Vajra

Vajra (in Longchenpa’s phrase “basic space of the vajra heart essence”)

🔥🔥🔥Vajra (Skt. vajra, Tib. dorje) literally means “thunderbolt,” “diamond,” or “adamantine,” and in Vajrayana it signifies what is indestructible, immutable, and nondual. In Longchenpa’s expression “the basic space of the vajra heart essence,” vajra points to the indestructible, adamantine nature of primordial awareness itself—the unchanging, ever-present heart essence of reality (Samantabhadra/rigpa) that cannot be harmed, altered, or diminished by any samsaric condition. Here, “vajra heart essence” names the indestructible heart of primordial buddhahood, whose “basic space” is the infinite, open expanse of that awareness.

A Vajra is said to have the properties of the diamond (indestructibility) and a thunderbolt (irresistible force). In Buddhism and Hinduism, the Vajra represents the ‘resoluteness of the spirit’.