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VAJRASATTVA YAB-YUM
Vajrasattva-the Diamond, or Adamantine, Being-is the main deity employed for purification by practitioners of all levels of tantra. Depending on which type of practice is being followed, he can be visualized either alone or with the consort.
Vajrasattva is white in color, signifying his immaculate purity. Like Vajradhara, of whom he is an emanation, he holds a vajra symbolizing method in his right hand and the bell of wisdom in his left. Again, Vajrasattva wears the beautiful silken garments and jeweled ornaments of ancient Indian royalty.
The techniques of tantric transformation will not be able to produce their profound results as long as our present body, speech and mind remain contaminated by the impurities accumulated from our past unwholesome physical, verbal and mental actions. For our practices to succeed we must not only avoid such unskillful and destructive activities now and in the future, but we must cleanse ourselves of those negative imprints still with us from the past. Vajrasattva meditation is the chief method recommended by the various traditions of Vajrayana Buddhism to accomplish this cleansing, or purification. Furthermore, it is extremely effective for rectifying transgressions of the sacred pledges made by the disciple to the tantric master at the time of empowerment and for restoring whatever tantric commitments we may have broken.
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