Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice
Contents:
Since purifying karma means purifying the karmic aftermaths of our karmic actions, let us look at the three types of karmic aftermath that need to be purified. Here, I have coined the term karmic aftermath to refer to all three:. Only the Mahayana tenet systems assert karmic constant habits; the Hinayana tenet systems do not assert them. Karmic forces, but not karmic tendencies, ripen into experiencing the tainted aggregates in general of a samsaric rebirth. Both karmic forces and karmic tendencies, however, ripen during a rebirth into:. Karmic forces and karmic tendencies are also similar in the sense that both ripen intermittently, not continuously.
Once they have finished giving rise to their results, they are exhausted ; they can no longer be activated. Further, karmic forces are either constructive or destructive phenomena, whereas karmic tendencies are unspecified phenomena, ethically neutral. Karmic constant habits, on the other hand, give rise to their effects continuously.
They give rise to limited awareness in each moment of our experience and the inability to cognize the two truths simultaneously — what exists and how each thing exists. Like karmic tendencies, they are unspecified phenomena. Karmic constant habits never exhaust; they never end naturally. They only end when our non-conceptual cognition of voidness rids us of our cognitive obscurations shes-sgrib as well, with the attainment of enlightenment.
We cannot purify or eliminate the results that have already arisen from them, such as having been born blind.
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To understand how purification is possible, we need to understand the type of phenomena that karmic aftermaths are. Although there are more complex presentations of the types of phenomena that some of them are, let us look at the least complicated explanation. According to this explanation, the three types of karmic aftermath are all nonstatic abstractions and all are imputed on a mental continuum.
They do not share five congruent features in common with the primary consciousness of the moment of cognition in which they occur. Congruent and Noncongruent Affecting Variables ]. Moreover, because they are further affected by conditions, they change from moment to moment. As the karmic aftermaths produce effects, they affect our experience. We can achieve a true stopping true cessation of them. The presence, however, of karmic aftermaths can only be imputed on a mental continuum that contains the experience of their causal karmic actions and that has the possibility of containing future moments of experiencing the karmic results that can arise from them.
The three karmic aftermaths exist imputably on a mental continuum only so long as they are still able to produce an effect. The production of an effect can only happen dependently on causes and conditions. When we eliminate the causes and conditions that are capable of causing the karmic aftermaths to produce their effects, their production of an effect is no longer possible. When their production of an effect is no longer possible, we may no longer validly impute the existence of the karmic aftermaths that could have produced an effect.
This is the way we purify karmic aftermaths. Through non-conceptual cognition of voidness, we eliminate grasping for truly established existence, and thus eliminate the craving and obtainer disturbing emotions or attitudes that could act as the conditions for the karmic aftermaths to be activated and to give rise to their effects. First, we rid spang-ba our mental continuums of their networks of karmic force and their karmic tendencies.
We rid ourselves of our networks of both positive and negative karmic force and all our karmic tendencies with the attainment of arhatship, in other words the attainment of liberation. During the rest of the lifetime in which we have attained liberation, we still experience the tainted aggregates with which we were born. In addition, we still experience things happening to us similar to our past karmic actions. However, we no longer experience tainted feelings of happiness or unhappiness, and we no longer experience feeling like repeating our past karmic behavior.
Upon rebirth in a pure land after that lifetime, we no longer experience tainted aggregates either, or things happening to us similar to our past karmic actions. However, we still have limited awareness. We rid ourselves of karmic constant habits only with the attainment of enlightenment. With such an attainment, we become omniscient Buddhas. Although ultimate Vajrasattva purification practice is non-conceptual meditation on voidness done within the context of anuttarayoga tantra practice, especially with clear light awareness, provisional Vajrasattva practice is done with mantra recitation and visualization and, at best, a conceptual understanding of voidness.
However, they still are imputed on the mental continuum and still hinder the attainment of liberation. Further, because we have not rid ourselves of grasping for truly established existence, we will still develop disturbing emotions and karmic impulses, and build up further karmic aftermaths. Let us outline the various levels and contexts within which this provisional purification practice is commonly undertaken.
All such levels need to be carried out within the context of their being aimed at reaching enlightenment for the benefit of all — in other words, with a bodhichitta aim.
