The 100 Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva

On the hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra and its use in purification practice.

A working reference page rather than an essay: the Vajrasattva mantra set out with a line-by-line English rendering, so that a practitioner sounding it knows what each phrase is actually asking for. It opens with the short form — the three-word version used for quick recitation — before giving the full hundred-syllable mantra.

The long mantra is laid out phrase by phrase, each followed by Sam's translation. It begins by calling on Vajrasattva to guard the practitioner's vows and let them hold firm, then asks the deity to be steadfast, satisfied, favourable and nourished toward them. From there it turns to what is sought: the granting of all magical attainments, and, addressing Vajrasattva as the indicator of all karma, the making glorious of the practitioner's mind. The four laughing syllables and the ho that follow are marked simply as laughter, addressed to the blessed one, the diamond of all the Tathagatas. It closes with the plea not to be forsaken and to be made diamond, and then the final address — great being of the vow — resolving on Ah.

The page sits inside Sam's larger Pagan Dharma project of bringing Vajrayana technique into a form Western magicians can work with. Vajrasattva practice is the standard purification of broken vows and obscurations in that tradition, which is why the mantra's first request is about the vows themselves; giving the meaning alongside the syllables is Sam's usual move — translation as bringing the technology across, not as linguistic decoration.

Originally published at samwebstermage.com →