Pema Jung-né

The Eight Names of Padmakara: The Tantric Scholar manifestation

Pema Jung-né (bLa ma pad ma ’byung gNas) is the Tantric Scholar. He has the appearance of a monk in the style of Ananda. Ananda was the devoted disciple of the Buddha who allowed his thirst for liberation to wait until the Buddha parinirvana. He spent his life in the service of the Buddha, and by virtue of this, attained liberation swiftly thereafter. The Tantric emphasis here is displayed by the fact that Pema Jung-né holds the skull bowl and performs the mudra of touch. The skull bowl is a symbol of wrathful transformation and of the transcendence of the ‘pure / impure dichotomy’. The mudra of touch symbolises that he has united the wisdoms of the Buddha families with the sense fields. The Tantric scholar is Shérab Dorje (the thunderbolt of knowledge) the one who actually experiences the lived meaning of the teaching. Here the idea of scholarship is exploded into the dimension of reality, in which discipline is seen as the indestructible energy of authentic Vajrayana practice. This self-existent discipline is one which is immovable in the face of changing circumstances. The discipline of Sutra is made manifest through Tantra as the expression of perfect commitment to the vast non-dual texture of the moment.