Vajrasattva#Hundred Syllable Mantra

file:Vajrasattva-01-British.Museum.jpg

File:Vajrasattva - Nalanda Museum - (1).jpg

Vajrasattva's name translates to Diamond Being or Thunderbolt Being. The vajra, a symbol of insight, is associated with Esoteric Buddhism.

Vajrasattva is an important figure in the tantric Buddhism of the Newar People of the Kathmandu Valley. He represents the ideal guru, and he is frequently invoked in the {{Transliteration|sa|guru maṇḍala}}, the foundational ritual for all other Newar Buddhist rituals and the daily {{IAST|pūjā}} for Newar priests ({{IAST|vajrācārya}}s). The {{IAST|śatākṣara}} (100 syllable prayer to Vajrasattva) is memorized by many practicing Newar Buddhist priests.

File:Vajrasattva mantra 1310AD.jpg, 14th century CE]]

In Chinese Buddhism and Shingon, Vajrasattva is traditionally viewed as the second patriarch of Esoteric Buddhism, the first being Vairocana Buddha. Kukai, in Record of the Dharma Transmission, relates a story based on Amoghavajra's account, of Nagarjuna having met Vajrasattva in an iron tower in southern India. Vajrasattva initiated Nagarjuna into the abhiseka ritual and entrusted him with the esoteric teachings he had learned from Vairocana Buddha, as depicted in the Mahavairocana Sutra. Kukai does not elaborate further on Vajrasattva or his origins.{{cite book | last = Abe | first = Ryuichi | title = The Weaving of Mantra: Kukai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse | publisher = Columbia University Press | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-231-11286-6 }}

Elsewhere, Vajrasattva is an important figure in two esoteric Buddhist sutras, the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra. In the first chapter of the Mahavairocana Sutra, Vajrasattva leads a host of beings who visit Vairocana Buddha to learn the Dharma. Vajrasattva inquires about the cause, goal and foundation of all-embracing wisdom, which leads to a philosophical discourse delivered by the Buddha. The audience cannot comprehend the teaching, so the Buddha demonstrates through the use of mandala. Vajrasattva then questions why rituals and objects are needed, if the truth is beyond form. Vairocana Buddha replies to Vajrasattva that these are expedient means, whose function is to bring practitioners to awakening more readily, and so on. In 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|date=June 2016}}

In certain esoteric Chinese Buddhist rituals, such as the Yujia Yankou rite (Chinese: 瑜伽燄口; pinyin: Yújiā Yànkǒu), Vajrasattva's Hundred Syllable 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. Besides these rituals, in different other rituals such as repentance rites, some monastics have also been known to utilize the mantra {{IAST|oṃ Vajrasattva hūṃ}} (Chinese: 嗡 班扎薩埵 吽; pinyin: Wēng bānzhāsàduǒ hōng).

file:Vajrasattva (4806324418).jpg

file:Vajrasattva Tibet.jpgan style (Chinese, Qing dynasty) Vajrasatva holds the vajra in his right hand and a bell in his left hand.]]

In Tibetan Buddhism the Vajrasattva root tantra is Dorje Gyan, or "Vajra Ornament".Becoming Vajrasattva, 2nd Edition: The Tantric Path of Purification (2004) by Lama Yeshe, {{ISBN|978-0-86171-389-9}}, Wisdom Publications.p.X Vajrasattva practices are common to all of the five schools of Tibetan Buddhism and are used both to purify obscurations so that the Vajrayana student can progress beyond Ngondro practices to the various yoga practices of tantra and also to purify any broken samaya vows after 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 karma, bring peace, and cause enlightened activity in general. Following the 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.prayer4peace.net/ |title=Welcome |publisher=Prayer4Peace.net |date=2001-12-11 |access-date=2013-06-14}}

"The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva" ({{bo|t=རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྙིང་གི་མེ་ལོང|w=rdo rje sems dpa' snying gi me long}}) is one of the Seventeen Tantras of Dzogchen Upadesha.{{cite web|author=Rigpa Shedra|date=October 2009|title=Seventeen Tantras|url=http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Seventeen_Tantras|access-date=April 5, 2010}}

Samantabhadra discourses to Vajrasattva and in turn Vajrasattva asks questions of Samantabhadra in clarification in the Kulayaraja Tantra ({{bo|w=kun byed rgyal po|s=künjé gyalpo}}) or "The All-Creating King Tantra", the main tantra of the Mind Series of Dzogchen.E. K. Neumaier-Dargyay, The Sovereign All-Creating Mind: The Motherly Buddha, Albany, 1992

Vajrasattva is often depicted with various consorts: the peaceful one being Vajragarvi, aka Vajrasatvātmikā (Tib. {{Transliteration|bo|Dorje Nyema}}), Dharmadhatvishvari, Ghantapani ("Bell Bearer"), the wrathful one Diptacakra, Vajratopa, Vajrabhrikuti, and others.{{clarification needed|date=June 2024}}

