcel of Parasol bearing her title which contains 3/4 of her secret identity as a type of Adi Prajna in the unusual Trinity:

āryā sarvatathāgatoṣṇīṣa śitātapatrenāmāparājitā mahāpratyaṁgirā mahāvipyā rājñī parisamāptaḥ || vijayavāhi || 0 ||

We are reading a Nepali accent on what is already intentionally erroneous Sanskrit, and so I would guess here that mahavipya = Mahavidya.



Namasangiti corresponds to those Mahayana systems which speak of eleven Bhumis, which are adding a special one for Buddhahood. However it turns out to use an unidentifiable goddess:

Sarvabuddhadharmakosavati or Dharmakayavati Dharani


Its highest league of Paramita deities includes:

Vajrakarma Paramita is of variegated colour and holds in her left hand the Visvavajra (double thunderbolt) on a blue lotus. Buddhabodhiprabha Vasita is of yellow colour. She holds in her right hand a Vajra with five thongs on a yellow lotus, and in the left the discus on the Cintamani banner. Samantaprabha Bhumi is of the colour of the sun at noon, and holds in her left hand the image of Amitabha Buddha which indicates Perfect Enlightenment. Sarvabuddhadharma-Kosavati Dharani is yellow in colour and holds in her left hand the trunk full of various kinds of jewels on a lotus.

So the concept of accumulated wealth is getting stuffed to her.

Parasol does not seem to be used in the list, which would have to be given a substitution.

Parasol Dharani is commonly used on Prayer Flags.

White Umbrella Ushnisha-Sitatapatra (gTsug-tor gdugs-dkar) Praise

Great repulser, queen of mantra,
Invincible lady, very strong!
To great White Umbrella and her host
Of buddhas and bodhisattvas, praise!

They usually use one of her longer mantras which is the only place I can find Khasama:

TADYATHA OM ANALE ANALE KHASAME KHASAME BHAIRE BHAIRE SAUME SAUME SARVA BUDDHA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE SARVA TATHAGATA USHNISHA SITATAPATRE HUM PHAT HUM MAMA HUM NI SVAHA


The version in Dharani Samgraha is a bit more complex, but includes this. It does however render "Bhaire" as "Vire" or Heroine.


This is where she is getting weird, but, she is intended to augment her mantra while shifting from two, to four, to six arm forms like Heruka and Hevajra:

In a Six Arm form, she is practiced in Drukpa, and with Eight Arms, in Mitra's sadhanas. The Six Arm is the one that loses the Parasol and would have a Vajra or Wheel as main item.

In 217 in Tibetan Deities, from Bari Lineage and Ngor, she is crowned with Vairocana in Thousand Arm form, Aparajita, which states the equivalent medium form is Six Arm 424, and condensed form is Two Arm with Parasol. In the dharani, Khasame is "equal to sky", Some is Soma Lady. So really, this version is for her Maha form, with Anale Khasame and so forth. In the short mantra, they do not attempt to translate "Ni". But this is also the third Dakini, Ha Ri Ni Sa.

424 in Tibetan Deities, as the Usnisa of Tahagata Family, uses Parasol's Six Arm form to make a Heart Gnosis being. Instead of the short mantra, it has the dharani with Anale Anale Visade Visade (fire, fire, bright, bright) where she is Vajradhari:

Om Anale Anale Visade Visade Vajra Vajra Vajradhari Bandhani Bandhani Hum Hum Phat Phat Svaha


There was a clear version of the Bari mantra with Khasame recorded, but they locked it. This is a Tibetan melange, part of "White Umbrella Deity Torma Offering For Turning Away Harms", which happens to include Bari or the Anale Anale Khasame Khasame version, as the soft-spoken part after some Tibetan:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=gYjAcW_rQQs

It is very rarely recorded, whereas there are bunches of her shorter mantras, many of which are compelling, but right now we are looking at where Khasama fits in. If we could find another direct version, it would be great, but so far I cannot.

Often she is just thought of as White Tara as in another Tibetan Dukkar prayer which then throws in Tara's Sanskrit mantra Nine Times:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=tAvAJ5mTWec

Nine Vases is a Tara, Vasudhara, or Lakshmi symbol of accomplishment.

Sitatapatra appropriates Bhrum syllable. So as we can see, she is a structured build of increasing mantras onto increasingly complex forms. The instructions pretty plainly state the basic view of her is similar to a normal two armed lady. With Six Arms, she has Om Ah Hum in her three places, she works like a female Vajradhara with a pledge being, which really also has Concentration Hero Om.

Right after her, 425 is Eight Arm Stupa Usnisa Vijaya also with a gnosis being; she is holding Amitabha as usual, but is crowned with Vairocana. She has six deities, two yellow devas crowned with Ratnasambhava pour nectar on her, and she has unusual body syllables. 183 is similar but uses her short mantras, from Maitreya and Asanga through Bari. So her retinue lacks an Amoghasiddhi representative. She is, so to speak, Bhrum, the life-imbued syllable at the top of the mandala that opens Sambhogakaya or Akanistha, and the Amoghasiddhi representative is that Tara such as Mahasri who is found in Akanistha.

Both these Usnisas are more or less the gate or vehicle of Marici. Both of those are also among the most important major recitals, Shurungama Sutra = Sitatapatra Parasol, and Usnisa Vijaya = Sarvadurgati Parishodana. Usnisa is shown closely replicated by the highest Namasangiti Bhumi goddess also holding Amitabha. Both of them are Bhrum-related, they are closely related, although I have never seen it suggested that they are identical.

The telling part of her Kasama Dharani is Sarva Buddha Adhisthana Adhitithe, or i. e. consecration by All Families, which would have a lot to do with Vajradakini regulating the Crown center with the influence of Jewel Family or Guna or All Families Equally, and Vajradakini is the other aspect of Sitatapatra Parasol which seems to only be told in the tantras.

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
I picked out these lines because this is somewhat like what happens in visions during shaking, something becomes birds becomes light rays becomes form..., and then the essence of what is being taught always comes down to that it isn't a specific assembly of things but doing without expecting anything.

Yes, I figured some degree of Khasama would probably "click" with you. I just didn't know what it said.

Marici is no boar rodeo bag facer here. Leans a lot more towards self-arisen like Heruka. This type of Marici dates back at least to the times of the First Transmission:

As a young child, Vairochana was one of seven select Tibetan
children that had been singled out for intensive training in foreign languages
by the King Trisong Detsan, who ruled from 755 to 804 AD.

Is it Picuva? I don't know. Doesn't say. She takes an "extraordinary form". Picuva is so not ordinary that no one will draw it. Can't even say her name. But as soon as I saw this, it seemed like a snap fit.

The text is of no practical value, is almost wholly inspirational.

I didn't get this feeling, is it because it contains no prescriptions for how to do anything? It does contain that one should settle into what pleases one, without looking for anything. That is an interesting prescription in itself.

Perhaps I should not always choose my words so literally. I did not mean it is of "no" value, I just meant that it doesn't have practices, I do not think it even has a mantra, although we can find one I just posted above. By "inspirational", I mean things like, you can relate to Marici of the first chapter. And so the second thing you are mentioning is what I mean by "Mahamudra tone". This is still somewhat of a rivalry between Nyingma and Sakya. The Nyingma typically take the "tone" very seriously and do not try that hard at the samadhis as taught in sadhanas and tantras. Sakya of course are doing the same Mahamudra but, they usually also do about three hours of sadhanas a day.

The pearl of nine passages is a metaphor for how qi should move, without breaks around bends, and supposedly is about threading such a pearl, it is this movement which is why in my notes almost anything that has a pattern but no symmetries or overt rhythms gets described as "like push hands".

Well, that has got to be close, we can put it in terms of Nine Winds or Nine Spaces of the Heart, either one of which concerns prana, which is qi.

I do not really have any cognizance of their variety. What I have had was more of a sudden conflux into one wind which is what begins a Suksma Yoga sequence.

I have a very keen grip on the total power of the thing, with just like a single, raw kind of Wisdom and Protection, which lacks the fullness expressed by the Enlightened Intentions of the Families, which is why I personally am far from being able to describe Nine Winds in Six Chakras doubled to 108, I am just sure the Vajradhara works as described and that the others are like attached jewels, which I know almost nothing about.

I would think Khasama and Vajra Rosary would be excellent explanations of Guru Yoga as we have it in Kagyu, would be like Father Tantra in their own right, the method of Vajrasattva and Vajradhara.


I have tried combing the dictionary for some form of Nava plus Space or anything similar or anything, in search of some missed technical jargon that Vajrasattva is saying, and I cannot find anything, although "nava" can also mean "new" and what looks like Navakha or nine spaces just means "new".

There is a kind of Naga Bliss:

Navananda (नवनन्द).—Mahāpadma and his eight sons, who ruled for 100 years.*

* Bhāgavata-purāṇa XII. 1. 12.

or:

Navaśakti (नवशक्ति):—[=nava-śakti] [from nava] m. ‘having 9 faculties’, Name of Viṣṇu or Śiva,

or Navasamjna is from Prajnaparamita Sutra and focuses on corpses and the movement from nine to ten, is like cemeteries and wrathful rites, and then shows how they crunch through Kama Loka and Thirty-seven point Enlightenment and so forth.

