Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 32-minute teaching, Venerable Margaret McAndrew guides practitioners through The Wheel of Sharp Weapons, focusing on self-cherishing as the hidden enemy undermining happiness and liberation. She explores how Yamāntaka, the wrathful aspect of Mañjuśrī, embodies the wisdom and power to overcome this delusion, explaining its symbolic iconography—multiple arms, heads, and mudras representing aspects of enlightened potential. The core practice involves the Four Opponent Powers: reliance, regret, repudiation, and remedial action, which purify negative karma binding us to saṃsāra. McAndrew emphasizes that forceful energy is neutral; the path transforms it from destructive anger into dharmic power directed at ego-grasping. She concludes with guided reflection on actualizing this internal Yamāntaka through prayer and meditation. For practitioners who have received Yamāntaka initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28 SW 1999 05 20.mp3
UUID: 5683551c-adc2-458f-9f9c-afe5f323d638
Teacher: Ven Margaret McAndrew
Collection: The Wheel of Sharp Weapons (Ven Margaret McAndrew)
Date: 1999-05-20
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 32.4 minutes
Words: ~3,136
So this is pointing out again this enemy, the real enemy, self-centered concern or self-cherishing. And this is a very powerful verse. So self-cherishing is not only a robber taking our happiness, Dharma Rakshita says, but also a liar or a thief and cheat. So self-cherishing conceals itself. He conceals himself and pretends to be a friend or pretends to be a part of me.
So we tend to see our self-cherishing as being a part of me and being a friend, a friend being a part of me that protects ourselves. In actual fact, cherishing is working against us. So it’s, for instance, like a minister in the government secretly working for the enemy’s side. And this the situation we’re in. We’ve been protecting this, self-cherishing, accepting what it tells us.
And all the time it’s been harming us, destroying us, causing us to suffer. Dharma Rakshita has seen this clearly. He’s had the experience, he’s had the realization of seeing this self-cherishing clearly through his analysis, through his meditation. He’s come to this point. He’s really seen it very, very clearly.
And now, once that perception is clearly achieved, like Dharma Rakshita, then when we achieve that, we won’t rest until we get rid of this enemy. So Dharma Rakshita then recognizes that he needs very powerful help to get rid of this enemy. So he calls in a very, very powerful, virtuous force to help slay the self-cherishing concept. And this is embodied or symbolized in the form of Yamāntaka. Hilary, would you read the next one, please?
Okay. I should have probably have brought in a picture of Yamataka again tonight, but I didn’t do it. Most of you probably remember the time that we passed around this picture before. We actually had received this initiation a couple of weeks ago. Geshe-la was kind enough to pass this transmission on to some of the students. Yamāntaka, as you know, is the wrathful aspect deity. And Yamāntaka means the opponent of the Lord of Death. So, You probably know of Mañjuśrī.
So we have a picture of Mañjuśrī on the wall there. There’s one over there to the left of you, to the right of you and over the fireplace. And there’s another one yes. There’s a lot of Mañjuśrī. There’s a beautiful one up here.
And there’s another one so we have three actually around the place. So and also we have a little statue. So Mañjuśrī is flourishing the sword of wisdom, the flaming sword of wisdom, is the absolute truth, is going to cut off the ego, the wrong concept of the truly existent self. And he also is holding a text which is the conventional understanding that we need in order to bring about this realization. Yamataka is actually the wrathful aspect of Mañjuśrī.
And we need this wisdom sort of Mañjuśrī to slay the ego grasping. And he takes this wrathful form to demonstrate the great power of the Dharma. Yamataka is called the opponent of Yama. You know who Yama is? Right.
So Yama is the Lord of Death. And by completing the Dharma path, then we attain release from Samsāra. And you can see on the painting of the wheel of life, I think there’s one of those around somewhere. Is it over on that? That wall, yes, it’s been moved.
Yes, used to be on the other wall. So anyway, maybe you can have look at it later. You can see that it has the big wheel which represents Samsāra, and it’s being held by this demonic looking being who is Yama, the Lord of Death. So Yama is holding the wheel. He’s holding saṃsāra and that’s his territory.
