Yamantaka
Yama represents the end of one cycle & beginning of another. The deity Yama is wrathful to try to encourage you not to return to a previous cycle or habit. He is there to help you break the cyclical nature of existence [Skt. Samsara so that you can access the higher realm of human consciousness. He is fed up with the attachment of mankind to the Five negative afflictions [Skt. Kleashas] if pushed he has the authority to send you at your physical death to a place of ice & fire.
Read More
Iconography
The five skulls on Yama's diadem represent the Five Negative Affliction Or poisonous Buddhsit_Art_Yamaobstacles [Skt. Kleshas] to spiritual development which are greed, hatred, delusion, jealousy & pride & the transmutation of the five afflictions into the five wisdoms. His special power to change the five troubles is indicated by the tongues of crimson flame that arise from the cranium of each skull. He is painted with a bull's head, and he straddles a blue boar which crushes a human form. In his left hand in the threatening hand position [Skt. Tarjani Mudra] Yama brandishes a skull club [Skt. Kapala Danda] also carried by Kali [Shiva] & Bhairav that symbolises "smashing the veil of ignorance" and the ultimate emptiness of all phenomena which we need to realise the highest Buddhist ideal of Great Bliss [Skt. Mahasukha], pure consciousness and love. The energy is so powerful that it is sealed with a half vajra at the top. The white silk ribbons represents his ability adapt his energy to destroy ignorance in all its forms. In his right hand he holds a rope noose [Skt. Pasha] . One end has a hook and the other a ring which representing the catching & binding of the ego, the possibility of strangulation.
His sister Yami holds a skullcap [Skt. Kapala] held at his heart in his right hand hold red rejuvenating blood of Great Bliss called Raktavarna[skt.] representing 'wisdom'. The white breast ornament represents the wheel of life [Skt. Jivan Chakra] Jivan is a Sanskrit word meaning soul. Chakra means wheel. The wheel of Life is often called the Bhavacakra. Bhava means container or receptacle in the sense of body or form. The degree of wrath & and tantric power a deity has is often measured by the quantity of flame in the aureole of flame surrounding body. Yama is surrounded by a Fire Wheel [Tib. Me-Khor] which represents his ability to annihilate anything or anyone that crosses his path, but especially the obscuration to pure conscious enlightenment of which ignorance is considered the chief poison. The fire wheel radiate as pure psychic energy whose potency is alluded to in Yama's erect penis. Nothing can withstand Yama's fire wheel. In the foreground there are the Three Skull Offerings which represent the items necessary for rebirth. The left & right skulls are traditionally mounted on three smaller skulls. The left blue blood represents semen & the right red blood fertile uterine blood with the central skull contains the offering of the five senses representing the consciousness. The five senses are 1. the heart representing touch, 2. the eyes - sight, 3. tongue - taste, 4. nose - smell & 5. ears - sound. The attached hair indicates its freshness. The offering of the five senses is key to Yama's purpose; the offering is about rebirth the beginning of something new life.
Commentary
Yama is an ancient Vedic deity. His name comes from the root Ya meaning 'twin' in the sense of to restrain or bound. In Tibet Yama is usually Dam Can Chos rGyal, 'The Pledge Bound Dharma-King'. The later alludes to his conversion to Buddhism by Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom in his wrathful manifestation as Yamantaka 'the Destroyer of Yama". There are three common forms of Yama that occur in Tibetan Buddhism which are called respectively the External, Internal, and Secrete Yama. This painting depicts the External or Outer form of Yama who is a Dharma protector invoked to protect devotees from mundane difficulties such as physical illness and hunger. He is the colour blue and is shown in the characteristic fierce standing pose of a protective deity with a pot belly and erect penis. He has the head of a fierce bull with sharply pointed horns and protruding blood shot eyeballs. The bull is an ancient symbol in Indic religions that is associated with Yama and death, but also can symbolize procreation. This ambivalent symbolism is understood in the Buddhist context as the overcoming of death to create eternal life. Yama is personified as a bull as a metaphor of the uncontrolled mind that one must learn to control to overcome death. In his role as lord of hell, Yama should not be confused with Western religious notions of the Devil as the embodiment of evil but as a deity given a task within the greater Buddhist cause of the salvation of all living beings. In Buddhist symbolic terms the overcoming of death by terminating the cycle of rebirth is the ultimate goal and it is Yama who serves as a transformer in that process by embodying impermanence.
Garuda : Brief Introduction
The Garuda is a giant mythical bird or bird-like creature in Hindu and Buddhist mythology.
Garuda is the name for the constellation Aquila and the Brahminy kite is considered to be the contemporary representation of Garuda. In Buddhist mythology, the Garuda are enormous predatory birds with intelligence and social organization. Another name for the Garuda is supara meaning "well-winged, having good wings". Like the naga, they combine the characteristics of animals and divine beings and may be considered among the lowest devas.
Iconography
There were also the four garuda-kings : Great-Power-Virtue Garuda-King, Great-Body Garuda-King, Great-Fulfillment Garuda-King, and Free-At-Will Garuda-King, each accompanied by hundreds of thousands of attendants.
The Garudas have kings and cities, and at least some of them have the magical power of changing into human form when they wish to have dealings with people. On some occasions Garuda kings have had romances with human women in this form. Their dwellings are in groves of the simbalī, or silk-cotton tree.
The Garuda are enemies to the nāga, a race of intelligent serpent- or dragon-like beings, whom they hunt. The Garudas at one time caught the nāgas by seizing them by their heads; but the nāgas learned that by swallowing large stones, they could make themselves too heavy to be carried by the Garudas, wearing them out and killing them from exhaustion. This secret was divulged to one of the Garudas by the ascetic Karambiya, who taught him how to seize a nāga by the tail and force him to vomit up his stone.
The exact size of the is uncertain, but its wings are said to have a span of many miles. This may be a poetic exaggeration, but it is also said that when a Garuda's wings flap, they create hurricane-like winds that darken the sky and blow down houses. A human being is so small compared to a Garuda that a man can hide in the plumage of one without being noticed. They are also capable of tearing up entire banyan trees from their roots and carrying them off.
Garudas are the great golden-winged Peng birds. They also have the ability to grow large or small, and to appear and disappear at will. Their wingspan is 330 yojanas (one yojana being 40 miles long). With one flap of its wings, a Peng bird dries up the waters of the sea so that it can gobble up all the exposed dragons. With another flap of its wings, it can level the mountains by moving them into the ocean.
Read More