However it uses Navacandra to mean New Moon in an idea about venerating the Bodhisattvas more than the Tathagatas:

"And why? Because the Tathāgatas derive their origin from the Bodhisattva."

Sadhanas generally are mostly about Bodhisattvas.


But no, so far I don't see anything to add that would specifically identify Khasama's subject in the same way that we catalog Cemeteries or Paramitas or anything else. Because his spaces are very jeweled, it is hard to not think of the Nine Treasures of Kubera.

The translator thought "...it uses language that is unusual for a
Buddhist work. It talks about unity in non-duality, oneness, the lack of any
need to practice a path, and the irrelevance of cause and result, for example.
It talks about a self-luminescent wisdom that is eternal."

It has the unusual prequel:

These things were once spoken:

I wanted to say he simply gave the Nine things:

He has a retinue of natural essence, a retinue who looks after this nature,
and a retinue who actually attains this nature. They are like this: They are of
earth, water, fire, wind, space, the realm of desire, the realm of form, and the
formless realm.

But it is only eight because he did not name Manas as a sixth element, which we are pre-supposing that overall Vajrasattva is describing himself as this sixth sense user. This would be almost the same argument as Namasangiti. If we examine the wording carefully, he *has* a retinue of eight, which means there are nine members total. Namasangiti *has* Six Mantra Kings, so he is arguably a seventh entity.

I could be missing something, but, he seems to be missing the self-definition such as Seven Syllable deity has.

Maybe it is the same subject, Luminous Heart by H. H. 3rd Karmapa is a major primordial stamp for Shentong Kagyu. He makes significant use of the Seventh Consciousness. It is a much more difficult book than Khasama and it begins with a significant critical history of Yogacara. Rather dense. It does a "nebulous" corollary of some of the ways Khasama refers to Nine:

“all kinds” means
that the wisdoms on each one of these bhūmis have nine degrees in terms of
lesser, medium, and great.

which mixes blends like Vishuddhimagga:

82 This meditative absorption represents the cessation of all primary minds and mental
factors with an unstable continuum (the first six consciousnesses) as well as one of the two
consciousnesses with a stable continuum (the afflicted mind with its mental factors, but not
the ālaya-consciousness). This absorption is used as the culminating meditative absorption
in the process of “ninefold progressive abiding” (which includes various alternating ways of
training in entering and rising from the four samādhis of the form realm and the four formless
absorptions).

So you have lesser lesser, medium lesser, greater lesser, and so on, but to me at least, those are less indicative than something like Kubera or the Heart itself.

There is also a "literary device":

This is followed by the classical nine examples found in the Tathāgatagarbhasūtra and
Uttaratantra I.95cd–152 (such as a buddha statue in a withering lotus) for buddha nature being
obscured by adventitious stains. These correspond to increasingly subtler obscurations and the
respective natural qualities of buddha nature that are revealed.

I am not familiar with it, and, here again, "examples" are a bit less of a "stamp" than something like Nava Nidhi.

Khasama claims his subject is pervasive, so, it is either within the "Nines" we can come up with, or, he is going to have to explain it further.

[Old Student]

Two things: The first is how complete is the Khasama Tantra you are looking at? There is supposedly an "ur-text" called that that was 100,000 lines and preceded the Chakrasamvara Tantra. Is it the same one, or maybe an abbreviated version? Maybe something got left out.

Second, I did some searches, and the following, with the syllables "Kha sama" in the beginning of it, is a mantra to Simhamukhi:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

Any possibility that she has a relationship?

[Old Student]

The Nyingma typically take the "tone" very seriously and do not try that hard at the samadhis as taught in sadhanas and tantras. Sakya of course are doing the same Mahamudra but, they usually also do about three hours of sadhanas a day.

I did not take the translation to mean this kind of not trying hard. The text says:

The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.

What pleases you is what the goddess Marici brings, and not looking hard is because it is what is not to be sought. This sounds almost identical to the balancing act that forms one of the cores of my shaking, where an enormous bliss has to be confronted with absolute non-reaction.

Just to complicate things, 'nava' does mean 'nine' and it does also mean 'new' but,

नवख navakha = "1 billion"
नवक navaka = "consisting of nine"

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
The goddess of mental pleasure,
Gathered at a cave in the land of Dhanakośa,
And out of the symbol at her heart
She took on a fantastic form,
And expounded on the emptiness
That is not to be sought.

What pleases you is what the goddess Marici brings, and not looking hard is because it is what is not to be sought. This sounds almost identical to the balancing act that forms one of the cores of my shaking, where an enormous bliss has to be confronted with absolute non-reaction.

That is where I have something to learn, since, when I discovered Bliss was an active ingredient in the Yogic laboratory, I definitely reacted to it, totally mesmerized.

I think I get what you are meaning by "Kriya" as something like a "spontaneous asana", I suppose I have done a few things "in that style" or where the body selects some arbitrary posture for its own reason, just without the profundity that the Kriyas have.

It seems to me that Marici is all the Dawns from first glimmer to Buddhahood. Marici is several kinds of Ishvari, and, if I recall, she is the only Vajrasattva Ishvari. That has yet to have any meaningful application that I am aware of unless the one here at the opening of Khasama.

Because he has mantric identity with Parasol, we can say the Parasol Item is related to tantric Red Sun, and that it is held by Indra and others for Marici.

Here again, I am not sure if anybody has asked the obvious about how the Sun and an Umbrella might interact, but it has to do with the Usnisa or Crown center, and Jnanadakini will attest to that by deploying Vajradakini--Parasol there.

I am just glad the footnote verifies this is Marici rather than us sitting here going, well, it sounds like Marici. This has got to be something like her Kalpoktam or Explanation level, which is the one commonly found in her esoteric sadhanas, of which Picuva is the freaky twist that is almost more directly suggested here.

Marici's esoteric samaya seemed more to be in her Asokakanta form, and I bet if one called her up, it would be easy to go from there to here. You do not definitely need her Obstacle Clearing form since you can get Ganapati or Khandarohi or others to do it. If a Needle is Suci and this is also Solar Fire, we already know she has this out the wazoo, and secretly we are perhaps more interested if she has the Watery or Electric Fire. Well, we know that she does, in fact secretly this is her more powerful nature than the already-powerful visible aspect. So her Needle I think is a bit like Rta and it serves its purpose and then she has a bunch of other stuff which is actually more important.

Because part of this is the Paving of Golden Ground, it means her energy goes into the Bhumis, the first of which is Vajrasattva.





The introduction does not fiddle with Khasama's origin. It is from the introduction to Samvarodaya that looks towards the ur-text being Khasama or Abhidanottara and, in any case, nothing approaching a 300,000 verse magnum opus is known.

So yes, present version is likely an extraction or synopsis.

It says:

"A study of the possible origin of the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva is beyond
the scope of this introduction. Readers who are familiar with world literature
may well see evidence of Gnostic teachings in reading this. Clear evidence of
Gnosis movements along the Silk Route has been documented.[4]Some may
see evidence of the Upaniṣadic thought that informed the Advaita tradition
reflected here in Buddhistic terminology. It is possible that some writer had a
deliberate intention of subterfuge, intending to trick unwary Buddhists into
accepting non-Buddhist views, but it would likely have been disseminated
more widely if this were so. Those who seek evidence that Buddhist and nonBuddhist thinking had reached the point, by the Eighth Century, that they
were sometimes indistinguishable may find evidence of this in this Tantra. It
may well be that the Great Tantra of Vajrasattva was considered to represent
heterodox views by some Tibetans, and therefore excluded from the Kagyur.
Many who persevere at maintaining orthodoxy fail to remember that the
orthodox can only be understood in its relation to the heterodox. We will
better understand Buddhist orthodoxy by reading a text that represents what it
tries to guard against."

Now since there are missing mega-troves of the complete Kalachakra and Khasama or Abhidhana and so forth, well, these can only go missing temporarily, some Bodhisattva will restore them. If they are needed, and there is someone who can understand it, the Bodhisattva will bring it. Right now, we just found a way to set up a decent handful of Panjara explanatory tantras, which are probably enough to give me an entire career of seeking without needing much more.



Simhamukhi is a Wrathful aspect of Jnanadakini, she is not like a semi-wrathful Vajrayogini. The mantra is Tibetan creole:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

I do not know what they mean by "Ranza" but the presence of Maraya means this is a Kill Destroy mantra.

Now if my edition of Khasama is not too specific then I am going to hop over to Dakini Jala and just distribute six senses around the Families and voila, Vajrasattva Sat Chakravartin panel.

If I go much further along the page, it will interpose the fact of a Wrathful Reflex. I won't get far without what Prajnaparamita is describing as Nava Samjna, which would be expanded as the Cemeteries and Ten Wrathful Ones and so on. So even when we start with a wise and peaceful Vajrasattva, he still some day is going to expose a ferocious side.

Does Jnanadakini have a relationship to Vajrasattva, yes, the Dakini Jala will specifically suggest them as consorts. You could do that.

