Dharma Wheel

The sun and moon crown has thrown me.

It could be Palden Lhamo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palden_Lhamo

I do believe that you may be correct! Thank you!

Maybe "Charlie"

Yeah - I think it is "CHARLIE THE DHARMAPALA."

But wait a second, maybe it is "Nancy."

Yeah - "NANCY THE DHARMAPALA" also works.

Anyway, you can summon it by a name and see if it shows up.

If it shows up you know you have the name right.

Better be in your wrathful Guru Rinpoche form or they might want to play " King of the Mountain."

I have heard that if you hold a vajra in a threatening gesture, they behave themselves. Maybe it is just a power tripper's story???

If such silliness is really necessary - and it is if you are among scholars - or power trippers - or just the curious - like Greg -
hit em with Buddhist Iconography - by Lokesh Chandra and you will find 20 listings for Lha mo, none of which have the little sun moon
ornament over the head.

Buddhist Iconography is a pretty definitive collection of over 2500 line drawings of most of the Buddhist images.

http://www.mlbd.com/BookDecription.aspx?id=4214

So what I suspect, given the roughness of the work, is that this is a "Tibetan" relic box (Ga'u) made for the tourist trade by
a Hindu Nepalese craftsman who was bored and inventive. The face is Lha Mo but the sun/moon appears to be
a local, perhaps Hindu, invention.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gau+Tib ... 80&bih=916

Please remember that I make this up as I go along - so no quotes please.

Please recall the Forum rules - "Lay on ground - light fuse - retire quickly!"

(This is what is written on boxes of fireworks)

Now what does any of this have to do with the price of fireworks in China???

How does it help anyone to realize - let go of all mental constructions / images and just rest in the single image with no name, shape or form?

Does this mean I am becoming a Monotheist in my old age???

Name and form - form and name!!!

Recognize everything as this and rest your tired mind!

While it is true that the object is a cheap and nasty, after "alpha" mentioned that it might be... I went and checked a few images and, lo and behold, many of them did have her pictured with a sun and moon in her diadem. Well, most of them show just a moon, but we are not going to trip up over details now, are we!

gregkavarnos wrote:While it is true that the object is a cheap and nasty, after "alpha" mentioned that it might be... I went and checked a few images and, lo and behold, many of them did have her pictured with a sun and moon in her diadem. Well, most of them show just a moon, but we are not going to trip up over details now, are we!

and so much for trusting Lokesh Chandra: the ignorant rogue!

AND now you understand:

place on ground, light fuse, retire quickly.

The point remains that someone has assigned a name to the form.

Personally, I like "Nancy" the Dharmapala. YOU can call her Lha mo.

I still vote for the Nepalese Hindu guy having fun - it is a more interesting story.

All name and form is like this: an arbitrary assigning, conventionally agreed to.

Let it all go and observe what is left.

I was going to say a wrathful Shiva.

The faces of most wrathful deities/protectors seem very similar. I have a mask and it also looks like the amulet.

oldbob wrote:

gregkavarnos wrote:While it is true that the object is a cheap and nasty, after "alpha" mentioned that it might be... I went and checked a few images and, lo and behold, many of them did have her pictured with a sun and moon in her diadem. Well, most of them show just a moon, but we are not going to trip up over details now, are we!

and so much for trusting Lokesh Chandra: the ignorant rogue!

AND now you understand:

place on ground, light fuse, retire quickly.

The point remains that someone has assigned a name to the form.

Personally, I like "Nancy" the Dharmapala. YOU can call her Lha mo.

I still vote for the Nepalese Hindu guy having fun - it is a more interesting story.

All name and form is like this: an arbitrary assigning, conventionally agreed to.

Let it all go and observe what is left.

Let it all go and observe what is left.

muni wrote:

oldbob wrote:

gregkavarnos wrote:While it is true that the object is a cheap and nasty, after "alpha" mentioned that it might be... I went and checked a few images and, lo and behold, many of them did have her pictured with a sun and moon in her diadem. Well, most of them show just a moon, but we are not going to trip up over details now, are we!

and so much for trusting Lokesh Chandra: the ignorant rogue!

AND now you understand:

place on ground, light fuse, retire quickly.

The point remains that someone has assigned a name to the form.

Personally, I like "Nancy" the Dharmapala. YOU can call her Lha mo.

I still vote for the Nepalese Hindu guy having fun - it is a more interesting story.

All name and form is like this: an arbitrary assigning, conventionally agreed to.

Let it all go and observe what is left.

Let it all go and observe what is left.

AND ---

Now you understand:

I make it all up as I go along ---

---

AND ---

so do you ---

---

Understanding this ---

Let it all go (whatever thoughts and emotions, as they arise) and observe what is left ---

---

Observing one --- you observe all ---

---

Just stay with this --- or (gently) come back to this ---

---

AND - now you understand ---

Let it all go ---



PS - Hi from Nancy and Charlie - just to keep on topic ---

oldbob wrote:
AND ---

Now you understand:

I make it all up as I go along ---

---

AND ---

so do you ---

---

Understanding this ---

Let it all go (whatever thoughts and emotions, as they arise) and observe what is left ---

---

Observing one --- you observe all ---

---

Just stay with this --- or (gently) come back to this ---

---

AND - now you understand ---

Let it all go ---



PS - Hi from Nancy and Charlie - just to keep on topic ---

<3

Dude, with all due respect, I asked who the Dharmapala in the picture was, I didn't ask for impromptu pointing-out instructions!

Thanks for going to the effort anyway!

gregkavarnos wrote:Dude, with all due respect, I asked who the Dharmapala in the picture was, I didn't ask for impromptu pointing-out instructions!

Thanks for going to the effort anyway!

Point well taken - However --- I WAS answering your question.

Most posts (mine too) knock down to a one-ups-man-ship game of who has got the "right" answer and scholars drag out endless dusty erudite scriptural references, in other languages, to prove their points.



Perhaps this is silly, or cruel, like shouting "THEATER" in a crowded fire, just to show that YOU, the shouter are not being burned - that YOU are OK, (and if you, the listener, buy my book or attend my seminar...then you can learn to quote scripture in other languages and give seminars too.)

end

but maybe this is REALLY not so helpful to anybody else. The base analogy being that we are all in a burning house and we do not know it: no one escapes old age, sickness and death.

So tagging the question of "Who is the Dharmapala in the picture," back to the issues of name and form, making it all up as we go along, let it all go, and a pointing beyond the words of ANY question or argument IS, in fact a very concise, and appropriate answer to the question, "Who is the Dharmapala in the picture."

It is just not the conventional answer, or the answer you expected. I answered the question, "Who is the Dharmapala" in the BIG picture.

Now you understand how ANY question can be tagged back to awareness, appropriately answered, and completely put to rest.

---

I was just responding to the question, as if it were someone shouting "fire" in a crowded theater, though perhaps this was not your intention.

Hence - pointing to the way out ---

---

To keep on topic, if you invoke a Dharmapala, when informed by awareness, it will function perfectly, even if you call it Charlie or Nancy.

So Charlie or Nancy, IS the name of the Dhamapala in your picture, if YOU intend it to be so, AND, if your intension is informed by awareness, you will be well protected.

---

all that is ok, but you all missed the main point ... this Dharmapala is called George.

Sönam

Thanks to everybody for all their answers maybe at some point in time I will sit down and formulate the relevant question.

But to avoid futher silliness in reference to my question, I will now lock this thread.