Vajrasattva is a Bodhisattva that symbolizes primordial purity. Meditating upon him helps us to purify the thoughts of greed, hatred, and delusion. At his coronary heart he holds a vajra thunderbolt, which represents his upaya, or his ability in liberating beings via compassion. At his waist he holds a bell representing knowledge.
Vajra means “thunderbolt,” though it could possibly additionally imply “diamond.” The thunderbolt was probably the most highly effective pressure, whereas the diamond was probably the most indestructible object identified. The vajra that he holds is sort of similar to a number of the stylized thunderbolts held by Zeus in historic Greek statues. “Sattva” means “being.”
Vajrasattva is due to this fact the “Thunderbolt being.” This makes him a form of Buddhist Zeus, though his thunderbolts are damaging solely of that which holds us again from awakening.
Beneath is the textual content of the 100-syllable mantra of Vajrasattva. You’ll discover a hyperlink to an audio model of the mantra on the foot of this text. If you wish to see the script for this mantra, go to the superb article at Seen Mantra.
oṃ vajrasattva samayam
anupālaya
vajrasattva tvenopatiṣṭha
dṛḍho me bhava
sutośyo me bhava
supośyo me bhava
anurakto me bhava
sarva siddhiṃ me prayaccha
sarva karma su ca me
cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru hūṃ
ha ha ha ha hoḥ
bhagavan sarva tathāgatavajra
mā me muñca
vajrī bhava mahā samaya sattva
āḥ (hūṃ phaṭ)
A logo of the thoughts’s inherent purity
Vajrasattva’s title (Tib. dorje sempa) means “diamond being.” He represents the innate purity of the thoughts.
You possibly can think about your thoughts as being like a sky by way of which clouds move. The clouds come and so they go, however the sky stays untouched. The sky is inherently blue and clear, and though its blueness and readability could be obscured it could possibly by no means be destroyed. The clouds are just like the greed, hatred, and delusion that pollute the thoughts. Due to the transient nature of those psychological states, they can’t be mentioned to be an inherent a part of the thoughts. They might obscure the thoughts’s inherent consciousness and compassion, however these qualities are by no means absent.
The which means of the mantra
The mantra means:
Oṃ Vajrasattva! Protect the bond!
As Vajrasattva stand earlier than me.
Be agency for me.
Be vastly happy for me.
Deeply nourish me.
Love me passionately.
Grant me siddhi in all issues,
And in all actions make my thoughts most glorious. hūṃ!
ha ha ha ha ho!
Blessed One! Vajra of all of the Tathāgatas! Don’t abandon me.
Be the Vajra-bearer, Being of the Nice Bond!
āḥ (hūṃ phaṭ)
Clarification of the mantra
- Vessantara, in Assembly the Buddhas, means that within the first line (“Oṃ Vajrasattva! Protect the bond!”) we’re acknowledging our alienation from our true nature by calling upon Vajrasattva to protect the bond, or samaya, whereby we do the Vajrasattva invocation recurrently and Vajrasattva for his half responds by bestowing upon us the fruits of the follow. This “bond” represents a mutual dedication on the a part of the practitioner and Vajrasattva. In psycho-spiritual phrases, when you attempt to understand your personal innate purity, your innate purity will attempt to present itself from the depths of the unconscious.
- We then (“As Vajrasattva stand earlier than me”) name upon Vajrasattva as a religious good friend (kalyanamitra), to manifest in our meditation and in our lives.
- We entreat Vajrasattva (“Be agency for me”) to be with us consistently. We’re endeavoring to consistently come again to recognizing the thoughts’s true nature.
- “Be vastly happy for me. Deeply nourish me. Love me passionately.” Vajrasattva turns into extra like an intimate good friend or perhaps a lover, and is not only a protector. He’s somebody who is aware of us deeply and cares passionately for us. He’s our personal deepest nature, so at this stage within the mantra we’re experiencing a reunion with ourselves. Within the phrases of the poet Derek Walcott, “You’ll love once more the stranger who was your self.”
