6-armed Hayagriva in Shangpa Kagyu?

[Luke]

Hello, I practice the Nyingma tradition, but I recently received an empowerment for the 6-armed Hayagriva of the Shangpa Kagyu tradition from a Sakya lama.

Could someone please tell me more about the significance of the 6-armed Hayagriva and what the importance of this yidam is in the Shangpa Kagyu tradition?

Thanks.

[Stewart]

Cone is the man for this question....

[conebeckham]

Was the history of the practice explained at the time the empowerment was given?

This is an important Shangpa practice, and it is closely connected to Shangpa's Mahakala practice.

[Luke]

Was the history of the practice explained at the time the empowerment was given?

Perhaps. The lama told a story about how a lama in the past had a dream about Guru Rinpoche and that Guru Rinpoche manifested as Hayagriva in the dream and removed all of the lama's illusions or something like that...

I'm not looking to get deeply into Hayagriva practice right now. I'm just trying to educate myself more about this subject. There isn't much info about Hayagriva online. Might there be some good books about Hayagriva?

[conebeckham]

Kyerganpa was the third in the line of the Shangpa one-to-one transmission. While he was practicing, he actually went to Zangdok Palri, met Padmasambhava there, and received empowerment and transmission. However, Guru Rinpoche told him to go to a ngakpa who also had the texts and transmission, and so Kyergangpa followed Guru Rinpoche's instructions, found the Ngakpa, and obtained the transmission from him, as well.

Since that time, this practice, known as the Secret Accomplishment Hayagriva, or Kyergangpa's tradition, has been an important practice for Shangpa, and also has been transmitted to other lineages-Sakya, Geluk, etc. It's in the Rinchen Terdzo. It's also in, I think, the Bumzang, and in Karma Kagyu ChikShe Kundrol.