Heruka


Heruka, is the name of a category of wrathful deities, enlightened beings in Vajrayana Buddhism that adopt a fierce countenance to benefit sentient beings. In East Asia, these are called Wisdom Kings.
Herukas represent the embodiment of indivisible bliss and emptiness. They appear as Iṣṭha-devatā or meditational deities for tantric sādhanā, usually placed in a mandala and often appearing in Yab-Yum.

Derivation and meaning of the term

The name "Heruka" is made up of the prefix "he-" is a teaching of the emptiness of general phenomena, "ru" is the emptiness of persons in particular, and together it is linked with "Ka" which refers to the overal union of a mind of great bliss and the emptiness of all phenomena.
The Sanskrit term Heruka was translated into both Chinese and Tibetan as "blood drinker," which scholar Ronald Davidson calls "curious," speculating that the nonliteral translation derived from an association the term has with cremation grounds and 'charnel grounds' . Sanskrit terms for blood drinker include asrikpa, reflecting a Sanskrit word for blood, and raktapa, raktapayin, or rakshasa, derived from an alternate root term for blood. Unlike the Chinese and Tibetan terms used to translate it, the Sanskrit term heruka does not literally mean blood drinker, although the fact that it was rendered as such into two other languages strongly suggests an according Indian interpretive etymology.

Eight Herukas of the Nyingma Mahayoga

The eight Herukas of the Nyingma mahayoga tradition are said to have been received by Padmakara from the Eight Vidyadharas, or Eight Great Acharyas: Manjushrimitra, Nagarjuna, Vajrahumkara, Vimalamitra, Prabhahasti, Dhanasamskrita, Shintamgarbha and Guhyachandra. They were proficient in the practices of, respectively:
1) Yamantaka the wrathful Manjushri, the deity of body;

2) Hayagriva the wrathful Avalokiteśvara, the deity of speech;

3) Vishuddha/Sri Samyak the wrathful Vajrapani deity of mind;

4) Mahottara the wrathful Samantabhadra, the deity of enlightened qualities;

5) Vajrakilaya/Vajrakumara, the wrathful Vajrasattva, the deity of purification;

6) Matarah the wrathful Akasagarbha, the deity of calling and dispatching;

7) Lokastotrapuja-natha the wrathful Ksitigarbha, the deity of worldly offering and praise;

8) Vajramantrabhiru the wrathful Maitreya, the deity of wrathful mantras.
Padmasambhava is quoted in the Bardo Thodol : "The crucial point is indeed that those who have meditated on the formal description of these Herukakaya, and also made offerings and praise to them, or, at the very least, have simply seen their painted and sculpted images, may recognise the forms that arise here and attain moksha."