The whole thing is supposed to follow the similar 2--4--6 armed pattern like Heruka, Hevajra, and Sitatapatra.

It would be allowed to be based on Jnanadakini, Vajravarahi, or possibly others. It is not anything you want to stick in there. It is just the ones who are defined as what we might be forced to call "energetic equivalents", with the most generic terms being Dharmadhatu Vajra and Dharmadhatu Ishvari referring to the Sixth Sense and its Object, Element, and Prajna.

The presence of Kha syllable in mantras is voluminous, especially since the usual male Bodhisattvas of Sky and Earth are Kha Garbha and Ksiti Garbha, you will see Kha and Ksa from these frequently.

Kha is also used in the Shingon method of linking Vairocana to Six Elements. In Sarma practices, it usually belongs to Amoghasiddhi.

Dharma Wheel shows that the mantra is a current, known practice. But they say nothing about the meaning.

We can hack it by finding Ranza in whatever they did to Medicine Buddha.

TAYATHA OM BEKANZE BEKANZE MAHA BEKANZE BEKANZE RANDZA SAMUGATHE SOHA

oṃ bhaiṣajye bhaiṣajye mahābhaiṣajya-samudgate svāhā

These mantras have even been compared and no one noticed but Wildmind has:

(tadyathā oṃ bhaiśajye bhaiśajye mahābhaiśajye bhaiśajyarāje samudgate svāhā.

So I would go with Ranza = Raja. Shanda would be difficult since its main meaning is "eunnuch".

The Tibetan Simhamukha mantra is a bit difficult for me to penetrate as to what in the world they are even trying to say, but it falls in the domain of Destroyer.

Parasol is really the most potent Destroyer. She is Maha Pratyangira who is also Narasimhi. By this it means she can defeat the most powerful black magic. Curses. Hauntings. Hexes. Now since Lion Face is Narasimhi, we see some strange alchemy between Parasol, Simhamukha, Ziro Bhusana, and Vajra Sphoti--Chain of Lotus Family. The Chain Item has something to do with Karma Family and seems to be something utterly other than the nature of Lion Face.

Because Buddhist Pratyangira is not Lion Face, she also appears to represent the opposite of sheer destruction, i. e. the six arm deity class supporting stability of the Heart, and it is this kind of Pratyangira which is the basis for Amaravajra.

It seems to me that Khasama relates Vajrasattva to Marici and Parasol in singular ways.



Here is an Amitabha Chittamani Tara, just from browsing around:

[Old Student]

That is where I have something to learn, since, when I discovered Bliss was an active ingredient in the Yogic laboratory, I definitely reacted to it, totally mesmerized.

I have to act the same way towards any of the visions. It is something to do with not constraining things with desire -- to constrain produces limitations, frustration -- suffering. Whenever I forget that, which happens frequently when trying to learn something, the result is always failure over and over until I don't constrain things, which kind of burst through unexpectedly. It's kind of the shaking version of nirodha -- extinction of desire that ends suffering.

It seems to me that Marici is all the Dawns from first glimmer to Buddhahood. Marici is several kinds of Ishvari, and, if I recall, she is the only Vajrasattva Ishvari. That has yet to have any meaningful application that I am aware of unless the one here at the opening of Khasama.

This seems right. I keep wondering what her relation to Ushas is, any searching will give a chronological interpretation of Ushas becoming Marici, they are depicted slightly differently but I can see how that works.

Simhamukhi is a Wrathful aspect of Jnanadakini, she is not like a semi-wrathful Vajrayogini. The mantra is Tibetan creole:

AH KHA SAMA RANZA SHANDA RASA MARAYA PHET

I hadn't noticed that, but it is pretty evident.

I did figure out why 'navakha' is 1 billion. It is specified in my dictionary as an "American billion" meaning one with nine "spaces".

Parasol is really the most potent Destroyer. She is Maha Pratyangira who is also Narasimhi. By this it means she can defeat the most powerful black magic. Curses. Hauntings. Hexes. Now since Lion Face is Narasimhi, we see some strange alchemy between Parasol, Simhamukha, Ziro Bhusana, and Vajra Sphoti--Chain of Lotus Family. The Chain Item has something to do with Karma Family and seems to be something utterly other than the nature of Lion Face.

Because Buddhist Pratyangira is not Lion Face, she also appears to represent the opposite of sheer destruction, i. e. the six arm deity class supporting stability of the Heart, and it is this kind of Pratyangira which is the basis for Amaravajra.

It seems to me that Khasama relates Vajrasattva to Marici and Parasol in singular ways.

The lion-faced Dakini that appears in my shakings is a guardian figure. I have not seen her in quite a while, partly because I haven't been in that place (in my head directly above the magnum foramen) in a while. What has happened is that the black panther or jaguar creature that is associated with one of the shamans has made "appearances". It is definitely somehow Mesoamerican, which I guess makes it a jaguar. The night before last it appeared, completely black with all edges and outlines like moonlight. I'm not sure what it is about yet.

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
I have to act the same way towards any of the visions. It is something to do with not constraining things with desire -- to constrain produces limitations, frustration -- suffering. Whenever I forget that, which happens frequently when trying to learn something, the result is always failure over and over until I don't constrain things, which kind of burst through unexpectedly. It's kind of the shaking version of nirodha -- extinction of desire that ends suffering.

Yes, I think that is the underlying theme of any practices--not forming attachment.

For the rest of us, if we were able to get a good vision of a deity or mandala or something, we would do so knowing it would get scattered like dust in a few minutes when we stop.

It keeps us "mobile". If I said that Vajradhatu was the main exoteric Six Family Wheel, and Mahavajradhatu is it arising in Sambhogakaya, if I was really trained in that stuff, I should be able to just as easily dispense with Vajradhatu and do it some other way, without any emotional sticky-ness. Likewise, if I find Six Families esoterically with Vajrasattva, Namasangiti, or Sadakshari, I should be able to drop my favorite/most accessible one and go with something else.

That is like why we would say you can still go to a mosque or synagogue or something. Just because we do not think those places have Great Wisdom in a fully-revealed form, does not mean you should stop listening and dismiss them, because they still probably have something worth your attention.

When I figured out how to get Bliss into circulation like ordiniary blood, I definitely would have parked there like those schools that kind of get you face-to-face with what we might call the First Joy, and then run out of guidance. It is so pwwerful you just want to repose there like an infant in the womb, but, the Dhyanas clearly specify that at some point, you have to start overlooking this effect.

I keep wondering what her relation to Ushas is, any searching will give a chronological interpretation of Ushas becoming Marici, they are depicted slightly differently but I can see how that works.

I still cannot explain it either. Marici cannot be much other than a Noumenal, Mantra-bound aspect of Ushas, having swiped a name from male Rishi Marici. The main switch seems to be from her using Horses, who are the usual sun chariot haulers, and the main vehicle of Buddhist Jewel Family, to Boars, which are usually the vehicle of Earth or Bhu Devi.

It sounds similar to Vairocana and Locana leaving the center of the mandala to take over the Earth plane.

Also similar to accepting that Om may be "the original" syllable, which is like universal dawn and creation and an explosion of white brilliance, whereas Hum is this "anchored" into a focal point, which is an incarnate being, related to the solar origin and reflecting from the center of the Earth.

Marici is an extremely extensive deity who has kindly stretched her fingertips into the most basic Kriya practices, but in Khasama, she is all about translating the words and symbols into inner meaning. Tibetans probably house this in the manifestation of Rigpa, which is like Vidya and Avidya.

I did figure out why 'navakha' is 1 billion. It is specified in my dictionary as an "American billion" meaning one with nine "spaces".

That tells us the Spaces are Zeroes, which would imply Khasama operates Nine Bindus, which sounds a bit like "Hidden Caves" of the Heart. It seems to me the Yoga system aims to clear/open corresponding spaces in the head and re-fill them with Akash, whereas the practical or experiential change really comes later on from finding these places in the heart and using them as the roots for divinizing their reflections in the head.

The lion-faced Dakini that appears in my shakings is a guardian figure. I have not seen her in quite a while, partly because I haven't been in that place (in my head directly above the magnum foramen) in a while. What has happened is that the black panther or jaguar creature that is associated with one of the shamans has made "appearances". It is definitely somehow Mesoamerican, which I guess makes it a jaguar. The night before last it appeared, completely black with all edges and outlines like moonlight. I'm not sure what it is about yet.

Tiger and Leopard maintain distinct identities from Lion.

As vehicles, they are how a deity interacts with the world, such as the Tiger Durgas are generally fiercer, whereas the few Lion Durgas such as Katyayani are more Saumya or Santi or peaceful, pleasant, etc.

As Tramen they are something else. Tramen are Pisaci, but, the Pisacis, Gauris, or Four Dakinis are capable of appearing with either animal or human faces.

Their outer correspondences and wrathful natures cannot, they are stuck with the animal face. That means they are limited, cannot convey Great Wisdom and so on. This is why we see something like Marici "washing the pig" off of Varahi. One such as Varahi is covered by Pig or Ignorance, but, she also has that Transcendental aspect which is free from such.

