Video: Vajrasattva 15-Minute Concise Daily Practice with 100-Syllable Mantra: Purification and Merit

This beautiful Concise Vajrasattva Sadhana translated in the Tradition of Venerable Marpa of Lhodrak: A River of Wisdom is for Purifying Karma and Obstacles from our lives and our practice. Traditionally, we chant a short Sadhana and three mantras daily, or at least the last 7 days of each year to purify obstacles and negative karma.

The recommended minimum is on the last day of each lunar month, and in the last 7 days of the year, to create the merit for accumulating virtue and prosperity in practice and life in the New Year. (In the video: TURN ON CC to chant along.)

Recite Along with the Video:

In Buddhism, all practice can be considered purification. Whether we are practicing the Eightfold Path taught by Shakyamuni Buddha, or the five transformations of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, or a Yidam meditation in personal practice, all of these are ultimately purification of the ten poisons, our skhandas, our past negative karmas. Healing is purification. Pacification is purification, Wrathful activity in the Buddhist context is purification. All Buddhist practices could ultimately be described by the goal “purification of the five aggregates.”

When we think of purification, the image that jumps to mind is pure, white Vajrasattva.

Since most of our progress in Buddhism relies on purification, it would be fair to say that in Vajrayana Buddhism, Vajrasattva practice is of preeminent importance. It is a preliminary practice in most lineages.

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Vajrasattva Concise Sadhana

Here begins the recitation of the concise Vajrasattva Merit-Accumulating and purifying practice:

I visualize the entire universe filled with the merit field, with Vajrasattva at the center, pure white and glowing with purifying light

I take refuge in the Awakened, Competent and Compassionate Buddha, and in the sacred Dharma, which frees us from desire and rescues us from the fearsome samsāric world, and in the sangha, who have the awareness of liberation and the courage to lead us on the path, and in the Guru Vajrasattva.

I go for refuge in the Guru, in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha.

For the benefit of all sentient beings, as numerous as the infinite sky, I vow to attain bodhicitta without conception, and through the bodhicitta of aspiration, bodhicitta of application, and absolute bodhicitta, to liberate all beings without exception.

Manifesting the highest bodhicitta, I will act as an excellent host to all sentient beings by performing supreme Bodhisattva conduct, may I achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.

I visualize the merit field appearing before me, with Vajrasattva Buddha at the center, white in color, blazing with glorious purifying light.

Vajrasattva is adorned by a jeweled head ornament, earrings, a necklace, bracelets and anklets, and a belt of gems and wears silk garments. In the right hand he holds a five-pronged vajra, which is held to the heart-center. His left hand positioned gracefully, holding a bell against the waist. He sits in the center of a sphere of brilliant light.

I now perform the seven limbs of practice, beginning with prostrations:

To Vajrasattva and all the buddhas, the lions of the human race, In all directions of the universe, through past and present and future, to every single one of you, I bow in homage.

Devotion fills my body, speech and mind. Through the power of this prayer, aspiring to Good Action, all the victorious ones appear, vivid here before my mind. I imagine multiplying my body as many times as atoms in the universe, each one bowing in prostration to all the buddhas.

In every atom preside as many buddhas as there are atoms, and around them, all their bodhisattva heirs.

And so I imagine them filling completely the entire space of reality.Saluting them with an endless ocean of praise, I sing of the Buddhas’ noble qualities, and praise all those who have gone to perfect bliss.

To Vajrasattva and every buddha, I make visualized offerings of the loveliest flowers, of beautiful garlands, and of music and perfumed ointments, the best of parasols, the brightest lamps, and finest incense.

To Vajrasattva and every buddha, I make offerings: exquisite garments and the most fragrant scents, powdered incense, heaped as high as Mount Meru, arranged in perfect symmetry.

Then the vast and unsurpassable offerings, inspired by my devotion to all the Buddhas, and Moved by the power of my faith in Good Actions. I prostrate and offer to all of you victorious ones.

Whatever negative acts I have committed, while driven by desire, hatred and ignorance, with my body, my speech and also with my mind, Before you, I confess and purify each and every one.

With a heart full of delight, I rejoice at all the merits, of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, those in training and the arhats beyond training, and every living being, throughout the entire universe.

You who are like beacons of light shining through the worlds, who passed through the stages of enlightenment, to attain buddhahood, freedom from all attachment, I exhort you: all of you protectors, turn the unsurpassable wheel of Dharma.

Joining my palms together, I pray to you to not pass into nirvāṇa, and remain, for aeons as many as the atoms in this world, and bring well-being and happiness to all living beings.

What little virtue I have gathered through my homage, through offering, confession, and rejoicing, through exhortation and prayer, and all of my practices, I dedicate to the enlightenment of all beings!

May all sentient beings have happiness and the cause of happiness. May all sentient beings be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. May they never be separated from happiness, which is without suffering. May they remain in endless equanimity, free from attachment and aversion.

Bhagavān, tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect buddha,Vajrasattva, to you I pay homage! In you I take refuge!

Bhagavān, tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect buddha,Vajrasattva, to you I pay homage! In you I take refuge!

Bhagavān, tathāgata, arhat, complete and perfect buddha,Vajrasattva, to you I pay homage! In you I take refuge!

At Vajrasattva’s heart, white purifying light  emanates to the entire Universe, to all worlds, and all beings in the ten directions, cleansing the iniquities and obstacles of all sentient beings. The purifying light then returns and absorbs into my own heart, purifying and blessing me.

I continue to see this purifying and blessing light radiating out to all beings and then entering my heart, filling me with light and purifying nectar, eliminating all impurities, obstacles and negative karma, as I recite the glorious 100-syllable mantra

oṃ

vajrasattva samayam anupālaya

vajrasattvatvenopatiṣṭha

dṛḍho me bhava

sutoṣyo me bhava

supoṣyo me bhava

anurakto me bhava

sarva siddhiṃ me prayaccha

sarvakarmasu ca me cittaṃ śreyaḥ kuru

hūṃ

ha ha ha ha hoḥ

bhagavan sarvatathāgatavajra mā me muñca

vajrī bhava mahāsamayasattva

āḥ

By the power of praising and supplicating you, wherever I and others reside may illness, obstructive spirits, poverty, and fighting be pacified, and may the Dharma and auspiciousness flourish.

Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Sangha, please heed me. From the great, beginningless Samsara, I and all beings have performed the virtue of cultivating generosity and ethical discipline and have rejoiced in the expression of these deeds. By the virtue practiced thus, with the mind of holy generosity, may ornaments and belongings become the host of practitioners, and for the sake of our parents, teachers, masters, and all sentient beings, may we achieve Buddhahood. By the merit arisen from this virtue, may we acquire all the perfections such as life, merit, enjoyment, a retinue, and virtuous practice, and may all obstacles be pacified without exception.

May I attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.

We dedicate the virtue of this presentation to the benefit of all sentient beings.