Guhyasamāja
Tibetan Buddhist · deity · mythic · deity
A YIDAM IS NOT A GOD THE PRACTITIONER PETITIONS; IT IS A FORM THE PRACTITIONER TAKES. The schema's vocabulary has no category for that, so type is deity because it is the nearest one available, and the record says so rather than letting the field make the claim. Lane 26 escalated this; nothing is decided here.
Domains
- yidam practice
- gelug practice
Relations
- of the three principal gelug yidams with: Yamāntaka
Sources
- Reference treatment of the yidam or istadevata, the meditational deity that is the focus of Vajrayana practice and is held to be a manifestation of buddhahood or of the enlightened mind: common yidams are Hayagriva, Vajrakilaya, Samputa, Guhyasamaja, Yamantaka, Hevajra, Kurukulla, Cakrasamvara, Vajrayogini and Kalachakra, each with a distinctive iconography, mandala, mantra and rite of invocation and practice; Vajrabhairava (Yamantaka) is one of the three principal meditational deities of the Gelug school, the others being Cakrasamvara and Guhyasamaja; the Lamdre path of the Sakya school is organised around Hevajra as its principal yidam; Cakrasamvara and Vajrayogini are central to Kagyu practice; wrathful yidams such as Cakrasamvara, Yamantaka, Vajrakilaya and Hevajra appear in fierce dynamic forms read as the energy of enlightenment cutting through delusion.