The Collected Works of Chögyam Trungpa: Volume Seven (49 page)

Yidams

Yidams
(S.: ishta devata) means personal deity. Yidams are sambhogakaya buddhas, particular forms of which are visualized in accordance with the individual psychological makeup of the practitioner. A practitioner’s yidam represents his particular characteristic expression of buddha nature. Identifying with his yidam, therefore, means identifying with his own basic nature, free from its distorted aspects. Through seeing his basic nature in this impersonal and universalized way, all aspects of it are transmuted into the wisdom of the spiritual path. This leads directly to the service of all sentient beings, because in this way the practitioner becomes fearless. His hesitation gone, his action automatically becomes skillful and lucid; he is able to subdue what needs to be subdued and care for whatever needs his care.

The student first develops intense devotion toward his guru. This relationship with the guru makes it possible for the student to experience an intuitive kinship with the guru’s lineage and then with his own yidam.

Yidams belong to particular buddha families. For example, Chakrasamvara belongs to the padma family, Vajrabhairava to the ratna, the Vajrakilaya form of Vajrakumara to the karma family. Yidams are not to be equated with the patron saints or guardian angels found in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. They are not regarded as protectors from danger or saviors. They are simply acknowledgments of the student’s basic energy. The student visualizes the outstanding characteristics of the yidam until he achieves complete union with him.

There are different kinds of yidams. There are wrathful yidams, peaceful yidams, and some semiwrathful yidams. The three mentioned above are examples of wrathful yidams. Wrathful yidams are always associated with what is known in tantric terms as “vajra anger.” Vajra anger is without hatred, a dynamic energy which, no matter which of the five wisdoms it belongs to, is invincible. It is completely indestructible, imperturbable, because it was not created but discovered as an original quality. Wrathful and warlike, it devastates the tendency toward idiot compassion and cuts through the hesitations that come from disbelieving in one’s buddha nature. Doubt is destroyed and confusion is chopped into pieces. Thus the wrathful yidams are portrayed treading on the corpse of ego, wearing ornaments of human bones and skulls, drinking blood, holding lethal weapons of all kinds.

In general the wrathful figures wear the five-skull crown, the garland of fifty-two heads, the six bone ornaments, the six jewel ornaments, the five ornaments of the naga castes. The five-skull crown exhibits the five kleshas (emotional hindrances) as ornaments of the dharma. These are anger, pride, passion, jealousy, stupidity. The garland of fifty-two heads symbolizes triumph over the fifty-two kinds of neurotic concepts. The six bone ornaments are necklace, garland, armlets, bracelets, anklets, crossed bands across the torso. The jewel ornaments double the bone ones. The nagas, snakelike water spirits, represent passion. The naga ornaments represent the five levels of the Hindu caste system in the naga world, thus the five levels of passion. The ornaments are a ribbon in the hair, armlets, bracelets, body garlands, anklets. They signify that the passions have been transmuted into attributes of dharmic action. Many of the wrathful yidams also wear the tigerskin (male) or leopardskin (female) skirt representing fearlessness, the elephantskin shawl representing strength, the humanskin shawl representing compassion.

The peaceful yidams inspire the student’s nonaggression and gentleness. Rather than destroying the dullness and hesitation of ego, identification with the peaceful yidams awakens it into openness. The peaceful yidams wear the raiment of archaic Aryan kings. They wear crowns and hold scepters and attributes such as the vajra, a golden wheel, wish-fulfilling gems, a bowl of amrita (the elixir of immortality), etc.

Peaceful yidams wear a five-medallioned tiara with gems in the colors of the five buddha families. They wear a triple topknot adorned with ornaments of gold, diamonds, lapis lazuli, and ribbons. They wear three necklaces, earrings, armlets, bracelets, and anklets, all of gold and lapis lazuli. They wear rainbow-colored, pantlike lower garments under a short brocade skirt. The upper body is naked except for a short-sleeved blouse coming just below the nipples and, over it, a short, draped mantle. A long scarf floats from the neck.

