Vajrasattva

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A statue of Vajrasattva from Tibet

Vajrasattva (T. rdo rje sems dpa’; C. jingang saduo 金剛薩埵) is a tantric meditation deity most commonly associated with purification and healing.[1] Vajrasattva is also identified as a primordial buddha (adibuddha) buddha within some trantric practices.

The Samye Institute states:

All schools of Tibetan Buddhism engage in the practice of Vajrasattva as the tantric method of purification, as it is said to be powerful and purifies any faults committed in any of the three vows (those of individual liberation, the Bodhisattva vows, and the tantric samayas). On this provisional level, the practice of Vajrasattva is the primary method of confessing misdeeds and wrong views and for clearing obscurations and samaya violations. The purification practice of Vajrasattva is one of the four (or five) practices of the ngöndro, or foundational practices of Vajrayana Buddhism. In this context, the practitioner visualizes Vajrasattva as the “power of the support” (Tib. ten gyi tob) as the confession and regret are declared.
It is said that if practitioners repeat the 100-syllable mantra [of Vajrasattva] twenty-one times every day that it reduces the strength of negative karma and habitual tendencies and prevents them from developing into stronger patterns.[2]

As a primoridal buddha, Vajrasattva is identical with Buddha Vajradhara.[3]

Vajrasattva is also sometimes associated with the five tathagatas. For example, in the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha, he is identified as a sixth tathagata witin the five tathagata system.[3] Vajrasattva also occasionally replaces Buddha Akṣobhya in the same system.[3]

Other Manifestations of Vajrasattva

Vajrasattva is a peaceful manifestation.

Further reading

Notes

  1. ↑ Vajrasattva main page, Himalayan Art Resources
  2. ↑ Vajrasattva, Samye Institute
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. Vajrasattva
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