Senge Dongma

Siṃhamukhā
Courtesy of Chorten Dodrupchen Monastery

In the Longchen Nyingtik tradition, Siṃhamukhā (Tib. Senge Dongma; the Lion-Faced Ḍākinī) is the wrathful aspect of the female vidyādharas and the secret aspect of the Female Practice (Yumka).

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche explains in the history section of the empowerment manual that Siṃhamukhā is similar to Vajravārāhī and emanated into this world in order to tame evil spirits such as hybrids (Tib. tramen). Her life-force mantra was blessed as a wisdom mantra and is the embodiment of the power of all the wisdom and worldly mantras. Her practice is particularly effective to avert curses and evil spells.

She appears both in the Nyingma and the Sarma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In the past, Guru Padmasambhava had used this mantra to defeat the non-Buddhist and then concealed it as a treasure., which was then discovered by Jigme Lingpa. The treasure text says:

“At the charnel ground of the liberation of the eight consciousnesses
The great lord Padma was entrusted
With this Dharma teaching by the ḍākinī of basic space
By means of the dharmatā’s sound, the dharmatā’s light rays
And the maṇḍala of the luminous expanse of dharmatā.”
— Siṃhamukhā, The Secret Female Practice from the Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse
 

Tantric text warning

Readers are reminded that according to Vajrayāna Buddhist tradition there are restrictions and commitments concerning tantra. Practitioners who are not sure if they should read translations in this section are advised to consult the authorities of their lineage. The responsibility for reading these texts or for sharing them with others—and hence the consequences—lies in the hands of readers.

Practice Texts

  • First Dodrupchen, Jigme Trinle Özer, The Shower of Blessings, A Prayer to Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་གྱི་གསོལ་འདེབས་བྱིན་རླབས་ཆར་འབེབས)

  • Third Dodrupchen, Jikme Tenpe Nyima, Supplements for the Lineage Prayer

Averting Rituals

  • Jigme Lingpa, Subduing Sorcery's Strength, A Practice to Turn Back the Summons of the Ḍākinīs for Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་ལས། སྲུང་ཟློག་བྱད་མ་སྟོབས་འཇོམས)

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Meteoric Iron Wheel that Liberates from Evil Sorcery, for Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་ལས། བྱད་འགྲོལ་གནམ་ལྕགས་འཁོར་ལོ་,

  • Jigme Lingpa, Destroying the Hordes of Evil Sorcery, A Torma Offering and Averting Ritual for Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་ལས། གཏོར་ཟློག་བྱད་གདོན་གཡུལ་འཇོམས)

  • Jigme Lingpa, The Wheel of Activity Which Benefits Others, from Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་ལས།་ཕྲིན་ལས་གཞན་ཕན་འཁོར་ལོ་)

Empowerment texts

  • Jigme Lingpa, A Bundle of Blessings, An Empowerment Ritual for Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་ལས། དབང་ཆོག་བྱིན་རླབས་ཆུན་པོ)

  • Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, A Feast that Pleases the Fortunate Ones and Reveals the Profound and Secret Ambrosia: A Garland of Ritual Arrangements for Bestowing the General and Specific Empowerments of the Three Roots of the Great Perfection Heart Essence of the Vast Expanse. Chapter 11: Siṃhamukhā

Commentaries

  • Jigme Lingpa, Entrance Way to the Ocean of Accomplishments, A Recitation Manual for Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་ཅན་གྱི་བསྙེན་ཡིག་དངོས་གྲུབ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་འཇུག་ངོགས་,

  • Jigme Lingpa, Notes on the Crucial Points of the Preparation for a Torma Offering and Averting Ritual of Siṃhamukhā, the Secret Female Practice (ཡུམ་ཀའི་གསང་སྒྲུབ་སེང་གེའི་གདོང་མའི་གཏོར་ཟློག་གི་བཅའ་གཞི་གནད་ཀྱི་ཡིག་ཆུང་)