Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 54-minute session from the KI Retreat, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through Day 2’s Vajrasattva meditation and purification practice. He begins by establishing the mental ground: rejoicing in virtue created through the eight Mahāyāna precepts, then acknowledging negative imprints of body, speech, and mind. He then leads a detailed visualization of Vajrasattva above the crown of the head in full regalia—white body, jeweled ornaments, holding dorje and bell—with the hundred-syllable mantra at his heart. The core practice applies four opponent powers: regret, refuge with bodhicitta motivation, a visualization of white nectar purifying negativities as black liquid drains away, and a sincere promise to restrain from harmful actions for manageable periods. He concludes with dissolution of Vajrasattva into the practitioner and dedication of merit, including aspirations for FPMT projects and world peace. Directed at retreat participants with prior tantric initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 13. Day 2 Meditation Vajrasattva.mp3
UUID: 752159b2-b44f-44f1-ad47-c2617db7eae9
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: KI Retreat (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2005 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 53.8 minutes
Words: ~2,451
Again, can begin by sitting comfortably in correct posture. And calming the mind with the nine round breathing exercise and doing the visualization with it. So then for a short time we can do the practice of just reflecting on over today, thinking of the virtue that we’ve created, the positive things we’ve done with our body, speech and mind, especially rejoicing that we have taken the eight Mahāyāna precepts and hopefully have kept the precepts very well. We rejoice that our Dharma brothers and sisters have done this as well. So just gladden the mind with that simple recognition that one has done these good actions.
And that one has been practicing in this life, we rejoice in that. Thinking how wonderful this is. So with that mind of rejoicing, dedicate that merit that it becomes a cause for us to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible. So we do that practice of dedication for two purposes. One is the practice of dedication, of directing these imprints to becoming a cause for enlightenment guards them, acts as a seal that protects those imprints from being destroyed by anger and other very strong disturbing thoughts.
Just remember the first verse of the patience chapter, just in one moment of anger towards the bodhisattva, the merit accumulated over an enormous period of time can be destroyed. But if we dedicate the merit then this protects it. And the other purpose of dedicating is that if we don’t dedicate it to the specific purpose of liberation or enlightenment, then this merit will simply ripen as some ordinary samsaric pleasure with no real meaning. But by dedicating it to enlightenment, it becomes the cause for enlightenment. So having acknowledged the merit we’ve created and rejoicing, we also have to acknowledge that perhaps some negative minds were generated today, certainly in this life.
So it’s important to recognise those, acknowledge them right now. And recognising that they can only ripen if they’re not purified, can only ripen suffering, as great suffering in the lower realms and even when we’re a human being, it ripens in so many unpleasant ways. And more than that, so we can develop regret on that basis, but even more we can understand that these negative imprints obscure the mind. Even before they ripen, they act to obscure the mind, darken the mind, make it difficult to understand, practice and realise the Dharma. So they hold us back from the very thing we wanted to achieve which is benefiting others.
So how incredibly unfortunate that is. So thinking that I could die at any moment, my death is definite, I could die at any moment, I could die before the mind is purified so I need to engage in this purification right now. So I need to rely on a perfect method, a valid method, an unbetrayable method. I need to rely on the Buddha’s teachings and take refuge in the source of those teachings, that pure enlightened mind. So on the basis of that opponent power of regret, already that strong power of refuge in the mind.
And combine that with the bodhicitta thought, wanting to take refuge not only for one’s own sake but especially for the benefit of others. So with this thought in mind we can say the prayer of refuge, bodhicitta. I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By my merits from giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. So it might be appropriate to turn to the mantra section now so that when we start that we don’t have to get distracted.
