WaterFlowersIncenseLightDedication of meritActing well toward others
Invocation Approach
Tone
Vast equanimous all inclusive
Address
SamantabhadraUniversal WorthyPuxianKuntu Zangpo
Relationship
The practice itself
Warning
He is your own nature which is easy to miss
Resonance
Practitioners who keep going
Symbols
Six tusked elephantWish granting jewelLotusVajraBhadracarya vows
Mythology Summary
Samantabhadra, 'universal worthy', is the bodhisattva of practice and vows: his ten great vows — the Bhadracaryapranidhana — close the Gandavyuha and so the Avatamsaka sutra, and they are the model for the dedication of merit that ends nearly every Mahayana session. In Huayan, and in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism (Puxian, Fugen), he rides a six-tusked white elephant and flanks Vairocana with Manjushri, the pair standing for practice and wisdom. In the Nyingma school the same name, Kuntu Zangpo, is given to the primordial Buddha — the dharmakaya itself, depicted naked and blue, often in union with Samantabhadri — which is a different figure with the same name and a different job.
Modern Practice
His vows are recited as the closing dedication of practice, and 'Samantabhadra's aspiration' (the Bhadracarya) is chanted daily in many monasteries. Practitioners also work with him as the ordinary discipline of continuing: the vow is not a mood but a thing renewed, which is why he is the bodhisattva of practice rather than of insight.