Although Vajrasattva mantra meditation is actually a tantric practice, most people start doing it before actually becoming engaged in tantra. This initial practice would be at the stage when they are training purely on the Mahayana sutra level. This level has three stages, according to the three graded scopes of motivation and aim presented in the lam-rim teachings of graded pathway minds: Although only the advanced lam-rim scope is strictly a Mahayana level of motivation, the initial and intermediate scopes need to be undertaken as steppingstones on the way to developing the advanced motivation.
Moreover, all three lam-rim scopes of motivation developed in the context of Mahayana sutra practice need to be undertaken as a steppingstone to tantra practice. At first, we may engage in Vajrasattva mantra and visualization practice with the aim of avoiding gross suffering. We would undertake such practice because we are filled with dread at the prospect of experiencing any unhappiness or pain at all.
Such practice is on a level shared in common with the initial scope motivation outlined in the lam-rim teachings. The aim of this initial level of Vajrasattva practice is to purify our mental continuums merely of negative karmic forces and negative karmic tendencies, which together would ripen into the first of the three kinds of true sufferings — worse rebirths and gross unhappiness in even a human rebirth.
We work to purify our mental continuums of these negative forces and tendencies that we have built up not only during this lifetime, but also throughout all our previous lives, without beginning. We strive for one of the better rebirth states as a human or as a divine being, a "god. On this level, we work to purify ourselves of having to experience the negative karmic effects from:.
If Vajrasattva meditation were practiced like this as an end in itself, however, it could be equivalent to a non-Buddhist practice for being cleansed of our sins by the grace of Jesus Christ so that we can go to heaven. Buddhist purification must be based on safe direction — aiming for the third and fourth noble truths: For Vajrasattva meditation on this level to constitute a Mahayana practice, it must also be based on a bodhichitta aim and seeing the elimination of the future ripening of negative karmic forces and tendencies into gross suffering as essential for being better able to help others.
Attaining better rebirth states, specifically with precious human rebirths fully endowed with all the respites and enrichments enabling optimal Dharma practice, is with the aim of taking advantage of such rebirths to reach enlightenment for the benefit of all. With renunciation as our motivation, we would practice Vajrasattva meditation with the aim of achieving liberation from all sufferings. Such practice is on a level shared in common with the intermediate lam-rim scope of motivation.
The aim in this case is to purify our mental continuums of their networks of both positive and negative karmic forces and both positive and negative karmic tendencies. By accomplishing that, we will avoid experiencing all three kinds of true sufferings: We will attain liberation from samsara.
Vajrasattva meditation with this intermediate scope of motivation, however, needs also to be based on having a bodhichitta aim. We need to see that in order to be best able to help others, we need to rid ourselves forever of uncontrollably recurring rebirth with its ups and downs of happiness and unhappiness and its sufferings of birth, sickness, old age and death. Otherwise, we will be severely hampered in our work to benefit others.
We do not need to wait until we have accomplished purifying our mental continuums of all negative karmic force and negative karmic tendencies before we focus our Vajrasattva practice on purifying our mental continuums of the positive ones as well. As our motivation evolves from the initial to the intermediate level, we naturally expand the scope of what we are striving to purify. With a bodhichitta aim as our single motivation, our Vajrasattva practice expands to purify our mental continuums of not only all karmic forces and karmic tendencies, but also all karmic constant habits.
To benefit all others as much as is possible, we need to attain the omniscient state of a Buddha. That means we need to rid ourselves of limited awareness, which is what results in each moment from our constant karmic habits. Without knowing full skillful means, without being all-loving, and so on, how will we be able to help everyone?
When we engage in Vajrasattva mantra and visualization practice within the context of strictly Mahayana sutra practice, the lam-rim scope of motivation with which we do it makes no difference. With all three scopes, we need to regard our level of practice as a steppingstone for eventual engagement in tantra. This entails repeating the hundred-syllable mantra , times, in four, three, two, or one session each day, without missing a day, until we complete the number.
We undertake this in order to purify ourselves of at least the grossest obstacles that could hinder our success in tantra practice to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all. In all four classes of tantra, we practice Vajrasattva mantra and visualization meditation as part of the preliminaries section of the full sadhanas of all Buddha-figures.
Later in the sadhanas, we repeat the Vajrasattva practice in an extremely abbreviated form after recitation of the mantras of the Buddha-figures, in order to purify any karmic aftermath from faults in the mantra recitation. Practice of yoga tantra and anuttarayoga tantra in the Sakya, Kagyu, and Gelug traditions — and, likewise, practice of yoga tantra, mahayoga, anuyoga, and atiyoga in the Nyingma tradition — entail taking the tantric vows with any empowerment initiation.
