Samaya

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samaya (T. dam tshig དམ་ཚིག; C. san-mei-yeh 三昧耶). Within tantra, samaya refers to commitments that are conferred when a tantric disciple receives in an empowerment (abhiṣeka) for a particular tantric practice from a qualified vajra master.

Chokgyur Lingpa states:

The samaya is that which retains the life-force of empowerment. Without observing the samayas, the life-force of the empowerment vanishes, like a feather blown away in the wind, and will not bring you any benefit.[1]

Jamgön Kongtrül states:

The word samaya means ‘pledged commitment,’ ‘oath,’ ‘precept,’ etc. Hence, this refers to a vajra promise or samaya because one is not to transgress what has been pledged.
Samaya vows involve both benefit and risk because, if kept, samaya vows become the foundation for all the trainings of mantra. If not kept, however, all these trainings become futile.[2]

The samaya commitments represent a bond between the student and both the vajra master and the dieties associated with the empowerment.

Name variations

The commitments associated with an empowerment (abhiṣeka) are refered to as:

  • samaya
  • samayas
  • samaya vows
  • samaya precepts (C sānmèiyé jiè 三昧耶戒)[3]
  • tantric vows[4]
  • Mantrayana vows[5]
  • precepts of the Mantrayana[5]
  • Vajrayana precepts[6]

Etymology

The Padmakara Translation Group states:

The Sanskrit word “samaya” generally means a “coming together,” an agreement, pact, or covenant, and in the present context it is usually understood in the sense of a sacred pledge.[7]

The Tibetan translation is dam tshig (དམ་ཚིག):

  • dam, in this context, refers to a promise, vow, oath, etc.
  • tshig has two possible meanings. It can be understood either as part of the verb ’tshig pa (“to burn”) or else as a noun meaning simply “word.”[7]

Hence, the Tibetan term has the following meanings:

  • a "burning pledge" meaning that if samaya is kept without being spoiled, it confers the benefit of burning away all one’s faults[5]
  • “a “word of pledge” (dam bcas pa’i tshig), a promise that is not to be transgressed.[5]

Three sets of vows for Vajrayana practitioners

Main article: Trisaṃvara

Within the Vajrayana, the samaya vows are one of three sets of vows that form the basis for Buddhist practice, along with the pratimoksha vows of the Sravakayana and the bodhisattva precepts of the Mahayana.[8]

Divisions and essence of samaya

There are innumerable divisions of the samaya vows found in the various tantras.[8] At the most fundamental level, however, one pledges to continually maintain the view of the enlightened form, speech and mind of the buddhas.[8]

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche states:

To apply oneself in a way that is in harmony with how the truth is, is called keeping the samaya. Whatever we see is visible emptiness. This is how it actually is. This is also what we need to realize. The realization that all sights are visible emptiness is the vajra body of all buddhas. This is how it is proclaimed. That statement is real, true, and sublime. Keeping that is called keeping the samaya of vajra body. The same applies to all sounds being audible emptiness, and mind being aware emptiness. That is an unfailing truth.
When the samayas are described in detail, there are hundreds of thousands that can be listed. But all of them can be condensed in this way. The foremost samaya is when you compose yourself in a state in which you in actuality experience the fact that all sights, sounds, and awareness are visible emptiness, audible emptiness, and aware emptiness. That is the best. Next best is to have the conviction that this is so: “Whatever is seen is visible emptiness. Whatever I hear is audible emptiness, the voice of all victorious ones. And mind is aware emptiness, self-existing rigpa, intrinsic wakefulness; it is really so.” To have that certainty is called keeping all the hundreds of thousands of samayas.[6]

Khenpo Yönten Gönpo states:

The great vajra-like body, speech and mind
Are originally and spontaneously perfect, unconditioned.
If you realize this truth, the nature that is equality,
Then thoughts, ideas and perceptions are utterly pure.
All the vows that exist are contained within this,
And all remain perfectly pure.

This is the secret of the enlightened body, speech and mind
Of all the buddhas;
It is the samaya beyond transgression or impairment.[9]

Fourteen root downfalls

In the Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism, a set of fourteen root downfalls is enumerated.

Notes

  1. ↑ Padmasambhava & Jamgön Kongtrül 1999, Essay on the Great Masters.
  2. ↑ Padmasambhava & Jamgön Kongtrül 1998, p. 46.
  3. ↑ 三昧耶戒, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
  4. ↑ Common Root Tantric Vows by Alex Berzin, StudyBuddhism
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Jigme Lingpa & Kangyur Rinpoche 2013, Chapter 10.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche 2004.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Jigme Lingpa & Kangyur Rinpoche 2013, fn. 360.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Dahl 2009, Glossary, s.v. "samaya vow".
  9. ↑ The Lion's Roar of Definitive Meaning, Lotsawa House

Sources

Further Reading

  • Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, Not for Happiness, pages 148-150.
  • Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (Shambhala Publications, 2016), pages 175-185.
  • Longchen Yeshe Dorje, Kangyur Rinpoche and Jigme Lingpa, Treasury of Precious Qualities Book Two (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2013), 'Samaya, the favorable condition for progress on the path', pages 179-229.
  • Padmasambhava & Jamgön Kongtrul, The Light of Wisdom, Vol. Two, translated by Erik Pema Kunsang (Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1999), Chapter 17 'Samayas'.
  • Tulku Thondup, Enlightened Journey: Buddhist Practice as Daily Life (Boston: Shambhala, 1995), 'The Empowerments and Precepts of Esoteric Training', pages 106-133.
  • Tulku Urgyen, As It Is Vol.2, pages 136-138 (Rangjung Yeshe, 2000) ISBN 962-7341-39-8

External links

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