2-999-937 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Vajrayogini as Naro Dakini, 18th century. The goddess and Buddha Vajrayogini lunges powerfully as she tramples two figures that symbolize the three mental poisons: delusion, hatred, and desire. In this form, known as Naro Dakini, she is associated with the 11th-century tantric master Naropa, to whom she is believed to have revealed spiritual teachings. Holding a curved knife to sever the ignorance that is inherent to mundane perception, she lifts her skull-cup (symbolizing emptiness, the nature of true reality) to drink the blood it contains, which transmutes into the nectar of supreme, enlightened bliss. The double-triangle diagram that frames her has many layers of meaning and represents the origin of everything that truly exists. In meditation, one visualizes oneself as Vajrayogini arising from such a diagram, surrounded by attending figures, and destroying obstacles to enlightenment.