Masterpiece Hand Painted Copper Vajrayogini Statue 26" Item #5n1

"Yogini’s are typically depicted in dancing form, this seated version is a rare find.  This piece is unquestionably a contemporary masterpiece!"
Brenda, Dharma Sculpture

Here the artist vividly portrays Yogini in a seated asana.  The deity Vajrayogini, or Vijeshvari, is sixteen years old, radiantly beautiful with a youthful freshness and vitality, and her face bears an intense expression reflecting her passionate nature.

According to the texts, Vajrayogini is a sixteen year old maiden because sixteen is an auspicious number which signifies perfection (four times four).  Her face is beautiful and her body voluptuous and alluring.  She is red in color because of her magical function of enchantment and magnetism.  The Yogini's nudity demonstrates her freedom from ordinary conceptions and appearances, which bind us ordinary mortals.  She wears a five-skull crown.  These five skulls symbolize the first five perfections attainable on the Vajrayana path which are: generosity, discipline, patience, effort and meditative concentration.

Her red body is ablaze with the heat of yogic fire surrounded by the flames of wisdom.  She has three eyes, symbolizing her ability to see past, present and future simultaneously.  In her left hand, she holds a skull cup filled with swirling brains and entails of the enemies of the Dharma and in her right hand is the kartri, a curved flaying knife, the intrument used to annihilate these enemies.  She wears a garland of 50 human skulls.  She is adorned with six kinds of ornaments , as is usually the case with tantric divinities symbolizing their perfection in the six paramitas.  A Khatvanga staff is seen passing through her shoulder representing her consort Heruka Chakrasamvara.  Her long disheveled hair flows downward against the flame filled background symbolizing her unchanging nature as  dharmakaya.  Her breasts are full with nipples erect, symbolizing the arousal of desire and indicating Vajrayogini helps those with strong passion to transform it into the realization of great bliss.  She has a single face because she embodies non-dual wisdom beyond conventional distinctions of good and evil.  She is naked because she is unconditioned by discursive thoughts.

Vajrayogini, Vajravarahi or Bijeshvari Devi ranks first and most important among the dakini.  She is a Vajrayana Buddhist meditation deity and as such she is considered the female Buddha.  Vajrayogini is a key figure in the advanced Tibetan Buddhist practice of Chöd where she appears in her Kalika or Vajravarahi forms.  Her consort is Chakrasamvara, who is often depicted as a spear on Vajrayogini’s shoulder.