Three Vajras

The Three Vajras, namely "body, speech and mind", are a formulation within Vajrayana Buddhism and Bon
that hold the full experience of the śūnyatā "emptiness" of Buddha-nature, void of all qualities (Wylie: yon tan)
and marks[1] (Wylie: mtshan dpe) and establish a sound experiential key upon the continuum of the path to
enlightenment. The Three Vajras correspond to the trikaya and therefore also have correspondences to the
Three Roots and other refuge formulas of Tibetan Buddhism. The Three Vajras are viewed in twilight
language as a form of the Three Jewels, which imply purity of action, speech and thought.

The Three Vajras are often mentioned in Vajrayana discourse, particularly in relation to samaya, the vows
undertaken between a practitioner and their guru during empowerment. The term is also used during
Anuttarayoga Tantra practice.

In Tendai and Shingon Buddhism of Japan, they are known as the Three Mysteries ( 三密, sanmitsu).

Contents
Nomenclature, orthography and etymology
Vajra Body
Vajra Voice
Vajra Mind
Exegesis
Kukkuraja's instruction to Garab Dorje
Five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being
Emanation theory and the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being
See also
References
External links

Nomenclature, orthography and etymology

The Three Vajras is an English rendering of gsang ba gsum (Tibetan); which has variously been rendered as:
Three Secrets, Three Mysteries, Three Seats, Three Doors and Three Gateways. Another Tibetan orthography
that explicitly mentions Vajra (Tibetan: rdo-rje) is: rdo rje gsang ba gsum. The full Tibetan title may be
rendered into English as 'the three secrets of the noble ones' (Tibetan: phags pa'i gsang ba gsum) which are:
body (Tibetan: lus and sku); voice/speech (Tibetan: gsung) and mind (Tibetan: thugs). Another full title: sku
gsung thugs mi zad pa rgyan gyi 'khor lo may be rendered as "Inexhaustible adornment wheel of Body,
Speech and Mind" where the term 'khor lo is the Tibetan term for chakra (Sanskrit).

Vajra Body
The Vajra Body (Tibetan: rdo rje'i lus; sku rdo rje; ). In explicating the term rdo rje'i lus, the Dharma
Dictionary (http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Main_Page) states that it denotes: "The human body, the subtle
channels of which resemble the structure of a vajra."[2]

Vajra Voice

The Vajra Speech/Voice (Tibetan: rdo rje'i gsung; gsung rdo rje). In elucidating the term, the Dharma
Dictionary states that it denotes: 'vajra speech', 'vajra words'.[3]

Vajra Mind

The Vajra Mind (Tibetan: thugs rdo rje; Sanskrit: citta-vajra) is defined by the Dharma Dictionary as: mind
vajra, vajra mind.[4]

Exegesis
The Three Vajras are often employed in tantric sādhanā at various stages during the visualization of the
generation stage, refuge tree, guru yoga and iṣṭadevatā processes. The concept of the Three Vajras serves in
the twilight language to convey polysemic meanings, aiding the practitioner to conflate and unify the
mindstream of the iṣṭadevatā, the guru and the sādhaka in order for the practitioner to experience their own
Buddha-nature.

Speaking for the Nyingma tradition, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche perceives an identity and relationship between
Buddha-nature, dharmadhatu, dharmakāya, rigpa and the Three Vajras:

Dharmadhātu is adorned with Dharmakāya, which is endowed with Dharmadhātu Wisdom. This
is a brief but very profound statement, because "Dharmadhātu" also refers to Sugatagarbha or
Buddha-Nature. Buddha- Nature is all-encompassing... This Buddha-Nature is present just as the
shining sun is present in the sky. It is indivisible from the Three Vajras [i.e. the Buddha's Body,
Speech and Mind] of the awakened state, which do not perish or change. [5]

Robert Beer (2003: p. 186) states:

The trinity of body, speech, and mind are known as the three gates, three receptacles or three
vajras, and correspond to the western religious concept of righteous thought (mind), word
(speech), and deed (body). The three vajras also correspond to the three kayas, with the aspect of
body located at the crown (nirmanakaya), the aspect of speech at the throat (sambhogakaya), and
the aspect of mind at the heart (dharmakaya)."[6]

The bīja corresponding to the Three Vajras are: a white om (enlightened body), a red ah (enlightened speech)
and a blue hum (enlightened mind).[7]

Simmer-Brown (2001: p. 334) asserts that:

When informed by tantric views of embodiment, the physical body is understood as a sacred
maṇḍala (Wylie: lus kyi dkyil).[8]
This explicates the semiotic rationale for the nomenclature of the somatic discipline called trul khor.