The semiwrathful (T.: shimatro; Tt.: shi ma khro) yidams are described as a union of passion and anger. They both attract and reject. In visualizing them, the practitioner feels his basic being enriched by a sense of resourcefulness and flexibility in that magnetization or destruction could both be expressions of the awakened state of mind.

Yidams have both male and female forms. The male wrathful yidam is known as
heruka
which means “blood drinker,” he who drinks the blood of ego. The female wrathful yidam is called a dakini. The dakinis are tricky and playful. The male and female of the peaceful yidams are known as
bhagavat
and
bhagavati
meaning “glorious one.”

The male figures signify awakened energy, skillful means, bliss. The female aspect is compassion, emptiness, and intellect (which, as the emptying of confusion, is passive rather than active). The emptiness signifies fundamental accommodation and also ultimate fertility in the sense that emptiness is the mother of form. Through union with the heruka, the dakini can give birth to enlightenment. The dakinis in general reinforce the nature of their consorts and the bhagavati has the role of asking the bhagavat on behalf of all sentient beings to proclaim the teachings.

In general the union of the male and female aspects, known as the yab-yum (“father-mother”) form, is a symbol that skillful action is impossible without compassion, that energy cannot be effective without intellect, and that bliss is impossible without emptiness. This symbolism denotes the interaction of these elements as aspects of enlightenment, rather than on the ordinary confused level of indulgence in passion and aggression.

Dharmapalas

Dharmapala
means “guardian of the teaching.” The function of the dharmapala is to protect the practitioner from deceptions and sidetracks. If the practitioner ventures onto dangerous ground, unhealthy for his progress on the path, the dharmapala principle pulls him back violently. As the practitioner becomes more closely identified with the teaching, the energy of the dharmapalas begins to fall under his control. A student cannot, however, come in contact with his dharmapala principle until his guru has brought him into relationship with his yidam.

The two main types of dharmapalas are mahakalas (male) and mahakalis (female), on the one hand, and lokapalas on the other. All dharmapalas, with the exception of most lokapalas, are wrathful. The mahakalas wear the ornaments and bear the attributes of herukas.
Maha
means “great”;
kala, kali
means “black.” Thus they are usually black or dark in color. The main role of the mahakalas is to fulfill the four karmas or enlightened actions. These are pacifying, enriching, magnetizing, and destroying. Pacifying means causing psychological imbalance or physical sickness to subside. Enriching means imbuing experience with a sense of richness; also giving physical wealth and long life. Magnetizing means attracting power and powerful relationships which give control over situations. Destroying means annihilating confusion and obstacles.

The mahakalis also wear the bone and jewel ornaments. They usually ride a horse or mule, from whose saddle hangs a goatskin bag of poison which kills the enemies of the teaching. They also carry a mirror of judgment, a snake lasso, and a bow and arrows. They are fierce and swift in destroying whatever obstructs the dharma. They are also tricksters who deliberately lead one into trouble if one’s attention lapses. They create hallucinations which can deceive even Yama, the lord of death. They are mistresses of the realm of passion and can seduce one into samsaric involvements. They can save one from confusion or drag one into the pain of the dark age—disorder, famine, plague. For the accomplished yogi, they act as maidservants, carrying messages and doing services.

The lokapalas are protectors of the teaching and also of the nation. They are, for the most part, deities from the pre-Buddhist Bön tradition of Tibet that have been transformed by the Buddhist outlook. Notable exceptions to this are the guardians for the four directions, preserved from Indian iconography. Dhritarashtra (T.: Yukhorkhyong; Tt.: yul ’khor skyong) is the guardian of the east; he is usually white and plays a lute. Virudhaka (T.: Phakyepo; Tt.: ’phags skyes po), the guardian of the south, is usually blue and carries a sword. Virupaksha (T.: Chenmizang; Tt.: spyan mi bzang), the guardian of the west, is red and holds a small stupa. Vaishravana (T.: Namtose; Tt.: rnams thos sres) is the guardian of the north; he is yellow and carries a banner.