And once you get outside that, he’s got no control. Yamāntaka’s form is a teaching on Dharma. And It’s visual teaching. All the different aspects, the arms, the legs, everything has meaning. Yes.
It means the opponent of a Lord of Death. Opponent of a Lord of Death. So also called Vajra Terrifier, Vajra Destroyer. So, every detail is symbolic. Every mudra is symbolic.
So he has thirty four arms, nine heads, thirty four arms, sixteen legs, and all the different hands and so on have different mudras and he’s trampling different things under his feet and toes. So there’s lot of details. Every detail, every moodra is symbolic of some aspect of the teachings. And you find this of course with all the different depictions of the Buddhas and the deities. For instance, to take a simple example with Śākyamūni Buddha, he is often depicted holding his begging bowl in one hand, left hand is in his left hand, but his left hand is actually in the concentration mudra, palm up.
This is the concentration mudra, meaning that he has this meditative equipoise on emptiness. But also he has his right hand in the teaching mudra sometimes, the wheel turning mudra. There are different aspects. Quite often he has his right hand in the earth touching mudra, but sometimes you see him in the wheel-turning mudra and this is significant of his having the ability to give teachings at the same time as he is in meditative equipoise on emptiness, because he’s got these two modes simultaneously. And this is the quality of enlightenment.
You only find this in enlightened beings. This is something which is only possible for enlightened beings because even bodhisattvas have to come out of meditation in order to give teachings and to engage in other virtuous activities. Buddhas have gone to this point where they have this simultaneous emptiness and virtuous action. So, Yamāntaka has all these different significances which are explained in detail. You can study these if you’ve had initiation then all these things are studied in the teachings on the practice.
So the wrathful form is very, very powerful in overcoming great obstacles and hindrances. In order to progress on the Dharma path and in particular to attain enlightenment, we have to overcome tremendous obstacles and hindrances as a result of our delusions and karma. And that’s why we need these very, very forceful terrifying aspects as well as the peaceful beautiful aspect of Mañjuśrī. And so there’s no difference between the wrathful aspect of Yamāntaka and the peaceful aspect of Mañjuśrī. They’re the same.
They both represent the unity of method and wisdom that we have to attain within ourselves. So all these deities, these exotic looking aspects with different colors, maybe with many arms and legs, represent the attainment of the qualities of enlightenment that we have to attain within ourselves. They represent our own inner potential. So what we tend to be frightened of is our potential to be forceful because it can be so destructive and we repress it because as worldly beings, as deluded beings, forceful potential flow often tends to come out as anger, hatred, violence, aggression, and all these really harmful things. And so we see this as being bad and we repress it.
And this is because we have a confusion between the form in which this energy is being expressed and the raw energy itself. So we make the mistake of repressing the raw energy, which in itself is not negative but is simply neutral. It’s raw energy. In Dharma practice we need to harness all the energies that we have. They’re not harmful in themselves but they’re just raw energy, basic energy.
We can’t get rid of this basic energy. It’s a part of ourselves. That’s just the fact of the situation. We have this basic raw energy. We can use it in whatever way we choose.
We can use it in a positive way or in a harmful way. In the past we’ve been using it in harmful ways. We’re conditioned to have it come out in harmful ways. And when we want to try to control this harmful energy, our first thought is to simply repress it. This is not helpful really.
I mean it’s better than expressing it in a negative way, but it doesn’t really work very well and it tends to be destructive to ourselves. And so what we have to do is to stop confusing the raw energy with the hatred and anger which is the way in which it often finds expression. And instead we have to find an outlet for it by transforming it in the path to enlightenment. And this is what Yamāntaka does for us. By focusing on Yamāntaka, then we can turn this energy into a very positive direction and we can turn this energy against our real enemy, which is the self-cherishing.
And this is our internal Yamāntaka. Does this make sense? That’s right. So, actually, it’s technically incorrect to say that you can transform anger because anger is totally negative. And in actual fact, it’s not the anger itself, but the underlying energy that we have to transform.
