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| Credit: Artofit |
The recent mud flood in Tibet and Nepal apparently has nothing to do with climate change, but is somehow the result of Communism. Or something. Per Breitbart News.
Xi Jinping leads meeting celebrating Communist Party response to Tibet floods
Is ChatGPT really *Charnel Ground* GPT? Here is a defense of Tantrism (including - at least implicitly - the extreme practices of the Left Hand Path) written by the Artificial Intelligence.
Here is a controversial question: Is there a path, perhaps in Tantrism, which does include even personal anger, bitterness, and the need to feel superior, and so on?
This is a controversial question, and the answer depends very much on what is meant by "include."
The short answer is:
That distinction is fundamental.
In Vajrayāna, there is a famous saying that the kleśas (afflictive emotions) are not rejected but transformed.
For example:
However, this does not mean:
"Remain angry."
It means that the energy underlying anger is recognized without the grasping, aversion, and delusion that make it destructive.
Wrathful deities such as Mahākāla or Vajrakīlaya appear terrifying, but traditional commentaries generally emphasize that their wrath is compassionate wrath, not personal rage.
They are said to be free of hatred.
The picture is similar.
In Śākta and Śaiva Tantra, fierce deities such as:
may display terrifying anger.
But traditionally this anger is not interpreted as wounded ego.
Rather, it is cosmic, protective, or purifying.
The deity destroys ignorance or injustice without being psychologically consumed by resentment.
There are traditions that deliberately use powerful emotions as fuel.
For example:
In these contexts, the practitioner does not pretend the emotions are absent.
Instead, they become material for practice.
This is one reason Tantra has often been described as an "alchemical" path.
But alchemy transforms lead into gold—it does not declare lead to be gold already.
Your mention of "the need to feel superior" is particularly interesting.
Classical Buddhist psychology generally treats this as a form of māna (conceit), which is considered an obstacle.
Even if one is objectively accomplished, clinging to superiority is seen as reinforcing the illusion of a fixed, separate self.
Similarly, many Hindu traditions distinguish between healthy confidence and ahaṃkāra (egoic self-identification).
Tantra does sometimes ask the practitioner to identify with a deity and think:
"I am the deity."
But this is not meant to inflate the ordinary ego.
Rather, it is intended to undermine the ordinary ego by replacing it with an enlightened identity that is ultimately dissolved into emptiness or pure consciousness.
Yes.
Some historical Kaula, Kāpālika, and related Tantric groups deliberately violated social conventions.
However, even these traditions generally claimed that such practices were undertaken:
They did not usually teach that ordinary resentment or arrogance should simply be indulged.
Modern psychological interpretations—especially those influenced by Carl Gustav Jung—sometimes speak of "integrating the shadow."
That idea has often been compared with Tantra, although they are not identical.
Jung would generally say that acknowledging anger, envy, or pride is healthier than denying they exist.
But he would not usually recommend becoming dominated by them.
Likewise, Tantra often says that denying powerful emotions can make them more unconscious, while transformation requires bringing them into awareness.
Here I think the answer is largely no, at least among the major Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
Some traditions value:
But bitterness—understood as long-term resentment, grievance, or delight in another's downfall—is generally regarded as binding rather than liberating.
Your question points toward a real tension in spirituality. Some paths emphasize gentleness and gradual purification; others are willing to enter directly into powerful, difficult emotions. Tantric traditions are among the latter. Yet their aim is not to sanctify egoic anger or superiority. Rather, they propose that the very energies involved in those states can, through disciplined practice, be transformed into wisdom, fearlessness, and compassionate action.
So if someone found themselves saying, "My practice has brought me face to face with my anger, pride, or bitterness," many Tantric teachers might respond, "Good—now you know what needs to be transformed." They would be much less likely to say, "Excellent—keep cultivating those qualities as they are." The distinction between using an emotion as the raw material for transformation and endorsing it as a spiritual goal is one of the defining features of both Hindu and Buddhist Tantra.
I never heard of Ushnishavijaya before. Or "The Crown Ornament of Victory"...of all the Buddhas of all time. No less! The two short clips above deal with her Tibetan iconography. Apparently, Ushnishavijaya is associated with Amitayus and Amitabha. There seems to be an obvious family likeness with Tara.
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| Credit: Maitreya Fields / YouTube |
I want to see this...
Something tells me this won´t be included in the next tranche of UFO files released by the Were-Trump administration! Nor in Nolan´s "Odyssey"...
So I asked Gemini to make a picture of Yellow Tara (the Mahayana-Vajrayana Buddhist "goddess") as if she was a normal human. This was the result. Some kind of Tibetan grandmama?
