Three Vajras - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Three Vajras namely 'body', 'speech' and 'mind' are a formulation within Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

and Bon which holds the full experience of the 'openness' (Sanskrit: śūnyatā) of Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle , is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas...

, void of all bar the 'qualities' (Wylie: yon-tan) and 'marks' (Wylie: mtshan-dpe) and establishes a sound experiential key upon the 'continuum of the path' to enlightenment

Enlightenment (spiritual)

Enlightenment in a secular context often means the "full comprehension of a situation", but in spiritual terms the word alludes to a spiritual revelation or deep insight into the meaning and purpose of all things, communication with or understanding of the mind of God, profound spiritual...

. In Japanese Buddhism they are known as the Three Mysteries . The Three Jewels

Three Jewels

The Three Jewels, also called the Three Treasures, the Siemese Triples, Three Refuges, or the Triple Gem , are the three things that Buddhists take refuge in, and look toward for guidance, in the process known as taking refuge.The Three Jewels are:* BuddhaTaking refuge in the Three Jewels is...

imply purity of action, speech and thought and therefore in Tibetan Buddhism the Three Vajras are viewed in The Twilight Language

The Twilight Language

Twilight language is a rendering of the Sanskrit term — or of their modern Indic equivalents ....

as a form of the Three Jewels. The term is often mentioned in Vajrayana

Vajrayana

Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle...

Buddhist discourse, particularly in relation to samaya

Samaya

The samaya , is a set of vows or precepts given to initiates of an esoteric Vajrayana Buddhist order as part of the abhiṣeka ceremony that creates a bond between the guru and disciple.According Keown, et al., Samaya may be defined as:*A particular system of teaching or...

, the vows undertaken between a practitioner and their guru

Guru

A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

during initiation. The term is also used during Anuttarayoga Tantra practice. The Three Vajras correspond to the Trikaya

Trikaya

The Trikāya doctrine is an important Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of a Buddha. By the 4th century CE the Trikāya Doctrine had assumed the form that we now know...

, or three bodies of a Buddha and therefore also have correspondences to the Three Roots

Three Roots

The Three Roots of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are the lama , yidam and protector, which may be a khandroma or chokyong . The Three Roots are the second of three Tibetan Buddhist refuge formulations, the Outer, Inner and Secret forms of the Three Jewels...

and other refuge formulas of Tibetan Buddhism.

Nomenclature, orthography and etymology

The Three Vajras is an English rendering of gsang ba gsum (Tibetan); which has variously been rendered as: Three Secrets, Three Mysteries, Three Seats, Three Doors and Three Gateways. Another Tibetan orthography that explicitly mentions Vajra

Vajra

Vajra is a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond...

(Tibetan: rdo-rje) is: rdo rje gsang ba gsum. The full Tibetan title may be rendered into English as 'the three secrets of the noble ones' (Tibetan: phags pa'i gsang ba gsum) which are: body (Tibetan: lus and sku); voice/speech (Tibetan: gsung) and mind (Tibetan: thugs). Another full title: sku gsung thugs mi zad pa rgyan gyi 'khor lo may be rendered as "Inexhaustible adornment wheel of Body, Speech and Mind" where the term 'khor lo is the Tibetan term for chakra
Chakra
Chakra is a concept originating in Hindu texts, featured in tantric and yogic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Its name derives from the Sanskrit word for "wheel" or "turning" .Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices...

(Sanskrit).

Vajra Body

The Vajra Body (Tibetan: rdo rje'i lus; sku rdo rje; ). In explicating the term rdo rje'i lus, the Dharma Dictionary states that it denotes: "The human body, the subtle channels of which resemble the structure of a vajra."

Vajra Voice

The Vajra Speech/Voice (Tibetan: rdo rje'i gsung; gsung rdo rje). In elucidating the term, the Dharma Dictionary states that it denotes: 'vajra speech', 'vajra words'.

Vajra Mind

The Vajra Mind (Tibetan: thugs rdo rje; Sanskrit: citta-vajra) is defined by the Dharma Dictionary as: mind vajra, vajra mind.

Exegesis

The Three Vajras are often employed in tantric

Tantras

Tantras refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Although Buddhist and Hindu Tantra have many similarities from the outside, they do have some clear distinctions. The rest of this article deals with Hindu...

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...

at various stages during the visualization of the generation stage

Generation stage

In Tantric Buddhism, the generation stage is the first phase of meditative Buddhist sādhana associated with the 'Father Tantra' class of anuttara-yoga-tantras of the Sarmapa or associated with what is known as Mahayoga Tantras by the Nyingmapa...

