DECODING THE FLESH RAINBOW:
ENLIGHTENED BODIES OF
DZOGCHEN
The bodily vessel
becomes elemental light,
A melting stream of
divine ambrosia above
In a mass of reality’s
light
Conceptions of the six
aggregates are exhausted.[1]
- The Garland of Gems
The Buddhisms[2] that
infiltrated Tibet from its surrounding regions of Nepal, China, and India,
beginning in the eighth century, were dominated by tantric methods and
Mahayanist philosophies. It is
incredibly difficult to come up with a definitive statement about Tantric
Buddhism. This is primarily due to
the wide variety of richly esoteric, obscure methods that fall under its purview. However, it is possible to discern
common thematic threads that bind together the world of Tantric Buddhism. One recurrent tenet is the centrality
of the human body in the development of tantric realization. Though not unique to tantric practices
or to Buddhism, body-centered methods of spiritual enlightenment are a key to
understanding the Buddhisms of Tibet.
According to Buddhist scholar Paul Williams, “The body, its strata and
potential, forms the principal theme for [Tantric Buddhist} thought and
practice.”[3] Indeed, “the concept of a (tantric) body can be understood as a
broader category that extends from a physical body, to an immaterial
perceptible form, and to pure nondual awareness.”[4]
Tantric methods employ the body
in order to engage with the subtlest levels of consciousness. Tantra uses
physicality as a means to develop realization of highly esoteric states of
awareness. Through tantric
methods, the contents of the physical body are married to subtle levels of
consciousness in order to catalyze transmutations of flesh and bone into what
is sometimes referred to as “Gnostic bodies” or “forms of emptiness.”[5]
The substances of alchemical tantric transformation are encapsulated through
language that begs the imagination. ‘Light’, ‘nectar’, ‘bliss’, ‘rainbows’,
‘imaginal bodies’, ‘dream bodies’, ‘illusory bodies’ and ‘subtle bodies’ are
just some examples of the fantastical ways that the fruits of tantric practice
are described.
One such body
phenomenon that sprouts from a particular set of methods found in the Nyingma
School of Tibetan Buddhism is rainbow bodies. Rainbow bodies are distinctive from other tantric
manifestations of bodily gnosis because they are understood to unfold as a “physical
event,” whereas most tantric alchemy unfolds as a subjective experience within
the consciousness of the practitioner. [6] Rainbow bodies are marked by “a
physical transformation, in which the subtlest nature of the body, its affinity
with ether and light, is manifestly disclosed.”[7]
Within this tradition, great masters who reach the highest levels of attainment
are able to manifest rainbow bodies at death. Their corpses reportedly
“transmute into lights, rays, and luminous spheres,” shrink down and ultimately
dissolve, often leaving behind only hair and nails.[8]
This kind of esoteric exhibition is considered by the Nyingma School to be a
demonstration of the highest spiritual goal in Buddhism, the attainment of
Buddhahood.[9]
This
paper will examine the historical and traditional context of the rainbow body
phenomena within the Nyingma tradition and Tibetan Buddhism at large. It will
highlight the distinctive characteristics of rainbow bodies by contrasting them
with a proximal Tibetan Buddhist system of alchemical body methods. It will explore the specific practices
that are said to culminate in rainbow bodies. Lastly, this paper will look at
both historical and modern examples of rainbow body manifestations as they
appear throughout the hagiographies and biographies of the Nyingma tradition.[10]
Background and Context
There are two classifications of
tantra found in Tibetan Buddhism: The new tantra and old tantra traditions. The
new tantra tradition is rooted in the second wave of Buddhism that hit Tibet in
the 13th and 14th centuries. The Gelupa, Sakya, and Kagyu
Schools institute the new tantra systems. The old tantra tradition that claims
its roots in the first diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet in the 8th
century, is preserved within the Nyingma School.[11] For the most part the old and new
systems mirror each other. The new tantra tradition places its tantric system
into four classes or vehicles, Kriya,
Carya, Yoga, and Anuttarayoga.
