This page needs to be proofread.
hand,[1] seated upon a sky-traversing Harpy-throne,[2] embraced by the Divine Mother, the Faithful Dölma,[3] will shine upon thee, with his attendants,—the two Bodhisattvas Chag-na-Dorje[4] and Ḍibpanamsel,[5] attended by two female Bodhisattvas, Gandhema[6] and Nidhema.[7] These six Bodhic forms, from amidst a halo of rainbow light, will come to shine.
The primal form of the aggregate of volition, shining as the green light of the All-Performing Wisdom, dazzlingly green, transparent and radiant, glorious and terrifying, beautified with orbs surrounded by satellite orbs of radiance, issuing from the heart of the Divine Father-Mother Amogha-Siddhi, green in colour, will strike against thy heart [so wondrously
- ↑ That is, a dorje with four heads, such as is depicted on the front cover of this volume. It symbolizes equilibrium, immutability, and almighty power.
- ↑ Text: shang-shang, refers to an order of creatures like the fabulous harpies of classical mythology, having human form from the waist upwards, and from the waist downwards the form of a bird; but whereas the Greek harpies were female, these are of both sexes, That a race of such harpies exists in the world somewhere is a popular belief among Tibetans.
- ↑ Text: Sgrol-ma (pron. Döl-ma): Dölma (Skt. Tārā) = 'Saviouress'. She is the divine consort of Avalokiteshvara. There are now two recognized forms of this goddess: the Green Dölma, as worshipped in Tibet, and the White Dölma, as worshipped chiefly in China and Mongolia. The royal Nepalese princess who became the wife of the first Buddhist king of Tibet is believed to have been an incarnation of the Green Dölma, and his wife from the Imperial House of China an incarnation of the White Dölma. (See p. 74.) The late Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup told me that, because Tibetans saw the likeness of Queen Victoria on English coins and recognized it as being that of Dölma, there developed throughout Tibet during the Victorian Era a belief that Dölma had come back to birth again to rule the world in the person of the Great Queen of England; and that, owing to this belief, the British representatives of the Queen then met with an unusually friendly reception in their negotiations with Lhassa, although probably unaware of the origin of the friendship.
- ↑ Text: Phyag-na-rdorje (pron. Chag-na-dorje): 'Bearing the Dorje in hand': Skt. Vajra-pāṇi.
- ↑ Text: Sgrib-pa-rnam-sel (pron. Ḍib-pa-nam-sel): 'Clearer of Obscurations': Skt. Dīpanī, also Dīpikā.
- ↑ Skt.-Tib. hybrid of text. Corresponding Tib., Dri-chha-ma (Skt. Gandha), 'She Spraying Perfume', one of the eight mother goddesses (Mātṛis) of the Hindu pantheon. She is depicted holding a shell-vase of perfume (dri).
- ↑ Skt.-Tib. hybrid of text. Corresponding Tib., Zhal-zas-ma (pron. Shal-za-ma), 'She Holding Sweetmeats'. Although a goddess like Gandhema, Nidhema (Skt. Naivedya) cannot be included in the formal list of eight Mātṛis, the eight already having been named in our text. Both goddesses are green in colour, like the light of the All-Performing Wisdom.
