Samaya » Tibet Dharma

Q: What does samaya mean in Buddhism?

In Buddhism, the meaning of samaya is sacred bond . It signifies an unbreakable vow between the practitioner and guru-yidam that remains until enlightenment.

Samaya (Tib. – damtsig) means sacred bond or vow. Samaya is the connection to the 3 roots of guru, yidam, and dharmapala that the meditator takes on in the Vajrayana in order to attain enlightenment.

Samaya in Buddhism

Samaya is an indispensable method to enter the Vajrayana. Without it, enlightenment is not possible. Maintaining it well, enlightenment is inevitable. Even without other practice, simply maintaining good samaya is said to bring enlightenment in 13 lifetimes. With good meditation and view, that can happen in a single lifetime.

Samaya Meaning

The meaning of samaya is word of honor. The Tibetan translation tam-tsig means sacred bond. The intent is to bind the mind to enlightenment and to the tantric path for as many lifetimes as it takes to attain enlightenment. Lineage teacher have also used other meanings:

Bind one to enlightenment
Burn up the kleshas
Jewel of samaya, giving all the benefits
Command of samaya to see yourself as the deity

Samaya is a considerable protection to maintain one’s connection to the path, and a core method of bringing one to enlightenment. Samaya, the tantric vow, has a number of different manifestations, but they primarily break into the general and special Samayas.

General Samayas

Although Mahamudra has no cause, samaya is the cause of Mahamudra
Although Mahamudra has no conditions, samaya is the condition of Mahamudra
Gampopa

The general Samayas apply to the Vajrayana in general. Generally, they are not formally given, although they can be. However, at times, teachers will create a more formal version of the Samaya vow. The primary and core vow is to maintain a direct connection to sacredness, to the absolute reality.

It is said that if a practitioner maintains a pure Samaya, then in 13 lifetimes they will become enlightened, even without practice. But keeping samaya is not easy. Even Atisha, who wrote the Lojang slogans, said that it was easy to keep the Hinayana and Mahayana vows, but the Vajrayana vows were almost impossible. He sought a superior means to maintain those vows. Feast is a primary means to purify them.

The metaphor for samaya is a snake in a bamboo tube. It has only 2 directions – up to enlightenment or down to the hells. If the person maintains and constantly purifies their samaya, all actions and practices take them up. If they violate samaya and fail to purify it, all actions bring them down and no practices help.

Pure Perception aka Sacred Outlook

Maintaining pure perception or sacred outlook means maintaining the mind in its own nature without moving into distorted conceptual understandings of reality. When you see the purity of everything experienced, thoughts and emotions will arise and be released.

This is the core samaya vow, in the deepest sense. Maintaining the mind’s perception beyond all judgments, directly into the Rigpa or pure awareness is the most direct path to enlightenment. The violations of the general samayas indicate that this core bond is inactive. If someone is genuinely resting in the native state, then samaya is guaranteed. A person in that state cannot break samaya, no matter what they do.

Do not let this be confusing. It means that someone in this state would behave according to the relative samayas. They would naturally not violate samaya. If they have students, they may appear to in order to teach. However, it is impossible to tell if someone is genuinely in the native state because it is entirely an inner, perceiving reality. It is not like their height, weight or eye color, which can clearly be seen.

14 Root Downfalls to Samaya

Disparaging the Guru
Disobeying the Buddha’s instructions (Hinayana and Mahayana)
Being angry with a Vajra brother or sister (one you share samaya with)
Setting aside love for any sentient being
Abandoning the desire for enlightenment – bodhicitta
Disrespecting the lower teachings (or other spiritual traditions)
Teaching secret methods to the unprepared
Dispraising the body
Seeing phenomena as impure
Supporting enemies of the dharma
Definitively saying phenomena are definable (ie, everything is emptiness)
Causing someone of faith to lose faith
Not having the necessary articles of practice
Disparaging women, who are the essence of wisdom

These are technically called violations or downfalls of Samaya, though most people speak of them as the 14 Samaya vows. The general idea behind the violations is if the meditator does not engage in them, then their Samaya vow will be maintained purely. It’s a sort of back door to Samaya because if someone is resting in enlightenment, then they would not violate these precepts.

