Bīja · बीज · the seed syllable

In Vajrayāna practice a deity is not merely named by a syllable — the syllable is the deity's body in its subtlest form. OṂ, ĀḤ, HŪṂ; HRĪḤ for Avalokiteśvara; the practitioner visualises the letter, dissolves into it, arises from it. The whole seed of a Buddha-form is one written mark, and Sanskrit letters are treated as the actual substance of what they invoke. Tehiru's own foundation says the same thing in Hebrew. The Sefer Yetzirah has the letters engraved, hewn, weighed and combined into everything that exists; the Zohar opens with the twenty-two auditioning before the Throne, each pleading its own case; the 72-Name is a wall of triplets, each a living power. Two traditions with no contact and one identical conviction: that a letter is not a symbol for a thing but a thing. The parting is quiet and total — the Hebrew letters spell the Name of a God who answers, and the bīja seeds a Buddha who was never a someone in the first place.