What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

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Bakmoon
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What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

Post by Bakmoon »

I know that the three main Yidams in Gelug are Guhyasamaja, Chakrasamvara Heruka, and Yamantaka, with Vajrayogini being practiced very widely since the time of Kyabje Pabonka Rinpoche, and I know that in the Nyingma school the eight Kagye Herukas are important yidams but that's about it. Are there any other major yidams in the Nyingma school? And also, what are the main Yidams in the various lineages of Kagyu, and Sakya?
ngodrup
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Re: What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

Post by ngodrup »

In the Nyingma, its really usually either Vajrakilaya or Hayagriva.
(Not to suggest that Yamantaka isn't, its just less common.)
But the 100 deity shitro mandala of is also practiced widely.
The Kagye typically isn't practiced together, but can be and sometimes is.

Kagyupas live, breathe, eat and sleep Chakrasamvara/Vajrayogini
along with Mahakala.
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conebeckham
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Re: What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

Post by conebeckham »

Sakyas practice Hevajra and Naro Dakini, as well as Samvara and others.

Karma Kagyus practice Phagmo, Demchok and Gyalwa Gyamtso, and others.

Shangpa Kagyus practice Demchok, Gyu De Lha Nga, and Hayagriva...and others.

Nyingmas practice Kilaya, Yangdak, Guru Rinpoche in many forms, peaceful and wrathful...also Hayagriva, Yamantaka, KaGye De Shek Dupa (condensed 8 Herukas), ShiTro, Vajrasattva, Lama Gongdu Herukas, and others.

Jonangpas practice mainly Kalacakra.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Bakmoon
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Re: What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

Post by Bakmoon »

Thank you all very much.
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Karma_Yeshe
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Re: What are the main Yidams in Tibetan Buddhist Schools?

Post by Karma_Yeshe »

Regarding Nyingma-Yidams I would like to add some Dakinis, because usually, we do all 3 roots (Guru, Deva, Dakini). So Sinhamukha, Yeshe Tsogyel, Mandarava, Tröma Nagmo and Tara are also widely diffused.
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