Old tantra employs a nine vehicle system that “in practice is not very
different from the new tantra four-fold system.”[12]
The nine vehicles are broken down as follows: The first three classes are
non-tantric methods, the middle three classes correspond to the first three
classes of new tantra teachings and the last three classes “refer to three
stages of what are in new tantra terms Anuttarayoga
tantras.”[13]
However, the ninth and highest vehicle in the old tantra classification system
identifies with a unique set of post-tantric practices called Dzogchen or Atiyoga. Dzogchen sees
itself as the pinnacle of all Buddhist teachings. According to Dzogchen master
Nyoshul Khenpo: “ ‘Ati’ means peak, because with the view from above, from the
very top of the mountain, you can see all the sides of the mountain, and all
the paths leading up from below.”[14]
Adherents believe the Dzogchen teachings
to be the fastest, most powerful methods within all of Buddhism, baring the
fruit of complete Buddhahood in one human lifetime. The “sign of this spiritual perfection,” or the fruition of
Buddhahood, within the context of the Dzogchen
teachings is associated with the
manifestation of rainbow bodies.[15]
Dzogchen (“The Great Perfection”) is a class of practices that emphasizes the experience of a
“primal spontaneity,” sometimes considered parallel to the teachings of Chan
Buddhism.[16]
To its adherents, Dzogchen is
not a school or system of philosophy, but rather a view of reality that is
based on a profound understanding of the luminous nature of mind.[17]
This luminous mind is believed to be the primordial base of all experience,
“the world being nothing but (luminous mind’s) own illusory project.”[18] From time immemorial, this mind has lost itself in illusion,
obscuring its own pervasive luminosity.
Dzogchen teacher and scholar John Myrdhin Reynolds lucidly
explains the relationship between intrinsic luminosity and illusion:
Everything that arises as
manifest phenomena, consisting of sounds, lights, and rays, whether as pure
vision or impure karmic vision, is part of one’s own potentiality, the
manifesting of the energy of ones intrinsic awareness. This energy, in the form of light,
originates in the heart of the individual. This internal luminosity, projected outside the heart,
manifests in external space as something apparently real and substantial, like
a cinema show projected onto a great screen surrounding the individual on all
sides. One becomes lost in the fascinating display, as if one were caught up in
a dream where everything seems objective, solid, and real.[19]
Dzogchen claims to recover this intrinsic nature through a “direct
confrontation with awareness” of the luminous mind given via transmission “from
a qualified master to a student.”[20]
All methods taught in Dzogchen exist
to recognize and maintain awareness of this “primordial abiding mode of one’s mind.”[21] According to the Dzogchen teachings, the awareness of this natural luminosity leads
not only to a marked increase of positive mental and emotional experiences,
but, if mastered, can also be physically expressed at death in the form of a
rainbow body. Translator and Dzogchen practitioner Tulku Thondup
notes this in the preface to his translation of Longchen Rabjam’s The Practice of Dzogchen:
Many
accomplished (Dzogchen) mediators, in
addition to their attainment of the utmost mental peace and enlightenment in
this very lifetime, physically display signs of extraordinary accomplishments
at the time of death. For example
they dissolve their gross bodies without remainder or transform their mortal
bodies into subtle lights.”[22]
Dzogchen is a unique
doctrine within Tibetan Buddhism.
