Five Pure Lights
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The Five Pure Lights (Wylie: 'od lnga) is an essential teaching in the Dzogchen tradition of Bon and Tibetan Buddhism. For the deluded, matter seems to appear. This is due to non-recognition of the five lights. Matter includes the mahābhūta or classical elements, namely: space, air, water, fire, earth. Knowledge (rigpa) is the absence of delusion regarding the display of the five lights. This level of realization is called rainbow body.
Basis (gzhi)
In the basis (Tibetan: གཞི, Wylie: gzhi) there were neutral awarenesses (sh shes pa lung ma bstan) that did not recognize themselves. (Dzogchen texts actually do not distinguish whether this neutral awareness is one or multiple.) This non-recognition was the innate ignorance. Due to traces of action and affliction from a previous universe, the basis became stirred and the Five Pure Lights shone out. When a neutral awareness recognized the lights as its own display, then that was Samantabhadra (immediate liberation without the performance of virtue). Other neutral awarenesses did not recognize the lights as their own display, and thus imputed "other" onto the lights. This imputation of "self" and "other" was the imputing ignorance. This ignorance started sentient beings and samsara (even without non-virtue having been committed). Yet everything is illusory, since the basis never displays as anything other than the five lights.
For the deluded, matter seems to appear. This is due to non-recognition of the five lights. Matter includes the mahābhūta or classical elements, namely: space, air, water, fire, earth. The illusion of matter includes even the formless realms and the minds of sentient beings. For example, the beings of the formless realms are made of subtle matter. And the mind of a human is merely matter, specifically vayu (wind, air).
The Five Pure Lights are essentially the
In the
Texts
The Five Pure Lights are also evident in the
See also
- Five Dhyani Buddhas, with colours associated with the different deities
Notes
- Caveat lector: 'gaND-I' is a transcription of the Tibetan as per the Extended Wylie Transcription System of Garson & Germano (2001). Conversely, Gyurme et al. (2005: p.433) employ the transcription 'gaṇḍĪ', unfortunately, excavation of this text furnished no key to the Wylie extension employed nor the title rendered in Tibetan script. Hence, the Tibetan has been tentatively reconstructed from this transcription as གཎཌཱི following Garson & Germano (2001) and the pool of phonemic and orthographic possibilities.
References
Citations
- ^ Keown (2003), p. 209.
- ^ Wangyal (2002), p. 9.
- ^ Wangyal (2002), p. 8.
Works cited
- Keown, Damien, ed. (2003). A Dictionary of Buddhism. Hodge, Stephen; Jones, Charles; Tinti, Paola. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860560-9.
- ISBN 1-55939-176-6.
Further reading
- Dorje, Gyurme (trans.), Coleman, Graham, with Thupten Jinpa (eds.) (2005). The Tibetan Book of the Dead [English title]: The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate States [Tibetan title]; composed by ISBN 978-0-14-045529-8(the first complete translation)
- Garson, Nathaniel & Germano, David (2001). Extended Wylie Transliteration Scheme. University of Virginia.
- Rinpoche, Dudjom (1991). The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: its Fundamentals and History. Two Volumes. Translated and edited by Gyurme Dorje with Matthew Kapstein. Wisdom Publications, Boston. ISBN 0-86171-087-8
- Rinpoche, Tenzin Wangyal (2002). Wonders of the Natural Mind. Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York.
- Scheidegger, Daniel (2007). "Different Sets of Light-Channels in the Instruction Series of Rdzogs chen" in Revue d'Études Tibétaines. Source: [1] (accessed: Wednesday March 7, 2012)