Machine embroidery

Several highly detailed designs have recently been created by Ngakma Kyung'tsal Pamo in Bavaria, turning photographs and paintings into highly elaborate embroidery artworks.

Embroidery of the face of Dzambhala

It will be employed as part of the robe waistcoat (thod sNgags / ཐོད་སྔགས་) for the empowerments of Ögyen Dzambhala and Kharchen Tsogyel Dzambhala. This waistcoat is worn with a yellow shamthab and a yellow and blue shawl emblazoned with dGa’ dKyil and g.Yung drung motifs.

The Dorje Tröllö / Tsogyel Tröllö embroidered empowerment robe waistcoat

Dorje Tröllö / Tsogyel Tröllö (rDo rJe gro lod / རྡོ་རྗེ་གྲོ་ལོད་) are the Wrathful Yeshé ‘cholwa manifestations of Guru Rinpoche and Yeshé Tsogyel. Yeshé cholwa (ye shes ‘chol ba / ཡེ་ཤེས་འཆོལ་བ་་) means ‘primordial wisdom chaos’. From the dualistic perspective nonduality can appear chaotic – simply because it does not follow the rules of duality.

There are many rules of duality:

• conventional rules
• unconventional rules
• orthodox rules
• unorthodox rules
• traditional rules
• Avantgarde rules
• conformist rules
• nonconformist rules
• hippie rules
• establishment rules
• left wing political rules
• right wing political rules
• philosophical rules
• religious rules.

Yeshé ‘cholwa does not obey any of these rules – but neither does it deliberately break them. Yeshé ‘cholwa does not set out to shock. Yeshé ‘cholwa does not set out to do anything to change anything through the exercise of force. Yeshé ‘cholwa is simply there as self-existent energy from which ‘goodness’ is naturally effulgent.

This face of Dorje Tröllö was embroidered on the basis of a painting by Ngakma Pema Zangmo.

Ga’phong Dongma (dGa’ phong gDong ma / དགའ་ཕོང་གདོང་མ་), the Bat-headed Dakini empowerment Thod sNgags

The to-nga (thod sNgags / ཐོད་སྔགས་) robe-waistcoat worn for the wang (dBang / དབང་) empowerment Ga’phong Dongma carries four Vajra Weapons each of which manifest the four Buddha karmas.

The Fourfold Vajra Noose:

• The enriching noose girdles neuroses — binding them into a mutually self-defeating agglomeration in which they are unable to maintain their individual dualistic functions.
• The pacifying noose reins in neuroses, defeating monism by an encirclement that demonstrates the multiplicity of immediate circumscription.
• The magnetising noose lures nihilism through insidious seductively — binding it to unexpected purpose.
• ༄The destroying noose throttles eternalism, depriving the neuroses of respiratory self validation

The Fourfold Vajra Whip:

• The enriching whip, stings the enervation of dualism into sensation, macerating it desultory devious dependance.
• The pacifying whip threatens through silent suggestion that monism is in imminent danger of being slashed into oblivion.
• The magnetising whip disempowers nihilism through volatile suggestiveness.
• The destroying whip ruthlessly murders eternalism through randomly inflicted mutilation.

The Fourfold Vajra Hammer:

• The enriching hammer crushes the convolutions of dualism through pounding them into essential conformity with space.
• The pacifying hammer shatters monism by splintering it into infinite shards.
• The magnetising hammer devastates nihilism by compressing it to a point-instant of vibrant intensity.
• The destroying obliterates eternalism by destining every vestige of spurious connectedness.

The Fourfold Vajra Phurba:

• The enriching phurba, destroys dualism by nailing to a single point.
• The pacifying phurba insinuates itself into the root of monism in its own ‘origin’.
• The magnetising phurba,
  defeats nihilism through torrid directness.
• The destroying phurba entirely devastates eternalism by eradicating every point simultaneously in every instant.

Ga’phong Dongma is the khandroma who irradiates psychological disturbance and psychiatric derangement with vastness as primordial healing.

Details from the Aro gTér Protector Practice Shawl.

The images of chained male demons and female demons demonstrates the activity of the protectors with regard to ridding practitioners of self-serving strategising. As transdimensional entities, protectors are oathbound by Guru Rinpoche to protect the practice environment for those genuinely engaged in practice.

gTértön Aro Yeshé with Jomo A-yé Khandro and Jomo A-shé Khandro making their pilgrimage to Taktsang in the 1940s

sKu-mNyé (སྐུ་མཉེ་) symbolic animals from the gTérma of Khyungchen Aro Lingma.

The six animals of sKu-mNyé are from the Dzogchen Long-dé (rDogs chen kLong sDe / རྫོགས་ཆེན་ཀློང་སྡེ་)psycho-physical exercise system of the Aro gTér Nyingma Lineage.

There are one hundred and eleven exercises in this system, which are divided into five sets of twenty-one according to animals: Lion, Vulture, Tiger, Eagle, and Garuda (respectively: earth, water, fire, air, and space).

The remaining six exercises belong to the dragon series which incorporates all elements.

These exercises are engaged as a precursor to formless mediation, in order to find presence of awareness in subtle sensation.

Aro gTér apprentices can order embroidery products from Ngakma Kyung'tsal Pamo on her website.