In such cases, we may also practice Vajrasattva mantra and visualization meditation for purification of weakened tantric vows or weakened close bonding practices dam-tshig , Skt. If we lose the tantric vows by fully transgressing them, we may purify the negative force of the action through , hundred-syllable repetitions and then retaking the vows.
Factors Involved in Transgressing Tantric Vows ].
In all of these tantra contexts for Vajrasattva practice as well, our motivation needs to be bodhichitta. We wish to avoid experiencing the negative consequences of our actions that would hinder or delay our ability to help others and our attainment of enlightenment.
The motivation is not simply an initial scope non-Mahayana one, simply to avoid worse rebirth situations and the suffering of pain and unhappiness. In short, on all levels, Vajrasattva mantra and visualization meditation needs to be a Mahayana practice. After all, only Mahayana asserts that karma can be purified. Therefore, meditations to purify karma only make sense within their being practiced with a Mahayana motivation. Then we apply the four opponent forces stobs-bzhi:. According to Mahayana, even after we have committed karmic actions, we can weaken the strength of their karmic aftermath by prayer and other means.
Even if others offer the prayers after we have died and while we are still experiencing the bardo period in between rebirths, the strength of their aftermath can be weakened. This is because their prayers affect the arising of the conditions that can ripen the aftermath. Similarly, open admission and the four opponent forces diminish the heaviness of karmic ripening, since they counter the factors that make the ripening heavy. Any counteracting constructive actions we do need to be with a bodhichitta aim and accompanied by the six far-reaching attitudes pha-rol-tu phyin-pa , Skt.
Especially, this means practicing Vajrasattva meditation with some level of correct concentration and some level of correct cognition of voidness — specifically, some level of the subsequent attainment rjes-thob , post-meditation state of viewing everything as an illusion. Initially, the level of correct cognition of voidness will be conceptual, and may not be with the most sophisticated Madhyamaka understanding.
Note that application of the four opponent forces brings about a shift from incorrect consideration tshul-min yid-la byed-pa of our previously committed karmic actions to correct consideration. The three gateways are:. As we have seen, grasping for truly established existence underlies craving and an obtainer emotion or attitude, which are the mental factors that activate karmic aftermaths, especially at the time of our deaths, so that they bring about their karmic results.
We have also seen that even provisional purification methods such as Vajrasattva mantra meditation requires at least a basic understanding of the voidness of truly establishing existence. We need to realize that the appearances of truly established existence that our minds project onto everything do not refer to any actual way in which anything exists. There is no such thing as truly established existence. There are many emotionally painful consequences that we experience from projecting and believing in truly established existence.
For example, we might grasp at:. The understanding of voidness that accompanies our Vajrasattva mantra practice may be not so precise or sophisticated and thus would be unable to purify our karmic aftermaths completely. Nevertheless, some meditation on the voidness of our karmic actions, ourselves, and so on, is not only appropriate, but essential.
By so doing, we may rid ourselves, at least on a provisional level, of guilt or pride, and the problems that come from both. Even if we practice Vajrasattva meditation without a correct understanding of voidness, but with a pure motivation and good concentration, the four opponent forces have the strength to purify karmic aftermath provisionally at least to some extent. This resembles the ability of meditation on ugliness to overcome desire and attachment provisionally. It does not prevent desire and attachment from recurring, however, because it has not attacked, let alone eliminated, the root cause or condition for desire and attachment to recur, namely grasping for truly established existence.
Vajrasattva mantra and visualization meditation may be practiced for purification whether or not we have already received a tantric empowerment dbang , Skt. If we practice Vajrasattva without any tantric empowerment, or if in conjunction with practice of any Buddha-figure from the first three classes of tantra, Vajrasattva is a single figure. The single form is white, with one face and two arms.
If we practice Vajrasattva in conjunction with practice of any anuttarayoga tantra figure, Vajrasattva is a couple. Both members of the couple may be white, with one face and two arms, and with the male having either a peaceful expression of the mouth, as in Guhyasamaja and Yamantaka, or with a semi-forceful semi-peaceful mouth expression with fangs, as in Heruka Vajrasattva practiced in Chakrasamvara, Vajrayogini, and Hevajra. In Kalachakra, Vajrasattva is blue, the female partner green, and both have three faces and six arms. If we are practicing Vajrasattva without an empowerment for a Buddha-figure, we visualize ourselves in our ordinary form during the practice.
