Adi-Buddha
Encyclopedia
In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Adi-Buddha, or Adibuddha (Tibetan: Dang-po'i sangs-rgyas), is the "Primordial Buddha
." The term refers to a self-emanating, self-originating Buddha, present before anything else existed. Samantabhadra
, Samantabhadri
and Vajradhara
are the best known names for Adi-Buddha, though there are others. Adi-Buddha is usually depicted as dark blue.
The concept of Adi-Buddha is the closest to monotheism
of any form of Buddhism. Even then, Adi-Buddha is recognized as the center of an extended array of peaceful and wrathful deities, which are considered reflections of it. All famous sages and Bodhisattvas are said to be reflections of Adi-Buddha, and many are identified as the "personality" of it.
Adi-Buddha is better compared to the abstracted forces of Brahman
, Ayn Sof or Arche
rather than a personal creator God in the mold of Yahweh
or Ishvara
. Also, Adi-Buddha is not said to be the creator, but the originator of all things. Adi-Buddha is a deity in an emanationist sense.
Adi-Buddha is a representation of the interdependence of phenomena, being an entity that can be regarded as a creator in a relative sense. Though phenomena can be symbolically represented in the primordial nature of Adi-Buddha and have in it their collective source, the universe is not regarded as being linearly created, being in a continuous, eternal co-relation with the deity. It also represents the non-duality between the noumenom (the individual's mind), and the phnomena (the cosmos), which are also seen as interrelated.
, or "Buddha-body of reality."
made ten great vows, is revered as Adi-Buddha in the Nyingma
school of Vajrayana, along with his consort Samantabhadri. The two are usually depicted together in Tantric
union. Samantabhadra is dark blue, while Samantabhadri is white. They appear together as Adi-Buddha in the Bardo Thodol
(Tibetan Book of the Dead), at the center of the assembly of peaceful deities. Their wrathful forms are Mahotta Heruka and Krodheshvari.
There is some confusion over whether or not the Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra and the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra are in fact the same. Both appear as separate figures in the Bardo Thodol.
.
of Shakyamuni, and appears as such in the Avatamsaka Sutra. However, in the Vajrayana
text the Mahavairocana Tantra
, Vairocana is depicted as the Adi-Buddha. The Mahavairocana Tantra is the basis for Shingon Buddhism
, the oldest esoteric school of Buddhist thought in Japan, where Vairocana is called Dainchi Nyorai (大日如來).
, employs an Adi-Buddha sadhana
, or practice. "Ati" and "Adi" are different orthographic representations of phonemes of the language of Uddiyana which equate to 'primordial' according to Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
.
, the term Adi-Buddha applies to the original form of Shakyamuni as an avatar
of Vishnu
. Shakyamuni is included as one of the ten avatars See also: Sugata Buddha
Buddhahood
In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...
." The term refers to a self-emanating, self-originating Buddha, present before anything else existed. Samantabhadra
Samantabhadra
Samantabhadra , is a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism associated with Buddhist practice and meditation. Together with Shakyamuni Buddha and fellow bodhisattva Manjusri he forms the Shakyamuni trinity in Buddhism...
, Samantabhadri
Samantabhadri
Samantabhadri is a dakini and female Buddha from the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. She is the consort and female counterpart of Samantabhadra, known amongst some Tibetan Buddhists as the 'Primordial Buddha'. Samantabhadri herself is known as the 'primordial Mother Buddha'...
and Vajradhara
Vajradhara
Vajradhara is the ultimate primordial Buddha, or Adi Buddha, according to the Gelug and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism.In the evolution of Indian Buddhism, Vajradhara gradually displaced Samantabhadra, who remains the...
are the best known names for Adi-Buddha, though there are others. Adi-Buddha is usually depicted as dark blue.
The concept of Adi-Buddha is the closest to monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
of any form of Buddhism. Even then, Adi-Buddha is recognized as the center of an extended array of peaceful and wrathful deities, which are considered reflections of it. All famous sages and Bodhisattvas are said to be reflections of Adi-Buddha, and many are identified as the "personality" of it.
Adi-Buddha is better compared to the abstracted forces of Brahman
Brahman
In Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
, Ayn Sof or Arche
Arche
Arche is a Greek word with primary senses 'beginning', 'origin' or 'first cause' and 'power', 'sovereignty', 'domination' as extended meanings. This list is extended to 'ultimate underlying substance' and 'ultimate undemonstrable principle'...
rather than a personal creator God in the mold of Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
or Ishvara
Ishvara
Ishvara is a philosophical concept in Hinduism, meaning controller or the Supreme controller in a theistic school of thought or the Supreme Being, or as an Ishta-deva of monistic thought.-Etymology:...
. Also, Adi-Buddha is not said to be the creator, but the originator of all things. Adi-Buddha is a deity in an emanationist sense.
Adi-Buddha is a representation of the interdependence of phenomena, being an entity that can be regarded as a creator in a relative sense. Though phenomena can be symbolically represented in the primordial nature of Adi-Buddha and have in it their collective source, the universe is not regarded as being linearly created, being in a continuous, eternal co-relation with the deity. It also represents the non-duality between the noumenom (the individual's mind), and the phnomena (the cosmos), which are also seen as interrelated.
Names of Adi-Buddha
Though all Buddhist figures are said to be emanations of the Adi-Buddha, certain Bodhisattvas are revered as its actual personality. This personality is often referred to as DharmakayaDharmakaya
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā , composed in the 1st century BCE...
, or "Buddha-body of reality."
