In Praise of Glorious Vajrasattva
by Patrul Rinpoche
Homage to glorious Vajrasattva!
Like a mountain of snow, your body is brilliant white,
And your enlightened speech resounds as perfect Dharma,
Profound and expansive, your sky-like mind is twofold wisdom,
Blessed lord, spiritual warrior—to you I pay homage!
Even negative karma and obscurations accumulated over many eons
Are reduced to nothing in an instant merely by recalling your name,
Guardian Lord, there is no one anywhere to compare with you,
And so, again and again, in devotion I pay homage!
Deities of the maṇḍalas of the hundred, five or three buddha families,
And the lord of the sixth—they are all none other than you.
And it was you too who gathered the words of the buddha, the secret treasury—
Embodiment of all the victorious buddhas, to you I pay homage!
Upon a perfect moon-disc symbolising your plentiful qualities,
And an eight-petalled white lotus signifying freedom from flaws,
You sit in cross-legged posture, abiding in neither saṃsāra nor nirvāṇa—
To you who wear anklets of jewels, I pay homage!
Beautiful like a rainbow with your silken garments of many colours,
And your jewels, necklaces and other adornments all sparkling and swaying,
You hold the vajra and bell symbolising appearance and emptiness inseparable—
To you in whom the empowerment of the five families is complete, I pay homage!
Your body is the bindu of wisdom and great bliss united,
And with the abhiṣeka nectar flowing from clouds of joy,
You confer the amṛta of the utterly pure five senses—
To you who delight in non-duality, I pay homage!
The very nature of awareness, the crucial point of essence mantra,
Which you taught in the realm of Akaniṣṭha,
And which, when recited or brought to mind, purifies all impairments and breakages—
To your innermost essence, the hundred-syllable mantra, I pay homage!
For calling out to you by name and invoking your heart commitment,
With the nature of the five families, the heart of the innermost essence,
In which causes and conditions, recitation and mantra are all complete,
To your brief six-syllable mantra, I pay homage!
You are the deity who subdues the unruly and difficult to tame,
And excellently bestows the supreme accomplishment,
Lord Vajrasattva, who displays the nine moods of dance—
To you, the glorious heruka, I pay homage!
Keeper of the secret treasury, appearing as a powerful lord of the tenth bhūmi,
Ferocious Vajrapāṇi—sole enemy of obstructing forces,
With your garuḍa, whose nature is of the five families, emanating and returning—
To you, subjugator of the nāgas of ignorance, I pay homage!
Supreme deity of deities, bhagavān Vajrasattva,
Taking you, O protector, as my supreme refuge,
I think of your enlightened body, speech and mind again and again,
Now inspire me with your blessings, O Vajrasattva, Vajradharma!
oṃ vajra sattva hūṃ
by Patrul
Virtue. Virtue. Virtue.