And it is correct to say you can transform desire in the path. Desire isn’t inherently negative. In an uncontrolled deluded person, it tends to very often find negative expression, but in itself it’s not necessarily. Desire can be transformed in the path, and anger in a sense can be transformed, but then it’s not really the anger but it’s the underlying energy, but it’s this forceful energy. So here we’re concentrating on Yamataka and that’s why we’re emphasizing this forceful energy here.
Of course, there are other practices which, particularly if you’re concerned with transforming desire, the deity that’s particularly associated that is Chakrasamvara or Vajrayoginī, which is actually the same practice but emphasizing the female consort. Heruka, Chakrasamvara and Vajrayoginī practices are very much concerned with that aspect. So, are also other practices where this is done. So in Yamāntaka there is a very strong emphasis on this sort of forceful energy. Yamāntaka is particularly helpful for overcoming hindrances and also, of course, very strongly associated with wisdom because we have these because there is this Mañjuśrī connection there.
So, the enemy that we have to overcome with Yamāntaka’s energy is ego grasping and self-cherishing. And if we overcome these, then we don’t need to have any fear of death. So, Yamataka is in this sense the opponent of the Lord of Death because Yamataka overcomes samsaric death. There’s no real death for somebody who has achieved liberation from saṃsāra. Although they might go through bodily death, there’s not the disturbance, the suffering of death that death means for ordinary beings.
There’s not the interruption in the continuity of the consciousness. So The the stanza refers to wisdom and means. We have the the wisdom understanding emptiness. So the two grades of the two things that we need to have are these is the wisdom, understanding emptiness and skillful actions, wisdom and means. And these two have to be united.
So, there are two forms. Anyway, Yamataka is the opponent of the Lord of Death. I’m sorry. I’m getting a little bit ahead of myself there. Lama Tsongkhapa says that we have to have that we have two forms of hindrances to overcome, and Yamāntaka will help us with both of these forms of hindrances.
So the first form is the external hindrances and particularly death, which destroys our life and body. And the second form of hindrance is the internal hindrances, particularly ignorance. Of course, the most basic form of ignorance, the underlying ignorance which brings about all our other problems, is the ignorance seeing the self as inherently existent, which is the opposite to the wisdom of emptiness. Mañjuśrī is the best opponent to the internal hindrance of ignorance. So, Mañjuśrī taking this wrathful aspect Yamāntaka, the opponent of Yama, we then have the power to overcome all hindrances, both the internal and the external hindrances.
And so this practice is very helpful for practitioners. And the enemy that we’re dealing with is ego grasping and self-cherishing. If we can overcome these two, then we don’t need to have any fear of death. And so this is why Yamāntaka is called the defeater of death because the overcoming of these hindrances through this wrathful power will completely eliminate any need to fear death. We don’t have to have any fear of being reborn in the lower realms.
We don’t have to have any fear of born in any of the six realms of saṃsāra when we’ve overcome these enemies. Also, then the two things that we need to have is wisdom and means, and that is wisdom, understanding emptiness, and who knows what means is? Okay, method. What does method mean? Okay.
Yes. So skillful actions, and particularly it refers to bodhicitta. The first five perfections are generally considered to be method or skillful means. And of course, the sixth one is wisdom. Sometimes I have had it taught that the fifth one can be divided between method and wisdom, because it’s involved with both.
But in a more general sense, it’s usually included in method. So, stanza fifty one. Actually, we have any more questions about stanzas before we go on? Yes. But you’re clear about the levels of truth and the wisdom and method.
Well, you’ve got yeah. Okay. So I mean, you haven’t sort of got any burning questions. Okay. So go on to fifty one.
So anyway, what’s going on with the iconography of Yamāntaka. So if we’re going to attain the wisdom understanding emptiness, we can’t neglect the conventional level of truth because we need to have the support of the practices concerned with this conventional level, such as understanding karma. So that’s what we’re involved with here. The Four Great Opponents refers to the Four Opponent Powers by which we overcome our negative karmas. Does anybody remember the Four Opponent Powers?
