Padmasambhava Guru Rinpoche, a Lotus-Born Statue

Description

Padmasambhava Guru Rinpoche, a Lotus-Born Statue statue was hand-carved in copper in Kathmandu by Nepali artisans. The Lotus-Born wears wonderfully sculpted clothing with lovely patterns, and his hat is adorned with an eagle feather. He has a vajra specter in his right hand and a skullcup with an eternity vase on his left.

In the curve of his left hand, he holds the Khatvanga trident, his celestial companion of bliss and emptiness. He has elongated earlobes and wears priceless jewelry. Guru Rinpoche is the second Buddha, the Buddha of all forms and teachings of enlightenment, emphasizing the tantras, for most Himalayan Buddhists.

Tantra instructs us to regard our teachers as Guru Rinpoche at first, just as the Great Way instructs us to regard our enlightened nature as buddha-nature. Then we see everything through the eyes of Guru Rinpoche, down to our atoms, all beings equally, and every scrap of grass, every grain of sand. Finally, when we understand our natural, timeless awareness, we recognize Guru Rinpoche.

Padmasambhava Mantra

The Padmasambhava mantra is Om Ah Hum Vajra Guru Padma Siddhi Hum.

About Padmasmbhava

Padmasambhava was a historical teacher who is said to had converted Tibet to Buddhism. He was a renowned scholar, meditator, and magician, and his mantra suggests his rich and diverse nature.

Padmasambhava Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighboring countries in the 8th century.

In those lands he is better known as Guru Rinpoche (“Precious Guru”) or Lopon Rinpoche, or, simply, Padum in Tibet, where followers of the Nyingma school regard him as the second Buddha.

He said:

“My father is the intrinsic awareness, Samantabhadra . My mother is the ultimate sphere of reality, Samantabhadri. I belong to the caste of non-duality of the sphere of awareness. My name is the Glorious Lotus-Born. I am from the unborn sphere of all phenomena. I consume concepts of duality as my diet. I act in the way of the Buddhas of the three times.”

Iconography of Guru Padmasambhava

The khatvanga, a danda with three severed heads denoting the three kayas (the three bodies of a Buddha: the dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya), crowned by a trishula and dressed with a sash of the Himalayan Rainbow or Five Pure Lights of the Mahabhuta is a particular divine attribute of Padmasambhava and intrinsic to his iconographic representation.

His two eyes are wide open in a piercing gaze. On his body he wears a white vajra undergarment and, on top of this, in layers, a red robe, a dark blue mantrayana tunic, a red monastic shawl decorated with a golden flower pattern, and a maroon cloak of silk brocade. He has one face and two hands.

In his right hand, he holds a five-pronged vajra at his heart; and in his left, which rests in the gesture of equanimity, he holds a skull-cup in the center of which is a vase of longevity filled with the nectar of deathless wisdom.

Cradled in his left arm is a three-pointed khatvanga representing the consort Mandarava. On his head, he wears a five-petalled lotus hat. Wrathful and smiling, he blazes magnificently with the splendor of the major and minor marks. He is seated with his two feet in the royal posture.