#sadhanas

ramnath@nerdpol.ch

enter image description here

#AchiChokyi is #Tibetan (ca. 1000s) but she is proficient enough in #Sanskrit to respond to the name #Dharma #Tara.

She is powerful enough that she composed herself into #sadhanas. And these were so powerful that this was the experience of H. H. First Karmapa (called Druptop here):

...the sound of a #damaru [resounded] from the sky and the melodious voice of a ḍākinī arose. Druptop asked the Lord of the Dharma (Chos rje) how this could be, [and] he replied, “The voice which arises is a Wisdom ḍākinī, my Grandmother.”

Druptop insisted, “What is her sadhana like? How is [her] practice done?” ] Because of that [Jigten Sumgon] bestowed many extensive sadhana and the fifteen chapters [of] the Precious Diadem in the Sadhana Cycle (Sgrub skor rin chen cod pan le’u). Druptop said, “Having reviewed the oral transmission with earnest, the essence [of the] goddess (hri ma) rose up from the sphere of reality, [and I] perceived [her] with divine sight from the sphere of wisdom.

Departing from the behavior of many of #Tibet’s mundane, oath-bound protectors, however, Achi takes multiple roles, making her an interesting point of departure in this category. According to at least one sadhana, besides being taken as one’s dharma protector, she can be taken as one’s inner-most secret lama (gsang bla ma), one’s inner yidam (nang ltar yi dam), or one’s secret ḍākinī consort.

She did not perish in a usual way:

...she flew into the air on the back of a #blue #horse, accompanied by a #small #dog, and departed for the #Pure Lands.
enter image description here