Yes. Yes. I can’t actually remember the the precise terms, but anyway, what’s if there’s one? So it’s reliance? Okay.
Yes. Regret. Mhmm. The third one is repudiation, sometimes called repudiation, which is a third R. That’s resolving not to do it again.
And the fourth one is, what did you call it? Remedial action. Yes. I think remedial action is better because restitution means specifically, you know, repaying the person that you wronged, which isn’t always possible. After all, might have been a few lifetimes ago.
But yes. So refuge and bodhicitta together, if we’re doing Mahāyāna practice, are being the first one of reliance, and we need to have both. All our wrong actions have been done towards either the Three Jewels of refuge or towards sentient beings. So by cultivating those two attitudes, we’re restoring the wrong that we’ve done to those and then we go and do the other three. So you probably all had this explained to you a few times before, so you probably have a pretty clear idea of how it all works.
Does anybody have any doubt about that? Okay. So we have to practice these four opponent forces and purify our negative karmas and the obscurations and hindrances which these negative karmas produce for us. This is a very important basic practice. If we don’t do this, then we won’t be able to go on and realize the other things such as bodhicitta, realizing emptiness and so forth.
In order to do this effectively we have to have a good understanding of karma. We have to understand how we’re obscured by our delusions and past negative karmas. And we have to understand how these two work together. You know these are the two that keep us in Samsāra. If we follow delusion, then we create negative karmas by engaging in wrong actions and these negative karmas on our mind stream also strengthen our delusions, disturbing emotions.
So every time we engage in doing wrong actions, we not only lay negative karmas down on our consciousness which are going to have to cause us to experience suffering results in the future, but they also strengthen our deluded attitude so that we create more and more karmas. And this goes on and on. So we have a very great need to purify these, and this is what’s symbolized by the four fangs of Yamāntaka. Yamataka has these four long teeth. So this is interesting because actually Yamataka’s main head is a buffalo head.
Buffaloes don’t actually perhaps you might not know, but buffaloes and cows don’t have lower teeth. They only have teeth in their upper jaw. But Yamāntaka does, so he has these four things. And Geshe-la says that the powerful mantra that has been referred to here is not literally words, a mantra in the form of words, but it’s referring to bodhicitta and it’s using a comparison to a magical mantra. Apparently, to those who practice magic, there are various magic wonders and there’s a mantra has the power to confuse a person’s sense of direction and cause them to go off in a different direction.
And so bodhicitta is like a mantra that has the power to subdue the negative mind and reverse its direction so that the mind goes in the direction of virtue. So, any questions about that? I think we might stop here and perhaps just do a short meditation. So we’re wanting to practice the Mahāyāna path and attain enlightenment for the welfare of all sentient beings. But if we think about it, we’re very caught up in self-cherishing still.
And because of this self-cherishing, we’re experiencing constant suffering. And over the course of our past lives this self-cherishing has caused us to do wrong and harm to countless sentient beings. So we want to completely tear out the heart of this self centered concern, recognising it as being the real enemy. This self-cherishing and its underlying cause, the self grasping or ego grasping. And so like Dharma Rakshita, we need to clearly identify, experience the sense of relief that comes from seeing at last the true cause, the true creator of our problems.
And so, in order to overcome these problems we need Yamāntaka, who has the power to overcome the external and internal hindrances. The internal ignorance because Yamāntaka is Mañjuśrī, the Buddha of wisdom, the wisdom understanding emptiness, carrying the flaming sword of this transcendental wisdom. And also Yamataka is the opponent of Yama, overcoming the external hindrances. And so we need to actualize the internal Yamāntaka. But to begin with, it’s it’s helpful to relate to Yamāntaka as an external force, a guiding and protecting force that we can pray to, to help us achieve the overcoming of these two hindrances.
And so we can pray now to Please overcome, please destroy and slaughter this self centered attitude and ego grasping that is harming us and causing us to harm others.