Similarly, "guardians" may mean Lokapala or Directional or Regional Guardians, such as if there is a local goblin who protects the yard and Indra protects the East generally, these are just worldly. It is only Dharmapalas or Dharma Protectors such as Ekajati who are different: she protects Vajramrita Tantra and a few other practices, and is capable of arising as a Wisdom Being who quells the ranks of her lesser breed, the Mamos.

The distinction of Ziro Bhusana is that she is red on red, like Sumukhi, whereas even the rare Red Simhamukha would not look so monochromatic. Because Vajrasphoti is Lotus Family and thereby related to red, it seems to me that Ziro Bhusana is the best funnel for red and lion together, which make the form for the Third Activity or Chain.

And of course I am trying to "stand under" Simhamukhi just like Varahi, i. e. to know about them and get the basis of their setup, without dealing with them directly. This can be taken as a general token of respect towards the lineages, or, the fact that if one was to have any success, they would come barreling out as Tramen or Teevra deities and wreck your mind, or karma, or both.

It is an inevitable power level that is not pleasant at all.

That is why it is remarkable to show Parnasabari as a Pisaci, she never has an animal face.

That way, we can show an axis that the most devilish aspect of these creatures is nothing but the Ground for Sampatti or Samadhi of the caliber of blending heat, wind, and mantra.

It does not make Accomplishment much easier, but it does mean one should clean the subconscious and death, bardo, and rebirth, before the Wrathful Deities dawn. In practice, Dawn usually refers to the self-arising of the deities.

That is an utter change in state of being.

"I" have never "become" any of these deities, or had an intricate look at webs of infinite worlds, but from the psychological aspect of killing the ego and is there a pantheon that "dawns", yes, the Deities have Dawned to me many times.

It is like the Zhitro or Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities.

I would say it is so because it is much like a baby. From what we can tell, a baby experiences and expresses primarily those two main moods. It's not using words and prior experiences to construct the moods. It is just direct. And so I think this mind, or, mindlessness, is pretty close to what we mean by the same in occultism, Noetic.

If that state has "at its fingertips" all the details, all the libraries and research of the world, the entire vocabulary and history of anything that is perceived, that, to me, represents Amitabha Wisdom or Pratyavekshana Jnana. His mind is never distracted by any of the details. It is as if a baby is just looking at meaningless colors and shapes and then, for example, telepathically beams us the name of a printer, its company, inventor, serial number, where you can get all the parts and what things this particular one has printed, and so on, its whole Chain of Dependent Arisings is plain and obvious.

It has all that available without any effort and without ever thinking about it.

Different kinds of cats would have to do with different nerves or pranic pathways, so they are all useful as needed, however even on a Sutra level, Lion is prominent with Lion's Roar Samadhi, which is iterated across Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, and Manjushri, at a minimum, and Tara certainly claims the Lion Vehicle. When expressed by Queen Srimala Devi, Lion's Roar immediately latches to RGV and Luminous Heart and Dolpopa, as far as what I can tell of what is meant by Shentong.

That is why I think this is one really deep, continuous subject, and why I am not personally dealing with everything that is available even in Buddhism, such at the Hinayana, or even the First Transmission to Tibet or the Kalachakra.

Something like a central thread through Marici which has composed its own Guide that I am simply trying to compile.

Like Bhrkuti's Loom, it may enjoy some cross-woven threads which it appears to request by things such as Dhanada Krama and Mahacina Krama, is looking for competence in certain samadhis. But I can get a lot of mileage much faster if I am able to put together RGV with Mipham's view of how it underlies all sadhanas, than from "academic" presentations telling me about why Buddhists think the Three Jewels are important and things like that. In other words, once Seven can be shown for what it is, similar to but in some ways different from Hindu and other usages, this is really powerful.

[shaberon]

I am a bit surprised the translator of Khasama would consider it may be a non-Buddhist ruse.

It mostly makes sense to me, because it appears to me to have the same subject as what is really The Subject.

In thinking of Khasama's main emphasis, Luminosity, well, this is really the same as that in Luminous Heart, which of course is way more precise and traces the idea from Sutra Nagarjuna through all Yogachara. This Luminosity is both Suchness, as well as the definitive feature of Shentong which simultaneously states it does not exist exclusively. From Luminous Heart:


The Karma Kagyü lineage is heir to both of the great mahāyāna traditions
of emptiness—Rangtong madhyamaka (“empty-of-self middle Way”) and
Shentong madhyamaka (“empty-of-other middle Way”). It is commonly
understood in this lineage that the rangtong approach is needed to determine
and gain certainty in the right view, while shentong is required for the practice of meditation. This combination of the right view of emptiness and the
meditative experience of luminous buddha nature is considered to be jointly
necessary for complete awakening.

So here, Rangtong = Drsti and Shentong = Yogachara.

The subject of Luminosity is what led to misunderstandings or disputes about the Eighth or Alaya Consciousness and potentially the Ninth:

Several texts by Paramārtha speak about the amalavijñāna (“pure or
stainless consciousness”) as a ninth kind of consciousness. It refers to the
unconditioned, changeless, permanent mind unaffected by any impurities,
identical with suchness as the ultimate. This amalavijñāna is said to be the
foundation of the Buddhist path, while the ālaya-consciousness is the foundation of all defilements and eventually eliminated. Paramārtha also equates
this amalavijñāna with suchness, nonconceptual wisdom, and mind’s luminosity. He says that it is unmistaken and free from both the imaginary and
the other-dependent natures (which comprise the manifestations of mistaken
consciousness), thus being reminiscent of typical shentong positions.

It is "reminiscent" because it says it defeats Parikalpa and Paratantra, the Imaginary and Other-Dependent Natures we have categorized as being dissipated by No Ego and Suchness.

Here is a technical Tibetan term for Luminosity:

as mentioned before, among Tibetan masters, there are a great number
of differing presentations of what exactly shentong means and how this differs from rangtong. Some use the term shentong to refer to a doctrine with set
positions (which can also differ greatly); some speak about it in the sense of
an experiential outlook; some refer to it as an approach to practicing meditation (sgom lugs); and others take it to be a synthesis of both view and
meditation. obviously, these approaches are more or less overlapping, and
their “borderlines” are fluid and often keep shifting when they are taught or
disputed. as for the Kagyü School, it makes a standard distinction between
“luminosity shentong” (gsal ba gzhan stong) and “expanse (dhātu) shentong”
(dbyings gzhan stong). Briefly speaking, the first refers to buddha nature’s wisdom being empty of adventitious stains (the “other”), and this wisdom itself
not being empty, but existing as the ultimate nature of luminosity. Thus,
the ultimate existence of the luminous nature of mind and its innate buddha qualities are emphasized. Typical proponents are Dölpopa, Tāranātha,
and Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé, who base their explanations mainly on
the Uttaratantra and combine them with Yogācāra templates, such as the
three natures. “expanse shentong” means that, in and of itself, the nondual
and nonconceptual, personally experienced wisdom that realizes the fundamental space of the dharmadhātu as mind’s true nature is free from reference
points. Though not denying the ultimate validity of realizing one’s primordial Tathāgata heart with all its qualities, this view accords much more with
a classical madhyamaka approach. Its most typical presentation (which one
is tempted to call “shentong lite”) is found in the eighth Karmapa’s massive
commentary on the Abhisamayālaṃkāra and in some of the works of the
Sixth Shamarpa. also certain aspects of mipham Rinpoche’s presentations
of shentong (who states that his own system is rangtong and that he does not
have the burden of feeling compelled to establish the shentong view), such
as his constant emphasis on understanding the madhyamaka approach to
emptiness and the inseparability of appearance and emptiness, seem to tend
more toward an “expanse shentong” approach.
as should be clear from the above and Rangjung Dorje’s own writings, his
“shentong,” if anything, could be described as a combination of “luminosity
shentong” and “expanse shentong,” steering clear of the pitfalls of reification
and nihilism. Yet again, rather than trying to find the “right” doxographical
box to stash away the Third Karmapa’s view, as with any accomplished and
original philosopher or spiritual master, it seems more fruitful and refreshing
to understand the full scope of Rangjung Dorje’s distinct approach—persistently pointing out the essential points of the Buddha’s teachings on mind’s
true nature in both traditions of the mahāyāna—in its own terms.


It is continuous from older scriptures:

The [Aṣṭasāhasrikā]prajñāpāramitāsūtra says:
The mind is no-mind. The nature of the mind is luminosity.”
This is also stated many times in the tantras and treatises, thus expressing
that [mind as such] is endowed with purity.

In general, Mind is like Sky, which is Luminous, but may be covered by Adventitious Stains such as fog, smoke, etc.:

To express the impure [aspect of mind as such] as “mind” refers to what is
taught as the “ālaya-consciousness.” The Abhidharmasamucchaya says:
mind being impregnated by all the latent tendencies of skandhas,
āyatanas, and dhātus is the ālaya-consciousness with all seeds.
This [ālaya-consciousness] is embraced by false imagination, consists of
the minds and mental factors in the three realms, is the root of all obscurations, and is to be overcome by buddha wisdom.

Nāgārjuna’s Dharmadhātustava

Likewise, mind that is so luminous
Is soiled by stains of craving and so forth.
The afflictions burn in wisdom’s fire,
But its luminosity does not.