The triple continua of body-voice-mind are intimately related to the Dzogchen doctrine of "sound, light and
rays" (Wylie: sgra 'od zer gsum) as a passage of the rgyud bu chung bcu gnyis kyi don bstan pa ('The
Teaching on the Meaning of the Twelve Child Tantras') rendered into English by Rossi (1999: p. 65) states
(Tibetan provided for probity):

ན་གཞ
ི ་ོ ང་པ་ ་མ
ེ ད་ལས།

་ན
ི ་དི ངས་ི ་ ལ་ ་ཤར།

From the Basis (of) all, empty (and) without cause, ི ག་པ་ོ ང་པ་ ་མ
ར ེ ད་ལས།
sound, the dynamic potential of the Dimension, arises.
From the Awareness, empty (and) without cause, ོ འད་ན
ི ་ཡ
ེ ་ཤ
ེ ས་ ལ་ ་ཤར།
light, the dynamic potential (of) Primordial Wisdom,
appears.
From the inseparability, empty (and) without cause, དེ ར་མ
ེ ད་ོ ང་པ་ ་མ
ེ ས།
rays, the dynamic potential of the Essence, appear.
When sound, light and rays are taken (as) instrumental ེ ར་ན
ཟ ི ་ཐ
ི ག་ལ
ེ འ
ི ་ ལ་ ་ཤར།
causes
(that) ignorance (turns into) the delusion of body, speech ་འ
ོ ད་ཟ
ེ ར་ག མ་ེ ན་ ས་ནས།
(and) mind;
the result (is) wandering in the circle (of) the three
spheres.[9] མ་ོ གས་ ས་ངག་ཡ
ི ད་ ་འ ལ།

ས་ ་ཁམས་ག མ་འཁ
ོ ར་བར་

འ མས༎[9]

Barron et al. (1994, 2002: p. 159), renders from Tibetan into English, a terma "pure vision" (Wylie: dag
snang) of Sri Singha by Dudjom Lingpa that describes the Dzogchen state of 'formal meditative equipoise'
(Tibetan: nyam-par zhag-pa) which is the indivisible fulfillment of vipaśyanā and śamatha, Sri Singha states:

Just as water, which exists in a naturally free-flowing state, freezes into ice under the influence of
a cold wind, so the ground of being exists in a naturally free state, with the entire spectrum of
samsara established solely by the influence of perceiving in terms of identity.
Understanding this fundamental nature, you give up the three kinds of physical activity--good,
bad, and neutral--and sit like a corpse in a charnal ground, with nothing needing to be done. You
likewise give up the three kinds of verbal activity, remaining like a mute, as well as the three
kinds of mental activity, resting without contrivance like the autumn sky free of the three polluting
conditions.[10]

Kukkuraja's instruction to Garab Dorje

Kukkuraja's instruction to Garab Dorje entailed a teaching of the Three Vajras in relation to Vajrasattva,
Atiyoga and Kulayaraja Tantra:
 "Everything without exception is the Divine Body-Speech-Mind," he had said. "The Divine
Body-Speech-Mind is all-encompassing. Thus know your ultimate identity to be Vajrasattva, the
Divine Body-Speech-Mind." As the Tibetan text of the Kulaya-raja Sutra (Kun byed rgyal po'i
mdo) states: "When everything is seen as the Great Self-identity (bdag nyid chen po), it is known
as Atiyoga."[11]

Five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being

The Three Vajras are subsumed within the 'Five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being'. Namkhai
Norbu et al. (2001: p. 176) lists the English rendering with the associated Tibetan language term:

