Troma Nagmo (Dudjom Troma)
The dynamic figure of Troma Nagmo (khros ma nag mo), the ‘Wrathful Black Mother’ (Skt.Krishna Kali, Krishna Krodhini), dominates the centre of this gold-on-black composition.
She is extremely fierce, youthful and nubile like a sixteen-year-old, and black in colour like the darkness at the end of time.
With her right leg drawn up and her left leg bent in ‘bow-and-arrow’ posture, she dances upon the golden sun-disc of her lotus seat, with her left foot pressing down upon the breasts of a naked female demon that has been thrown down onto her back.
This fierce demon reveals her sharp teeth and vagina, and her breasts are the ‘seat of desire’, thus her corpse represents the concept of the self-cherishing attitude that is sacrificed through the practice of the chod ritual.
Source
(Tib. Troma Nagmo) can be accompanied by four dakinis, so that together, they are the Wisdoms of the Five Buddha families.
Troma (Khros ma), a gcod practice focused on Khrodakālī.
I have not seen any specific references to Khros ma in Nyang ral’s biographies. He does receive an unspecified gcod practice from one Lama Dzongpa of Tsang, and the Blue Annals (914) record Padampa as stating that this lama “belongs to the type of individuals of spontaneous development,” so he appears to have been impressed with his attainment. Nyingmapas count a Nyang ral Khros ma as especially prestigious, but these days I am growing increasingly skeptical of such claims, at least in the Bka’ ma transmissions of his gter ma, so to speak.
What gives me pause is the revitalization of “Nyang ral’s” transmissions that occurred through the activity of Terdak Lingpa in the seventeenth century.
He received Guru Chöwang’s Bka’ brgyad from his father, but it seems that Nyang ral’s Bka’ brgyad may have died out already. Following some dreams and visions of Nyang ral himself, Terdak Lingpa recovered a number of Nyang ral yang gter, which I believe to comprise the only Nyang ral Bka’ brgyad cycles that are still (very rarely) transmitted today.
Likewise for Guru Drakpo and Sangwe Khandro, two other famous cycles attributed to Nyang ral but that appear to have originated more recently at Mindroling.
So there is a major issue here in that the oral transmissions of Nyang ral’s gter ma died out, and new yang gter were introduced in their place by Terdak Lingpa.
While there were undoubtedly some historical connections between Nyang ral and Padampa’s lineages (meaning some even appear in both biographies, which is rare!), it may be unlikely that a Khros ma lineage extends back to him.
In contrast, Nyang ral’s biographies detail specific lineages of Zhi byed or Pacification (Dri ma med pa lists three:
So, [[Skam/Kaṃ, Rma, whereas Gsal ba’i me long only describes the last of them), all of which are corroborated in the Blue Annals, as are the teachers from whom Nyang ral received them.
His biographies are also silent on Bon, and all of his treasure texts are listed as Chos in nature. One question I have, however, is how we should categorize his various ritual texts and materials.
Some of these rites were Nyang ral’s bread and butter before he started finding gter, but are thread-crosses (mdos), for example, “Buddhist” in origin? Indic? Or are they adaptations from Bon?
I remain intrigued by this question of where to draw the line between what is “Buddhist” and what is Bon (or perhaps just other/undefined?). Have yet to read Jake Dalton’s recent publication, but I wonder whether he addresses this issue.
Source
http://blogs.orient.ox.ac.uk/kila/2011/09/19/the-wonderful-orgyan-ling-manuscript-kanjur/
