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From: brz@u.washington.edu (R Brzustowicz)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan,talk.religion.buddhism,alt.evil,alt.satanism,talk.religion.misc,soc.culture.tibet,alt.magick,alt.magick.tyagi
Subject: Re: RB: Aum Sect and Tantrik Buddhism
Date: 6 May 1996 17:21:01 GMT
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
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In article <4mggan$fo2@epx.cis.umn.edu>,  <pm@dierking.com> wrote:
>>Author:       Marcotty, Thomas, 1930-.
>>Title:        Dagger blessing : the Tibetan Phurpa cult, reflections and
>>              materials / Thomas Marcotty.
>>--which discusses this theme in Tibetan Buddhism.
>
>The available material in English concerning the Vajrakilaya is often
>misunderstood, due to difficult translation and the absence of
>comprehending subtler aspects and symbols of the material by the
>translators.
>
>What one finds at the core of the wrathful tantra is that the object
>being destroyed are one's own defilements. Call them demons, enemies,
>whatever you want--they are of mind. Much of the misunderstanding
>is a result over the apparently interchangable terms bsad (kill) and
>sgrol (liberate)--an issue Marcotty does address.
>

Yes, this is the "proper" understanding of the whole thing (as
Marcotty's book makes clear), but less proper understandings also 
exist, and have at times been acted on.  The problem of when to
use the normative and when to use the historical/ethnographic 
view in describing some cultural complex is a very real one.

R Brzustowicz