Buddha-figure

Homage to Manjushri in youthful form. Sixteen Verses on Requesting Instruction (1) Then the glorious Holder of the Vajra, the most superb tamer of those difficult to tame, the hero, triumphant over the world’s three planes, the powerful lord of the thunderbolt, ruler of...

Bodhisattvas are the offspring or children of the Triumphant Buddhas (rgyal-sras, Skt. jinaputra) in the sense that they are born from the Buddhas’ teachings. Manjushri, for example, is praised as “the enlightening discriminating awareness (shes-rab, Skt. prajna), rolled into...

An in-depth look at the Buddhist practice of tantra: what’s the difference between visualizing ourselves as a Buddha-figure or as Mickey Mouse?

Kriya tantra (ritual tantra) is the first of the four tantra classes in the Sarma classification scheme and the first of the six tantra classes in the Nyingma scheme. It puts a great deal of emphasis on cleanliness, vegetarianism and purification. PreliminariesBefore sitting...

I prostrate before my guru and guardian, the ennobling, impeccable Manjushri. Your intelligence shines forth like the sun, free from the clouds of the two obscurations, enabling you to see the extent of all things and how they exist: thus, you hold a scriptural text to your...

In Sanskrit, it is called Aryatara-mantramula-stotra-namaskara-ekavimshatika-nama. In Tibetan, ‘Phags-ma sgrol-ma’i rtsa-ba’i sngags-kyi bstod-cing phyag-‘tshal-ba nyi-shu rtsa-gcig-pa. Om, I prostrate to the ennobling, impeccable lady, highly realized Arya Tara. (1)...

What Are Impure and Pure Appearances? Now let’s discuss the variable of impure and pure appearances. The variable of pure and impure is applied in terms of whether or not an appearance is adulterated and stained with faults. “Faults” here refers to items that arise from our...

According to Buddhist analysis, not only do a self that is hugging someone, the other person being hugged and an action of hugging arise dependently on and simultaneously with each other, a self that is hugging also arises dependently on and simultaneously with many other...

The last topic that we will speak about is renunciation of our minds giving rise to ordinary appearances and of our clinging to these ordinary appearances, and having our main interest be instead in having our minds giving rise to pure appearances of Buddha-figures and...

Tantra is not a practice that is exclusively Buddhist. There are also Hindu tantras. And there’s a little bit – but not developed too much – a little bit of tantra also in Jainism, another Indian religion. So we would need to understand what the distinctive things of Buddhist...