Vairocana

OM AH HUNG BHAGAVAN VAIROCANA OM

Vairocana is one of the Five Family Buddhas.

His pure land is Akanishta, meaning Unsurpassed, representing the true nature of reality in which emptiness and dependent origination are inseparable.  His color is white, representing the activity of pacifying conflict, disease, problems and obstacles.  His hands are in the mudra of teaching the Dharma holding a Dharma Wheel, or Dharmacakra- representing the continual motion and change that forever turns and brings about transformation and development.

Vairocana is the Buddha that represents completely purified ignorance.  Ignorance is like a blank dullness, that state of unknowing where we don't know what to do to make our life meaningful.  Vairocana represents the transformation of that ignorance into the wisdom of the true nature of reality, thoroughly understanding the nature of our own mind and the world around us and how we are to unite compassion and wisdom in order to fulfill our own aims and the aims of others.     

He rides a lion possessed with all the major and minor marks.  The lion is the sovereign of all animals.  His sovereignty is not appointed by divine right or out of self-righteousness or self-promotion, it is the rightful authority to act.  To not act would be to fall from wisdom into the ignorance of selfishness and fear.  In this way, the lion is an unerring source of refuge and protection, carrying the bewildered and confused into the peaceful grove of clarity and insight. 

In regard to our own mind and self, Vairocana represents the aggregate of form.  We are all very attached to our physical bodies; how we feel, how we look.  Our fixation on our own condition and state lead us down the rabbit hole of self-grasping and ignorance, further intensifying our fear and discontentment.  As we purify this self-grasping and transmute it into wisdom and insight, we are able to break free from the confines of our own limited view and understanding.  We can embrace a larger scope.

When we deeply contemplate and integrate the wisdom and symbolism of Vairocana, we can learn how to transmute ignorance and selfishness into an opportunity for wisdom and purpose.  We are able to step outside of fear, doubt and uncertainty.  We attain the awakened form of the Buddhas that transcends the confines of place and time.  The form or shape of our life is one in which we guide, teach and lead others out of confusion and habitual patterns into wisdom and clarity.  Our body becomes like a rainbow- apparent yet empty of existing in any fixed manner- dancing like an illusion that carries out the benefit of others, teaching them how to overcome conflict and problems, setting out the path and providing the support and resources to embody their own awakened form.

To attain such a state would be unsurpassed- for not only would you have fulfilled your own aims, but you would have fulfilled the aims of others. 

Go ride that lion.