Samantabhadra/Samantabhadri
The Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, who, according to the Avatamsaka SutraAvatamsaka Sutra
The is one of the most influential Mahayana sutras of East Asian Buddhism. The title is rendered in English as Flower Garland Sutra, Flower Adornment Sutra, or Flower Ornament Scripture....
made ten great vows, is revered as Adi-Buddha in the Nyingma
Nyingma
The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...
school of Vajrayana, along with his consort Samantabhadri. The two are usually depicted together in Tantric
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
union. Samantabhadra is dark blue, while Samantabhadri is white. They appear together as Adi-Buddha in the Bardo Thodol
Bardo Thodol
The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State , sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text...
(Tibetan Book of the Dead), at the center of the assembly of peaceful deities. Their wrathful forms are Mahotta Heruka and Krodheshvari.
There is some confusion over whether or not the Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra and the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra are in fact the same. Both appear as separate figures in the Bardo Thodol.
Vajradhara
Vajradhara (Dorje Chang) is regarded as Adi-Buddha in the Gelug and Kagyu schools. Vajradhara is also considered the Tantric form of Sakyamuni, the Great Sage of Humans. He also is depicted as dark blue in color. His esoteric doctrines were said to have been handed down to Marpa LotsawaMarpa Lotsawa
Marpa Lotsawa , sometimes known fully as Lhodak Marpa Choski Lodos or commonly as Marpa the Translator, was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Buddhist teachings to Tibet from India, including the teachings and lineages of Vajrayana and Mahamudra.-Biography:Born as...
.
Vairocana
In Mahayana Buddhism, Vairocana is interpreted as the Bliss BodySambhogakaya
The Sambhogakāya is the second mode or aspect of the Trikaya. Sambhogakaya has also been translated as the "deity dimension", "body of bliss" or "astral body". Sambhogakaya refers to the luminous form of clear light the Buddhist practitioner attains upon the reaching the highest dimensions of...
of Shakyamuni, and appears as such in the Avatamsaka Sutra. However, in the Vajrayana
Vajrayana
Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...
text the Mahavairocana Tantra
Mahavairocana Tantra
The Mahāvairocana Tantra is an important Vajrayana Buddhist text. It is also known as the , or more fully as the . In Tibet it is considered to be a member of the Carya class of tantras...
, Vairocana is depicted as the Adi-Buddha. The Mahavairocana Tantra is the basis for Shingon Buddhism
Shingon Buddhism
is one of the mainstream major schools of Japanese Buddhism and one of the few surviving Esoteric Buddhist lineages that started in the 3rd to 4th century CE that originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra...
, the oldest esoteric school of Buddhist thought in Japan, where Vairocana is called Dainchi Nyorai (大日如來).
Ati Yoga
Ati Yoga (or Primordial Yoga), which is another name for the Tibetan tradition of DzogchenDzogchen
According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...
, employs an Adi-Buddha sadhana
Sadhana
Sādhanā literally "a means of accomplishing something" is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.The historian N...
, or practice. "Ati" and "Adi" are different orthographic representations of phonemes of the language of Uddiyana which equate to 'primordial' according to Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is a Dzogchen teacher who was born in Derge, Kham district on 8 December 1938. When he was two years old, Namkhai Norbu was recognized as the 'mindstream emanation', a tulku, of the great Dzogchen teacher, Adzom Drugpa , at five he was also recognized as a mindstream...
.
In Hinduism
In VaishnavismVaishnavism
Vaishnavism is a tradition of Hinduism, distinguished from other schools by its worship of Vishnu, or his associated Avatars such as Rama and Krishna, as the original and supreme God....
, the term Adi-Buddha applies to the original form of Shakyamuni as an avatar
Avatar
In Hinduism, an avatar is a deliberate descent of a deity to earth, or a descent of the Supreme Being and is mostly translated into English as "incarnation," but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation"....
of Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
. Shakyamuni is included as one of the ten avatars See also: Sugata Buddha
Sugata Buddha
Sugata Buddha is the Vishnu avatar appeared in Bodhi-Gaya to Anjana. It has the same name as Gautama Buddha and it was a confusion to many scholars. Gautama Buddha went to Bodhi-Gaya to get enlightenment from the birth place of Vishnu-avatar-Buddha....
See also
- Conceptions of GodConceptions of GodThe God of monotheism, pantheism or panentheism, or the supreme deity of henotheistic religions, may be conceived of in various degrees of abstraction:...
- ConsortConsortConsort may refer to:Titles:* Queen consort, wife of a reigning king* Prince consort, husband of a reigning queen* King consort, rarely used alternative title for husband of a reigning queen...
- CosmosCosmosIn the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...
- Existence of GodExistence of GodArguments for and against the existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others. In philosophical terms, arguments for and against the existence of God involve primarily the sub-disciplines of epistemology and ontology , but also of the theory of value, since...
- God in BuddhismGod in BuddhismThe refutation of the notion of a supreme God or a prime mover is seen by many as a key distinction between Buddhism and other religions. In Buddhism the sole aim of spiritual practice is the complete alleviation of stress in samsara, called nirvana...
- GodGodGod is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
- Names of GodNames of GodNames of God, or Holy Names, describe a form of addressing God present in liturgy or prayer of various world religions. Prayer involving the Holy Name or the Name of God has become established as common spiritual practice in both Western and Eastern spiritual practices...
- Supreme BeingSupreme BeingThe term Supreme Being is often defined simply as "God", and it is used with this meaning by theologians of many religious faiths, including, but not limited to, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Deism. However, the term can also refer to more complex or philosophical interpretations of the...