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The Eight Wrathful Females - List

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They are related to the twelve ayatanas (sense bases) discussed in both Theravada’s Abhidharma-kosa and Mahayana Abhidharma.

The Eight Wrathful Females - ListThe Eight Wrathful Females - ListThe Eight Wrathful Females - ListThe Eight Wrathful Females - List
The Eight Wrathful Females - List

One of the sense bases is mind. Mind can be categorized into eight consciousnesses eye consciousness, ear consciousness, nose consciousness, tongue consciousness, body consciousness, mental consciousness, manas, and alaya consciousness.
The eight females represent the wrathful manifestations of the eight consciousnesses when purified, also the nature of the eight consciousnesses.
These eight wrathful females not only look intimidating, the objects they hold in their hands are also quite frightening. But once we know the inner meaning behind the menacing appearances, we will actually feel joy, not fear, behind the fierce countenance, there lies tremendous wisdom and compassion, there is no eroticism, nor is there any violence or aversion.
They are similar to the eight goddess mentioned in the Hevajra tantra which replace Ḍombī and Śavarī with Śmaśānī and Pramoha .
Sometimes part of the mandala of a Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities (Tib. ཞི་ཁྲོ་རིགས་བརྒྱ་, shyitro rik gya, Wyl. zhi khro rigs brgya) which includes forty-two peaceful deities and fifty-eight wrathful deities, featurued in several practices and cycles of teachings, most notably the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the Guhyagarbha Tantra.

The Eight Wrathful Females

01. Gauri, Gauri-ma or the White Lady.

Gauri represents the purity of eye consciousness. She holds in her right hand a wooden stick with a piece of human skin attached on the top, which represents the wisdom of non-discrimination because human skin no longer has any sense or spirit after a person dies. A skull-cup filled with blood is held in her left hand, symbolizing the purity of desire for samsara without obliterating it.

02. Pukkasi or the Fragrant Lady.

Represents the purity of body consciousness. She holds in her hand intestines, intestines representing naivety meaning not to abandon sentient beings out of compassion, also to lead them to the path of liberation.

03. Chauri, Chaurimatrika or the Thief Lady.

Representing the purity, also the essence, of ear consciousness. The bow and arrow held in her hands symbolize the union of wisdom and skilful means.

04. Ghasmari or the Voracious Lady.

Represents the purity of manas self-grasping. She also holds a vajra in her hand, which symbolizes destroying all discursive thoughts and obscurations.

06. Chandali or the Fierce Lady.

Represents mind consciousness. She holds a heart in her right hand and a snare made with human intestines in her left hand. The heart symbolizes the wrong view; taking the heart out from a dead body symbolizes eradicating the wrong views of sentient beings.

06. Pramoha or the Bewildered Lady.

Representing the purity of nose consciousness. She holds a makara in her hand (a very powerful sea-creature that never lets its prey escape) it represents not falling into the two extremes of eternalism and nihilism, or samsara and nirvana, but abiding in the freedom from the two extremes. Ordinary people are trapped in samsara, whereas arahants attain liberation but fall into nirvana. Mahayana liberation avoids the two extremes of samsara and nirvana. The dharma vessel held in Pramoha’s hand also symbolizes guiding sentient beings not to fall into the two extremes.

07. Vetali or the Undead Lady.

Represents the purity of tongue consciousness. She holds a vajra in her right hand, which symbolizes destroying all discursive thoughts and obscurations.

08. Shmashani or the Charnel Ground Lady.

Represents the purity of alaya consciousness. What she holds in her hands a human head in her right hand and a headless body in her left hand. The human head symbolizes attachment to self. Holding the cut-off head in the right hand represents abolishing all attachment to self. The headless body in the left hand represents the wisdom of non self and no thought, as a body with no head is just a human frame without any consciousness or thought.





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