Hindu and Mahayana / Vajrayana mythology is so incredibly complex that you can always find *some* symbolic correspondence between [fill in the blank] and at least one of their god-forms. It´s almost a bit fascinating, LOL. As if "synchronicities" happened all the time. But perhaps that´s kind of the point. You can never escape the Divine. It has countless upon countless of skilfull means to draw you in. Or draw you out, as they case might be! Or even to scare the hell outta ya...
A somewhat cryptic comment at 4am, but what the heck.
In Tibet, they even have wrathful forms of Avalokiteshvara. Cuz of course they do. OK, let me guess. Life on the Tibetan Plateau was always kinda rough?
A very short introduction to the swastika problematique (which seems to be vast) in Buddhism and the related Bon religion. Apparently, Buddhists don´t care if the swastika is turning left or right. In Bon, by contrast, the "yungdrung" must always turn left.
According to the videos, at least in Buddhist Himalayan art, swastikas are often purely decorative in character. Some may turn right, others left, for the sake of symmetry and balance. In Chinese Buddhism, a buddha is often shown with a swastika on his body for some kind of theological reasons, but the videos never explain why. There is also the idea that Siddharta Gautama was born with small swastikas on his toes!
Kind of interesting, actually. I´ve seen the Chinese stuff before, in the AI-generated videos of that Buddhist nun I sometimes link to...
Some Buddhist "goddesses" from Tibet and Nepal. The enchanting Kurukulla simply *must* be a hybrid between the Hindu deities Lalita Tripura Sundari and Kali. What Simhamukha might be is anybody´s guess, but there is a rare Tantric form of the wrathful Hindu god Narasimha called Narasimhi. The Nepalese Vasudhara seems more normal, LOL. From the ultimate nerd channel "Himalayan Art Resources".
Himalayan Art Resources (Inc) strikes again. This time with strange forms of Saraswati. Also featuring the five protector goddesses known as Pancha Raksha, who were originally personifications of scriptures containing spells. Tibetan Buddhism seems to be more insanely complex and diverse than Hinduism. Even Jeff (the lecturer in the videos) is confused! I mean, dude.
I can´t stop looking at this peculiar YouTube channel, Himalayan Art Resources. This short video deals with Shiva-like figures in Tibetan Buddhist art. Frankly, some of them are so similar to Shiva that I suspect scholars of religion would argue that they *are* Shiva. Or rather that the Mahayana Buddhists appropriated symbols and myths associated with the Hindu god and projected them onto Avalokiteshvara, one of their most popular bodhisattvas. Note the strange female form of Shiva, also called Shiva (but pronounced Shivaa)!
OK, so I learned something new today. Maybe.
Some miracle stories related to Pure Land Buddhism. Note the claim that somebody who never heard about Amitabha Buddha can be saved *after* he is declared clinically dead, providing his consciousness hasn´t yet left the body. The other story is about an old Chinese nun who may have been a manifestation of Amitabha Buddha himself (sic).
Not sure what to think of this YouTube channel. Sometimes it sounds relatively sympathetic, other times less so. I previously linked to a video in which the content-creator claims that those who deny that Amitabha´s Pure Land is a real place will go to Avici, the lowest pit of Buddhist hell?!
Ahem...where have we heard that one before, I wonder?
So is Durga associated with witches and various paranormal entities? Gemini and ChatGPT have somewhat different takes on the matter. Or maybe not.
[Gemini version] Is Durga associated with witches, dakinis or yoginis?
Yes, Goddess Durga is intimately, fundamentally tied to yoginis, dakinis, and what Western cultures would categorize as witches.
In the complex landscape of Tantra and Shaktism, these figures are not separate from Durga; they are her shadow forms, her battlefield commanders, and the raw, wild, un-domesticated expressions of her own cosmic power (Shakti).
The connection shifts seamlessly across folklore, classical scripture, and advanced Tantra:
In classical Hindu texts like the Devi Mahatmyam and the Puranas, yoginis are explicitly described as manifestations, attendants, or emanations of Durga herself.
The Battlefield Strategy: During Durga’s cataclysmic cosmic wars against demons like Shumbha, Nishumbha, and Raktabija, she manifests specialized female forces from her own body. When the demon Raktabija threatened to duplicate himself every time a drop of his blood hit the earth, Durga multiplied her energy into the 64 Yoginis (and the Matrikas, or Mother Goddesses). The yoginis leaped into action, forming a circular formation to catch and drink his blood before it touched the ground.
