Ādi-Buddha

Ādi-Buddha (devanāgarī: आदि बुद्ध) (Tibetan: Dang-po'i sangs-rgyas) is a compound Sanskrit term from ādi ("first") and buddha, meaning the "Primordial Buddha." In Vajrayana Buddhism the term refers to a self-emanating, self-originating Buddha, present before anything else existed. It is not said to be the creator, but the originator of all things.

In Vajrayana Buddhism

Adi-Buddha can be regarded as a deity in an emanationist sense. Though all Buddhist figures are said to be emanations of the Adi-Buddha, certain famous Bodhisattvas are revered as its actual personality (often referred to as Dharmakāya, or "body of reality"). For example, in the Nyingma school Samantabhadra is Adibuddha, in the sense of Spirit of Truth. In the Gelug and Kagyu schools Vajradhara (Tib. Dorje Chang) is regarded as Adi-Buddha, while in Shingon Buddhism it is Vairocana (Jap. Dainchi Nyorai).

Mme. Blavatsky follows the tradition of the Gelug school identifying Adi-Buddha with Vajradhara:

Âdi-Buddha is Vajradhara, and the Dhyâni-Buddhas are Vajrasattva; yet though these two are different Beings on their respective planes, they are identical in fact, one acting through the other, as a Dhyâni through a human Buddha.)".

However, in another passage Vajradhara is seen rather as the First Logos radiating from the Absolute:

In the esoteric, and even exoteric Buddhism of the North, Adi Buddha (Chogi dangpoi sangye), the One unknown, without beginning or end, identical with Parabrahm and Ain-Soph, emits a bright ray from its darkness.
This is the Logos (the first), or Vajradhara, the Supreme Buddha (also called Dorjechang). SDI, 571.</ref>

In Theosophy

Besides the intepretation in terms of the manifestations of the Buddhas, the Theosophical literature regards Adi-Buddha as Parabrahman or sometimes as an aspect of it, related to Wisdom. For example, H. P. Blavatsky says that Ādi-Buddha is "the Wisdom-Principle, which is Absolute, and therefore out of space and time". Although this interpretation may sound unorthodox from the Buddhist point of view, she says in a footnote that what she states is an esoteric intepretation "taken from the secret portions of Dus-Kyi Khorlo (Kâla-Chakra, in Sanskrit, or the “Wheel of Time,” or duration)". In other writings she also defines Adi-Buddha as "Primordial Universal Wisdom" (TG, 339) and a symbol of "the universal and abstract principle of divine wisdom." (TG 343)

Adi-Buddhi

A related term is Adi-Buddhi. Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

“Amida” is the Senzar form of “Âdi”; “Âdi-Buddhi” and “Âdi-Buddha,”† as already shown, existed ages ago as a Sanskrit term for “Primeval Soul” and “Wisdom”

In one of the Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett there is a mention to "Adi-Buddhi", which is identified with Yin Sin or "the one form of existence" and also with Dharmakāya "the mystic, universally diffused essence." Here again "Adi-Budhhi" is related to universal wisdom and intelligence: "the aggregate intelligence of the universal intelligences including that of the Dhyan Chohans even of the highest order" and "the all-pervading supreme and absolute intelligence with its periodically manifesting Divinity — Avalokiteshvara" In a similar vein, Mme. Blavatsky wrote that "Parabrahman or Adi-Buddha is eternally manifesting itself as Jivatma (7th principle) or Avalokiteswara".

Further reading

• Ādi-Buddha at Theosopedia