According to Buddhist scholar, David Germano, “the (Atiyoga) tradition represents arguably the first truly innovative
transformation of tantra into a distinctively Tibetan form.”[23]
It is the only class of Tibetan Buddhist teachings that also appears in the
shamanistic, non-Buddhist Bon
tradition. The congruency between
the pre-Buddhist Bon tradition and
the Nyingma School has raised some speculation that the origin of rainbow
bodies in Dzogchen lies with the
indigenous Bon.[24]
Although the Nyingma lineage draws its roots back to Indian Buddhist masters of
the eighth century, rainbow bodies are arguably an indigenously “Tibetan
trope.” [25] In
fact, some critics claim that the “dissolution of the physical body is totally
extraneous to Buddhism.”[26]
The Nyingma Schools adherence to the old
tantras and the Dzogchen teachings
has been a point of controversy in Tibetan Buddhism. Throughout their history,
the Nyingma School has been continually viewed as being “unorthodox” by the
other schools for using the old tantras. The old tantras, in general were
considered “unauthentic” and Dzogchen
a “not genuine” form of Buddhist teaching.[27]
Within this hostile environment where the
authenticity of the Nyingma’s tradition is often challenged by the other
Tibetan Buddhist schools, the uniqueness of rainbow bodies has an important
utility. Bodies of Nyingma masters
exploding into rainbow lights are powerful images whose physical tangibility
moves them out of the realm of subjective esoteric experiences that are
associated with tantra and into a “class of miracles.”[28]
Rainbow bodies are said to be magnificent physical spectacles of
esoteric accomplishment that are evidence of the superior potency contained in
the Nyingma School’s practice system. It justifies their controversial adherence to the old tantras
and to the Dzogchen teachings. And
rainbow bodies help solidify the Nyingma system’s claims of superiority over four-fold
system of the new tantra. For these reasons, rainbow body events are a powerful
hermeneutical tool that distinguishes the Nyingma practices from, and pushes
back against the other three Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
Rainbow Bodies vs. Illusory Bodies
According to
the Nyingma School, rainbow bodies differ from and are superior to other kinds
of esoteric bodies found in Tantric Buddhism. Namkhai Norbu, an exiled Tibetan Dzogchen master explains:
“The jalu (in
Tibetan), or Body of Light (synonymous with one type of rainbow body), realized
through the practice of Dzogchen is different from the Gyulu, or Illusory Body, realized through the practices of the
Higher Tantras. The Gyulu is dependent of the subtle prana of the individual, and thus, since
prana is always considered to be of
the relative dimension in Dzogchen, this Gyulu
is not considered to be Total Realization.”[29]
Norbu
defines “Total Realization” as the “surpassing of conditioned existence in the
manifestation of the primordial state, which endows the individual with a
perfect understanding of the functioning of reality and all of its phenomena.”[30] He claims this state of realization is
what lies in wait at the end of every Buddhist path. According to Norbu, non-Dzogchen
Buddhist schools move toward “Total Realization” at varying rates dependant
upon the methods that are employed, while Dzogchen
itself is synonymous with this ultimate realization.
Adherents of Dzogchen claim that it is a superior to
tantric methods. Tantric Buddhism
utilizes sets of techniques that lead to the transformation of the gross
physical elements of the human body (and of consciousness) into more refined,
ineffable substances. The
psychophysical result of this alchemical transmutation is often described as a
‘subtle body’, composed of “centers (chakras),
channels (nadi), and flows of energy (prana).”[31]
“The subtle body is made up of 72,000 channels, rather like veins, which
pervade the coarse body. In these
channels flow ‘subtle winds’ – vital energies – and it is these vital energies
which are responsible for all bodily movement”[32]
It is important to note that, though Dzogchen
distinguishes itself from trantric methods, it does not reject tantra wholesale. There are seventeen distinctively Dzogchen tantric texts in the Nyingma tradition, as well as
numerous other tantric texts that were discovered as terma treasures.[33] However, the Dzogchen tantras focus upon practices that support the realization
of the ultimate primordial state of the mind.
It is worthwhile to mention
one of the unifying features in all Buddhist tantras: The concept of bodhicitta. Bodhicitta “is
conceived of as both a motivational state and a pattern of energy distribution
within the ‘subtle body’.”[34]
Bodhicitta, as a motivation, is the
wish to achieve enlightenment in order to free all sentient beings from
suffering. However, in Buddhist
Tantra, bodhicitta is also considered
to be a “quasi-material substance, which can be manipulated through the
internal processes of Tantric yoga.”[35] The esoteric alchemy of Buddhist tantra
is framed around the motivation of bodhicitta.