The Mandala of Power: Over time, these entities evolved into the famous Chausath (64) Yogini Cults of medieval India. Unlike standard Hindu deities housed in enclosed, dark shrines, the 64 Yoginis were worshipped in unique, hypaethral temples—completely circular and open to the sky. Durga (often in her form as Mahamaya or Chandi) sits at the exact center of this circle as the high commander, while the 64 yoginis face inward around her, representing different facets of her sovereign power.
The term Dakini undergoes an extraordinary evolution that bridges Hindu Tantra, folk belief, and Tantric Buddhism, always keeping a tether to Durga.
The Wrathful Attendants: In early Hindu puranic literature, Dakinis are depicted alongside Yoginis as the fierce, terrifying, and blood-drinking attendants of Durga or Kali on the charnel grounds. They represent the untamed, destructive aspect of nature that devours the human ego.
The Transmutation: In standard folk tradition, the word dakini was often used with fear to describe forest spirits or consumer entities. However, in Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism, the Dakini was elevated to the highest spiritual status: the "Sky Dancer" (Khandroma). Here, she is the embodiment of fluid, sharp, liberating wisdom. The Buddhist deity Vajrayogini (a supreme dakini) directly inherits her aesthetic—dancing on corpses, holding a skull cup and a flaying knife—straight from the wrathful matrix of Durga/Kali.
When Western researchers first encountered the texts and temples of the Yoginis and Dakinis, they almost universally translated the terms as "witches," "sorceresses," or "goblins." While those words carry a Judeo-Christian stigma of evil, the indigenous reality is much more complex:
The Linguistic Root: In modern northern India, the derogatory slang for a witch is Dayan or Dankuni. This word is a direct, corrupted linguistic evolution of Dakini.
The Human-Divine Blur: In Tantric Kaula lineages, the boundary between a goddess and a human woman is completely fluid. A highly realized female practitioner who mastered esoteric herbs, energy manipulation, and shape-shifting was believed to literally embody a Yogini.
The Counter-Culture: Like historical Western witches, the yogini/dakini cults operated completely outside mainstream, puritanical patriarchal norms. They practiced in secret, remote places (cremation grounds, deep forests, waterfalls), worked with taboo materials, and subverted social hierarchies.
If Durga is the supreme queen who protects cosmic order (Dharma) on a macro level, the Yoginis and Dakinis are her subterranean special forces.
They are the parts of the Divine Feminine that refuse to be neat, gentle, or safely domesticated. They represent the terrifying, ecstatic, and magical undercurrent of existence. To worship Durga in her deepest, most esoteric capacity is to inherently step into the circle of her yoginis—acknowledging that true spiritual liberation requires facing the wild, untamed, and "witchy" shadows of our own consciousness.
For a deeper exploration into the architectural marvels, hidden rituals, and history of these open-air esoteric temples, you can explore this documentary on
[ChatGPT version] Is Durga associated with witches, dakinis and so on?
Yes, but with important nuances. Durgā is not usually a “witch goddess” in the sense of a deity of sorcery or occult beings, but she has strong connections with themes that overlap with what, in other cultures, might be called witches, wild women, magical beings, and liminal feminine powers.
A few layers:
Durgā is the supreme warrior form of Devī in many Śākta traditions. She commands the mātṛkās (Mother goddesses) and other fierce divine forces.
Her circle includes beings such as:
These beings are not simply “witches”; they are often understood as manifestations of awakened or cosmic feminine energy.
This is probably the strongest link.
The Yogini tradition is closely associated with Śākta Tantra.
Yoginīs are portrayed as:
Durgā as Devī is often understood as their source or ruler.
This gives her a “mistress of magical feminine forces” aspect.
In the Devi Mahatmya, Durgā fights demons and releases various fierce powers.
She is surrounded by:
Her battlefield is not only physical — symbolically it is the realm where:
The word ḍākinī is especially prominent in Vajrayāna Buddhism.
A ḍākinī can mean:
The closest Hindu parallels are often:
Durgā is not usually called a ḍākinī, but the fierce, transformative, sky-roaming feminine energy overlaps.
A useful symbolic contrast:
So if Saraswati is the wisdom that illuminates, Durgā is the power that clears away what prevents illumination.
Given your earlier questions about mystery, prophecy, deception, Varuṇa, and dakinis, you might find a particularly interesting connection in Durgā as the power who rules the dangerous thresholds: the spaces between ordinary consciousness and the hidden world. She is not the witch herself; she is the sovereign power over the forces that witches, yogis, and tantric practitioners seek to understand or awaken.
This is clearly some kind of cult. So we´re supposed to extend our natural life spans with some occult techniques in order to serve the cult longer? Yeah, so about that...
There seems to be fundies and fanaticos in every religion. Note also that the speaker is, ahem, conflating Amitayus and Amitabha. LOL.
