Wisdom Rising by Lama Tsultrim Allione

Author:Lama Tsultrim Allione
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria/Enliven Books

FIERCE MANIFESTATIONS

In general, anger is something we try to avoid. However, in the Buddhist Tantric teachings, we talk about fierce or wrathful manifestations, which are energies that transform the intensity of anger into compassionate activity. You may have seen Tibetan paintings of fierce deities.

These wrathful deities are often painted in gold on black ground. They are surrounded by swirling flames of fire and have bulging eyes. The energy of the wrathful deities destroys ignorance, rips off the veil of delusion, and clears the way to liberation.

The wrathful manifestations that you see in Tibetan art are different from blind fury. In them there is compassion and no hatred. These deities are manifestations of fast-moving energy; there is no attachment behind it. For example, let’s say a child is being harmed or in danger: you might have to show a wrathful manifestation to save that child. It can be likened to the fierceness of a mother lion or a mother wolf. Any mother will become fierce when her young are threatened.

Fierceness in the Tibetan tradition represents a powerful energy. In the Tara Mandala temple, we have life-size statues of the twenty-one Taras in a circle around its circumference. Some of these Taras are fierce, like the seventh, Tara Zhengi Mitubma, who is wrathful and black like dense rain clouds. She stops natural disasters, invading troops, and weapons of mass destruction. She is ablaze with wisdom fire.

The 7th Tara Zhengi Mitubma Unconquerable Fierce One Who Dispels Wars and Natural Disasters, in the Three Kaya Tara Mandala Temple, Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Photograph by Alan Kozlowski, statue copper gilded with gold by Bijaya Sakya

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