For Buddhist Tantra, “Physical and moral transformation go hand and hand.”[36]
The illusory body
describes a high state of tantric realization often associated with the new
tantra system (anuttarayoga) in
Tibetan Buddhism. The illusory body is described as the “dawning in meditation
of a very subtle mind” synonymous with “clear-light.” In this state, the winds of the energy channels begin to
vibrate, “and from this vibration one genuinely appears in the form of the
tantric deity.” Adepts in the state of a “pure illusory body” can manifest
“miraculous achievements, emanating endless other forms, all of which can
study, visit Buddhas to receive teachings, and help sentient beings.” According
to the anuttarayoga system “the pure
illusory body becomes the Buddha’s actual body.” [37]
It is this tantric body that Namkhai Norbu pointedly separates from the Dzogchen conception of the rainbow body.
The fourteenth Dalai Lama concurs with Norbu, asserting that the experiences of
“the illusory body, which are newly created through causes and conditions,
cannot be assigned to the fundamental ground.” He goes on to say that Dzogchen visions are not the result of
causes and conditions but rather through the primordially present “fundamental
innate mind of clear light.” [38]
Dzogchen takes a different (albeit
equally nuanced in esoteric parlance) approach to the ultimate nature of the
body. “In Dzogchen practice, no
effort is made to generate bliss through utilizing the channels, vital energy
and essences, as is the case in the new translation school tantras.”[39]
The new tantric vision of an illusory body is “incisively criticized” by Dzogchen thinkers as “ignorant” for its
forceful manipulation of the “energy winds.”[40] According to fourteenth century Dzogchen saint, Longchen Rabjam:
“In Great Perfection contemplations, the body’s luminous
channels are let be, and thus naturally expand outwards from their current
presence as a thin thread of light at the body’s center, so as to directly permeate
one’s entire existence and dissolve all energy blockages therein.”[41]
Longchen
Rabjam differentiates between “Great Perfection meditations from ‘lower order’
subtle body contemplations.” He calls the ‘lower order’s’ attempts to
“forcefully manipulate and redirect conventional energy” overly “strenuous” and
says that such approaches lead to “obstacles and pitfalls.”[42] He goes on to claim that the
experiences gained from such ‘lower order’ tantric practices are still within
the domain of “the ordinary egoic
psyche and the emotionally distorted psyche” with the resultant mind remaining
in the mode of cyclic existence.[43]
According to Dzogchen esoteric methodology, the
primordial abiding of mind has a natural and compassionate resonance that is
labeled “gnostic winds.” Gnostic
winds supposedly differ from the energy winds manipulated in ‘lower order’
tantra in that they are not karmic in nature and therefore do not manifest in
the context of the ordinary mind.
Gnostic winds are said to be “beyond all extremes of discursiveness by
force of being empty in their essence dimension; they light-up as the spiritual
bodies by force of being radiant in their nature-dimension.” Dzogchen practices forsake all
manipulations of the body’s subtle winds found in the new tantras to a natural
flow of “radiant light.”[44] According to the Dzogchen approach, by maintaining an engagement with the subtle
winds, one is locked into practices that remain within the relative dimension
of experience and thus miss the highest attainment of rainbow body. [45] Rainbow bodies, like illusory
bodies identify with a clear light essence said to be the basis of mind. However, from the Dzogchen perspective
only rainbow bodies are the “true and final” expression of Buddhahood whereas
illusory bodies are “temporary.”[46]
Thregchod and
Thodgal
According to author John Powers, when a Dzogchen adept realizes the unbounded nature of mind they become
able to “transcend physicality and manifest the rainbow body.”[47]
Rather then “transcending physicality,” a more accurate suggestion might be
that the enlightenment expressed through rainbow bodies includes the body, in so much as all the “residue” associated with
samsaric existence is so thoroughly extinguished that no “remainder” whatsoever
is left behind.[48] Rainbow
body achievers can transfer their elemental forms into light bodies that endure
without end. The notion of an
endless, changeless body that remains in the world to serve of sentient beings
proposed by the Dzogchen conception
of rainbow bodies clearly parallels the state of omniscience associated with
Buddhahood. Long after their
physical bodies dematerialize, rainbow body achievers are believed to be able
to “communicate and actively help other beings. It is as if the physical body,
its material substances having been absorbed into its luminous essence,
continues to live on as an aggregation of the elements in their subtle aspect.”[49]
With the dawning of the rainbow body, “death is overthrown” and is replaced
with a subtle light body that endures in order to serve sentient beings.[50]
There are
generally three different ways that rainbow bodies can manifest depending on
the practices and intentions of the adept. The two main Dzogchen practices that result in rainbow bodies are Thregchod (cutting through) and Thodgal (leaping over). According to Dzogchen, each of these practices contains within it the sum of all
Dzogchen meditations, both sharing a
similar root source that is found in “the naked realization of intrinsic awareness.”[51]
However, Thodgal is thought to be a
superior practice to Thregchod and
can only be begun after an adept has proficient experience with the latter
technique. But, without a strong
foundation of Thregchod practice, an
adept cannot hope to advance to Thodgal.