- “Grant me siddhi in all issues, And in all actions make my thoughts most glorious.” We now embody the qualities of Vajrasattva himself, and so to some extent we now have grow to be him. Siddhi is a Sanskrit phrase that actually means “perfection,” “accomplishment,” “attainment,” or “success,” and it refers to religious energy attained by way of follow.
- “Ha ha ha ha ho!” That is the joyful sound of liberation. These 5 syllables are additionally mentioned to signify the 5 Buddha households, that are all emanations of Vajrasattva.
- “Blessed One! Vajra of all of the Tathāgatas! Don’t abandon me.” Having skilled the innate purity of the thoughts, we aspire all the time to remain in contact with it. The “Tathāgatas” are the Buddhas, and the “Vajra of all of the Tathāgatas” is the innately pure nature of the Woke up thoughts.
- “Be the Vajra-bearer, Being of the Nice Bond!” This means that we’re imploring Vajrasattva to be means for and path to Enlightenment for all beings. He’s the vajra-bearer (the illustration of Awakening” for all sentient beings.
- Based on Vessantara, the syllable “hūṃ” is added to the mantra when somebody has died, and the syllable “phaṭ” is added so as to subdue demons. With out the hūṃ and the phaṭ the mantra has precisely 100 syllables. Nonetheless within the Triratna custom I follow in they’re routinely included as a result of that’s the type of the mantra Sangharakshita acquired from Dudjom Rinpoche.
Extra About Vajrasattva
Vajrasattva sits above the Mandala of the 5 Buddhas, which incorporates Akshobya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi, and Vairocana. In some traditions he’s thought to be being the ādi-buddha, or the primordial Buddha from whom all different Buddhas emanate. If Vajrasattva is seen as being the thoughts’s innate purity, then his primordiality and his being the origin of the opposite Buddhas is sensible — all manifestations of Awakening are nothing greater than a revealing of the thoughts’s innate consciousness and compassion.
Probably the most distinctive symbols related to Vajrasattva are his bell and vajra (or thunderbolt). The bell represents knowledge, and the vajra represents the Bodhisattva’s upaya, or his ability in liberating beings via compassion.
Vajrasattva is usually white in shade, representing his purity. He’s dressed within the Bodhisattva robes of a prince, adorned with jewels, and with lengthy flowing hair. He’s eternally younger, present outdoors of time and area.
MP3 model of the Vajrasattva mantra, chanted by Bodhipaksa
You possibly can hearken to the 100 Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva beneath, chanted by Bodhipaksa.
MP3 model of the mantra, chanted by Choden Rinpoche
And right here’s one other model, this time chanted by Choden Rinpoche, a Tibetan trainer who was born in 1933 in japanese Tibet, and who teaches within the facilities of the Gelug FPMT (Basis for the Preservation of the Mahayana Custom). You’ll hear that it’s the identical fundamental mantra, chanted in a unique type.
Observe
Evidently there are a lot of variants and corruptions of this mantra. The model initially of this text is a “corrected” model of the mantra that was initially given to Sangharakshita by his trainer, Dudjom Rinpoche. The Sanskrit in that model had grow to be barely corrupted, and so the unique Sanskrit was restored by Sanskrit scholar Sthiramati.
The textual content of the model chanted by Choden Rinpoche, above, is as follows:
Om vajrasatta samaya
Manupalaya
Vajrasattva denopa titha
Dido me bhava
Suto kayo me bhava
Supo kayo me bhava,
Anurakto me bhava
Sarva siddhi me prayatsa
Sarva karma su tsame
Tsittam shriyam kuru hum
Ha ha ha ha ho
Bhagavan sarva tathagata
Vajra mame muntsa
Vajra bhava
Maha samaya sattva
Ah hum phet
In the event you evaluate this with the corrected model above you’ll see that plenty of distortions have crept into the Tibetan model due to the transliteration from Sanskrit, to Tibetan, again to English.
See additionally Saccanama’s article, Unique faces: reflections on purification, for a private perspective on Vajrasattva.