(Sanskrit). ‘The All-good One’.

1. A Mahāyāna mythical or celestial Bodhisattva who is said to protect the Dharma. He is often depicted holding a wish-fulfilling gem and a lotus or book of the Dharma while riding on a white six-tusked elephant.

2. Drawing from earlier antecedents in Indian tantric works such as the Sarva-tathāgata-tattva-saṃgraha, in the Nyingma form of tantric Buddhism, Samantabhadra is the primordial Buddha (ādi-Buddha) who is the embodiment of enlightenment (bodhi) or ultimate reality (dharma-kāya). Iconcographically, he is depicted as a dark-blue nude figure embracing his white consort Samantabhadrī.

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