The body (sku), voice (gsung), mind (thugs), qualities (yon tan) and activities (phrin las)
represent the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being.[12]

Emanation theory and the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being

Mindstream emanation (Sanskrit: nirmana body, nirmanakaya; Tibetan: sprul-sku) theory is fundamentally
related to the five fundamental aspects of an enlightened being:

mind emanation: thugs kyi sprul-sku

speech emanation: gsung gi sprul-sku
body emanation: sku yi sprul-sku
qualities emanation: yon tan sprul-sku
activities emanation: phrin las sprul-sku

See also
Gankyil
Manasa, vacha, karmana
Mandala
Three wise monkeys
Trimurti
Vajra
Guru
Vajrayogini

References
1. '32 major marks' (Sanskrit: dvātriṃśanmahāpuruṣalakṣaṇa), and the '80 minor marks' (Sanskrit:
aśītyanuvyañjana) of a superior being, refer: Physical characteristics of the Buddha.
2. Dharma Dictionary (http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Main_Page) (2007). Source: [1] (http://rywi
ki.tsadra.org/index.php/rdo_rje'i_lus) (accessed: January 5, 2008)
3. Dharma Dictionary (http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Main_Page) (2007). Source: [2] (http://rywi
ki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vajra_Speech) (accessed: January 5, 2008)
 4. Source: Dharma Dictionary (http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Main_Page) (2007) [3] (http://rywi
ki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vajra_Mind) (accessed: January 5, 2008)
5. As It Is, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Rangjung Yeshe Books, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 32
6. Beer, Robert (2003). The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Serindia Publications.
ISBN 1-932476-03-2 Source: [4] (https://books.google.com/books?id=-3804Ud9-4IC&pg=PA18
6&lpg=PA186&dq=three+vajras&source=web&ots=FOJFZ0GiLs&sig=WHepBCvf5V7HgUoQ_
FiBXPxzQ8c#PPA186,M1) (accessed: December 7, 2007)
7. Rinpoche, Pabongka (1997). Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand: A Concise Discourse on the
Path to Enlightenment. Wisdom Books. p. 196.
8. Simmer-Brown, Judith (2001). Dakini's Warm Breath: the Feminine Principle in Tibetan
Buddhism. Boston, USA: Shambhala. ISBN 1-57062-720-7 (alk. paper). p.334
9. Rossi, Donatella (1999). The philosophical view of the great perfection in the Tibetan Bon
religion. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications. p. 65. ISBN 1-55939-129-4.
10. Lingpa, Dudjom; Tulku, Chagdud; Norbu, Padma Drimed; Barron, Richard (Lama Chökyi
Nyima, translator); Fairclough, Susanne (translator) (1994, 2002 revised). Buddhahood without
meditation: a visionary account known as 'Refining one's perception' (Nang-jang) (English;
Tibetan: ran bźin rdzogs pa chen po'i ranźal mnon du byed pa'i gdams pa zab gsan sñin po).
Revised Edition. Junction City, CA, USA: Padma Publishing. ISBN 1-881847-33-0, p.159
11. Dharma Fellowship (2005). Biographies: Pramodavajra, Regent of the Divine. Source: [5] (htt
p://wwwe.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm) (accessed:
November 15, 2007)
12. Norbu, Namkhai (author, compiler); Clemente, Adriano (translated from Tibetan into Italian,
edited and annotated); Lukianowicz, Andy (translated from Italian into English) (1999, 2001).
The Precious Vase: Instructions on the Base of Santi Maha Sangha. Second revised edition.
Shang Shung Edizioni.

External links
Vajra Guru mantra (http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Vajra_Guru_mantra) @Rigpa wiki
The Mantra of Padmasambhava: The Vajra Guru Mantra (http://www.rigpaus.org/WIR/AboutUs/
Padmasambhava/VGMantra.html)
The Black Crown of the Karmapas (https://web.archive.org/web/20090402021651/http://www.k
agyuoffice.org/kagyulineage.blackcrown.html) see particularly The Three Kaya and The Four
Enlightened Activities

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