The New Guide to Dakini Land. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

VAJRA ADARSHE, indestructible form – we imagine that all visual forms arise as Rupavajra Goddesses; VAJRA WINI, indestructible sound – all sounds arise as Shaptavajra Goddesses; VAJRA GÄNDHE, indestruct­ible scents – all smells arise as Gändhavajra Goddesses; VAJRA RASE, indestructible tastes – all tastes arise as Rasavajra Goddesses; VAJRA PARSHE, indestructible objects of touch – all tactile objects arise as Parshavajra Goddesses; and VAJRA DHARME, indestructible phenomena – all other phenomena arise as Dharmadhatuvajra Goddesses.

      MEDITATION AND RECITATION OF VAJRASATTVA

      This has three parts:

      1 Developing the intention to purify

      2 Visualizing Vajrasattva

      3 Reciting the mantra

      DEVELOPING THE INTENTION TO PURIFY

      Sometimes we feel that our relatives and friends cause our happiness and that our enemies cause our suffering and problems, but in fact all our happiness is the result of our own virtuous actions and all our suffering is the result of our own negative actions. Although, even in our dreams, it is our constant wish to be free from misery, suffering, fear and danger, we will never enjoy these freedoms until we have purified all the negative actions we have accumulated in this and previous lives.

      Purification is very important for everyone, but it is especially important for Dharma practitioners who wish to gain realizations of Sutra and Tantra. The negative actions we have created in the past are the main obstacles to our gaining Dharma realizations and fulfilling our spiritual wishes.

      Out of his compassion for living beings Buddha taught many methods for purifying negative actions. Among these, one supremely powerful method is meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva. In The Main Path of the Conquerors, the Root Text of the Mahamudra, the first Panchen Lama says:

      And since the realization of the ultimate nature of the mind

      Depends upon accumulating merit and purifying obstructions,

      You should first recite the hundred-letter mantra a hundred thousand times

      And make as many hundreds of prostrations as possible while reciting Confession of Moral Downfalls,

      And then from the depths of your heart you should make requests again and again to your root Guru

      Who is inseparable from all the Buddhas of the three times.

      Powerful purification practices such as training in taking and giving motivated by compassion for all living beings will cause suffering in general, and the sufferings of sickness such as cancer in particular, to cease completely. This is because it will cause self-cherishing and self-grasping, the root of all these sufferings, to cease.

      VISUALIZING VAJRASATTVA

      We imagine that above our crown appears a white, thousand-petalled lotus and a moon cushion. Upon the moon cushion sit Vajrasattva Father and Mother. They have white-coloured bodies and are in nature one with Guru Heruka. The Father holds a vajra in his right hand and a bell in his left. His arms are crossed embracing his consort Vajramanani, and he sits in the vajra posture. He is adorned with six types of bone mudra-ornament: crown ornament, earrings, necklace, heart ornament, bracelets and anklets, and ashes of bone spread on his body. Vajramanani holds a curved knife in her right hand and a skullcup in her left. She is adorned with the first five mudra-ornaments, but not with the ashes. She sits in the lotus posture, so called because her legs make a shape similar to a lotus as she embraces Vajrasattva.

      We should regard them as the real, living Vajrasattva and consort. Their bodies are the synthesis of all Sangha Jewels, their speech the synthesis of all Dharma Jewels, and their minds the synthesis of all Buddha Jewels. We should visualize them about three inches above our crown and ideally about six inches in height, but if we find this difficult we can visual­ize them whatever size is most comfortable.

      RECITING THE MANTRA

      This has three parts:

      1 The mantra to be recited

      2 How to combine recitation with purification

      3 Conclusion

      THE MANTRA TO BE RECITED

      There are four kinds of hundred-letter mantra: the hundred-letter mantras of Heruka, Yamantaka, Vajrasattva, and the Pema lineage. All four mantras are the same for the most part, the main difference being the name of the Yidam at the beginning of the mantra. Thus, in the hundred-letter mantra of Heruka we recite OM VAJRA HERUKA SAMAYA . . . and so on; in the hundred-letter mantra of Yamantaka we recite OM YAMANTAKA SAMAYA . . . ; in the hundred-letter mantra of Vajrasattva we recite OM VAJRASATTÖ SAMAYA . . . ; and in the hundred-letter mantra of the Pema lineage we recite OM PÄMASATTÖ SAMAYA . . . . The remaining letters of the mantras are mostly the same. In the practices of Heruka and Vajrayogini we recite the hundred-letter mantra of Heruka.

      In general, Vajrasattva and Vajradhara have the same nature, differing only in shape, colour and ornaments. This is like someone expressing different aspects of their nature by wear­ing different clothes. In Guhyasamaja Tantra Vajradhara says that there are one hundred Buddha families. These hundred families can be condensed into five, these can be condensed into three, and these in turn can be condensed into one – Vajradhara, or Vajrasattva. The hundred-letter mantra sym­bolizes the hundred Buddha families and has the same nature as these families.

      HOW TO COMBINE RECITATION WITH PURIFICATION

      This has two parts:

      1 General explanation

      2 Purification in seven rounds

      GENERAL EXPLANATION

      To combine the recitation of the mantra with purification we must first develop a strong sense of regret for all the negative actions we have created in this life and in countless previous lives.

      As mentioned before, all unhappiness, problems, fears, dangers and unfulfilled wishes are the result of our harmful actions. In what way do negative actions produce suffering? We can take a single action of killing as an example. This action will result in four effects of great suffering. As its ripen­ed effect we will take rebirth in an unfortunate realm. As its environmental effect, when we are born human, for example, our birthplace and living environment will be very poor and barren, and we will meet many hazards and problems. As the experience similar to the cause, when we take a human form, for example, our body will be ugly and deformed, we will have to undergo much physical pain, and our life span will be short. Finally, as the tendency similar to the cause, in future lives we will have a natural tendency to kill, taking delight in hunting, warfare, and so forth. These impulses will lead us to create the causes to be reborn in the lower realms again and again. All non-virtuous actions, even the tiniest, produce these four great sufferings.

      However much we may wish to advance spiritually, we will find it difficult to make any progress until we have purified these negative actions. Through contemplating the faults and dangers of negative actions we develop intense regret and make a firm determination not to commit negative actions in the future. We keep this regret and determination in our mind and then go for refuge to Guru Vajrasattva at our crown, regarding him as the synthesis of the Three Jewels. Remembering Shantideva’s words in Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life:

      But I might die before I purify

      All my negativities;

      O Please protect me so that I

      May swiftly and surely be freed from them.

      we mentally supplicate Vajrasattva:

      Please protect me and all living beings from the dangers of negative actions and their effects.

      We then recite the mantra. We first visualize on a moon cushion at Father Vajrasattva’s heart a white letter HUM encircled by the white hundred-letter mantra standing counter-clockwise. All the letters radiate light and have the wisdom nature of Guru Vajrasattva. We remember that the hundred letters of the mantra are inseparable from the hundred Buddha families. While reciting the mantra we mentally request Vajrasattva to protect us and all living beings