Nine demeanours of a wrathful deity
Nine demeanours (or styles) of a wrathful deity (Skt. navanāṭyarasa, Tib. གར་གྱི་ཉམས་དགུ, gar gyi nyam gu, Wyl. gar gyi nyams dgu) — there are three of the body, three of the speech and three of the mind.[1].
The three of the body are:
- enticing/seductive/captivating ( Skt. lāsya; Wyl. sgeg pa)
- heroic (Skt. vīra; Wyl. dpa' ba)
- terrifying/ferocious (Wyl. 'jigs su rung ba)
The three of the speech are:
- menacing laughter (Wyl. rgod pa)
- harsh and threatening/stern (Wyl. gshe ba)
- ferocious/wrathful and thunderous ( Skt. ūgra; Wyl. drag shul)
The three of the mind are:
- compassion (Skt. kāruṇika; Wyl. snying rje)
- yearning (to tame others)/magnificent power ( Skt. adbhūta; Wyl. rngams pa)
- peace/tranquility (Skt. śānti; Wyl. zhi ba)
Alternative translations
- Dramatic sentiments
- Dramatic airs (Gyurme Dorje, Treasury of Knowledge book 6)
- Emotions of drama (Farrow and Menon, Concealed Essence of Hevajra Tantra)
Notes
- ↑ One source for these nine demeanours is the Hevajra Tantra, 2nd segment, chapter 5, v. 26. (Tib. སྒེག་ཅིང་དཔའ་བོ་མི་སྡུག་པ། །རྒོད་ཅིང་དྲག་ཤུལ་འཇིགས་རུང་བ། །སྙིང་རྗེ་རྔམ་དང་ཞི་བ་ཡིས། །གར་དགུའི་རོ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ཉིད།)