Buddha Shakyamuni – the Sage of Sages
Buddha Shakyamuni (Main figure)
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(Top to bottom): Guru Rinpoche, Lama Tsongkhapa, Buddha Shakyamuni, Four-Faced Mahakala, Dorje Drolo, Palden Lhamo and Dorje Shugden.
Lama: Guru Rinpoche (Tibetan)
Alternative names: Guru Padmasambhava (Sanskrit); Lopon Rinpoche (Tibetan)
Guru Rinpoche, also known as Guru Padmasambhava, was an 8th Century Indian Buddhist master who travelled to Tibet in order to spread the Buddha’s teachings. Guru Rinpoche is highly revered within all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was invited to Tibet to subdue powerful obstructive beings who opposed the spread of Buddha’s teachings. He waged supernatural war with these deities and won due to his high spiritual attainments. Instead of vanquishing these obstructive beings, he chose to follow the Buddha’s teaching on compassion and bound them to an oath never to harm sentient beings again. They promised to protect and provide for practitioners
Lama: Lama Tsongkhapa (Tibetan)
Alternative names: Sumati Kirti (Sanskrit); Lobsang Drakpa (Tibetan)
Lama Tsongkhapa was a 15th Century scholar-yogi who established the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. After spending years studying and meditating, he established monastic institutions of learning and practice, producing limitless masters, tantrikas, yogis, scholars and teachers of the Buddhist path. In his previous life, during the time of Buddha Shakyamuni, he was a young boy who, upon seeing the Buddha, offered him a crystal mala (rosary) as an offering. It was then that Buddha prophesied that the boy would be reborn in a land to the north (Tibet) to spread his teachings there. This boy later took rebirth as Lama Tsongkhapa, revived the Buddha’s teachings in Tibet and established the Gelug tradition.
Deity: Buddha Shakyamuni (Sanskrit)
Alternative Name: Sangye Shakya Tubpa (Tibetan)
Shakyamuni is the historical Buddha who founded Buddhism in ancient India about 2,500 years ago. After an exhaustive search, he finally attained perfect and complete enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya. His teachings became the basis for the Buddhist faith and he proclaimed that he was not the only one who achieved this state and revealed that there are other fully awakened beings that we can rely on.
All of the Buddha’s teachings are based on the four Noble Truths, which he established in his first sermon to explain the basis of our existence. He is depicted sitting in the Vajra position with his legs in the pose of full meditation. His body is said to bear all the 112 marks of a fully enlightened Buddha according to the ancient Indian belief of a Chakravartin or Universal Monarch. Buddha Shakyamuni is normally depicted in the Bhumisparsha mudra or the earth touching mudra with his right hand and the other hand cradling a begging bowl.
Deity: Four-Faced Mahakala (English)
Alternative names: Chaturmukha Mahakala (Sanskrit); Gonpo Shel Shi (Tibetan)
Four-Faced Mahakala is a Dharma Protector associated explicitly with the Heruka Tantras and is propitiated by Heruka practitioners for spiritual protection and for the granting of material necessities so that they can concentrate on their spiritual practice.
Deity: Dorje Drolo (Tibetan)
Dorje Drolo is a wrathful emanation of Guru Rinpoche, practiced particularly within the Nyingma tradition to overcome very negative obstacles. Guru Rinpoche manifested in this form to overcome many demons, spirits and obstructing beings of Tibet and the surrounding Himalayan region.
Deity: Palden Lhamo (Tibetan)
Alternative names: Shri Devi (Sanskrit), Remati (Sanskrit)
Palden Lhamo refers to a number of female protector deities. In the Gelug tradition, the principle form of Palden Lhamo is known as Magzor Gyalmo or the ‘Queen who Repels Armies’ and she is regarded as the wrathful emanation of Saraswati. Palden Lhamo is also the protectress of the Dalai Lama’s line of incarnations and originated within the entourage of Mahakala’s mandala.
Deity: Dorje Shugden (Tibetan)
Alternative name: Vajra Rudra (Sanskrit)
Dorje Shugden is an emanation of the Buddha of Wisdom, Manjushri. He took the form of a Dharma Protector in order to safeguard the Buddha’s teachings, especially the important teachings on the Middle Way View. Reminiscent of Manjushri’s form, Dorje Shugden carries a meandering sword and rides a snowlion that represents the fearlessness of a fully enlightened Buddha. Thus, he has great strength to overcome obstacles of the body, speech and mind, and create suitable conditions for our spiritual practice to flourish. Furthermore, he carries a jewel-spitting mongoose and a vajra hook to symbolise that he has the tremendous ability to bestow wealth and resources.
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