The
Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra says:
When murky water becomes clear,
[Its] transparency does not arise from elsewhere,
But is just its becoming free from pollution.
The same goes for the purity of your own mind.
It is held that mind, which is always naturally luminous,
Is [only] blemished by adventitious flaws.
It is stated that there is no other mind apart from
The naturally luminous mind of dharmatā.452
Luminosity and natural emptiness are not tainted by the nature of conceptions, since conceptions are [nothing but] nonexistents that appear. This is
stated many times, such as in the Dharmadhātustava:

about water at the time of spring,
What we say is that it’s “warm.”
of the very same [thing], when it’s chilly,
We just say that it is “cold.”
Covered by the web of the afflictions,
It is called a “sentient being.”
once it’s free from the afflictions,
It should be expressed as “buddha.”

The object of focus for this change of state
In the Uttaratantra, this is taught through the term “basic element.”
Here, it is discussed through the term “nonconceptual wisdom.” In the
prajñāpāramitā [texts], it is treated through the term “prajñāpāramitā.” The
Mahāyānasaṃgraha states:
There is no difference between prajñāpāramitā and nonconceptual
wisdom.

In the tantras, Non-conceptual Wisdom is ramped up to a quiescent mind mounted solely on the non-conceptual Wind, and this is Suchness. Although it is elsewhere called "Dhatu" and "Prajnaparamita", these sources do not usually express its meaning in terms of Prana. The series of luminous synonyms is convergent with the re-orientation of Prana into Bliss.


Therefore, naturally luminous stainlessness is unconditioned and changeless.
Thus, though the nature of phenomena is referred to by this term “fundamental change of state,” it is also called “permanent.”
There is nothing to be removed from it
and not the slightest to be added.
actual reality is to be seen as it really is—
Who sees actual reality is released.
The basic element is empty of what is adventitious,
Which has the characteristic of being separable.
It is not empty of the unsurpassable dharmas,
Which have the characteristic of being inseparable.


mind’s great luminosity is the dharmakāya.


What are the pure realms of the three kāyas?
The ālaya free from extremes, the actuality of the middle,
Is the pure realm of the dharmakāya.
mind’s great unchanging bliss
Is the pure realm of the sambhogakāya.
mind’s unceasing flow of luminosity
Is the pure realm of the nirmāṇakāya.

Nagarjuna refers to Dharmadhatu by:

to cleanse the blue beryl of mind

and therefore Beryl is synonymous with luminosity, as is:

the dharmadhātu—natural luminosity, the buddha
heart

mind as such—the luminous Sugata heart

“Luminosity” is [the dharmadhātu’s] own light, which is beyond identification and characteristics.

In a treasure below the earth, the
qualities of all one may wish or need exist right from the start. Likewise, the
naturally abiding disposition is the naturally luminous dharmadhātu (mind
as such), in which all buddha qualities dwell primordially in an inseparable
way. Its having become pure of stains is called “having attained one’s own
welfare, the dharmakāya.”


On Five Wisdoms:

the dharmadhātu wisdom is the essence of
all kāyas—the svābhāvikakāya, the basic element of all wisdoms, the wisdom of the nature of
phenomena—whose nature it is to be free from all factors to be free from and to be endowed
with all qualities. Some explain this from the point of view of a mere negation, but that is mistaken. Still, this very wisdom is divided into four in terms of its distinct functions. mirrorlike
wisdom refers to the appearance of the aspects of a Tathāgata’s own unshared dharmas within
luminous dharmadhātu wisdom through the power of the ālaya-consciousness having become
pure. The wisdom of equality refers to being endowed with great love and compassion in
an equal way for all beings by virtue of the afflicted mind having become completely pure.
Discriminating wisdom refers to having become a treasury of samādhis and dhāraṇīs that are
unimpeded with regard to all knowable objects by virtue of the flux of the mental consciousness having been stopped. all-accomplishing wisdom refers to having attained the power to
creatively manifest as, and transform into, favorable circumstances in accordance with the
respective objects of enlightened activity in infinite realms of sentient beings by virtue of being
free from the five sense consciousnesses.


So I think everything we have could be described as a Method of Increasing Luminosity.


The querent in Khasama, Sattvavajra, has a standard enough meaning:

sems dpa’ rdo rje - indestructible cognitive responsiveness, vajra-being, indestructible being, vajra of the mind, nature of the mind, great being, Sattvavajra

There is the highly similar:

Vajragarbha (Skt.; Tib. རྡོ་རྗེའི་སྙིང་པོ་, Dorjé Nyingpo, Wyl. rdo rje'i snying po) — a bodhisattva who compiled the Dzogchen teachings given by the Buddha Samantabhadra in Akanishtha. He is counted as one of Tertön Sogyal's previous incarnations.

The main interlocutor of the Buddha’s entourage throughout many of the Yoginītantras, such as the Hevajra Tantra, is also called Vajragarbha.

He is in NSP:

(1: Dharmadhatūvāgīśvara-maṇḍala):—“Vajragarbha is of the colour of the petal of a blue lotus and holds in the right hand the Vajra and in the left the book called the Daśabhūmika”. (2: Durgatipariśodhana-maṇḍala):—“Vajragarbha is of bluish white colour and holds the blue lotus in the right hand while the clenched left rests on the hip”.

[Old Student]

When I figured out how to get Bliss into circulation like ordiniary blood, I definitely would have parked there like those schools that kind of get you face-to-face with what we might call the First Joy, and then run out of guidance. It is so pwwerful you just want to repose there like an infant in the womb, but, the Dhyanas clearly specify that at some point, you have to start overlooking this effect.

So in shaking, there is no problem with reposing like an infant in a womb, in fact there is no problem with being an infant in a womb, but there does seem to be a problem with trying to go some place you have already been. If it succeeded at all, it would be dull instead of blissful. Instead, everything is seen for the first time, which is fine except it isn't what one, as a human, is used to.

I still cannot explain it either. Marici cannot be much other than a Noumenal, Mantra-bound aspect of Ushas, having swiped a name from male Rishi Marici. The main switch seems to be from her using Horses, who are the usual sun chariot haulers, and the main vehicle of Buddhist Jewel Family, to Boars, which are usually the vehicle of Earth or Bhu Devi.

This is fine. Ushas is the only one who insisted on a specific name, although some of the others were so recognizable they didn't need to.

Tiger and Leopard maintain distinct identities from Lion.

As vehicles, they are how a deity interacts with the world, such as the Tiger Durgas are generally fiercer, whereas the few Lion Durgas such as Katyayani are more Saumya or Santi or peaceful, pleasant, etc.

This is a shaman familiar, so 'being' it is not like becoming filled with a Dakini, it's turning into something else. It has one characteristic that is very un-panther/jaguar like, the ears are more like the upward pointed ears you see in sculptures of cats or something. Actual leopard/jaguars have round ears. I'm not sure what that is about. But the others (animals, familiars) also have things odd. Sometimes the eagle is white which doesn't fit, and the snake is all about water but nothing like a water moccasin, which is the only water snake I know of.

If that state has "at its fingertips" all the details, all the libraries and research of the world, the entire vocabulary and history of anything that is perceived, that, to me, represents Amitabha Wisdom or Pratyavekshana Jnana. His mind is never distracted by any of the details. It is as if a baby is just looking at meaningless colors and shapes and then, for example, telepathically beams us the name of a printer, its company, inventor, serial number, where you can get all the parts and what things this particular one has printed, and so on, its whole Chain of Dependent Arisings is plain and obvious.

If you 'chose' a path through such a mind, it could be endlessly creative and never repeating itself but always slightly familiar. Which would be like a lot of the shaking visions.

[Old Student]

To express the impure [aspect of mind as such] as “mind” refers to what is
taught as the “ālaya-consciousness.” The Abhidharmasamucchaya says:
mind being impregnated by all the latent tendencies of skandhas,
āyatanas, and dhātus is the ālaya-consciousness with all seeds.
This [ālaya-consciousness] is embraced by false imagination, consists of
the minds and mental factors in the three realms, is the root of all obscurations, and is to be overcome by buddha wisdom.

So this explains something to me about what a 'sentient being' is, I've been reading the Avatamsaka and it keeps coming up that sentient beings need to be worked over to become beings that can start becoming bodhisattvas (Cleary very frustratingly translates 'bodhisattva' everywhere).

In the tantras, Non-conceptual Wisdom is ramped up to a quiescent mind mounted solely on the non-conceptual Wind, and this is Suchness. Although it is elsewhere called "Dhatu" and "Prajnaparamita", these sources do not usually express its meaning in terms of Prana. The series of luminous synonyms is convergent with the re-orientation of Prana into Bliss.

Luminous connotes a steady state, wind, prana, connote something that flows. This explains why they are interchangeable even though they never seem interchangeable.

So I think everything we have could be described as a Method of Increasing Luminosity.

And since Marici literally means 'ray of light' she would be central to this?

