gdan gsum

3 divine seats in anuyoga [JV]

Syn an sa gsum the three races / seats, [buddhas, bodhisattvas and wrathful ones] [RY]

the three seats/pillars [IW]

three seats [IW]

'The Three Seats’: The forty-two peaceful deities of the three seats or categories (also known as the gdan gsum tshang ba’i dkyil ‘khor or gdan gsum tshang ba) are as follows: 1. the aggregates (Skt. skandha, Tib. phung po) and elements or constituents (Skt. dhātu, Tib. khams) are the seats of the five male and five female buddhas, and is called the 'Seat of the Buddhas'; 2. the sense faculties (Skt. āyatana, Tib. skye mched) and their objects are the seats of the eight male and the eight female bodhisattvas, together with the six munis, and is called the 'Seat of the Bodhisattvas'; 3. the body, in particular the limbs (human appendages, yan lag), the sense bases or sense sources (Skt. indriya, Tib. dbang po), and in some definitions, actions, views, and times, are the seats of the male and female wrathful deities, or else of the four male and the four female gatekeepers (who are part of the forty-two peaceful deities, even though they are in a wrathful form), and is called the 'Seat of the Wrathful Deities' (original source: the Rigpa Wiki entry on ‘Deities of the three seats’ and the other definitions in the Rangjung Yeshe Dharma Dictionary Wiki). See also gdan gsum dkyil 'khor, gdan gsum tshang ba'i dkyil 'khor, gdan gsum tshang ba and gdan gsum tshang ba’i lha. [Erick Tsiknopoulos]