These practices differ in emphasis, approach, and result, yet are dependant on
each other. Longchen Rabjam distinguishes the two:
The cessation
(or dissolution) of the elements at the time of perfection of (the attainment
of) the meaning of the primordial purity (through the training of) Thregchod, and the exhaustion of the
elements by perfecting the spontaneous accomplishment (through the training of) Thodgal are similar in just having
purified the internal and external gross elements. But in Thregchod,
at the very instant of dissolving the partless particles, one attains
liberation in the primordial purity, and there is no manifestation of the Light
Body. In Thodgal, with (the
attainment of) Light Body one accomplishes the (body of) Great Transformation.
So their difference lies in whether or not they have the Light Body and not in
(the attainment of) liberation in the state of primordial purity.[52]
Thregchod is a practice that “aims at
cutting through the whole of conceptual thought” and resting in the luminous
nature of mind.[53] Using this
practice, adepts are able to “see through appearances to perceive the
primordially pure mind.” Through the elimination of discursive thought,
primordial awareness shines through mental obscurations.[54] The emphasis of Thregchod practice is on effortless relaxing into the primordial
state. “As soon as the primordial
state manifests and dualism is thus overcome, one instantly falls into a state
of total relaxation, like (a loosened) bundle of sticks.”[55]
In this “meditative procedure” “no intentional effort is involved to undo
ignorance and the ensuing duality of concepts such as samsara and nirvana or
subject and object.”[56]
It is through
the perfection of Thregchod
meditation practice that one enters into the first form of rainbow body (generally
called the “small rainbow body”).[57]
With this realization, at the time of death a Thregchod master can “choose” to “dissolve or transform their
physical bodies into purity. They
leave no mortal gross form of flesh, bone, or skin behind but only the twenty
nails and the hair of their body.”[58]
In general, the small rainbow body occurs over a period of several days after
the death of a master. As the
dematerialization process unfolds, it is often accompanied by unexplainable
phenomena, such as displays of rainbow lights appearing in the skies
above. During this time, the
rainbow body achiever’s corpse steadily shrinks in size before completely
disappearing. In some instances, the rainbow body corpses don’t completely
dematerialize, but rather remain in a significantly shrunken down form,
sometimes as small as the size of a one-year-old child. [59]
The shrunken bodies are often kept as relics in stupas or monasteries. B. Allen Wallace elucidates the ‘small
rainbow body’ process:
When (the small rainbow body) occurs,
the clear light awareness of the absolute ground arises, emanating the colors
of the rainbow from this absolute space, and the material body of the
contemplative decreases in size until it finally vanishes without leaving a
trace of body or mind behind. Alternatively, when the clear light ground arises
at death, the material bodies of some adepts decrease in size for as long as
seven days, finally only leaving the residue of their hair and nails behind.[60]
The
dematerialization of the body at the time of death is the fruit of Thregchod practice. However, this is not considered to be
the highest possible form of rainbow body achievement. That distinction is reserved for the
fruit of Thodgal meditation
practices: The rainbow body of great transference (the great rainbow body) and
the body of light. The body of
light, like the small rainbow body occurs at death, whereas the great rainbow
body is a body of light that is achieved during one’s lifetime.[61] According to Namkhai Norbu:
“The realizations
of the Great Transfer and the Body of Light are one and the same; the only
difference is that those who attain the great transfer do not have to go
through death in the clinical sense in order to move from manifestation in the
material plane to manifestation in the plane of the essence of elements.”[62]
Thodgal is considered to be the
“direct approach” to Dzogchen
meditation training. It enables a
direct and spontaneous comprehension of the innately pure nature of mind.[63] Where Thregchod emphasizes profound states of resting, Thodgal is focused on action. Eighteenth century Dzogchen master,
Jigmed Lingpa defines Thodgal as:
Relying on
appearances (or visions), the spontaneous accomplishment of purifying the gross
aspects into the clarity [luminous absorption] and dissolving the (phenomena
into the) ultimate nature of appearances.[64]
“(Thodgal) is based on a series of key
point such as postures, breathing techniques, object of focus, gazes, etc.” The
practitioner, often in total isolation, relies on five kinds of supports: darkness, the sky, the sun, the moon,
and the butter lamp in order to further their practices. Progressing through
these practices “the yogin is confronted with the arising of four gradually
intensified visionary experiences.”