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
So in shaking, there is no problem with reposing like an infant in a womb, in fact there is no problem with being an infant in a womb, but there does seem to be a problem with trying to go some place you have already been. If it succeeded at all, it would be dull instead of blissful. Instead, everything is seen for the first time, which is fine except it isn't what one, as a human, is used to.

I am not used to anything like it.

Ganapati told me to go search for the proper red in the darkness.

If anything, I am looking for something that is repeatable, the ability to visualize this color and to paint the idol with it. I do not really expect that to happen for a long time.

On the other hand I have seen fully-random things that are not the same for a second and would make it hard to say that one was "anywhere" except where light is subject to impulses.


Concerning the Shape of Zeroes and Bindus and what Khasama may be talking about, it came to mind there is one more example of Nine which is also like Eight Spokes plus a Center.

There are two main traditions of Kaya or Body Mandala in Sarvadurgati Parishodana.

The standard one is called Sarvavid Vairocana.

The other, uncommon one is called Navosnisa for Nine Usnisas.

Tabo at Lahaul and Spiti says they have it, but do not show it.

They do show it in Korea. They say it is a rare example where the Usnisas are shown arising from their symbols.

Here is a Tabo image where they also appear "seated" from a recent report:









On p. 22 of Bodhisattva with Mask it specifies that Navosnisa means central figure plus eight usnisa deities. This is an in-depth study on Jaliniprabha and the linguistic problems of Jvala and Jala; it for instance describes the Vadiraj mandala. Also that Navosnisa is our NSP 22 version.

One of Navosnisa's deities is Gaganaganja and he is perfuse in Paramadya.

It is standard to call the ring of Sixteen Bodhisattvas "the Vajrasattvas".

We have just declared him to be a Tathagata, so, this is kind of like saying any Bodhisattvas are owing to him.


Female Usnisas are Dharanis. Usnisa Vijaya and Sitatapatra Parasol or Vajra Usnisa are by far the most important, the others are difficult to even name, much less find material for. I think Jvalamukhi was one and nothing else even comes to mind.

That is a good question...why would he bother to emit eight different deities from his head...are they "spaces"? Exponentially-expanding logarithmic powers?

I am not sure. It is an "almost secret" way of doing body mandala as well as Dharanis.

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)
So this explains something to me about what a 'sentient being' is, I've been reading the Avatamsaka and it keeps coming up that sentient beings need to be worked over to become beings that can start becoming bodhisattvas (Cleary very frustratingly translates 'bodhisattva' everywhere).

Sometimes it is said that it just means "human beings", except here, it is something defined as a given mental apparatus.

An animal does not quite have the same apparatus, and is not thought to hear and respond to teaching in the same way as a person can.

But yes, the general idea is correct. Only Bodhisattvas receive Buddha's teaching directly, and it is mainly they who assist us to become Bodhisattvas. And while this is going on, the first Seven Bhumis are considered Reversible, which is why this is kind of a special batch for us to train in. Until the whole thing is solid, we are seen as able to lose the Path again.

And since Marici literally means 'ray of light' she would be central to this?

Yes.

I think there is a reason that the basic Tara companions are Marici and Ekajati, and those two go on to become something far from basic.

You "can" wrangle with them in their outer or Kriya forms, you do not have to, but at some point, they will assert themselves with respect to one's inner nature.

The only thing that really shows the fulfillment of this hypothesis is Sadhanamala. However the explanation that the real Marici appears at the time of Buddhahood to reveal it to all the Tathagatas, is from somewhere else. The definition of Ekajati as One More Birth or equivalent to Vajradhara is from the Sutra.

[shaberon]

Marici is kind of a "late model" goddess who does not, by name, reach back into pre-Buddhism like Mayuri or Matangi. She must be an aspect of Ushas, who does, but it is a bit odd that we would have a Homa which preserves Bharati in her ancient original meaning while not letting Ushas participate (by name).

We can say the Buddhist Sun is a weird tantric process in Jewel Family, which Marici is not usually part of, although she is usually in their color, unlike most Vairocana deities.

It is weird because the invisible electro-magnetic sun is more important than the shiny visible one, and its invisible nature is non-different from the same energies in man, or i. e. we have "captured a drop of the sun". Thus if we say there is love and intelligence and so on, it is this, the real "substance" of the sun.

The Sun is just a reflector of the central spiritual sun; Marici is Dipper Mother, and so the Noumenal Sun possesses some greater cosmic aspect, or the cosmic allowed or caused the individual solar system to form. This is, perhaps, a bit more philosophical than practical, whereas practices are all about the experience of doing it oneself, of finding Light in some spectrum other than the apparent one.

Luminosity is the very subject of Shentong in an article looking for a "Sanskrit original", which there is, a refutation of Cittamatra Yogacara and of Sakara Vijnana Vada, and so Shentong comes closest to the title Nirakara Vijnana Vada, or Parasunya. Again, it accepts both Cittamatra and Prasangika--Rangtong as provisionally useful, but has its own way of accessing the Ultimate as described in the Three Natures of Yogacara, which is the teaching of Maitreya.

Two Prajnaparamita commentaries state:

Both also use the terms tathāgatagarbha and “fundamental change” (āśrayaparivṛtti), while making it clear that the perfect nature—suchness or mind’s natural luminosity—is completely unchanging and only obscured by adventitious stains.



The synonyms are of the same subject, although is some cases by degrees:

The Āmnāyānusāriṇī also relates suchness (the perfect nature) to its three stages of being impure, partially pure, and being utterly pure, usually explained as referring to tathāgatagarbha. Suchness, prajñāpāramitā, and the dharmakāya are held to be equivalent and said to represent ground, path, and fruition, respectively, in terms of the one and same suchness being more or less obscured by adventitious stains.

According to Wiki, Luminous Mind is:

prabhāsvara-citta

while Luminosity is:

prabhāsvaratā

The main root for "Light" is "Bhas", such as in Bhaskari or Vajrabhaskari with Seven Syllable deity. "Pra" is an intensifier, and the whole is often translated as "Clear Light" or "Purity".

However, "Vara" has little meaning of "Clear", it is more like Arya (noble) or -uttara (utmost):

manuṣyavara: Best of men

or is a Boon like in Varada Mudra.

"Light Maker" seems to be only used with Seven Syllable deity as in Buddhist Studies Review:

L smrti, mindfulness, is viewed as Sri Heruka;

2. dharma-pravicaya, investigation of dharmas, as HerukI;

3. virya, spiritual energy, as Vajrabhairavl;

4. prlti, joyfulness, as Ghoracandi;

5. prasrabdhi, tranquillity, as Vajrabhaskari;

6. samadhi, concentration, as Vajraraudri, and

7. upeksa, equanimity, is viewed as VajradakinI.


Vajrabhaskari is a Green Jewel Family goddess, corresponding to Samtrasani; as to whether it is an extension of Marici is hard to say. Bhaskara was a name for Aditya--Surya--Sun since the Gupta era, ca. 300s, whereas Bhasvara can be found as a gift from the Sun to Mars.

Bhaskari is in Sadhanamala once at the end of Vajra Tara 95:


vidhāya vajratārāyāḥ sādhanaṃ yan mayārjitam /
śubhaṃ tena janā sarve mantrasambuddhabhāskarāḥ //

And yes, she is the one enmeshed with Vajra Surya initiation.

As we can see, the Seven Jewels are far from a naming convention, those are all hypostases of things that are difficult to even describe. It looks like Vajrabhaskari would accept whatever we could glean of the Sun from Sarvadurgati Parishodana, along with the seemingly-related Vajramrita Tantra and perhaps Ganapati, and Marici. Here, Tranquility or Prasrabdhi is usually called "the Cathartic", i. e. is the basis of profound and fundamental change, similar to what Kriya--Charya is saying about Calming or Shamata.

One cannot say much of anything about Vajraraudri without Samputa Tantra.

Like Ganapati, this complex development is not present in the older original material, although Luminosity appears in older Pali sources:

In the Saṅgīti-sutta for example, it relates to the attainment of samadhi, where the perception of light (āloka sañña) leads to a mind endowed with luminescence (sappabhāsa).

The Pali Dhātuvibhaṅga-sutta uses the metaphor of refining gold to describe equanimity [Upeksa] reached through meditation, which is said to be "pure, bright, soft, workable, and luminous".

Buddhaghosa also mentions that the mind is made luminous by the fourth jhana in his Visuddhimagga.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu sees the luminous mind as "the mind that the meditator is trying to develop. To perceive its luminosity means understanding that defilements such as greed, aversion, or delusion are not intrinsic to its nature, are not a necessary part of awareness."



Luminosity is present in the First Turning, as well as the Second Turning or Sutra Mahayana. In the Pañcavimsati Prajñaparamita sutra, the prabhsvara-citta is interpreted thus:

This mind (citta) is no-mind (acitta), because its natural character is luminous. What is this state of the mind’s luminosity (prabhsvarat)? When the mind is neither associated with nor dissociated from greed, hatred, delusion, proclivities (anusaya), fetters (samyojana), or false views (drsti), then this constitutes its luminosity. Does the mind exist as no-mind? In the state of no-mind (acittat), the states of existence (astit) or non-existence (nstit) can be neither found nor established... What is this state of no-mind? The state of no-mind, which is immutable (avikra) and undifferentiated (avikalpa), constitutes the ultimate reality (dharmat) of all dharmas. Such is the state of no-mind.

Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga, also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and also another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi). In some Mahayana shastras, natural purity is another term for Emptiness, Suchness and Dharmadhatu. Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha for example, states:

The essential purity (prakṛtivyavadāna), i.e., the true nature (tathatā), emptiness (śūnyatā), the utmost point of reality (bhūtakoti), the signless (animitta), the absolute (paramārtha), the fundamental element (dharmadhātu).

The Bhadrapala-sutra states that the element of consciousness (vijñanadhatu) is pure and penetrates all things while not being affected by them, like the rays of the sun, even though it may appear defiled.

In Tibetan Buddhism, the luminous mind (Tibetan: gsal ba) is often equated with the Yogacara concept of svasaṃvedana (reflexive awareness). It is often compared to a lamp in a dark room, which in the act of illuminating objects in the room also illuminates itself.

Versus the blackness of Deep Sleep:

If one has the ability to remain lucid during deep sleep, one will be able to recognize the luminosity of death and gain Buddhahood. This is called the meeting of mother and child luminosities, resulting in the state of thukdam at death.


So it is like our entire subject is in this one term, Prabhasvara. It is distributed and offspring lights, but, on its own plane, it is the Absolute Object underlying the Voids. Is the Tibetan accurate? Is it Clear? It contains the nuances of Shentong and appears almost exclusively with Seven Syllable deity, as far as referring to Light instead of just Fire.

It is non-different from Tathagata Garbha or Buddha Heart, which is not just an experience of transcendental light per se, but also its application towards the benefit of others, which mostly consists of discovering the same.

It seems to me that the Eighth and Ninth, or Alaya and Amala Consciousnesses, do not practically exist for anyone, and are a bit like dividing the final Bhumi of full Buddhahood into three or more parts. As H. H. Rangjung Dorje says, it is more the Seventh Consciousness which is of extreme concern, and is like our most subtle aspect, and the continuity over lifetimes. He wrote on a Sutra basis, but, we can see the same intent at the Mountains of Vajrayogini and with Vajradhara, which are the tantric aims at the philosophical concept.

Vajrasattva is like a preface to it, to harness the Sixth Consciousness and affirm that a display of light is crucial for the entire enterprise.


Prabhasvara is found in Sadhanamala with Vajrasana 3:

tataḥ śunyatāṃ vibhāvayet / sarvadharmān
019ḷ09 niḥsvabhāvarūpān vibhāvya akṣararūpaṃ bodhicittasvarūpaṃ
019ḷ10 prabhāsvaram ātmānaṃ paśyet /


Sthiracakraya 44:

grāhyagrāhakahānito jagad idaṃ svapnendrajālopamaṃ śuddhaṃ ca prakṛtiprabhāsvaratayā vyomopamāmāśritam /


Arapacana 55:

paramārthasārthaṃ punar ātmadehaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ taṃ sakṛd eva paśyet //



Manjuvajra 71:

tato bhagavantaṃ nijabījena sahaikībhūtaṃ dṛṣṭvā sarvaṃ traidhātukaṃ sthāvaraṃ jaṅgamaṃ pratītyasamutpannaṃ svapnamāyāprativimbotpamam avicārāsahaṃ vicintya prakṛtiprabhāsvaram eva kevalaṃ pariśuddham ātmānaṃ bhāvayet /


Dharma Sankha Samadhi Manjushri 81:

tadabhyantare vartulaṃ
157ḷ15 śuklaikarekhāvṛtaṃ araṃ tanmadhye śuklapadmaṃ evaṃ likhitvā
157ḷ16 kārttikaphālgunavaiśākhādipaurṇamāsyāṃ pūjānaivedyādi-
157ḷ17 pūrvakaṃ baliṃ dattvā samāhito maṇḍalamadhye vajraparyaṅkenopaviṣṭo
157ḷ18 mañjuśrīrūpaparāvṛttam amitābhabuddharūpam ātmānaṃ
157ḷ19 dharmadhātusamaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ bhāvayet /


Astamabhaya Tara 99:

tasya madhye nunar bījaṃ vahniraśmiprabhāsvaram //


Sukla Kurukulla 180:

paścāt oṃ śūnyatājñānavajrasvabhāvātmako 'habhityanena
mantreṇa śūnyatāṃ vibhāvya tritattvenādhiṣṭhāya punar ātmāna-
m ākāśe citralikhitam iva prabhāsvararūpaṃ cintayet /


Usnisa Vijaya 212:

caityāntargatamoṃkāraṃ trāmākāraṃ prabhāsvaram /



After the mandala formula of Vajravarahi 217:

tanmadhye raktapaṃkārajam aṣṭadalapadmaṃ tadvaraṭake ālikālipariṇatacandra-
sūryyasampuṭamadhye raktavajrāntargataṃ raktavaṃkāraṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ
paśyet /

and at the end of Vajravarahi 226:

traidhātukaṃ prabhāsvaraṃ mahā-
sukhākāraṃ paśyed iti /


It has a few more ordinary usages; but we see Prabhasvara is tied to Luminous Mind--Bodhi Citta, as it is also to Prakriti. Most of these excerpts are from the early parts of sadhanas in dealing with Voidness and Purity mantra before the main thing starts.

217 gives us the sense of Red Pam and Lotus, Vowels and Consonants, which is kind of the "workhorse" of spawn sequences, followed by the relation of Light to Matter.

Marici must be using her own vocabulary.

Sarvadurgati Parishodana begins by saluting Vajrasattva, so those should also work together.

Parasol is like a female Vajrosnisa as given in the male version where the Usnisas appear to be "of the Families":

namas te
śākyasiṃhāya dharmacakrapravartakaḥ||

traidhātukaṃ
jagatsarvaṃ śodhavet sarvadurgatim||

namas te
vajroṣṇīṣāya dharmadhātusvabhāvataḥ||

sarvasattvahitārthāya
ātmatattvapradarśakaḥ||

namas te
ratnoṣṇīṣāya samatātattvabhāvanaiḥ||

traidhātukaṃ
sthitaṃ sarvam abhiṣekapradāyakaḥ||

namas te
padmoṣṇīṣāya svabhāvapratyavekṣakaḥ||

āśvāsayati
sattveṣu dharmāṃṛtapravarṣaṇaiḥ||

namas te
viśvoṣṇīṣāya svabhāvakṛtyānuṣṭhitaḥ||

viśvakarmakaro
hy eṣāṃ sattvānāṃ duḥkhaśāntaye||

namas te
tejoṣṇīṣāya traidhātukam avabhāsayet||

sarvasattveṣv
apāyeṣu satyadṛṣṭvā kariṣyati||

namas te
dhvajoṣṇīṣāya cintāmaṇidhvajadharaḥ||

dānena
sarvasattvānāṃ sarvāśā paripūrayet||

namas te
tīkṣṇoṣṇīṣāya kleśopakleśachedakaḥ||

caturmārabalabhagnaṃ
sattvānāṃ bodhiḥ prāpyate||

namas te
chatroṣṇīṣāya sitātapatraśobhanam||

traidhātukaṃ
jagatsarvaṃ dharmarājatvam prāpyate||

īāsyā mālā
tathā gītā nṛtyā devyaś catuṣṭayāḥ||

puṣpā
dhūpā ca dīpā ca gandhā devī namo'stu te||


It deals with their Mudras:


prabhākāras tejorāśimudrā|


vajrabandhe
madhyame vajrākāreṇa tarjanyo ratnākārau kṛtvā śeṣāḥ prabhākārā jayoṣṇīṣamudrā|


which are still close to Bharava--Eyes, Yakshas, and Noose:

vajrabhairavanetramudrā| tasyādhastād

vajrayakṣeṇa
mudrāsahitena punar bandhaṃ kuryāt

oṃ
vajrayakṣa huṃ iti| vajrāñjaler aṅguṣṭhadvayam prasāritaṃ tarjanīdvayaṃ daṃṣṭrā|
vajrayakṣamudrā|

vajroṣṇīṣeṇa
mudrāyuktena pūrvāṃ diśaṃ bandhayet|

oṃ druṃ
bandha haṃ iti| druṃ iti vā|

vajramuṣṭidvayaṃ
kanyasāśṛṅkhalābandhena tarjanīdvayasūcīmukhaṃ parivartoṣṇīṣe sthāpayet| vajroṣṇiṣamudrā|

punar
vajrapāśena tām eva bandhayet|

huṃ
vajrapāśe hrīḥ iti| vajramuṣṭidvayena bāhugranthiṃ

kuryāt|
vajrapāśamudrā|

[Old Student]

Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga, also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and also another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi).

But...

After the mandala formula of Vajravarahi 217:

tanmadhye raktapaṃkārajam aṣṭadalapadmaṃ tadvaraṭake ālikālipariṇatacandra-
sūryyasampuṭamadhye raktavajrāntargataṃ raktavaṃkāraṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ
paśyet /

...meaning 'innate' prabhasvara. So there must be another layer of complexity or simplicity depending on the point of view.

