The 8 Manifestations of Guru Rinpoche

❶ Pema Gyalpo (gu ru pad ma rGyal po / གུ་རུ་པདྨ་རྒྱལ་པོ་ / Guru Padmaraja) the Lotus Prince of Uddiyana – shown as a young crowned prince.

❷ Pema Jung-né (pad ma ’byung gNas པདྨ་འབྱང་གནས་ / Guru Padmasambhava) Lotus-arisen. In this manifestation he displays complete knowledge of the Sutra. He is shown sitting on a lotus, dressed in the three robes of a pandita, under which he wears a blue shirt, trousers and Himalayan boots. He holds the vajra of compassionate love in his right hand and the skull-bowl of wisdom in his left. He has a yogi’s khatvangha.

❸ Shakya Seng-gé (sha kya seng ge / ཤ་གྱ་སེང་གེ་ / Guru Shakya་Simha) Lion of the Sakyas, who receives Vajrayana from the eight Rig’dzins and the 84 mahasiddhas. He is shown manifesting as Buddha Shakyamuni.

❹ Ögyen Tso-kyé Dorje Chang (gu ru o rGyan rDo-rje ’chang / གུ་རུ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་རྡོ་རྗེ་འང་ / Guru Uddiyana Vajradhara) shown in yabyum form, dark blue in colour in Sambhogakaya attire.

❺ Nyima ’ö-Zér (nyi ma ’ö-Zér / ཉི་མ་འོད་ཟེར་ / Guru Surya Rasmi), Rays of the Sun – Guru Rinpoche as the yogi transcends time by fixing the position of the sun in the sky. He is shown dressed only in a tiger skin skirt, holding a Khatvangha, and using his finger to control the sun.

❻ Seng-gé Dradog (seng ge sGra sGrogs / སེང་གེ་སྒྲ་སྒྲོགས་ / Guru Simhanada) The Lion of Irrefutable Argument, shown in wrathful form, dark blue and holding a vajra in one hand and a scorpion and noose in the other.

❼ Loden Chog-sè (blo lDan mChog sred / བློ་ལྡན་མཆོག་སྲེད་ / Guru Mativat Vararuci) The vajra emperor, the one who gathers the knowledge of all worlds. He is shown as an emperor, holding a damaru and skull-bowl.

❽ Dorje Tröllö (rDo rJe gro lod / རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲོ་ལོད་ / Vajra Lomalatadhara) Indestructible Abdomen – the Crazy Wisdom / Yeshé ’cholwa manifestation of Guru Rinpoche. Yeshé ‘cholwa (ye shes ‘chol ba / ཡེ་ཤེས་འཆོལ་བ་) literally means ‘primordial wisdom chaos’. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche called this ‘Crazy Wisdom’. When he spoke of it however, he combined its meaning with the Mahayoga mien of sMyon he ru ka (སྨྱོན་ཧེ་རུ་མ་) the style which overturns both sacred and secular modalities. In contradiction, Yeshé ‘cholwa does not set out to shock or overturn anything. It is completely beyond concept.