Vajrasattva

Vajrasattva (Sanskrit: वज्रसत्त्व, Tibetan: རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ། Dorje Sempa, short form: རྡོར་སེམས། Dorsem) is a bodhisattva in the Mahayana and Mantrayana/Vajrayana Buddhist traditions. In Chinese Buddhism and the Japanese Shingon tradition, Vajrasattva is the esoteric aspect of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and is commonly associated with the student practitioner who, through the master's teachings, attains an ever-enriching, subtle and rarefied grounding in their esoteric practice. In the East Asian esoteric Buddhist Diamond Realm Mandala, Vajrasattva sits to the East near Akshobhya Buddha. In some esoteric lineages, Nagarjuna was said to have met Vajrasattva in an iron tower in South India, and was taught tantra, thus transmitting the esoteric teachings to more historical figures. In Tibetan Buddhism, Vajrasattva is associated with the sambhogakāya and with purification practice. Vajrasattva appears in various Buddhist texts, including in the esoteric Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra and in the Vajraśekhara Sūtra. Vajrasattva also appears as a major character in the Ghanavyūha sūtra. In the Nyingma canon, Vajrasattva also appears in various Dzogchen texts, such as the Kulayarāja Tantra and The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva. Vajrasattva's mantra is oṃ Vajrasattva hūṃ (Sanskrit: ॐ वज्रसत्त्व हूँ; Chinese: 唵 斡資囉 薩答 啊 吽 / 嗡 班扎 薩埵 吽; Pinyin: ǎn wòzīluō sàdá a hōng / wēng bānzhā sàduǒ hōng).