Adi-Buddha

A painting depicting Samantabhadra in union with his consort Samantabhadri.

In the Nyingma School, the Adi-Buddha is called Samantabhadra (Skt.; Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོ་, Kuntu Zangpo; Wyl. kun tu bzang po). Nyingma art often depicts this figure as a naked blue Buddha. According to Dzogchen Ponlop:

The color blue symbolizes the expansive, unchanging quality of space, which is the ground of all arisings, the basis of all appearances, and the source of all phenomena. The absence of robes symbolizes the genuine reality beyond any dualistic, conceptual, or philosophical clothing. That is the dharmakaya buddha: the genuine body of absolute truth.[8]

According to Jim Valby (a translator of the Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra), in the Nyingma school's Dzogchen tradition, Samantabhadra ("All-Good") is not a God but "our timeless Pure Perfect Presence beyond cause and effect."[9] In Nyingma, Samantabhadra is also considered to be the source of all Dzogchen teachings.[8]

The Kunjed Gyalpo Tantra calls Samantabhadra the "All-Creating King" (Tib. Kunjed Gyalpo), because all phenomena are said to be manifestations or displays of Samantabhadra. According to Namkhai Norbu, this does not mean there is some being called Samantabhadra that creates the universe, instead what it refers to is that all things arise from "the state of consciousness Samantabhadra, the state of Dharmakaya."[10] In this sense, Samantabhadra is seen as being a symbolic personification of the ground or basis (ghzi) in Dzogchen thought.[11][12]

Namkhai Norbu explains that the Dzogchen idea of the Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra "should be mainly understood as a metaphor to enable us to discover our real condition." He further adds that:

If we deem Samantabhadra an individual being, we are far from the true meaning. In reality, he denotes our potentiality that, even though at the present moment we are in samsara, has never been conditioned by dualism. From the beginning, the state of the individual has been pure and always remains pure: this is what Samantabhadra represents. But when we fall into conditioning, it is as if we are no longer Samantabhadra because we are ignorant of our true nature. So what is called the primordial Buddha, or Adibuddha, is only a metaphor for our true condition.[13]

Karl Brunnhölzl states:

Longchenpa's Treasure Trove of Scriptures...explains that Samantabhadra—one of the most common Dzogchen names for the state of original buddhahood—is nothing other than the primordial, innate awareness that is naturally free, even before any notions of "buddhas" or "sentient beings" have emerged.[14]

In Dzogchen thought, there are said to be five aspects of Samantabhadra. Longchenpa explains these as follows:

• Samantabhadra as teacher: "Means that all buddhas while residing in the forms of the sambhogakaya and the dharmakaya in Akaniṣṭha, promote the welfare of all sentient beings through sending forth countless emanations to all the distinct realms of those to be guided."[15]
• Samantabhadra as ground: "Is the dharmata of all phenomena — suchness. This is also called "Samantabhadra as nature".[15]
• Samantabhadra as adornment: "The appearance of all phenomena, which are self-arising as the play of the bearers of the nature of phenomena. This consists of all that is completely pure, in that its nature is illusory."[15]
• Samantabhadra as awareness: "self arising wisdom, the sugata heart," i.e. the Buddha-nature described in the Uttaratantra.[15]
• Samantabhadra as realization: "The fundamental basic nature. Through realizing it well, the eyes of freedom are found. This is also called "Samantabhadra as the path."[15]

Vesna Wallace describes the concept of Ādibuddha in the Kalachakra tradition as follows:

when the Kalacakra tradition speaks of the Ādibuddha in the sense of a beginningless and endless Buddha, it is referring to the innate gnosis that pervades the minds of all sentient beings and stands as the basis of both samsara and nirvana. Whereas, when it speaks of the Ādibuddha as the one who first attained perfect enlightenment by means of imperishable bliss, and when it asserts the necessity of acquiring merit and knowledge in order to attain perfect Buddhahood, it is referring to the actual realization of one's own innate gnosis. Thus, one could say that in the Kalacakra tradition, Ādibuddha refers to the ultimate nature of one's own mind and to the one who has realized the innate nature of one's own mind by means of purificatory practices.[16]

The Guhyasamāja Tantra calls Vajradhāra (the "Vajra holder"),

the Teacher, who is bowed to by all the Buddhas, best of the three vajras, best of the great best, supreme lord of the three vajras.[4]

Alex Wayman notes that the Pradīpoddyotana, a tantric commentary, explains that the "three vajras" are the three mysteries of Body, Speech, and Mind, which are the displays of the Ādibuddha. Wayman further writes:

Tsong-kha-pa's Mchan-'grel explains the "lord of body": displays simultaneously innumerable materializations of body; "lord of speech": teaches the Dharma simultaneously to boundless sentient beings each in his own language; "lord of mind": understands all the knowable which seems impossible.[1]

According to the 14th Dalai Lama, the Ādibuddha is also seen in Mahayana Buddhism as representation of the universe, its laws and its true nature, as a source of enlightenment and karmic manifestations and a representation of the Trikaya.[17]