Vajra Mamo Tsogyel Tröllö
Ba dzra ma mo tsho rGyal rDo rJe gro lod
In this view, more detail of the scorpions (Tib: digpa ratsa, bsDigs pa ra tsa) emitted from the phurbas wielded by Vajra Mamo Tsogyel Tröllö is apparent.
Each of the scorpions’ legs contain five segments, representing the five distorted tendencies and their corresponding wisdom qualities. The scorpions’ tails are made up of nine segments, representing the nine yanas or vehicles; this displays the availability of all the vehicles from Sutra through outer and inner Tantra as methods of transformation. Each scorpion displays a wisdom eye.
Ngak’chang Rinpoche says of the scorpion:
The wrathful symbolism of Vajrayana is often misunderstood in the West because of our cultural predisposition to polarise ‘good’ and ‘evil’. The polarity of ‘good and evil’ does not exist in Buddhism – there is only the ‘good’ of the enlightened state, and the distortion of that ‘good’. This means that no matter how negative a situation or person may have become through dualistic obsession—that situation or person can be transformed. The power of transformation is thus depicted in Vajrayana through the scorpion. The statement being made here is that: ‘If the scorpion can be transformed then anyone, and anything can be transformed.’ Everyone and everything is nothing other than the energy of the non-dual state – and therefore the power of every facet of existence can be harnessed through pure vision as a means of attainment and compassionate activity.
