Nine demeanours of a wrathful deity

From Rigpa Wiki
Revision as of 04:13, 4 October 2018 by Hankop (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Nine demeanours (or styles) of a wrathful deity (Skt. navanāṭyarasa, Tib. གར་གྱི་ཉམས་དགུ, gar gyi nyam gu, Wyl. gar gyi nyams dgu) — there are three of the body, three of the speech and three of the mind.[1].

The three of the body are:

  1. enticing/seductive/captivating ( Skt. lāsya; Wyl. sgeg pa)
  2. heroic (Skt. vīra; Wyl. dpa' ba)
  3. terrifying/ferocious (Wyl. 'jigs su rung ba)

The three of the speech are:

  1. menacing laughter (Wyl. rgod pa)
  2. harsh and threatening/stern (Wyl. gshe ba)
  3. ferocious/wrathful and thunderous ( Skt. ūgra; Wyl. drag shul)

The three of the mind are:

  1. compassion (Skt. kāruṇika; Wyl. snying rje)
  2. yearning (to tame others)/magnificent power ( Skt. adbhūta; Wyl. rngams pa)
  3. peace/tranquility (Skt. śānti; Wyl. zhi ba)

Alternative translations

  • Dramatic sentiments
  • Dramatic airs (Gyurme Dorje, Treasury of Knowledge book 6)
  • Emotions of drama (Farrow and Menon, Concealed Essence of Hevajra Tantra)

Notes

  1. One source for these nine demeanours is the Hevajra Tantra, 2nd segment, chapter 5, v. 26. (Tib. སྒེག་ཅིང་དཔའ་བོ་མི་སྡུག་པ། །རྒོད་ཅིང་དྲག་ཤུལ་འཇིགས་རུང་བ། །སྙིང་རྗེ་རྔམ་དང་ཞི་བ་ཡིས། །གར་དགུའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཉིད།)