"Vajrapani" Wielder of the Thunderbolt Linocut

WIELDER of the THUNDERBOLT

Louder and louder the deep thunder rolled, 

as through the myriad halls of some vast temple in the sky;

fiercer and brighter came the lightning;

more and more heavily the rain poured down...
The eye, partaking of the quickness of the flashing light,
saw in its every gleam a multitude of objects
which it could not see at steady noon in fifty times that period...
in a trembling, vivid, flickering instant, everything was clear and plain:
then came a flush of red into the yellow light;
a change to blue;
a brightness so intense that there was nothing else but light;
and then the deepest and profoundest darkness.
— Charles Dickens

Vajrapani is one of the oldest and most revered bodhisattvas in Buddhism (Source).  He represents the personification of awakened power and fearless energy in service of liberation.  He is not power as domination, but power as clarity, protection, and decisive compassion. 

Historically Vajrapani often appears on painted thangkas for meditation, teaching, and altars.  His image serves as a profound spiritual tool, embodying the energy to dispel ignorance, overcome obstacles, and protect practitioners from negative forces (Source).

Vajrapani's Role

"Holder of the Vajra": His name means "wielder of the thunderbolt," embodying the active, powerful aspect of Buddhahood.

Protector: He guards the Buddha and the Dharma (teachings).

Trinity of Bodhisattvas: He represents power, alongside Avalokiteśvara (compassion) and Mañjuśrī (wisdom). 

Meaning of the Vajra in Vajrapani's Hand

Power & Strength: A thunderbolt scepter (vajra) representing the irresistible force of enlightenment and the Buddha's power.

Dispelling Darkness: Its brilliance cuts through the darkness of delusion, ignorance, and negative emotions.

Indestructibility: It symbolizes the unchanging, diamond-hard nature of ultimate reality and the enlightened path.

Skillful Means: The power to subdue obstacles and forcefully guide beings towards awakening, often shown in his wrathful form.

Protection: It's a weapon against spiritual dangers, making practitioners invincible to attacks from negativity. 


Descriptions of Vajrapani

Wielder of the Vajra (Thunderbolt)

He embodies decisive action.  Where hesitation falters, Vajrapani moves, striking ignorance at its root.

Lord of Secrets

Vajrapani is keeper of esoteric knowledge, not hidden to exclude, but protected until the practitioner is ready to receive it.

Wrathful One

His fierce expression is not anger, but compassion moving at full speed.  Wrath here is urgency, not hatred.

Master of Unfathomable Mysteries

He upholds truth even in the densest darkness, remaining unshaken by fear, confusion, or resistance.

"...even those powers which appear to us terrifying and destructive, or hidden in the darkness of the depth, are as divine as those which we worship as embodiments of light and goodness."

— Lama Anagarika Govinda

SKETCH

When sketching Vajrapani I had to decide which form to draw...peaceful or wrathful.  I chose wrathful.  He is always shown holding a vajra in his right hand, but there were several options for the left hand.  I chose a bell, or ghanta.

While the vajra represents decisive, penetrating force, the bell introduces its counterweight.  In Vajrayana Buddhism, the vajra is often associated with the masculine principle: form, method, action, and skillful means.  The bell, or ghanta, embodies the feminine principle: wisdom, emptiness, and spacious awareness.  One does not dominate the other.  Together, they express wholeness.

Below are the important elements in my drawing with their accompanying meanings:

Vajra

Symbol of indestructible truth and decisive action (masculine).  It cuts through illusion without hesitation.

Bell (Ghanta)

Represents wisdom and emptiness (feminine).  Its sound reminds us that all phenomena arise and dissolve.  In ritual, the bell tempers power with awareness.

Lotus

Purity and awakening arising from the mud of samsara.  Enlightenment without denial of the world.

Flames

Transformative energy.  Fire burns away ignorance, delusion, and obstacles on the path to enlightenment (Source).

Crown of Skulls

Impermanence and the transcendence of ego.  The skulls represent conquered poisons of the mind.

Serpent Around the Shoulders

Awakened primal energy, often associated with wisdom transformed from instinct.

Tiger Skin Around the Waist

Mastery over raw emotion and fear.  The tiger’s ferocity is worn, not fought.

Dynamic Posture

His dynamic stance, often depicted in a semi-lunge or warrior-like pose, embodies energy, readiness, and the unwavering resolve to protect the Dharma and practitioners (Source).

Wrathful Expression

The fierce expression of Vajrapani symbolizes his role as a protector of the Dharma, warding off ignorance and negativity.  The wrath is not malevolent but compassionate, aimed at liberating beings from suffering (Source).

Scarf

Movement and wind energy.  It suggests the unseen forces that carry action into the world.

Complexion

Vajrapani is often depicted with a dark blue or deep azure complexion, symbolizing his vast, boundless nature and connection to the sky and primordial wisdom (Source).

Ceraunoscopy, n.  Divination by thunder and lightning. — The Century Dictionary, 1909

CARVING

This sketch sat around for a couple months as I got distracted by other projects.  The good part about that was every so often I would see it and make a minor improvement.  My schedule finally cleared, and in mid-November I was ready to carve.  I transferred the image to my plate by flipping it over and rubbing the back with a credit card.  Then the carving fun began! 

One of my favorite parts of the process is making these short videos.  This one shows days of carving in a little over a minute.  Turn your volume on! (Music by Vishal Sehgal from Pixabay)

“Girls like her were born in a storm. They have lightning in their souls. Thunder in their hearts. And chaos in their bones.”

― Nikita Gill

Below are a couple images of the plate after I removed the pencil marks.

TEST PRINT

Once the carving is finished it is wise to make a test print before officially printing.  Below you can see my original sketch, the plate, and the test print. 