The adoption of existing national deities by Buddhism is not unique to Tibet but also took place in China and Japan, where Taoist and Shinto deities were incorporated into the buddhadharma. The lokapalas are usually depicted riding a horse, wearing a suit of armor, and bearing suitable attributes such as various weapons, pennons and banners, wish-fulfilling gems in a gold dish, lassos, etc. They are regarded by Buddhism as aspects of the national ego transmuted into destroyers of frivolous activities, unacceptable to the teaching.

Mandalas and Stupas

The basic form of a mandala is a palace with a center and four gates in the four directions. It should be understood that mandala representations are not used as objects of contemplation in an attempt to bring about certain states of mind. Mandalas are used by practitioners who have been introduced into the practice of particular sadhanas as a sort of shrine on which to place ritual objects. The ritual objects such as vajra, bell (S.: ghanta), skullcup, etc., are placed on certain parts of the mandala in order to magnetize to it the particular deity whose attributes the objects are.

There are four traditional ways of representing mandalas: with colored sand; with five heaps of grain for the center and the four directions; by painting; by casting a three-dimensional mandala in metal.

The four directions are called east, south, west, and north, but in practice they have a more personal sense. The practitioner identifies himself with the deity whose dwelling place is at the center of the mandala and the directions become his front, his right, his back, his left, with east being the front. Two-dimensional representations of mandalas are aerial views. One sees four gates in the four primary directions and messengers and subprinciples of various kinds emanating out from the central figure, usually in the eight directions. (The eight directions actually stand for ten directions, by including up and down.) The mandala is, in the case of wrathful yidams, surrounded by a charnel ground, the place of birth and death, recognizable often by depictions of corpses, innards, and severed limbs. The charnel ground is the basic earth on which the mandala is built. It represents the world as a rubbish pile of existence which has been consecrated. It also represents the all-pervasiveness of impermanence. Outside that is a further circle of flames in five colors signifying the five wisdoms. This demarcates and keeps safe the area of the mandala.

Stupas (T.: choten, Tt.: mchod rten) are three-dimensional forms representing the body, speech, and mind of Buddha. They vary in size from altarpieces to huge monumental structures that can be seen for miles. Probably the oldest form of Buddhist art, they are repositories of sacred relics and texts and objects of simple, straightforward veneration for the teachings of Buddha. Those of any size are venerated by circumambulation, which sometimes may go on for days.

There are many variations in the design of stupas. The basic features common to most are, from the bottom: a square base; a domelike form; thirteen tapering, round steps; a lotus form; a sun held by the crescent moon. These features can be seen as representing the five elements—earth, water, fire, air, space—as well as various aspects of the Buddhist path.

Illustrations of the Teaching

The main example of this category is the wheel of life (S.: bhavachakra; T.: sipa khorlo; Tt.: srid pa ’khor lo). The wheel of life is unique in that it portrays the totality of the Buddhist teaching concerning samsara. This is particularly essential in that understanding the psychological nature of samsara is the working basis of the path, the first step toward enlightenment. Other forms in this category are sets of symbols of various kinds. The heap of five sense organs stands for the five sense-consciousnesses arranged as an offering. The “eight auspicious symbols” are emblematic of the basic nature of the Buddhist teaching. The ornament of the “triple gem” stands for the buddha, the dharma, and the sangha (community of the teaching). There are many traditional ornaments considered as symbols of the auspicious and beneficial nature of some aspect of the buddhadharma.

Yantras

A
yantra is a design incorporating elements of iconography which is used as a charm or an amulet. Yantras are placed in houses, vehicles, on animals, carried personally. They are often accompanied by a container of consecrated ingredients such as sesame seeds, gems, minerals, herbs. Written mantras are usually included. Yantras are prepared and consecrated in special ceremonies conducted by lamas.

F
IVE
B
UDDHA
F
AMILIES

Some impression concerning the nature of the five buddha-family principles is essential to an understanding of tantric Buddhist art. Direct relationships with those five energies is the basis of tantric Buddhist practice.

The five buddha principles constitute the basic mandala with vajra in the east, ratna in the south, padma in the west, karma in the north, and buddha in the center.