Samantabhadra Yab-Yum

Kuntuzangpo and Consort

Artist : Phunsok Tsering
Produced : 2001
Type : Giclee Print
Category : Nyingma & Dudjom Tersar
Category 2 : Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
Original Painting Size : 11 x 13.75 inches. (279 x 349 mm)
Original Medium : Gouache, gold and silver on cotton

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Samantabhadra Yab-Yum :

This thangka depicts the blue Primordial or Adi-Buddha, Samantabhadra, in union with his white consort, Samantabhadri. Samantabhadra (Tib. Kuntuzangpo), meaning the 'all-good' or 'ever perfect', is the supreme or principal Buddha of the early Nyingma or 'Ancient-School' of Tibetan Buddhism, and the source from which most of the Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga classes of the highest tantric transmissions originate. As such he symbolizes the dharmakaya, the supreme buddha-body of absolute reality, which represents the innate or natural purity of consciousness. As the Adi-Buddha he is also the source from which the hundred peaceful and wrathful deities of the Shitro (Tib. zhi-khro) of bardo-mandala originate. He is also recognized as the 'Father of all Buddhas' in the Mahayoga texts of the Guhyagarbha Tantra, and in the Seventeen Tantras of the Dzogchen or 'Great Perfection' cycle of transmissions.

Samantabhadra is deep blue in colour, naked and unadorned, symbolizing the space-like and indestructible nature of the dharmakaya or 'truth-body' as the natural purity of consciousness, or the innate awareness of buddha-mind. With his consort he sits in vajra-posture upon a silver-white moon disc and a multicolored lotus, with his two joined hands resting upon his lap in the dhyana-mudra of meditation upon emptiness. He is endowed with the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks of an enlightened Buddha, with rays of golden light emanating against his inner aura. His outer aura is composed of golden scrolling segments with enclosed jewels, and is encircled with clouds.

His white consort Samantabhadri (Tib. Kuntuzangmo) manifests as the 'Mother of all Buddhas' and is likewise naked and unadorned. She sits upon his lap in sexual union with her two arms embracing his neck, her head inclined to the left as she kisses his lips, and her long black hair flowing freely down her back. Samantabhadra, as the male deity, represents the luminous or apparitional nature of the dharmakaya. And Samantabhadri, as the female deity, represents the pure emptiness or non-apparitional nature of the dharmakaya. Their union symbolizes the coalescence of pure appearance and emptiness.