I almost always make corrections to the plate at this point.  

I spent a day making fidgety corrections and then George helped me print.  Below I am looking very happy because all went well and printing was finished!

I realized Ma's extreme gentleness

and her extreme power

were the same force. 

— Andrew Harvey

BLACK AND WHITE PRINT

I knew this print would need some color to delineate the important elements, but it is always a good sign when I like it even in black and white.  And I felt happy when I saw the first print of Vajrapani staring up at me. 

If we didn't have cats I would dry all my prints on our radiators.  But we do have cats, and I had to use radiators that the cats can't reach.

For these two photos I shooed the cats out of the computer room for a bit because its the only place where the light is good in these darker winter days.

COLOR TEST

I rarely do this step, but I used colored pencil to make a guide before I painted.  This print had a lot going on and I didn't want to mistake a body part for a flame.  I found it very helpful to have this while painting.

Below is a video showing both the printing and coloring process.  (Music by Graham Capstick from Pixabay)

WATERCOLOR

For this print I started with watercolor and then used a few watercolor pencils to darken the color.  My desk is always a mess at this stage.

Below you can see the finished print.

I used metallic watercolor for the vajra, the bell, his jewelry, the lotus, and the tips of his fiery eyebrows.  It was hard to see in the photos, but is a fun touch to see in real life.

FRAME

I had to include a photo of him framed because this frame was weirdly part of my reason for making this piece.  When JoAnn fabrics was having their going-out-of-business sale I came across a three-pack of frames I liked.  I knew it was the perfect size to do a small icon painting and bought them with that intent.  One thing leads to another!

GOLD PRINT

While printing the black and white version I noticed I had quite a bit of gold ink in my supply.  I thought it might be fun to print this on blue paper.

I was happy to find this blue banana paper at Plaza Art and was pleased with how it turned out.

George says they look like prayer flags.

Here is a short video of printing gold Vajrapani. (Music by Ievgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay)

I had a very specific idea in my head how I would frame this one...with dark wood and a gold fillet.  I mocked it up below.

CONCLUSION

She,

In the dark,

Found light

Brighter than many ever see.

She, 

Within herself,

Found loveliness,

Through the soul's own master.

And now the world receives

From her dower:

The message of the strength

Of inner power.

—Langston Hughes

I know some of you might be wondering why I chose Vajrapani as my subject.  After purchasing the frames, I knew I wanted to do a small icon print.  Around this time I was also reading the book, "The Way of the White Clouds" by Lama Govinda.  His book is a spiritual autobiography and travelogue chronicling his travels through Tibet in the late 1940s, capturing the landscapes, monasteries, people, and spiritual atmosphere before the Chinese invasion.

One of my favorite scenes of the book is toward the beginning where he was seeking shelter for the night.  He came across the crumbling ruins of an ancient monastery built into the rocks of a high-walled gorge.  There, he met a small group of lamas who directed him to sleep in a room with a rock wall.  During the night he woke to a powerful and terrifying vision of Vajrapani.  "His body was thick-set and bulky, his feet wide apart, as if ready to jump: his raised, flame-like hair was adorned with human skulls, his right arm stretched out in a threatening gesture, wielding a diamond sceptre (vajra) in his hand, while the other hand held a ritual bell before his chest."  The vision morphs several times from the Buddha, to Vajrapani, to Manjushri, to Tara, to Avalokiteshvara (all great Bodhisattvas).  He is left with a feeling of great awe and joy and wrote, "'Who art Thou, Mighty One, Thou, who art knocking at the portals of my heart?" 

Prayers in the Buddhist sense are not requests to a power outside ourselves and for personal advantages but the calling up of the forces that dwell within ourselves and that can only be effective if we are free from selfish desires.
— Lama Anagarika Govinda

So when I began looking for an image for my print, Vajrapani came to mind.  As soon as I saw his stocky blue body and hair of flames I knew he was a strong contender.  I researched the other boddhisattvas in the trinity of Tibetan Buddhism, Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara, and again felt most drawn to Vajrapani's wrathful image.  In addition, out of the three essential qualities for enlightenment that they represent...power, wisdom, and compassion...I felt I needed some help with the first.  "Powerful" is not a word I think of when describing myself.  So I embarked on a journey to make an image of Vajrapani with the hope that I might learn something about power and myself along the way.  

As you know if you have been following this blog, I do not undertake projects lightly or willy nilly.  And I believe that life has a way of teaching me with each and every project I take on.  I am dead serious when I talk about finding my power.  I believe that we should be careful with our words, our intentions, and our time.  Because where we put our attention is where our life flows.  I don't know where this endeavor will take me, but I am both nervous and excited to see what the Wielder of the Thunderbolt has to teach me about power.  I bow deeply to the Wrathful One and his Unfathomable Mysteries.

"You will have to be very brave, my dear.  The process is no joke."
—Astrid Delleuze       

"Perhaps more than anything, to become Elder is to be comfortable with your place in the world, finally to have understood where all of your various journeys have been leading you, to understand your gifts as well as your limitations, and to tightly focus those gifts on service to the Earth and community.  To become the Elder who can express her wrath rather than her rage, and warn of the dire consequences of ignoring it, is to have stepped fully into your own power as a woman.  To become Elder is to have found the courage to reclaim the moral authority which we once lost.  That reclaiming takes courage, because women have been so very well trained to be afraid -- and it isn't always our impotence which makes us most afraid: it's our power.  We are not accustomed to it, and so we fear its consequences.  To step into your power means to trust yourself, your instincts and your intuition.  To let the fear go, and the shame, and tell the stories which need to be told."
—Sharon Blackie

This print is now available at NessyPress.com.