Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin is a

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...

revered in

Mahāyāna Buddhism Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...

. He is one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas with

Mañjuśrī Manjushri () is a ''bodhisattva'' who represents ''Prajñā (Buddhism), prajñā'' (transcendent wisdom) of the Buddhas in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The name "Mañjuśrī" is a combination of Sanskrit word "wikt:%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%9E%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9C%E0 ...

, Samantabhadra,

Avalokiteśvara In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (meaning "the lord who looks down", International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ), also known as Lokeśvara ("Lord of the World") and Chenrezig (in Tibetan), is a Bodhisattva#Bhūmis (stages), tenth-level bodhisattva associ ...

Mahāsthāmaprāpta Mahāsthāmaprāpta is a bodhisattva mahāsattva who represents the power of wisdom. His name literally means "arrival of the great strength". Mahāsthāmaprāpta is one of the Eight Great Bodhisattvas in Mahayana Buddhism, along with Mañju ...

Ākāśagarbha Ākāśagarbha (, Standard Tibetan: ''Namkha'i Nyingpo'') is a bodhisattva in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Buddhism who is associated with the great element ('' mahābhūta'') of space ( ''ākāśa''). Overview Ākāśagarbha is regarded as on ...

, Kṣitigarbha and

Maitreya Maitreya (Sanskrit) or Metteyya (Pali), is a bodhisattva who is regarded as the future Buddhahood, Buddha of this world in all schools of Buddhism, prophesied to become Maitreya Buddha or Metteyya Buddha.Williams, Paul. ''Mahayana Buddhism: Th ...

. His name means "He who blocks (viṣkambhin) all of the hindrances (sarva nivāraṇa)."

Role

He is invoked to remove or eliminate all the obstacles to insure a successful meditation.

Nivāraṇa

Although the eight Mahāsattvas belong to the current Mahāyāna, the term nivāraṇa is most commonly used in the Theravada texts where it refers to the five mental obstacles: desire (kamacchanda), hostility (vyapada), laziness (thinamiddha), distraction and worry (uddhachcha-kukuchcha), doubts (vichikicha) towards the

Three Jewels In Buddhism, refuge or taking refuge refers to a religious practice which often includes a prayer or recitation performed at the beginning of the day or of a practice session. Its object is typically the Three Jewels (also known as the Triple ...

. Sarvanivāraṇaviṣkambhi is best known to meditators and is not an important subject to individual worship like the other seven mahāsattvas. In terms of the name of the bodhisattva himself, the word is most often spelt in the irregular form ''nīvaraṇa''.

In Vajrayāna

In Tantric Buddhism, he is usually placed in the lineage of

Amoghasiddhi Amoghasiddhi (Devanagari: अमोघसिद्धि) is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas of the Mahayana and Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism. He is associated with the accomplishment of the Buddhist path and of the destruction of the poison o ...

Buddha, one of the five Dhyani Buddhas, more rarely of

Akshobhya Akshobhya (, ''Akṣobhya'', "Immovable One"; ) is one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas, a product of the Adibuddha, who represents consciousness as an aspect of reality. By convention he is located in the east of the Diamond Realm and is the lor ...

Buddha. He is sometimes considered a form of Vajrapāṇi, though this is most likely a confusion with the mahāsattva Mahāsthāmāprāpta which Vajrapāṇi is one of its incarnations.

Iconography

In iconography, he has often a flower in one hand, sometimes with a wishing gem ( cintāmaṇi).

Sutras concerned

He is mentioned in the

Lotus Sutra The ''Lotus Sūtra'' (Sanskrit: ''Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtram'', ''Sūtra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma'', zh, p=Fǎhuá jīng, l=Dharma Flower Sutra) is one of the most influential and venerated Buddhist Mahāyāna sūtras. ...

, in which he pays homage to Avalokiteśvara, and in the

Mahavairocana Tantra Vairocana (from Sanskrit: Vi+rocana, "from the sun" or "belonging to the sun", "Solar", or "Shining"), also known as Mahāvairocana (Great Vairocana), is a major Buddha from Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Vairocana is often interpreted, in texts ...

. He is also the main interlocutor in Ratnamegha and Tathāgata-guṇa-jñānācintya-viṣayāvatāra-nirdeśa sutras.

Mantra

The mantra of this great bodhisattva to remove all obstacles and disturbances mentioned in the

Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra The ''Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra'' (''Vairocana, Vairocana’s Awakening Sutra'', ), also known as the ''Mahāvairocana Tantra'' (; ; also known as 大日經 :zh-tw:大日經, ''Da Ri Jing'') is an important Vajrayana Buddhist text composed ...

is as follows: In the Dharanisamgraha (Collected Dharanis), the bodhisattva's spell is: