This week’s meditation session is led by Tracy Cochran and the theme is Life After. The guided meditation begins at 11:39.

Yama Dharmaraja (also known as Kalarupa) is a wisdom deity protector of the father class of Anuttarayoga tantra, especially for those engaged in the practice of the Yamantaka tantras. The Gelugpa school holds Yama Dharmajara in a special regard as one of the three main dharma protectors of the school. In the Bardo Thodrol teachings, Yama presides over the judgment of the dead.

He appears as a fearsome and wrathful Dharma Protector with the head of a buffalo, three round eyes, hair flowing upward, and a body blue in color with two upraised hands. The right hand holds a bone stick composed of a fused spine and skull wrapped with an elephant and human skin. The left holds a long black lasso tipped with a gold ring and half vajra. Wearing a necklace of 50 freshly severed heads tied together with human intestines, he appears extremely animated standing with the right leg bent and the left extended on the back of a buffalo above a human body, sun disc, and multi-colored lotus blossom seat.

To the right is the consort Chamundi, with one face and two hands, clambering toward Dharmaraja. She holds a trident in the right hand and a skullcup in the left. Both are adorned with wrathful attire, skull tiaras, bone ornaments. and various skins; completely surrounded by the orange and red flames of pristine awareness. At the bottom center is a skullcup with the offerings of the five senses, an arrow placed in the middle and silks adorning the top.