We visualize all beings around us, each with a Vajrasattva on his or her head, and each also being purified. We visualize on a moon disc at our hearts ourselves in ordinary form, surrounded by all beings, with everyone being purified.
Nyingma and Sakya practice Vajrasattva as a Buddha-figure yidam as well, in which case there is also the possibility of receiving a Vajrasattva empowerment. If we have received such empowerment, we may visualize ourselves as Vajrasattva during the practice, with ourselves in ordinary form, surrounded by all beings, with all sitting on a moon disc at our heart.
We may also visualize all beings around us, and after we achieve purification, that we ourselves, as Vajrasattvas, emit rays of light and purify all of them. Gelug and Kagyu do not practice Vajrasattva as a yidam. Thus, there is no Vajrasattva empowerment, no visualization of ourselves as Vajrasattva, and no visualization of lights coming from ourselves and purifying all beings around us. For Vajrasattva mantra and visualization meditation, the preliminaries begin with quieting down by focusing on the breath, while breathing normally through the nose. If we have much mental wandering, we count the breaths.
If our minds are already fairly quiet, we merely focus on the sensation of the breath coming in and out the nostrils. We can then visualize Vajrasattva before us as incorporating all objects that indicate a safe direction. We then reaffirm our motivation of safe direction and the bodhichitta aim. We then make the conscious decision to meditate with concentration and then focus on the point between the eyebrows to correct dullness and on the navel to correct flightiness. If we do not do the seven-limb practice, we simply recall and openly admit as mistaken whatever we have done that we wish to purify and apply the four opponent forces.
For the fourth opponent, we do the main part of the Vajrasattva practice, with the conscious decision to concentrate. In conjunction with the context within which we are practicing, we visualize the appropriate form of Vajrasattva seated on top of our heads. If we have difficulty in visualizing the detail, we can visualize merely a ball of white light. The aspect of holding the pride of the deity — in this case, the feeling of a Vajrasattva actually seated on our heads — is more important than the clarity aspect of making something appear in our imaginations. One method for learning how to visualize something on our heads is to put our hand on our head and then take it off.
We can still feel the spot on our head where our hand was and it still feels as if something is there. The Tibetan pronunciation of the mantra differs from the original Sanskrit one. Some Tibetan masters instruct their non-Tibetan students to pronounce the mantra in the way that the Tibetans do; some recommend pronouncing it in the Sanskrit style. The above mantra is the generic form of the hundred-syllable mantra and appears in most kriya, charya, and yoga tantra practices, as well as in the anuttarayoga tantra practices of Guhyasamaja, Mahachakra Vajrapani, and Kalachakra.
It makes no difference which one we use. There is also a shorter version of the Vajrasattva mantra that may also be repeated for purification, but it is not as commonly used as is the hundred-syllable one:. Various texts and teachers present different sets of visualizations to apply in conjunction with Vajrasattva mantra meditation. Let us outline one such multistep scheme.
As a first step in the purification process needed for attaining enlightenment, we work on purifying ourselves of negative karmic force and negative karmic tendencies. Since these types of negative karmic aftermath ripen into gross suffering and the worst rebirth states, the scope of practice is in accord with the initial scope motivation of lam-rim. They focus on the purification of the first of the three types of true suffering. For purifying the negative karmic aftermaths that would ripen into terrible experiences affecting our body or speech, we apply the following set of three visualizations — one complete set for body, followed by one complete set for speech.
We do this while reciting over and again any of the Vajrasattva mantras. As we recite the mantra in conjunction with practice of sutra or any of the first three classes of tantra, we imagine lights leaving the right big toe of Vajrasattva, entering through the crown of our head and filling our body. When practiced in conjunction with anuttarayoga tantra, we imagine both light and nectars flowing from the place of union of the Vajrasattva couple and similarly entering us and filling our body.
In relation to our body, we imagine the light or the light and nectars filling our body from the top downwards and the relevant defilements leaving us through our lower orifices for excreting solid and liquid waste. In relation to our speech, we imagine the light or the light and nectars filling our body from the bottom upwards and a similar set of defilements leaving us through our upper orifices, namely the mouth, nose, eye sockets, and ear passages.