I was browsing statues of Cunda from Indonesia -- just an interest in the portrayal of her in Srivijaya, which had quite a few statues of Prajnaparamita, to which she is related. There was one in which the defining feature of the statue was a parasol. I'm not sure which feature made the statue identify as Cunda, but is she related to Parasol?

[Old Student]

I think there is a reason that the basic Tara companions are Marici and Ekajati, and those two go on to become something far from basic.

I had a very strange shaking last night, I was "solidifying". Everything that normally would have been bliss was coming out ash and stone, and gradually, instead of filling up with bliss, I was filling up with stone. There was an abdominal contraction at the center of it, very hard to the point of pain, and by the near end of the night everything I did was contributing to either filling up with stone and ash or becoming heavier and more solid.

It reversed itself finally after hours of such 'solidification'.

[shaberon]

Posted by Old Student (here)

Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga, also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and also another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi).

But...

After the mandala formula of Vajravarahi 217:

tanmadhye raktapaṃkārajam aṣṭadalapadmaṃ tadvaraṭake ālikālipariṇatacandra-
sūryyasampuṭamadhye raktavajrāntargataṃ raktavaṃkāraṃ prakṛtiprabhāsvaraṃ
paśyet /

...meaning 'innate' prabhasvara. So there must be another layer of complexity or simplicity depending on the point of view.

Well, by interpretation. Prakriti is undifferentiated matter, unless one goes to the extent to call that Mula Prakriti and then use Prakriti for the matter of ordinary nature.

The idea is very simple, which is that what we call consciousness is an inseparable attribute from matter, like mass. Just as an atom of Prithvi Dhatu has mass, an atom of Vijnana Dhatu "is aware".

In all cases, there are increasingly Subtle and increasingly Mental kinds of matter, imperceptible to terrestrial senses.

So then, yes, Light is an innate part of some kind of matter other than physical matter. If it is an innate part of mental matter, then this is what the inner meaning seems to be getting at.

Citta Prakriti Vishuddhi just means Mind (Nature or Matter) (Pure or Purified)

Mental layers may be called Vijnana, Manas, and Citta, wherein vijnana is any consciousness which may flow out the senses, manas is mentation or mental processes, and Citta is Luminous.


I am not aware of a correspondence from Cunda to Parasol.

What seems odd about Cunda is that she has a red samaya being related to Fruit Picker.

A few deities use a Parasol item.

But I am not aware of Cunda ever being called an Usnisa-class deity.


We said Parasol is Vajrosnisa which is like an Usnisa in Vajra Family, but, not quite. The Usnisas do appear to be the Tathagatas, however. Sarvadurgati has the following parental system:

i. Vairocana
i., Mahavairocana Sakyasimha

2. Mahavairocana
Vajrosnisa and three others (i, e, the main Usnisas)


3- Vajrosnisa
Eastern Deities
Deities in the Agni corner.

4, Ratnosnisa
1. Southern Deities
2. Deities in the Nairtta corner.

5. Padmosnisa
1. Western Deities
2. Deities in the Vayu corner,

6, Visvosnlsa
1. Northern Deities
2. Deities in the lsana corner,


So Vajrosnisa is an emanation of Maha Vairocana, and then performs as if Vajra Family by emanating the East. There is a ton of stuff in this mandala, but the Usnisas have laid it out in an easy fashion.

We know it expresses the Nine Planets in an outright bizarre manner, but what is even worse is how they confabulate the principal Hindu deities:

I* Principal Gods

1. Nilakantha , ..., Bull
2. Visnu and Vajrahema, Garuda
3. Vajraghanta and Kaumarl, Peacock
4. Maunavajra and Vajrasanti, Swan
5. Vajrayudha and Vajramusti, Elephant

Shiva is first on a Bull, and his Shakti is of course Sati...Lasya...Parvati...maybe they did not know it yet. Just a blank. Ayudha is Indra's personal weapon, and here he is with female Musti or Fist. Mars has a Ghanta or Bell. Mauna is "silence"--not sure who that is supposed to be--likely Brahma.


After the Planets comes some ad hoc Vajrasaunda group:

1. Vajrasaunda and Vajravinaya, Elephant
2. Vajramala and Vajrasana, Kokila chariot
3. Vajravamsa and Vajravamsa, White chariot
4. Vijayavajra and Vajrasena, Frog
5. Vajramusala and Vajraduti, Flower chariot


It is almost inscrutable except Vajrasena is a General, usually a Yaksha, usually male. Saunda is intoxicated or fond of it; whether this is with a female Vinayaki, we could only guess; Vinaya by itself would be a rather strange name. The couple could be Intoxicated and Disciplined. It is a strange group headed by Elephant power. I have no idea what this is.

In the quarters are Vajrabhairava and Vajravarahi (Mukhi):

3. Vajrankusa and Vajramukhi on Sesha Naga
6. Vajrabhairava and Vajravikata on Ghost

It looks much as if this was before/prior to Vetali and Varahi tantras.

Vikata is "Hideous", rarely used as a female name:

Vikaṭā (विकटा).—A giantess in the harem of Rāvaṇa. She tried to entice Sītā for Rāvaṇa.

However she is also a Wisdom in Vajramrita Tantra.

Since there are only six quarters, it may mean Vajrabhairava is in the Nadir.



After Vajravinayaka on a Rat, there is Putana on a Rat, Bhima, Sri, Sarasvati, and Simhadurga.

Putana is "Putrefaction" and has a complicated relationship with Vamana and Krishna.


Yes, this is Lion Buddha at the beginning and Lion Durga at the end.

And, those are Navosnisa and Nava Durga.

That may make it close to a widely-known "Nine Spaces", and it opens by invoking Vajrasattva. He is the first of Four Pranama (Obeisances), and he is Adhistitha (Consecration). He comes up over thirty times, appears to be involved with Vajra Nama or Name Initiation, with Krodhas as Mahabala, is with or is Samantabhadra Mahasukha, is not far from Vajra Daka and Vajrapani, seems to be a hypostasis of Vajrahumkara. Skimming through that makes it look as if the major aspect of this tantra is in Vajrasattva becoming Wrathful and handling the magic of mandalas.

Well, yes, if I put this in a room with Khasama, I don't think they're going to fight.



Prajnaparamita is always synonymous with the "central" Dharmadhatu or any of the rest of it. Other deities are therefor similar to her to the extent they express the whole or a portion. She is a hypostasis into Viswamata in Kalachakra Tantra, or, it has also been said that Prajnaparamita becomes Vajradhatvishvari by appropriating Marici and radiating light. Either of those is a way of cramming in the full tantric explanation, thereby elaborating the Sutras.


Here for instance is Kausika Prajnaparamita Sutra wherein she becomes all skandhas and elements:


rūpāparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| evaṃ vedanāsaṃjñāsaṃskāravijñānāparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| pṛthivīdhātvaparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā| evamabdhātu-tejodhātu-vāyudhātu-ākāśadhātu-vijñānadhātvaparyantatvāt prajñāpāramitā aparyantā|

It is very little Sutra, it is mostly Dharanis including her usual mantra.

Kausika usually has to do with a shed skin of Parvati.

That is different than most, by purveying her as the Elements rather than the senses; nevertheless, it gives a Sixth Skandha and a Sixth Element, both called Vijnana, while focusing the usual Six Paramitas. Overall, that is the best or most correct classification to say Prajnas = Elements. It does not mean in gross form, but, the Noumenal or mental idea of the element impressed into prakriti. Perhaps like an archetype. She "is" that refined material which "has or is" a form of awareness, particularly, Wisdom.

It is called a Sutra, but is not in "the Sutras" and is nothing but a batch of tantric and spellcasting tips. Very close to an equivalent of Sadaksari Mahavidya. Either of these gives us a Six Family view right off the bat, without evoluting from four to five to six. Therefor these are like female Vajrasattvas as the Sixth Tathagata. They are "like" him, but one uses Vajra Family and the other Lotus.

Although there are apparent differences, they are of One Taste:

sarvadharmaikarasatvāt prajñāpāramitā ekarasā|


So in this one place we can see her perform as a close energetic equivalent to Nairatma or Vajra Tara, having six principles. It is the same sixfold core, once showing itself as the darkness of selflessness, as the secrets of the sun, and as the Paramitas or Perfections.

[Old Student]

I am not aware of a correspondence from Cunda to Parasol.

What seems odd about Cunda is that she has a red samaya being related to Fruit Picker.

A few deities use a Parasol item.

But I am not aware of Cunda ever being called an Usnisa-class deity.

There are always the two explanations that the statue is misidentified, or that the creator of the statue was misinformed about how it should look.

I went back to look, and can't find the exact pic I saw, but did find multiple Cunda statues from Indonesia/Srivijaya showing her under a parasol:



It may be as simple as that Srivijaya was in the hot sun, and they put parasols over their goddesses.

Here for instance is Kausika Prajnaparamita Sutra wherein she becomes all skandhas and elements:

Kausika also means, "seed" or "cell" (it's used to create new words related to cytology). Could it be that the name of the sutra reflects an abbreviation (in the mind of the creator) of Prajnaparamita? It wouldn't be the first such.