, refuge tree

Refuge tree

In Tibetan Buddhism, the Refuge Tree, , may be represented on a thangka as a mnemonic device and precursor to being fully visualized by the sadhaka during advanced Refuge Formula or evocation, the lineage of gurus and transmission of teachings is depicted in visual...

, guru yoga and yidam

Yidam

In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

, or meditational deity, processes. The concept of the Three Vajras serves in esoteric Twilight Language

The Twilight Language

Twilight language is a rendering of the Sanskrit term — or of their modern Indic equivalents ....

to convey polysemic meanings, aiding the practitioner to conflate and unify the mindstream

Mindstream

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment "continuum" of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may well be rendered "mindstream"...

of the meditational deity, the guru

Guru

and the sadhaka

Sadhaka

A sādhaka is someone who follows a particular sādhana, or a way of life designed to realize the goal of one's ultimate ideal, whether it is merging with brahman or realization of one's personal deity. The word is related to the Sanskrit sādhu, which is derived from the verb root sādh-, to accomplish...

in order for the practitioner to experience their own Buddha nature.

Speaking for the Tibetan 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...

tradition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche . A contemporary Buddhist master of the Kagyü and Nyingma lineages, who lived at Nagi Gompa hermitage in Nepal, Urgyen Rinpoche was considered one of the greatest Dzogchen masters of our time.-Life:...

perceives an identity and relationship betwixt the Buddha Nature, Dharmadhatu
Dharmadhatu
Dharmadhatu may be defined as the 'dimension', 'realm' or 'sphere' of Dharma and denotes the collective 'one-taste' dimension of Dharmata.-Nomenclature, orthography and etymology:...

(essence of all phenomena and the noumenon

Noumenon

The noumenon is a posited object or event that is known without the use of the senses.The term is generally used in contrast with, or in relation to "phenomenon", which refers to anything that appears to, or is an object of, the senses...

), the Dharmakaya

Dharmakaya

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...

, Rigpa

Rigpa

Rigpa is the knowledge that ensues from recognizing one's nature i.e. one knows that there is a primordial freedom from grasping his or her mind . The opposite of rigpa is marigpa ....

(the "awakened state") and the Three Vajras, saying:

"Dharmadhatu is adorned with dharmakaya, which is endowed with dharmadhatu wisdom. This is a brief but very profound statement, because 'dharmadhatu' also refers to sugata-garbha or buddha nature. Buddha nature is all-encompassing ... This buddha nature is present just as the shining sun is present in the sky. It is indivisible from the three vajras [i.e. the Buddha's Body, Speech and Mind] of the awakened state, which do not perish or change."

Robert Beer (2003: p. 186) states:

"The trinity of body, speech, and mind are known as the three gates, three receptacles or three vajras, and correspond to the western religious concept of righteous thought (mind), word (speech), and deed (body). The three vajras also correspond to the three kayas, with the aspect of body located at the crown (nirmanakaya), the aspect of speech at the throat (sambhogakaya), and the aspect of mind at the heart (dharmakaya)."

The seed syllables corresponding to the Three Vajras are: a white om (enlightened body), a red ah (enlightened speech) and a blue hum (enlightened mind).

Gold (1994: p. 5), a once upon a time associate of Mead

Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....

, after codifying his extensive ethnographic fieldwork with the Tibetan

Tibetan people

The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...

and Navajo

Navajo people

The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...

peoples in his work of comparative Anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

, stated:

...Om, is the most important mystic sound of Buddhism, for it expresses the sum of all sounds--forms of energy--permeating the totality of the cosmos. And hum is the powerful aural agent for unifying the relative, conditioned, real-world state of mind with the unconditioned oneness of the cosmos as embodied in the Om. Hum, then, represents the act of merging the ideal with the real....

Simmer-Brown (2001: p. 334) asserts that:

When informed by tantric views of embodiment, the physical body is understood as a sacred maṇḍala (Wylie: lus kyi dkyil).

This explicates the semiotic rationale for the nomenclature of the Himalayan somatic discipline Trul Khor

Trul khor

Tsa lung Trul khor known for brevity as Trul khor is a Himalayan tantric discipline which includes breathwork , meditative contemplation and precise dynamic movements to centre the practitioner and to...

: Trul Khor may be rendered in English as "Magical Wheel".
The www.nitartha.org search results for lus kyi dkyil are: lus kyi dkyil 'khor
body mandala [ry].

