Vajrasattva Practice

 

Although we're not aware of it, we have accumulated in the stream of our mind since beginningless time an unimaginable amount of negative actions and obscurations. Our mind stream is completely filled with them, and without purification, it is not possible to progress towards enlightenment.

Vajrasattva Practice, performed with great sincerity and without distraction, will lead to this purification. Vajrasattva is an aspect of the Buddha, which expresses the fundamental purity of enlightenment and implements its power of purification ; thus, a great spiritual influence is it related to this practice. To bring purification through the practice, the combination of several elements is necessary, which are the spiritual influence of Vajrasattva, the power of his Mantra and the qualities of our practice.

 

 

 

The essence of our mind is emptiness: it has neither shape nor color nor any characteristic whatsoever, and the negative trends, thoughts and emotions that are in the mind, are also empty, invisible, without form or color; yet they are present and have the ability to harm us. They exist as multiple interrelated factors that delude our minds. In order to purify them, the Vajrasattva Practice uses other interrelated factors that are aspects of meditation which allows the purification.

In practice, the purification is made possible by four forces: regretting previous negative actions, the support consisting of the various commitments that have been made, the antidote consisting of visualization and recitations of the meditation itself, and to be determined not to repeat negative actions. Together, these forces allow complete purification, whatever negative actions we have perpetrated.

People nowadays, admit that meditation is a good thing, but the recitation of the Mantra often seems strange. If the mind is the most important, it is not alone, because we are generally composed of a body, speech and mind and it is important to implement these components: meditate with the mind, recite the word the Mantra, and keep proper posture with the body. Reciting the Mantra without distraction is important because it has a special power over the mind. In fact, the Mantra is empty sound, interrelated factors and co-emergence.

Moreover, obscurations and negative trends that need to be purified are also interrelated factors and they are empty of self-nature, which is why their purification is possible. The interaction of the aspects of interrelated factors, of the Mantra and of negative trends dissolves it-self and operates purification. Thus the practice can have a real cleansing effect. Really understanding the interrelated factors and emptiness is getting closer to enlightenment, and it is not by not understanding this that we wander in the cycle. The most important is that the mind be truly present while reciting.