GUHYASAMAJA means "Secret Union" or "Assembly of the Secret Ones (Tib. Sangwa-dupa). Guhyasamaja is also know as "King of Tantras".
In Tibet, Guhyasamaja is particularly favored by the Geluk Order, most likely for the antiquity of his texts. Translated in the 8th century, the Guhyasamaja Tantra was one of te first Sanskrit works to be translated into Tibetan. One tradition has it that Shakyamuni Buddha himself proclaimed the tantra the morning after his enlightenment. Other traditions claimed tat Maitreya taught the tantra in the Tushita Heaven, and that the Indian scholar Asanga brought it to the human world in the 4th century. Like other deities of the Unexcelled Yoga tantra tradition, Guhyasamaja is associated with the Buddha Akshobhya. Many texts, including the Guhyasamaja Tantra itself, simply call him Akshobhya or Akshobhyavajara. Guhyasamajas is dark blue in color. He has three faces: the central one is blue and fierce, the right face is peaceful white; and the left one is red. He is considered Lord of the Diamond Body, Speech, and Mid of All the Thatagatas. He gently holds his consort, Sparshavajra, in a intimate embrace. The goddess has six hands and three faces, and is "like her consort," in the words of an early ritual. Sparshvajra gazes upward in rapture, meeting Guhyasamaja´s downward glance. The goddess protects an energy and ferocity that contrasts with the serene countenance of her mate. Being "of the same nature," the divine pair possess similar hand implements. The central pair of hands hold, right and left, a vajra cepter and a bell, the upper pair, a wheel and a blazing jewel; the lower pair, a lotus and a sword. The vajra cepter and the bell symbolize, among other things, the vajra Buddha clan of Akshobhya. The wheel symbolizes the mirror wisdom clan of Vairochana, the lotus the discriminating wisdom clan of Amitabha, the jewel the equality wisdom clan of Ratnasambhava, and the sowrd the all- accomplishing wisdom clan of Amogasiddhi. Thus Guhyasamaja Budha symbolically represents the union of all the Buddha clans.
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