The triunic

Triune

Triune may refer to:*Trinity, the Godhead in Christianity, or another of the triple deities*Triune brain theory, proposed by Dr. Paul D. MacLean that evolution has given humans three distinct brains...

continua

Continuum (theory)

Continuum theories or models explain variation as involving a gradual quantitative transition without abrupt changes or discontinuities. It can be contrasted with 'categorical' models which propose qualitatively different states.-In physics:...

of body-voice-mind are intimately related to the esoteric Dzogchen

Dzogchen

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...

doctrine of 'sound, light and rays' (Wylie: sgra 'od zer gsum) as a passage of the rGyud bu chung bcu gnyis kyi don bstan pa rendered into English by Rossi (1999: p. 65) states (Wylie provided for probity):

From the Basis (of) all, empty (and) without cause,

sound, the dynamic potential of the Dimension, arises.

From the Awareness, empty (and) without cause,

light, the dynamic potential (of) Primordial Wisdom, appears.

From the inseparability, empty (and) without cause,

rays, the dynamic potential of the Essence, appear.

When sound, light and rays are taken (as) instrumental causes ignorance (turns into) the delusion of body, speech (and) mind;

the result (is) wandering in the circle (of) the three spheres.

Kun gzhi stong pa rgyu med las/

sgra ni dbyings kyi rtsal du shar/

rig pa stong pa rgyu med las/

'od ni ye shes rtsal du shar/

dbyer med stong pa rgyu medlas/

zer ni thig le'i rtsal du shar/

sgra 'od zer gsum rkyen byas nas/

ma rtogs lus ngag yid du 'khrul/

bras bu khams gsum 'khor bar 'khyams//

Barron, et al. (1994, 2002: p. 159), renders from Tibetan into English, a terma

Terma (religion)

Terma are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a...

'pure vision' (Wylie: dag snang) of Sri Singha

Sri Singha

Shri Singha was a principal disciple and dharma-son of Manjushrimitra in the Dzogchen lineage.Vajranatha contextualises Sri Singha in relation to the Nyingma, Manjushrimitra, Tantra, Brahman, Garab Dorje, Uddiyana, Vimalamitra, Samye and Yogachara:According to the Nyingmapa tradition of Tibetan...

by Dudjom Lingpa

Dudjom Lingpa

Dudjom Lingpa was a great 'meditation' master, visionary and terton of the Nyingma tradition of 'Mantrayana' and a Dzogchen master of the modern era of principal importance, particularly in the area of 'refining perception' or Nang Jang...

that describes the Dzogchen state of 'formal meditative equipoise' (Tibetan: nyam-par zhag-pa) which is the indivisible fulfillment of vipaśyanā and śamatha

Samatha

Samatha , śamatha "calm abiding," comprises a suite, type or style of Buddhist meditation or concentration practices designed to enhance sustained voluntary attention, and culminates in an attention that can be sustained effortlessly for hours on end...

, Sri Singha states:

"Just as water, which exists in a naturally free-flowing state, freezes into ice under the influence of a cold wind, so the ground of being exists in a naturally free state, with the entire spectrum of samsara established solely by the influence of perceiving in terms of identity.

Understanding this fundamental nature, you give up the three kinds of physical activity--good, bad, and neutral--and sit like a corpse in a charnal ground, with nothing needing to be done. You likewise give up the three kinds of verbal activity, remaining like a mute, as well as the three kinds of mental activity, resting without contrivance like the autumn sky free of the three polluting conditions."

Kukkuraja's instruction to Garab Dorje

Garab Dorje

Garab Dorje was the semi-historical first human teacher of the Ati Yoga or Great Perfection teachings according to Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Prior to Prahevajra, the Nyingma hold that the Dzogchen teachings had been expounded only in celestial realms and the 'pure lands' of the Buddhas,...

entailed a teaching of the Three Vajras in relation to Vajrasattva

Vajrasattva

Vajrasattva is a bodhisattva in the Mahayana, Mantrayana and Vajrayana buddhist traditions...

, Atiyoga and Kulayaraja Tantra:

"Everything without exception is the Divine Body-Speech-Mind," he had said. "The Divine Body-Speech-Mind is all-encompassing. Thus know your ultimate identity to be Vajrasattva, the Divine Body-Speech-Mind." As the Tibetan text of the Kulaya-raja Sutra (Kun.byed.rgyal.po'i .mdo) states: "When everything is seen as the Great Self-identity (bdag.nyid.chen.po), it is known as Atiyoga."

Five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being

The Three Vajras are subsumed within the 'Five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being'. Namkhai Norbu et al. (2001: p. 176) lists the English rendering with the associated Tibetan language

Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...

term:

The body (sku), voice (gsung), mind (thugs), qualities (yon tan) and activities (phrin las) represent the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being.

Emanation theory and the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being