An important mantra associated with Vajrasattva is the Hundred Syllable Mantra. This mantra appears in the Sarvatathāgata-tattvasaṃgraha.Jayarava (2011). Visible Mantra: Visualising & Writing Buddhist Mantras, p. 85. Lulu.com. 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).{{Cite web |date=2012-06-29 |title=Jayarava's Raves: Canonical Sources for the Vajrasattva Mantra |url=http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2012/06/canonical-sources-for-vajrasattva.html |access-date=2023-04-07 |website=Jayarava's Raves}}

The mantra is the following:{{col-begin}}

{{Col-5}}

{{Col-5}}

Ǎn

Wòzīluōsàduǒ Sūsàmáyé Mánàbālàyé |

Wòzīluōsàduǒ Dìnúbōdìsèzhā |

Délīchú Mí Fāwǎ |

Sūdùshù Mí Fāwǎ |

Anúluōyìdōu Mí Fāwǎ |

Sūbùshù Mí Fāwǎ |

Sàlīwò Xiētí Mí Bùluōyécā |

Sàlīwò Gélīmásū Zā Mí

Jìdá Shìlīyáng Guōlǔ Hōng |

Hē Hē Hē Hē Hú

Fāgéwān

Sàlīwǎ Dátǎgédá Wòzīluō Má Mí Ménzā |

Wòzīlī Fāwǎ Máhē Sàmóyé Sàduǒ A ||

{{Col-5}}

Oṃ

O Vajrasattva honour the agreement!

Reveal yourself as the vajra-being!

Be steadfast for me!

Be very pleased for me!

Be fully nourishing for me!

Be passionate for me!

Grant me all success and attainment!

And in all actions make my mind more lucid!

hūṃ

ha ha ha ha hoḥ

O Blessed One, vajra of all those in that state, don't abandon me!

O being of the great contract be a vajra-bearer!

āḥ

{{col-end}}

In Chinese Buddhism, the "Vajrasattva Hundred Syllable Mantra" (Chinese: 金剛薩埵百字明咒; pinyin: Jīngāngsàduǒ bǎizì zhòu) is recited and practiced by monastics during esoteric rituals that have tantric elements. One example is the Yujia Yankou rite (Chinese: 瑜伽焰口; pinyin: {{Transliteration|zh|Yújiā Yànkou}}; lit “Yoga Flaming Mouth”), which is commonly conducted as a part of regular temple services in order to facilitate the spiritual nourishment and liberation of all sentient beings in saṃsāra.{{Cite web |last=Lye, Hun Yeow, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia |title=Feeding Ghosts: A Study of the Yuqie Yankou Rite |url=https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/b8515n64w |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=libraetd.lib.virginia.edu}}

File:Vajrasattva mantra in Lañja and Tibetan scripts.svg

In Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist practice, Vajrasattva is used in the Ngondro, or preliminary practices, in order to purify the mind's defilements, prior to undertaking more advanced tantric techniques. The {{Transliteration|bo|yik gya}}, the "Hundred Syllable Mantra" ({{bo|t=ཡིག་བརྒྱ་|w=yig brgya}}) supplication of Vajrasattva, approaches universality in the various elementary Ngondro sadhana for sadhakas of all Mantrayana and Sarma schools bar the Bonpo. The pronunciation and orthography differ between lineages.

The evocation of the Hundred Syllable Vajrasattva Mantra in the Vajrayana lineage of Jigme Lingpa's (1729–1798) ngondro from the Longchen Nyingtig displays Sanskrit-Tibetan hybridization. Such textual and dialectical diglossia (Sanskrit: {{Transliteration|sa|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).Davidson, Ronald M. (2002). Indian esoteric Buddhism: a social history of the Tantric movement. Columbia University Press. {{ISBN|0-231-12618-2}} (cloth) 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).Gyatso, Janet (1998). Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary; a Translation and Study of Jigme Lingpa's 'Dancing Moon in the Water' and 'Ḍākki's Grand Secret-Talk'. Princeton, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-01110-9}} (cloth: alk. paper) Jigme Lingpa as pandit, which in the Himalayan context denotes an indigenous Tibetan versed in Sanskrit, often wrote in a hybridized Sanskrit-Tibetan diglossia.

• Ritual purification

{{Reflist}}

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• [http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/rdo_rje_sems_dpa%27 Rangjung Yeshe Dictionary entry]
• [https://samyeinstitute.org/wiki/vajrasattva/ Samye Institute Library entry]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-BXKpz1NBo Video] of a segment of a Chinese Yujia Yankou ritual (瑜伽焰口) where Vajrasattva's mantra "Oṃ Vajrasattva Hūṃ" is recited (at around the 10 second mark)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHo9VjhQyiQ 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)
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFfEvr9FxkQ Video] of a segment of a Chinese Yujia Yankou ritual (瑜伽焰口) showing recitation of Vajrasattva's Hundred Syllable Mantra
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nK_SrOytCI Vajrasattva's Hundred Syllable Mantra] recited by Fo Guang Shan monastics

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Category:Bodhisattvas