Dharma Vocabulary Lesson: Vajrayana

Sanskrit: Vajrayana
Tibetan: Dorje Thekpa (Wylie: rdo rje theg pa)

Vajra
Sanskrit: Vajra
Tibetan: Dorje (Wylie: rdo rje)
English: adamantine, diamond, thunderbolt
Vajra symbolizes the indestructibility, and immutability of buddha nature, and the indestructible union of wisdom and skillful means.

Yana
Sanskrit: Yana
Tibetan: Thekpa (Wylie: theg pa)
English: Vehicle, means of transportation

Vajrayana is the diamond path that lifts the veils that keep us from recognizing our indestructible, ever-present buddha nature, innate goodness, our inherent potential for enlightenment.

Like transmuting base metal into gold, the Vajrayana path transmutes the practitioner’s consciousness, perception, and understanding in a way that reveals an experience of awakening which has been ever-present yet dormant. This is accomplished through empowerment, visualization, chanting of liturgy, mantra recitation, and working with the winds and channels of the subtle body.

The method of Vajrayana is to take the result as the path by enacting our enlightenment through engaging in a sacred outlook. We interact with a yidam (manifestation of a quality of an awakened mind, such as compassion, arising in a body of light) and recognize that, similarly, we are the natural radiance of an awakened mind, arising in a rainbow-like body of light. We recognize others in the same way and see the intrinsic purity of all phenomena in our environment. We engage our body, speech, and mind as awakened body, speech, and mind as we relate to the yidam and all we encounter. In the process of generating this visualization, engaging with it, and then allowing it to dissolve into the space of awareness from which it arose, we purify all aspects of our experience and come to recognize our true nature.