The Three Vajras

Vajrayana Buddhist Refuge
Outer — Triple Gem	Buddha	Dharma	Sangha
Inner — Three Roots	Guru	Yidam	Dakini
Ultimate — Trikaya	Dharmakaya	Sambhogakaya	Nirmanakaya
Three Vajras	Mind	Speech	Body

 

The 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 (yon tan), and marks (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.

When informed by tantric views of embodiment, the physical body is understood as a Sacred Mandala (lus kyi dkyil).

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)."

The bīja corresponding to the Three Vajras are:

white om (enlightened body)
a red ah (enlightened speech)
blue hum (enlightened mind)

The triple continua of body-speech-mind are intimately related to the Dzogchen doctrine of "sound, light and rays" (sgra 'od zer gsum) as a passage of "The Teaching on the Meaning of the Twelve Child Tantras" (rgyud bu chung bcu gnyis kyi don bstan pa) states:

From the Basis All empty without cause

Sound the dynamic potential of the Dimension arises

 

From the Awareness empty without cause

Light the dynamic potential of Primordial Wisdom appears

 

From the Inseparability empty without cause

Rays the dynamic potential of the Essence appear

 

When sound light and rays are mistakenly taken as instrumental causes

That ignorance turns into the delusion of body speech and mind

The result is wandering in the circle of the three spheres [samsara]

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
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 Kulayaraja 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 (Dzogchen).