100 Deities of Bardo State - The Eight Wrathful Females (Part 7)

Bardo, The Intermediate State:

Bardo is the Tibetan word for between, or an in-between, state. In a religious context the term is most referenced in regard to the state of existence that occurs between death and rebirth. Under the subject of bardo some of the topics of interest that are related to art are the sights and visions that a being is believed to experience during that time. In the West this subject is most commonly referred to as 'The Tibetan Book of The Dead.

Bardo is an abstract concept. There are no actual images of the bardo. Deity figures and mandala-like shapes are used to convey the ideas of the state between death and rebirth.The 'Terton' Karma Lingpa (1326–1386), in the 14th century, is credited with the discovery of the 'treasure text' known as the Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo (Tibetan Book of the Dead).

A text intended to be read to the deceased and to influence positively the subsequent rebirth. (There is evidence to suggest that the famous 'Treasure Finder' of the Bon Religion - Shenchen Luga (996-1035) - had discovered similar texts in the 11th century).

The assembly mandala of Bardo deities depicts a perfected state of beings and the central deities within, symbolizes the perfected states of the meditators' own awareness, psycho-physical aggregates, elemental properties and sensory and mental process.

The peaceful deities symbolize the natural purity of these fundamental components of beings while the wrathful deities are the transformative aspects of the energies. The outer deities of these mandalas are the mode of activities of an enlightened being.

100 Deities of Bardo (Intermediate State)

Bardo, The Intermediate State: The assembly of 100 deities: 1) The 42 peaceful deities 2) The 58 wrathful deities

The 58 wrathful deities - The Eight Wrathful Females

The eight wrathful females or eight gaurima are counted among the mandala of the fifty-eight wrathful deities. They are:

1. Gauri - The White Lady (dkar mo)
2. Pukkasi - The Fragrant Lady (spos mo)
3. Chauri - The Thief Lady (chom rkun ma)
4. Ghasmari - The Voracious Lady (sme sha can)
5. Pramoha - The Bewildered Lady (rab tu rmongs ma)
6. Chandali - The Fierce Lady (gtum mo)
7. Vetali - The Undead Lady (ro langs ma)
8. Shmashani - The Charnel Ground Lady (dur khrod ma)

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

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