A Brief Introduction to Vajrasattva
and the Vajrayana Path of Purification
The meditation and recitation practice of Vajrasattva falls into the special category of what in Buddhism are known as "confession and purification" practices. These are practiced in order to purify the negative actions that have been committed by both oneself and others. To practice the meditation of Vajrasattva, it is important to first have a proper understanding of the Buddhist notion of confession and purification, and how this process is connected with the mind's positive and negative aspects.

Vajrasattva in Union. Thangka by Amita Gupta.

In Vajrayana Buddhism, the fundamental nature of our minds and the world is posited to be purity. The Buddha proposed that all beings without exception are endowed with "buddhanature" - the heart of enlightenment - and that everyone has the potential to fully awaken to their truest state, which is known as buddhahood. This state has been the nature of our minds from the very outset of practice, and not just at its completion. Thus, in the Buddhist practice of confession and purification, one aspires to reconnect with one's own and others' inherent nature of goodness, openness, and purity.

Although the nature of mind has never been other than this very state, we nevertheless experience various forms of confusion, disturbing emotions, and uncertainty. Through not realizing the spaciousness that pervades all moments of our existence, we fall under the influence of what in Buddhist teachings are called the three root mental afflictions, or "poisons": attachment, aggression, and ignorance. These mental afflictions block the perception of our true nature and are the cause for all actions that are harmful to ourselves and others.

Thus, we do not perform negative actions because we have a fundamentally bad character. From the perspective of the Buddhist teachings, negative actions are committed as a result of mental afflictions, which in turn arise due to an ignorance of, or non-acquaintance with, the fundamentally positive, completely pure nature of mind. Therefore, while Buddhist confession involves feeling genuine regret and disenchantment toward the harm one may have caused oneself and others, it does not involve any kind of guilt or shame regarding the basic state of who we are.

The meditation and recitation of Vajrasattva is renowned as supreme among all forms of purification practice employed in Tibetan Buddhism. An important principle of Buddhist deity meditation is that the deity visualized is not thought of as existing "outside" of one's own mind. Rather, through meditating on Vajrasattva as an expression of mind's pure essence, we will be more and more capable of connecting directly with our fundamental state. In this way, incidental obscurations that are not inherently part of the mind's nature will be gradually cleansed, allowing buddhanature to manifest. This will help us engender more compassion for others, as well as more insight into the true nature of all beings and all things, and this insight will naturally and spontaneously lead to the accomplishment of our own and others' relative and ultimate benefit.

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