The Vajrasamādhi Sutra: Epilogue

The Eighth Chapter is essentially a recap of prior-material, originally utilized to remove any doubts as to all that transpired. It also promises that if one faithfully abides in the sutra’s precepts, then all further mind obstructions will be completely eradicated:

The Buddha replied, “Good man, the mind of the person who receives and keeps this sutra ought to be free from gains or losses and constantly cultivating the spiritual life. Even in nonessential discussions, his mind is always blissful and calm. In the midst of crowded environment, his mind is collected (undistracted). Even if he lives at home (householder’s life), he does not grasp at the three realms of existence.

And again, once the adamantine contemplation of the Vajrasamādhi is invoked, “all evil deeds will be extinguished” and one is empowered to faithfully abide in a Buddha-field of their choosing, e.g., Amitabha’s Pure-Land.

It has been a most fruitful endeavor in presenting this blog series. Buswell’s mastery of the material has been most edifying, including the following:

…the vajrasamādhi is described as perfect stillness achieved through realizing the truth of voidness; the sutra description of “unmoving” is noteworthy, since immobility was also considered to be one of the characteristics of the amalavijñāna. Throughout much of Mahāyāna literature, then, vajrasamādhi was considered to be the consummation of the cultivation of samādhi (emphasis mine); but it was a kind of samādhi that had soteriological implications that far surpassed all other aspects of the dharma, including the concept of voidness, the trainings in śila, samādhi, and prajña, and even liberation itself. One Scholar-monk (Pu-k’ung) even went so far as to say that vajrasamādhi is enlightenment. [Robert E. Buswell, Jr. The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea, The Vajrasamādhi-Sūtra A Buddhist Apocryphon, pgs. 107-08)

Chih-i, for example, remarks that “one who wishes to realize supreme, sublime enlightenment must first access the vajrasamādhi; then all the buddhadharmas will appear before him.” Wŏnhyo considers the essence (ch’e/t’i) of vajrasamādhi to be the edge of reality (bhūtakoṭi), or enlightenment itself, and its function (yong/yung) to be destruction of any and all obstacles to that enlightenment. Wŏnhyo states that the vajrasamādhi “realizes the principle and probes the fountain head [of the mind]”, language that immediately recalls the Vajrasamādhi’s description of the tathāgatagarbha. Hence, the preponderance of evidence suggests that, within the *sinitic tradition, the vajrasamāshi was regarded as one of the principle soteriological weapons in the Buddhist spiritual arsenal, which was closely tied to the revelation of the realm of Buddhahood. [ibid, pgs. 112-113]

*(the branch of Sino-Tibetan that comprises Chinese)

Vajrasamādhi was often regarded within the Chinese tradition to be the quintessence of samādhi, if not even the consummation of the dhyānapāramitā itself, as the perceptive Yu-p’o-sai chieh ching (Upāsakaśīla-sutra) had said, for a school like Ch’an that claimed to be the principal bastion of meditative expertise, it is to be expected that it would have been attracted to this type of samādhi and would have sought to make it its own. [ibid, pg.113]

For a Lankavatarian, or those so inclined, the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra practically not only compliments, but also helps to complete the Lanka. It is representative of the full flowering of the Tathāgatagarbha-Zen Tradition. This is not stated lightly, for it is one sūtra to be savored over and over again—both in terms of enhancing one’s own spiritual cultivation and praxis.