For purification of our mind, we employ just one visualization and we apply it three times, one for each of the three above types of defilement. Thus, we imagine at our hearts each of these three types of defilement, one at a time, in the form of a black lump. For purifying any defilement left that would affect our body, speech, and mind all together, we apply the visualizations for body, speech, and mind together, simultaneously, for each of the three sets of defilement.
In order to attain liberation, which is the aim of the lam-rim intermediate scope of motivation, we need to rid ourselves of not only the emotional obscurations nyon-sgrib , but also all karmic forces and karmic tendencies — both the negative and the positive ones. The focus, then, is purification of all three types of true suffering. In order to attain enlightenment, which is the aim of the advanced scope, we need to rid ourselves of not only the cognitive obscurations shes-sgrib , but also the karmic constant habits that limit our body, speech, and mind from functioning like those of a Buddha.
In this second step of Vajrasattva mantra meditation, then, we repeat the same visualizations as we did in the first step. However, regarding purification of body and speech, we imagine:. Regarding purification of our mind, we imagine the black lump at our hearts as representing each of the three types of karmic aftermath, one at a time.
In that practice, we imagine taking on from others what these three things represent, visualized in these three forms. The point is that most people wish progressively more strongly to get these three types of things off their skin and to clean themselves if they were soiled by them. The results of sutra level Vajrasattva mantra purification are limited. If we repeat the mantra twenty-one times each day, we prevent the negative karmic forces and negative karmic tendencies from becoming stronger each day.
This is because the strength of our application of the opponent forces counters and diminishes the heaviness of our destructive actions.
should try to practice as he did. Therefore, out of his great compassion,. Lama Zopa Rinpoche has composed this short Vajrasattva practice and requested that. A short Vajrasattva practice composed by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and and published in a pocket-sized format. Thus, whenever we have broken a vow or created any other kind of negative karma, we can purify that negativity with the four opponent powers without a second’s delay.
In this way, the daily practice neutralizes the strength of the ripening of the karmic aftermaths. One of the laws of karma is that from small actions large results may ripen. Still imputed on our mental continuum, however, they continue to hinder our attainment of liberation. Without having yet attained a true stopping of grasping for truly established existence, we will still build up further samsara-building karmic aftermaths. However, because we have carried out our provisional purification with a bodhichitta aim and dedicated the positive force to our attainment of enlightenment for the benefit of all, we have built up a great deal of enlightenment-building positive force as well.
Ultimate purification is equivalent to a true stopping — the total removal of all karmic aftermath from our mental continuum forever. We attain this true stopping with repeated non-conceptual cognition of voidness in conjunction with a bodhichitta aim — in other words, with far-reaching discriminating awareness of voidness, prajnaparamita. Such cognition is the ultimate Vajrasattva mantra. You receive this internal guarantee when you purify your negativities.
It is not like ordinary guarantees; you can trust it completely. In the world, things are constantly changing.
How to Practice Vajrasattva
You can never trust worldly, paper guarantees. But the internal guarantee of positive karma ensures that at the time of death you will be able to control your mind and not fall under the influence of negative minds such as desire and hatred. In order to gain higher realizations, it is most important to practice the powerful methods of purification found in the Vajrayana path. Many lamas have found that purification overcomes the hindrances of both negative energy and its imprints. While other Vajrasattva practices emphasize physical purification, the Heruka Vajrasattva yoga method is set up to emphasize mental purification.
This makes it especially powerful. Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche excerpted from Teachings from the Vajrasattva Retreat and teachings dictated for advising students in life practices. Compiled by Kendall Magnussen, April Subscribe to Mandala Magazine. Mandala Archive Mandala for February. Giving Negativity a Body Blow. Is the World Ready to Understand?
This is because the strength of our application of the opponent forces counters and diminishes the heaviness of our destructive actions. For Purification in Accord with the Lam-rim Intermediate and Advanced Scopes of Motivation In order to attain liberation, which is the aim of the lam-rim intermediate scope of motivation, we need to rid ourselves of not only the emotional obscurations nyon-sgrib , but also all karmic forces and karmic tendencies — both the negative and the positive ones. This ripens from constructive behavior committed with unawareness of reality. In addition, we still experience things happening to us similar to our past karmic actions. We have attained a true stopping of them. Bring it about that I am joyous — through my eliminating all karmic constant habits, so that I attain enlightenment, with its everlasting bliss.
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Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Practice by Thubten Zopa
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