Samantabhadri

Samantabhadri (Sanskrit:"Samantabhadrī", Tibetan:"Küntusangmo") is a dakini and female Buddha from the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. She is the consort and female counterpart of Samantabhadra, known amongst some Tibetan Buddhists as the 'Primordial Buddha'. Samantabhadri herself is known as the 'primordial Mother Buddha'. Samantabhadri is the dharmakaya dakini aspect of the Trikaya, or three bodies of a Buddha. As such, Samantabhadri represents the aspect of Buddhahood in whom delusion and conceptual thought have never arisen. As an aspect of the 'Great Mother', Samantabhadri is an aspect of Prajnaparamita. [http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vn-9LFwcF4IC&pg=PR28&dq=Samantabhadri&client=firefox-a&sig=ACfU3U3cuTqq4z1zPY_QhxZicYEbNLzN4Q Samantabhadri as Prajnaparamita] ]

Samantabhadri is a figure found primarily in the Nyingma or 'Old Translation' school of Tibetan Buddhism. A near equivalent of the Sarma or 'New Translation' schools is the dark-blue Vajradhatu-ishvari, whose consort is Vajradhara. [cite web|url=http://www.sakyadhita.org/deities.html#Samantabhadri|title=Female Buddhas and Bodhisattvas according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition|accessdate=2008-08-02]

Samantabhadri is the expression of an concept essentially unexpressible in word or symbol, the ultimate voidness nature of mind. This aspect of the dakini is beyond gender, form or expression. According to Simmer Brown [cite book|last=Simmer-Brown|first=Judith|title=Dakini's Warm Breath:The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism|publisher=Shambhala Publications Inc.|location=Boston and London|date=2002|pages=p.68|isbn=1-57062-920-X] the power of the dakini in all her forms is based on the fact that all meditation practices ultimately point to the Samantabhadri dakini. In her iconography Samantabhadri is white, the primary symbol of the wisdom aspect of mind - in contrast to her consort who is sky blue, representing limitlessness and formlessness. Like her consort she appears naked and unadorned, representing the essential nature of mind. Samantabhadri is usually shown in yab-yum union with her consort but she is sometimes shown alone, seated in lotus posture with her hands in meditation posture in her lap.

Yeshe Tsogyal was known as an emanation of Samantabhadri, according to Judith Simmer-Brown in her subtlest form Yeshe Tsogyal was known as "expanse of mahāsukha Küntusangmo [Samantabhadrī] , the all-good queen". [cite book|last=Simmer-Brown|first=Judith|title=Dakini's Warm Breath:The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism|publisher=Shambhala Publications Inc.|location=Boston and London|date=2002|pages=p.68|isbn=1-57062-920-X]

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Samantabhadra