WaterIncenseBlue flowersButter lampsPatience under provocation
Invocation Approach
Tone
Cool steady refusal to move
Address
AkshobhyaImperturbable OneBuddha of the East
Relationship
The one who does not flinch
Warning
The mirror shows what you would rather not see
Resonance
The quick tempered those who must stay steady
Symbols
VajraMirrorEarth touching mudraBlue lotusElephant
Mythology Summary
Akshobhya, 'the Imperturbable', is the Buddha of the eastern quarter, whose pure land is Abhirati, and whose story is told in the Akshobhyatathagatasyavyuha Sutra: as a monk he vowed never to feel or show anger toward any being, and by that vow became the Buddha of the unshakable mind. In the five-Buddha mandalas he heads the vajra family in the east, and his wisdom is the mirror-like wisdom that reflects without distortion or preference. He is the deep blue figure with the left hand resting open in the lap and the right touching the earth, an image that points to the same gesture as the Buddha's own enlightenment under the bodhi tree.
Modern Practice
Tibetan practitioners visualise him to dissolve anger — the mirror of his wisdom used to watch a flash of rage arrive without acting on it — and he is one of the five Buddhas of the mandala offering and of confession practice. The Western misreading is to take his immovability as coldness; the tradition means a mind that cannot be knocked off its centre rather than one that feels nothing.