The first is not to disparage one’s guru or any realized being for that matter. The second is to not disobey the command of the Buddha, meaning any Hinayana and Mahayana teachings of not causing harm and benefiting others. The third is to not be angry with one’s vajra brothers and sisters. Minor irritations and so forth are not considered violations, but if you sustain anger for an extended period of time, you’re not purifying if that’s considered a violation.

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The fourth is abandoning compassion for sentient beings. The fourth is abandoning the absolute bodhicitta to attain enlightenment. The sixth downfall is disparaging other traditions. The seventh is telling the uninitiated the secret teachings. This can cause them to doubt the dharma because they lack the proper foundation for understanding.

The eighth is to disparage the body because it is pure in itself and a vehicle from enlightenment. The ninth is to fail to see all phenomena is inherently pure. The tenth is to have compassion for enemies of the Dharma or to love the enemies of the Dharma. If you allow what they’re doing to be accomplished rather than trying to stop it, if you can, that is a violation. The eleventh is to regard things as definitively empty or some other conceptual view of the absolute nature.

The twelfth is to cause someone who is a Dharma practitioner to become discouraged and abandon the Dharma. The thirteenth is to not have the things necessary for tantric practice available. This generally has to do with feast practice and alcohol and meat substances. And the last is to disparage women who are the essence of wisdom.

The eight branch samayas are somewhat similar, sort of less extreme versions of these as branch violations.

Purifying Samaya

The samayas are listed in order of importance, the key one being to not disparage the guru. There are a number of methods of purifying samaya. Feast is said to be the best form. One of the ideas of samaya is that you will violate it unintentionally, getting dust on the mirro. After which, you clean it off by refreshing it through your dharma practice.

The tsok puja, or the feast offering of the deity is the primary means to purify samaya. The feast offering is generally doing the basic liturgical practice with one or a few extra sections added in. Often there are specific offerings to purify various violations through confession and destruction of obstacles and so forth. An offering to the guru and the higher beings purifies samaya in general. It’s also generally a shortish feast offering liturgy as part of it that can be repeated multiple times as a purifier. Repitition enhances its effect.

Specific Samayas

Any tantra or tantric practice or a yidam typically comes with their own samayas. These can be quite different from the general samayas. An example might be to never take life. One of the highest samayas is the six precepts of Tilopa.

There are thousands of these specific samayas in different traditions. Obviously, no tantric practitioner has to keep all of them since they are specific to particular practices. But among the higher samayas might be to never dissimulate, or to speak exactly what you think when you think it.

Another is to not do any form of conceptual practice. Because from the very highest levels looking downward, those conceptual practices are considered fabrications and strayings from the essential nature. Apparently, one teacher gave a samaya to never again eat at McDonald’s to some students purifying samaya.

The samaya vows are considered virtually impossible to truly keep, but easy to purify.

Samaya Name Meaning

The samaya name happens with some sadhanas. The name should be kept secret, shared only with those initiated into that particular practice. The name is said to be that which you can use to attain enlightenment.

faq

What does samaya mean in Buddhism?

In Buddhism, the meaning of samaya is sacred bond. It signifies an unbreakable vow between the practitioner and guru-yidam that remains until enlightenment.

What happens if you break Samaya?

If you break samaya, you should repair it through confession and purification. A minor breakage, like being angry with someone, can be repaired with the 100-syllable mantra and remorse. A more severe one might require a feast offering to the deity.

What is a samaya being?

A samaya being or samayasattva is the initial visualized form of the yidam. A jnanasattva, or wisdom being, is invited to enter the samayasattva. This works to dissolve the dualistic barrier and direct the mind toward wisdom.