Chapter 1, Paragraph 2.
Chapter 1 paragraph 2.
“He focused on the fearful sight of Yamantaka staring out at him, which for a moment filled Rinpoche with terror as if this Yidam, this focus for meditation, was laughing at him through the sounds of the firecrackers and the chanting and yelling that were drawing ever nearer to the temple that had been for many years, his sanctuary.”
Firstly, a Yidam is a fully enlightened being who becomes a focus for someone meditating in the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition. This form of Buddhism is the backbone to the story.
Yamantaka is one of these enlightened beings.
There are several reasons why I focused on Yamantaka in this story.
On a personal level, I remember seeing this image as a child which frightened me very much.
The dynamics of the image with all its theatricality automatically appealed to my nature being someone who responds to visuals primarily.
Also, Rinpoche being a reflection of myself in many ways could naturally have had an element of fear upon looking at this image.
It also allows for Rinpoche to be human, a character who is very much dealing with everyday emotions as we are.
Yamantaka is the Yidam who terminates death. In the tantric practice using Yamantaka as a focus for meditation practice, allows the practitioner to focus on a variety of aspects related to death in its different forms.
There is firstly the mortal mundane death in its physical sense that we experience represented by the Yama (Lord of Death). There is also the death of ignorance that a practitioner of Buddhism aims for; ignorance that relates to the clinging onto the mundane life we have without realizing that it is only part of a continues journey through re-carnation.
The ultimate aim then is to once and for all end the cycle of rebirths and to become a part of the whole again, to ultimately lose self identity, to once again become a drop in the sea, this finally is the ultimate goal of the characters that possess this awareness within the book.
“He focused on the fearful sight of Yamantaka staring out at him, which for a moment filled Rinpoche with terror as if this Yidam, this focus for meditation, was laughing at him through the sounds of the firecrackers and the chanting and yelling that were drawing ever nearer to the temple that had been for many years, his sanctuary.”
Firstly, a Yidam is a fully enlightened being who becomes a focus for someone meditating in the Tibetan Tantric Buddhist tradition. This form of Buddhism is the backbone to the story.
Yamantaka is one of these enlightened beings.
There are several reasons why I focused on Yamantaka in this story.
On a personal level, I remember seeing this image as a child which frightened me very much.
The dynamics of the image with all its theatricality automatically appealed to my nature being someone who responds to visuals primarily.
Also, Rinpoche being a reflection of myself in many ways could naturally have had an element of fear upon looking at this image.
It also allows for Rinpoche to be human, a character who is very much dealing with everyday emotions as we are.
Yamantaka is the Yidam who terminates death. In the tantric practice using Yamantaka as a focus for meditation practice, allows the practitioner to focus on a variety of aspects related to death in its different forms.
There is firstly the mortal mundane death in its physical sense that we experience represented by the Yama (Lord of Death). There is also the death of ignorance that a practitioner of Buddhism aims for; ignorance that relates to the clinging onto the mundane life we have without realizing that it is only part of a continues journey through re-carnation.
The ultimate aim then is to once and for all end the cycle of rebirths and to become a part of the whole again, to ultimately lose self identity, to once again become a drop in the sea, this finally is the ultimate goal of the characters that possess this awareness within the book.
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