The ​Mahā­māyā Tantra
Glossary

The highest of the buddhafields. The term can be used to indicate the pure realm of the dharmakāya in general or can refer to the six realms between the highest heaven of the form realm and the realm of dharmakāya.

The vowels (āli) and consonants (kāli) of the Sanskrit alphabet.

The level of commitments specifically associated with tantric practice. Also rendered here as “samaya.”

The second of the two stages of tantric sādhana practiced. Its practices are specific to individual tantric systems but typically include sexual yogas, the consumption of illicit substances, manipulation of the subtle energetic anatomy, or resting in an uncontrived state.

Like yoginīs, these are semidivine female beings who have long haunted the margins of South Asian culture. They are frequently propitiated in order to acquire mundane and transcendent spiritual accomplishment.

The first of the two stages of tantric practice focused on the visualized development of the tantric maṇḍala and its deities and the recitation of mantra.

Traditional Brahmanical term for the created universe.

Eleventh century translator and teacher of Guhya­samāja­tantra.

The female central deity of the Mahā­māyā Tantra who appears in the form of the male Heruka. She was also a popular form of the Brahmanical great goddess (Mahādevī), to whom the Buddhist figure is intimately related. Also rendered here as “Mahāmāyā.”

A type of semidivine being frequently found in the entourage of Kubera, the lord of wealth.

The wrathful form of Akṣobhya, buddha of the vajra family, who appears in the center of many tantric maṇḍalas. He is typicaly depicted wearing mortuary implements and wreathed in flame.

Traditional Brahmanical term for the illusory structure of mundane reality.

A staff with a single or three-pointed tip and a freshly decapitated head, a rotting head and a skull skewered on its shaft.

An epithet of the female deity of the maṇḍala (most frequently as the consort of the main deity) who represents knowledge; the tantric consort; knowledge; frequently used in the sense of magical incantations and magical power. Also rendered here as “vidyā.”

An Eleventh or Twelfth century Buddhist commentator. Wrote Recollection: a commentary on the Mahāmāyā Tantra.

Counted among the most famous of the Indian Buddhist Mahāsiddhas and renowned for his association with packs of dogs (kukkura), he is a central figure in a number of tantric lineages, specifically of the Guhya­samāja Tantra and Mahā­māyā Tantra. He was active sometime between the eighth and tenth centuries.

The female central deity of the Mahā­māyā Tantra who appears in the form of the male Heruka. She was also a popular form of the Brahmanical great goddess (Mahādevī), to whom the Buddhist figure is intimately related. Also rendered here as “Great Illusion.”

A term used to describe the later tantras of the Yoga class that incoporated more transgressive pactices and a wrathful aesthetic. Typified by the Guhya­samāja­tantra and Guhya­garbha­tantra.

(1012–1097) Tibetan translator and lay practitioner from Lhodrak. Traveled several times to Nepal and India to receive tantric Buddhist teachings, notably from Nāropa and Maitripā, and in Tibet established an important set of lineages through his “four pillar” disciples, Milarepa, Ngoktön Chöku Dorje, Tshurtön Wangki Dorje, and Metön Tshönpo.

The manipulation of breath by means of yogic exercise. The Tibetan translation of the Sanskrit compound prāṇāyāma is more usually the compound srog rtsol.

Indian scholar and practitioner (956–1041), a major figure in the transmission of tantric Buddhism to Tibet. Earlier in his life he was an important paṇḍita of Nālandā, but left to become a yogi and siddha, the student of Tilopā, and later the teacher of Kukkuripa, Marpa, and others.

An important eleventh-century Buddhist monastic scholar who wrote prolifically on a number on both Mahāyāna and Mantrayāna works.

Sacramental substances ingested as part of tantric ritual; frequently composed of bodily fluids or illicit meats.

The method of practice. Experiential methods for actualizing spiritual attainments and liberation.

The level of commitments specifically associated with tantric practice. Also rendered here as “commitment.”

The mundane and transcendent abilities that are conferred through the perfection of yogic practices.

A category of tantra that includes the so-called Father tantras like the Guhya­samāja Tantra and the “Mother,” or Yoginī, tantras into a single genre of tantra.

An epithet of the female deity of the maṇḍala (most frequently as the consort of the main deity) who represents knowledge; the tantric consort; knowledge; frequently used in the sense of magical incantations and magical power. Also rendered here as “knowledge.”

A type of semidivine being whose identiy has shifted over time and genre. In their most popular form they are spell- (vidyā) wielding (dhara) beings capable of granting magical abilities to those they favor. The Buddhist tradition associated them more closely with soteriological aims, identifying them as realized beings who possess (dhara) knowledge or awareness (vidyā).

Closely associated with notions of virility, this term can denote the male deity of the maṇḍala (whose consort is the vidyā) or the yogī who practices this mode of tantra.

A term that is generally used to refer to a wide range of spiritual practices. It literally means to be merged with or “yoked to,” in the sense of being fully immersed in one’s respective discipline.

With a long history in South Asian folklore and religious traditions, yoginīs are liminal, trangressive, and often ferocious semidivine female figures associated with the bestowal of temporal and transcendent spiritual accomplishment. In Buddhist tantra they are identical to ḍākinīs.

The last development of Buddhist tantra in India, focused upon the figure of the yoginī and the meditative manipulation of the subtle energetic anatomy of the physical body. Typified by the He­vajra­tantra, Cakrasaṃvaratantra, and the Mahā­māyā­tantra.