Subjects of many Tibetan religious paintings

Usage examples of buddhas.

Tibetan deities and figures worshipped were drawn from Buddhas, bodhisattvas, goddesses, the special tutelary gods presiding over sects, monasteries and individuals, defenders of the faith who included great, fierce and terrible gods as well as more modest local spirits, gods of the cardinal points, saints from early Buddhist tradition, later philosophers, teachers, kings and wonder-workers.

In this group are paintings of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, tutelary and guardian deities variously disposed.

Doctrine had been proclaimed and established the need for Buddhas as initiators was replaced by another function.

India into Tibet was based on the emanative character of buddhahood which provided a group of transcendent Buddhas between the phenomenal world and the principle of buddhahood as the Absolute, which was equated either with the principle of voidness or of universal consciousness.

This group, originally five, consisted of Buddhas of the centre and the four cardinal points, each distinguishable by a gesture and possessing a separate name.

Dhyani Buddhas, crowned and ornamented and with his right hand in the gesture of giving.

The transition from the early iconography of the monastic Buddha to an ornamented and crowned figure is probably to be connected with the evolution of the doctrine of the Three Bodies which distinguished from the so-called historical Buddha the Buddhas of Meditation who in turn were manifestations of Buddhahood in its absolute form.

Another group consists of thirty-five Buddhas of Confession while a group of six presides over each of the six states of existence into which a living being can be reborn.

Stupas were also erected to commemorate other Buddhas and disciples and holy men.

I think of this collection as an appropriate token of my debt and gratitude to him for the encouragement, warm friendship, and always timely suggestions of themes and titles that taught me to bring my Buffalo-Gods, Quetzalcoatls, Buddhas, and Fairy Queens into mutually illuminating dialogue with those hundreds of members of his audiences -- many of them faithful for years -- who finally were the inspiration for these talks.

The Buddha gave many great teachings, but unless you have direct insight into the nature of reality you will not be able to use a single drop of the Buddhas wisdom.