Buddhist Deity: Amoghapasha Religious Context

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Video: Amoghapasha: The Unfailing Lasso

Amoghapasha or Avalokiteshvara? It begs the question, why are some of these mandalas called the Five-deity Amoghapasha if the central deity is Avalokiteshvara? It all comes down to naming conventions in Buddhism. The very idea of a compassionate deity called Amoghapasha comes out of a number of Indian Sanskrit texts that all have the word-name Amoghapasha in the title. In these texts both Avalokiteshvara and Amoghapasha are described along with different appearances and functions for each. In consequence, the principal name for all of these forms of the two deities, regardless of which one of the two is at the center of the mandala, are called Amoghapasha - mandala, meditation, or ritual.

In a 12th century text, History of Amoghapasha, Sonam Tsemo writes that Amoghapasha is a nirmanakaya form of Lokeshvara while Lokeshvara himself is in sambhogakaya form and can only be found on mount Potalaka. The source texts from the Tantra section of Kangyur are the Arya Amoghapasha Kalparaja, Arya Amoghapasha Hridaya Nama Mahayana Sutra, and the Arya Amoghapasha Paramita Shatparipuraya Nama Dharani.

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Jeff Watt 2008 [updated 4-2011, 4-2017, 12-2019]

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Bibliography:

Toh 682/901. The Sūtra, The Essence of Amoghapāśa. དོན་ཡོད་ཞགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་མདོ། · don yod zhags pa'i snying po'i mdo. amoghapāśahṛdayasūtra.

Toh 683. The Incantation, The Essence of Amoghapāśa. དོན་ཡོད་ཞགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · don yod zhags pa'i snying po'i gzungs. amoghapāśahṛdayadhāraṇī.

Toh 686. The King of Detailed Procedures for Amoghapāśa. དོན་ཡོད་ཞགས་པའི་ཆོ་ག་ཞིབ་མོའི་རྒྱལ་པོ། · don yod zhags pa'i cho ga zhib mo'i rgyal po. amoghapāśakalpa. [741 pages].

Toh 687/903. The Incantation, Fulfilling the Six Perfections of Amoghapāśa. དོན་ཡོད་ཞགས་པའི་ཕར་ཕྱིན་དྲུག་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་ཀྱི་གཟུངས། · don yod zhags pa'i phar phyin drug yongs rdzogs kyi gzungs. amoghapāśa­pāramitāṣaṭparipūraka­dhāraṇī.

Toh 689. Procedures for the King of Practices of Amoghapāśa. དོན་ཡོད་ཞགས་པའི་རྟོག་པའི་རྒྱལ་པོའི་ཆོ་ག་ · don yod zhags pa'i rtog pa'i rgyal po'i cho ga. amoghapāśakalparājavidhināma.

Sadhanamala, Vajravali, Mitra Gyatsa, Bari Gyatsa, Drub Tab Gyatso, Rinjung Gyatsa, and others.

Remaking Buddhism for Medieval Nepal. The fifteenth century reformation of Newar Buddhism. Will Tuladhar-Douglas. Routlage, 2006.