Grand Master Lu Conducted Yamantaka Fire Ceremony (Homa) & Bardo Deliverance on Sunday 01/28/2007 at Rainbow Villa

Information about Yamantaka:

Yidam (protective deity)

Yamantaka is in union with his shakti, who has one head and two arms while Yamantaka has a myriad of arms and heads. One head in particular is that of a buffalo. Both stand aggressively with their legs (only one of hers) situated upon animals (i.e. birds), human beings, and gods.

There are nine heads only one of which (that at the top) is serene; this is Manjushri, whose menacing emanation is embodied by Yamantaka. The crown of his demonic heads are formed by wrathful skulls. Yamantaka’s thirty-four arms encompass a variety of weapons and dharma implements, each with its own symbolic attribute. His shakti holds a skull cup and chopper, and she stares up at him with wrathful and passionate intensity as the shakti throws her arms on either side of Yamantaka’s faces.

The symbolism of the various limbs and attributes of Yamantaka are explained by Tsongkhapa: “His nine faces point to the ninefold classification of the scriptures; his two horns to the truths (conventional and ultimate); his thirty-four arms together with his spirituality, communication and embodiment in tangible form to the thirty-seven facts of enlightenment; his sixteen legs to the sixteen kinds of no-thing-ness...”

Aside from such doctrinaire symbolism, Yamantaka signifies the fierce as well as the cosmic form of Manjushri

Yamantaka's manifestation lineage: Amitabha Buddha -> Manjushri Bodhisattva -> Yamantaka Vajra

Source: Padmakumara.org