The Buddhist deity Guhyasamaja

Guhyasamaja, the “Secret Assembly,” embodies according to many teachers the union of emptiness gnosis (prajna, the female; Tibetan yum) and technique (upaya, the male; Tibetan yab)—the twin forces that drive Vajrayana evolution toward enlightenment (bodhi).

In this case, another bone skirt appears just behind Guhyasamaja. This skirt, stripped of the body that once animated it, challenges us: does its presence emphasize absence, or does it remain charged with the ritual power it once held? The dialogue between these objects reveals a deeper mystery: one form dissolves into another, the self into the infinite. In this way, Guhyasamaja’s embrace represents the nondual union of every pair of opposites you might imagine: self and other mind and matter, subject and object, here and there, before and after, and ultimately all the ordinary laws of space and time.