Vajrasattva

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Vajrasattva
Sanskritवज्रसत्त्व
Vajrasatva
Chinese金剛薩埵菩薩
(Pinyin: Jīngāng Sàduǒ Púsà)
Japanese金剛薩埵菩薩（こんごうさったぼさつ）
(
romaji: Kongōsatta Bosatsu)
Khmerវជ្រសត្វ
(vach-cha-sat)
Korean금강살타보살
(
Vajrayāna
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Vajrasattva (

sambhogakāya
and purification practice.

Vajrasattva appears principally in two Buddhists texts: the

Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra. In the Diamond Realm Mandala, Vajrasattva sits to the East near Akshobhya
Buddha.

In some esoteric lineages, Nagarjuna was said to have met Vajrasattva in an iron tower in South India, and was taught tantra, thus transmitting the esoteric teachings to more historical figures.[2]

His

Sanskrit: ॐ वज्रसत्त्व हूँ; Chinese: 唵 斡資囉 薩答 啊 吽 / 嗡 班扎 薩埵 吽; Pinyin
: ǎn wòzīluō sàdá a hōng / wēng bānzhā sàduǒ hōng).

Meaning of name

Vajrasattva's name translates to Diamond Being or Thunderbolt Being. The

Esoteric Buddhism
.

Newar Buddhism

Vajrasattva is an important figure in the tantric Buddhism of the

pūjā
for Newar priests (vajrācāryas). The śatākṣara (100 syllable prayer to Vajrasattva) is memorized by many practicing Newar Buddhist priests.

East Asian Buddhism

Depiction of Vajrasattva seated on a lotus. Japan, 14th century CE

In

Mahavairocana Sutra. Kukai does not elaborate further on Vajrasattva or his origins.[3]

Elsewhere, Vajrasattva is an important figure in two esoteric Buddhist sutras, the

Shingon Buddhist rituals for initiation; the kechien kanjō; the initiate re-enacts the role of Vajrasattva and recites mantra and dialogue from the sutras above. The Mahācārya enacts the role of Mahavairocana Buddha, bestowing wisdom upon the student.[citation needed
]

In certain esoteric Chinese Buddhist rituals such as the Grand Mengshan Food Bestowal ceremony (Chinese: 蒙山施食; pinyin: méngshān shīshí) and the Samadhi Water Repentance Ceremony (Chinese: 三昧水懺; pinyin: Sānmèi shuǐchàn), Vajrasatta's mantra is commonly recited as part of the liturgy while the performing monastic uses ritual vajras and ghantas to expel demons from the ritual platform.

Tibetan Buddhism

In

initiation
. As such, Vajrasattva practice is an essential element of Tibetan Buddhist practice.

In addition to personal practice, the Vajrasattva mantra is regarded as having the ability to purify

September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche announced a project, Prayer 4 Peace, to accumulate one billion six syllable Vajrasattva recitations from practitioners around the world. The six syllable mantra (oṁ Vajrasattva Hūṁ), is a less formal version of the one hundred syllable mantra on which it is based but contains the essential spiritual points of the longer mantra, according to lama and tulku Jamgon Kongtrul.[5]

Dzogchen

"

Upadesha.[6]

Samantabhadra discourses to Vajrasattva and in turn Vajrasattva asks questions of Samantabhadra in clarification in the

Kulayaraja Tantra (Wylie: kun byed rgyal po, THL: künjé gyalpo) or "The All-Creating King Tantra", the main tantra of the Mind Series of Dzogchen.[7]

Consorts

Vajrasattva is often depicted with various consorts: the peaceful one Vajragarvi aka Vajrasatvātmikā (Tib. Dorje Nyema), Dharmadhatvishvari, Ghantapani ("Bell Bearer"), the wrathful one Diptacakra, Vajratopa, Vajrabhrikuti, and others.

Hundred Syllable Mantra

An important mantra associated with Vajrasattva is the Hundred Syllable Mantra. This mantra appears in the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgraha.[8] The earliest appearance of the mantra is in a collection of mantras (T.866) translated into Chinese by Vajrabodhi (c. 671-741) in 723 CE called A Summary of Recitations Taken from the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgrahasūtra (金剛頂瑜伽中略出念誦經).[9]

The mantra is the following:

In Chinese Buddhism

In Chinese Buddhism, the "Hundred Syllable Mantra" is recited and practiced by monastics during the Yogacara Flaming Mouth Ritual (Chinese: 瑜伽焰口; pinyin: Yújiā Yànkou), which is often conducted during various important festivals, including the Chinese Ghost Festival, in order to feed pretas and reduce their suffering. The earliest known reference to this mantra in the Chinese Buddhist canon dates to a compilation of spells purportedly made by monks from the Xixia kingdom during the Song dynasty (960 - 1279), which may indicate that the mantra was first transcribed from Tibetan Buddhist sources, as Tibetan Buddhist teachings were influential in the Xixia region at the time.[10]

In Tibetan Buddhism

The 100 syllable mantra of Vajrasattva in Lañja and Tibetan scripts

In Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist practice, Vajrasattva is used in the

Sarma
schools bar the Bonpo. The pronunciation and orthography differ between lineages.

The evocation of the Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra in the

Sanskrit: dvaibhāṣika) is evident from the earliest transmission of tantra into the region, where the original Sanskrit phonemes and lexical items are often orthographically rendered in the Tibetan, rather than the comparable indigenous terms (Davidson, 2002).[11] Though Jigme Lingpa did not compose the Hundred Syllable Mantra, his scribal style bears a marked similarity to it as evidenced by his biographies (Gyatso, 1998).[12] Jigme Lingpa as pandit
, which in the Himalayan context denotes an indigenous Tibetan versed in Sanskrit, often wrote in a hybridized Sanskrit-Tibetan diglossia.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary Page". Rywiki.tsadra.org. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  2. ISBN 0-231-11286-6
    .
  3. ISBN 0-231-11286-6
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-86171-389-9
    , Wisdom Publications.p.X
  5. ^ "Welcome". Prayer4Peace.net. 2001-12-11. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  6. ^ Rigpa Shedra (October 2009). "Seventeen Tantras". Retrieved April 5, 2010.
  7. ^ E. K. Neumaier-Dargyay, The Sovereign All-Creating Mind: The Motherly Buddha, Albany, 1992
  8. ^ Jayarava (2011). Visible Mantra: Visualising & Writing Buddhist Mantras, p. 85. Lulu.com.
  9. ^ "Jayarava's Raves: Canonical Sources for the Vajrasattva Mantra". Jayarava's Raves. 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2023-04-07.
  10. doi:10.18130/v3s82z
    .
  11. ISBN 0-231-12618-2
    (cloth)
  12. ISBN 0-691-01110-9
    (cloth: alk. paper)

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vajrasattva.
  • Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary entry
  • Samye Institute Library entry
  • Video of a segment of a Chinese Yogacara Flaming Mouth ceremony (瑜伽焰口法會) where Vajrasattva's mantra "Oṃ Vajrasattva Hūṃ" is recited (at around the 10 second mark)
  • Video of a segment of a Samadhi Water Repentance ceremony in Taiwan where Vajrasattva's mantra "Oṃ Vajrasattva Hūṃ" is recited (at around the 20:17 minute mark)
  • Video of a segment of a Chinese Yogacara Flaming Mouth ceremony (瑜伽焰口法會) showing recitation of Vajrasattva's Hundred Syllable Mantra
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