Question asked by Bry
Hi dear pastor,
I am a Catholic but I believe in Buddhas and some of the practices of Buddhism maybe because I am heavily influenced by Lillian Too. I read a lot of her books. I just want to ask why is it some of the Buddhas have fierce and scary faces. Isn't it that Buddhas are enlightened beings and are compassionate? Sometimes it is hard for me to do visualizations when I do mantra recitations because Im afraid to imagine their faces like vajrayogini and dzambhala. I feel uneasy when I see them rather than to feel enlightened and calm. Are those faces true or just inventions of ancient monks. Thanks so much pastor. I have great respect for Buddhism 🙂
Dear Bry,
Wrathful expressions of the Buddhas reflect the other side of compassion, a sort of tough love side of compassion. The best analogy for this is a mother who has no choice but to scold her children for playing with fire in order to teach them a lesson and to protect them. This quality of wrath is reflected in the fierce expressions of the Buddhas.
Also, when a person who comes with the intention to harm her children, the mother would not remain calm and peaceful as that would not deter the person at all. Hence, the Buddhas have to manifest wrath and in some cases, extreme wrath particularly directed at our negative karma, delusions and negative beings that harms us. Wrath also denotes speed and therefore, almost all Dharma Protectors have fierce expressions.
On top of that, the Buddhas put on a fierce and ugly expressions to reflect the results of our negative karma and delusions. Vajrayogini is described to be having a semi-wrathful expression mixed with that of great desire. While Dzambala is described to have a haughty expression. One reflect desire and the other arrogance, which are the particular delusions that these Buddhas work to transform.
The expression of these deities are written down based on pure visions experienced by great masters of the past who witnessed these beings. They wrote it down and used it as a basis for sadhanic meditations. Those who meditate on the forms of these Buddhas along with mantra and other visualizations has been proven to bring about a certain positive transformation within us by many great masters and practitioners of the past. Therefore, they are certainly not made up by ancient monks. Perhaps, your feelings of uneasiness reflect more of your preconceived ideas of how a Buddha should appear to you and not what they really are.