According to Dzogchen texts,
these four visions are: The vision
of manifest reality, the vision of increased experiences, the vision of the
full measure of awareness, and the vision of the exhaustion of reality.[65] At the time of the attainment of
the fourth vision, the yogin is said to have reached the rainbow body of great transference.[66]
John Myrdhin Reynolds explains:
Having the concrete
experience of the state of liberation, one’s confidence is like space
dissolving into space. In the
process of realizing the Body of Light, one liberates oneself into one’s own
original condition, which is the state of immaculate primordially pure
Dharmata. One liberates one’s own
embodied existence into space just as, during the practice of the path, one
allowed whatever thoughts or appearance arose to self-liberate. This is the culmination of Thodgal
practice and is realized by transcending the fourth stage, know as the vision
of the consummation of reality.
One liberates into this state of primordial purity, which is like space
dissolving into space, or like cloud dissipating in the sky. [67]
At this point, the contents of the physical body are exhausted and
transformed into a body of light. In this state the practitioner’s body becomes
incredibly subtle and “does not manifest death at all, but while still living
gradually becomes invisible to those who have normal karmic vision.”[68]
Eventually these beings disappear without any “intervening liminal state.
(According to Dzogchen) this is the
sign of the awakening in Buddhahood.” [69]
These beings remain in a subtle light body form for “as long as there is a
service to perform for the benefit of ordinary beings.”[70]
In essence, these rainbow body masters are said to remain eternally present in
the worlds of sentient beings.
However, in their refined form, these rainbow bodies are not perceivable
by ordinary beings, yet they can be communicated with by individuals that have
the necessary “visionary clarity” to engage them.[71]
In other words, as a Dzogchen adept’s
realization of the practices increases, so does the possibility of direct
magical engagements with rainbow bodied beings of light.
Rainbow Hagiographies
One way to more
fully understand the rainbow body phenomena is through the hagiographic
material within the Nyingma tradition.
The legendary accounts of the lives of early lineage masters have
assumed mythical proportions within the Nyingma tradition to the point that
they can be moved out of the category of biography and into the realm of
hagiography. The lack of historical evidence for the existence of some lineage
patriarchs such as Padmasambhava and Prahevajra does not negate their
hagiographic importance. John Myrdhin Reynolds elaborates:
In general, it has been the custom
among Western scholars, following the conventions of the nineteenth-century
higher criticism, to doubt the actual historical evidence of any legendary
figure for whom there exists no near contemporary evidence, such as texts,
inscriptions and so on. It is only
human nature to overlay the history or the biography of a charismatic
figure—whether religious, military, or political—with myth, so that this figure
comes to approximate a pre-existing archetype. Thus, in later times, what we find in tradition, both
written and oral, is not biography in the modern sense but hagiography.[72]
Interestingly,
rainbow body hagiographies that appear in the Nyingma tradition bare “striking
similarities” to “Chinese hagiographical traditions” that recount the lives of
Taoist immortals and sages who mysteriously disappear at death.[73]
As stated earlier, the Nyingma Tradition traces its origins in Tibet back to the
first diffusion of Buddhism, during the imperial period (7th to 9th
centuries C.E.). [74] They attribute their lineage’s
foundation to great Indian panditas
and siddhas who travelled to Tibet
during that period from a vague region of Western India called Oddiyana.[75] However, the parallel between Dzogchen rainbow bodies and Taoist sages
again suggests that the roots of the Nyingma tradition, including the legendary
accounts of the Indian patriarchs of the Dzogchen lineage “were almost certainly not
derived from India.”[76] It is more likely that rainbow bodies and the Dzogchen teachings were
assimilated into early Tibetan Buddhism via cultural and religious
intersections between the early Buddhist, the indigenous Bon tradition, and
Chinese Taoism. This amalgamation
would account for the uniqueness of rainbow bodies and the Dzogchen teachings within
Buddhism.
