Concept
Yab-Yum
Overview
Yab-yum (Tibetan: ཡབ་ཡུམ། literally, "father-mother") is a common symbol in the Tibetan Buddhist art of India, Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet. It represents the primordial union of wisdom and compassion, depicted as a male deity in union with his female consort through the similar ideas of interpenetration or "coalescence" (Tibetan: ཟུང་འཇུག Wylie: zung-'jug; Sanskrit: yuganaddha), using the concept of Indra's net to illustrate this.
The male figure represents compassion and skillful means, while the female partner represents insight. In yab-yum the female is seated on the male's lap. There is a rare presentation of a similar figure but reversed, with the male sitting on the female's lap, called yum-yab.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
It is particularly stones and pieces of wood that are held to be the abode of these totemic spirits and that are represented by legend as having at one time been entrusted to the custody of the forefathers. These ideas abound particularly in northern Australia, where the magical objects are called churingas (or tjurungas). Churingas play an important rôle in the ceremonies of the totem festivals.
Wilhelm Max Wundt, Elements of Folk Psychology Outline of a Psychological History of the Development of Mankind
States what Yab-Yum is.
Although the two roots naẓab and yaẓab are distinct, yet their meaning is, as you know, identical in all their various forms. The verb has several meanings: in some instances it signifies “to stand” or “to place oneself,” as “And his sister stood (va-tetaẓẓab) afar off” (Exod. ii. 4); “The kings of the earth set themselves” (yityaẓẓebu) (Ps. ii. 2); “They came out and stood” (niẓẓabim) (Num. xvi. 27).
Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed
States what Yab-Yum is.
28:3; and as angels are also described by the Psalmist, when he says, "Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire," Ps. 104:4. And again, it is said, Luke 2:9, "That when the angel of the Lord came to the shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about them." Of the same description also was the countenance of Christ at his transfiguration on Mount Tabor, of whom it is said, "And his face did…
Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1
States what Yab-Yum is.
Related ideas
- Prajñā (Buddhism)
- India
- Bhutan
- Tibetan Buddhism
- Tantra
- Tibet
- Enlightenment in Buddhism
- Deity
- Vajrayana
- Upaya
- Maya (religion)
Place in the tradition
Part of Nondualism.