So then think that because of one’s very pure regret and strong refuge in bodhicitta motivation that from the dharmakaya state, the formless dharmakaya state, out of great compassion the Buddha has manifested for us in the aspect of Vajrasattva, guru Vajrasattva, who is oneness with our own guru if we had made such a connection. So firstly imagine, visualise, that there appears just a few centimetres above the crown of one’s head a very beautiful, pure white lotus with many petals in the nature of transparent radiating light. Then appearing directly above the lotus, slightly smaller in diameter, lying horizontally, a a white moon disc, and then manifesting directly above the centre of the moon disc is Vajrasattva with a body of pure white transparent light. His body appears as extremely beautiful, youthful. He’s seated in the full vajra position with his legs crossed.
His lower body is adorned with a garment, a multicolored garment of celestial silk and silken scarves over his shoulders. The upper body is bare. Visualize that the right hand of Vajrasattva is at his heart holding the vajra. The left hand is holding a bell tilted upwards with the hand resting on his left hip. Vajrasattva’s hair is a deep blue color, most of it tied above the crown of his head, some falling over his shoulders.
His body is adorned with the jeweled crown, jeweled earrings, necklaces, armlets and bracelets, a jeweled belt and anklets symbolic of the six perfections. Imagine Vajrasattva’s heart, at the heart chakra, a white moon disc, standing in the centre of that moon disc, a white syllable HUM and then surrounding, standing around the very edge of the moon disc, the hundred syllables of the Vajrasattva mantra, all in the nature of transparent white radiating light. So then make a very strong heartfelt request to Vajrasattva for one’s mind to be purified of all the imprints that have been generated by the negative actions of body, killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct. The motivation for these actions can be either attachment, ignorance, or or anger. But with the mind of anger then one can create the most heavy negative, karmic imprints to produce the greatest suffering.
So with a mind of regret and thinking of specific actions that we’ve done with our body in this life, recognising that we’ve certainly done these actions in past lives, and think that Vajrasattva happily responds to our request, sending this continuous stream of white light and nectar from his heart, from all the syllables, as we recite the mantra. So these come into us from the crown of our head, and instantly, all those negative imprints which we visualize filling our whole body and the mind in the form of very thick, ugly, black liquid begins to pour out from the lower part of our body, completely dissipating, becoming nonexistent, the body mind becoming completely empty of all of that negativity, the whole body mind filled with this blissful white light energy. Just strongly focus on feeling, imagining, believing, trusting that the mind is completely purified of all those negative imprints. Then we have to recognise that still there are the imprints remaining in our mind that have been laid there by the negative actions of our speech through lying, divisive speech, harsh speech and meaningless gossip. So again we make this heartfelt request to Guru Vajrasattva to free our mind of all those imprints.
And Vajrasattva happily responds again sending this continuous stream of white light and nectar that comes down and starts to fill the body from the lower part upwards. All the negativities, those imprints in the aspect of this thick black liquid floats above the top of that nectar and then bubbles out through the crown of one’s head dissipating, becoming non existent. Then the whole body mind becoming again filled with this blissful white light and nectar. Again, on that blissful feeling of the mind being completely purified of all those negative imprints. But there still remains of the imprints generated through the negative actions of mind itself, of ill will, covetousness and wrong views.
So we can think of examples of those generated in this life that we’ve certainly engaged in these actions of mind in previous lives. So we make a strong heartfelt request of Guru Vajrasattva to be free completely of all these imprints. Again Vajrasattva happily responds. As we recite the mantra we imagine that these brilliant flashes of light come from Guru Vajrasattva’s heart instantly dispelling all those negative imprints just like light dispels darkness in an instant. So focus on this blissful feeling of the mind being completely purified, free of all negative imprints.
The body mind in very clear, bright, like crystal. And we imagine that from the crown of our head Vajrasattva says to us, Child of the Race, which is referring to being that we are following the Mahāyāna lineage, your negativities, obscurations and broken and damaged pledges have been completely purified. So having done that practice, that’s the power of remedy. So now we apply the fourth opponent power as strongly as we can which is the power of determination or restraint. So we now make a very sincere promise to Guru Vajrasattva to restrain from all of those negative actions of body, speech and mind, that we can, we promise, those that we know that we can avoid from now on, we promise I’ll never do them again in this life.
But those actions of body, speech and mind that we know we still can’t control, but still we promise to the Buddhas in the aspect of Vajrasattva, at least for a particular period of time, I will put great energy to avoid it, that action, those actions. Maybe it’s only one day, only a half a day for the rest of tonight, maybe all tomorrow, for the rest of this retreat. However long one feels I can control that negativity, I promise I will do that. And we do that in the context of wishing that at the end of that period then again I will promise, I will put effort to avoiding that action for another period of time. And so building up like this step by step.
So then think that Vajrasattva is extremely pleased that we have done this practice sincerely and with as much concentration as possible, is very pleased with the promise that we have made. And because of that, imagine that Vajrasattva now melts into blissful white light which dissolves into us through the crown of our head, filling our whole being, blessing our body, speech and mind. Really feeling that that blissful energy coming into us empowers us to protect this newly purified mind, heightens our mindfulness that can protect the mind. So then think that in emptiness there is no I, no truly existing ‘I’ as creator of negative karma. So there is no truly existing creator of negative karma.
In emptiness there is no truly existing action of creating negative karma. In emptiness there is no truly existing negative karma created. So as much as one understands that, just place one’s mind in that experience right now. So now we can dedicate the merit. But before we do that is Sangha here?
Hello? Lanka? No. Somewhere does anyone know where there are the multiplying mantras? Come on old students. There’s something there.
If you turn to the Green Book, Volume one, which is one of the joys of doing this, through these vast volumes of prayers. If you turn to the section called Dedication Prayers, so then on page thirty four. So these mantras and prayers, we recite these. The first one or the first three are actually in Tibetan. No, the first two are in Tibetan.
So we’ve created lots of merit today, definitely don’t have any doubt that we haven’t, we have. And also just doing this practice of Vajrasattva creates merit, it purifies negativities and it generates merit. So now by reciting these prayers it increases the merit a hundred thousand times. Okay, so this is what we’re going to do. And we’ll do this final one one time.
Due to the power of the blessings of the eminent Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the power of infallible dependent arising and the power of my pure special attitude, may all my pure prayers succeed immediately. So then we can finally I will dedicate. So in that same section, if we go back to page four, we can do the dedication prayers. And so also we can include in our dedications of course dedicating for enlightenment, can also dedicate for our own personal wishes, temporary wishes, whatever we want to achieve, dharma or otherwise, and for our family and friends and so on. We can also dedicate of course for world peace and particularly in all those places where there is such horrible conflict and hatred and so on.
May there be peace in those places and where there is incredible poverty, may there be prosperity. And also we can particularly dedicate for the success of all the FPMT projects, especially for the Maitreya Buddha project to be free of all obstacles and to be accomplished as quickly as possible because this is really the heart wish of Lama Zopa Rinpoche, because it’s the heart wish of his guru, Lama Yeshe. And also we can dedicate for that for Dharma Ling to achieve all the things necessary, for the stupa to quickly be accomplished and all the other projects here to have all the necessary human and financial and other resources so these things can be accomplished only for the benefit of sentient beings. Also for Buddha House to dedicate the merit for Buddha House to quickly achieve all its goals such as finding a new place, a new bigger, better place to better fit others. Just as the brave Mañjuśrī and Samantabhādra too realise things as they are, I too dedicate all these merits in the best way that I may follow their perfect example.
I dedicate all these roots of virtue with a dedication praised as best by the victorious ones gone thus, for three times so I might perform good good works. And there’s just one final dedication prayer which I think if I’m sorry it’s in volume two in the Guru Puja practice. Hope it’s here At the end of the Guru Puja practice, it should be the end hopefully. But anyway at least the long life prayers are here so we can finish with those. We’ll do His Holiness, although it’s in a different order, we’ll do His Holiness first then Lama Tsongkhapa Prayer.
This page eighty eight, yes. Eighty eight, eighty nine. You who uphold the subdue his moral way, who serve as the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving and spreading Mundrön’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplished magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, saviour of myself and others, your disciples, please, please live long.