It is believed
that the earliest masters of the Dzogchen lineage all achieved great rainbow
bodies or bodies of light. Buddhist scholar David Germano makes plain the
succession of these early Nyingma School patriarchs of the “mind series
lineage”:
Traditional Nyingma histories emphasize that the Great Perfection had
only a very limited circulation outside of Tibet, and trace its non-Tibetan
origins through a series of six shadowy Indic figures known as “Mystics”: Surativajra (Prahevajra),
Manjushrimitra, Srisimha, Jnanasutra, Vimilamitra, and Padmasambhava.[77]
According to their hagiographies, all six of these
patriarchs disappear at death. After them, the lineage masters began “leaving
bodies behind” when they died.[78] The hagiographic descriptions of this succession of early
Buddhist “Mystics” are a valuable
tool for understanding the rainbow bodies of the Nyingma tradition.
Prahevajra is the
first human master of Dzogchen. According to hagiographic recounts of
his life, he was an emanation of the celestial bodhisattva, Vajrasattva who
came into a human body via a virgin birth from a nun[79]. During his life,
Prahevajra’s mortal body is said to have become “diaphanous, like a ray of
sunlight.”[80] Eventually Prahevajra’s mortal body ”dissolved into immaculate space,
amid wondrous signs of earth tremors, a great mass of rainbow light, and
various sounds.”[81] In his worldly lifetime, Prahevajra taught the dharma to many
dakinis,“ many hundreds of thousands of whom attained rainbow body.”[82]
Prahevajra’s main disciple was Manjushrimitra. Upon witnessing Prahevajra’s
dissolution, Manjushrimitra cried out in lament. In response “from a mass of light with the sound of a
thunderclap came a golden casket the size of a thumbnail” that landed in the
palm of Manjushrimitra’s hand.[83] Within
the casket was a posthumous teaching from Prahevajra.
Prahevajra’s posthumous communication with Manjushrimitra is an
indication that Prahevajra had achieved the body of light. This form of rainbow body, like the
small rainbow body, occurs at death. However, the body of light is the fruit of
the Thodgal practice and therefore
results in an enduring subtle body that is no “longer part of the samsaric cycle of birth and death.”[84] A hagiographic signpost that a master
has achieved a body of light is that they confer posthumous teachings as a
“response to the distress and lamentations of their chief disciples.”[85]
Longchen Rabjam recounts four instances of these kinds of posthumous teachings
in a terma text called “The Golden Letters.” The four teachings were given by
four of the early Dzogchen
patriarchs: Prahevajra,
Manjushrimitra, Srisimha, and Jnanasutra.[86] All four of these masters are said to
have achieved the body of light.
The two other
early patriarchs of the mind series lineage, Padmasambhava and Vimilamitra are said
to have attained the rainbow body of great transference. Like the other
patriarchs, they are believed to ineffably exist in light body form to the
present day. However according to
their hagiographies, Padmasambhava and Vimilamitra’s physical bodies, rather
then experiencing death, dematerialized without leaving a trace.
Padmasambhava is
highly revered within the Nyingma tradition and is credited with establishing
Tantric Buddhism and Dzogchen in Tibet. He achieved great rainbow body during his lifetime and is
believed to now reside in “Zangdok Palri, a manifested pure land, invisible
to ordinary beings.”[87] Vimilamitra, a great siddha and scholar also achieved great rainbow body and is
said to have, after three hundred years of teaching “proceeded to the
five-peaked mountain of Wu Tai Shan in China. He will remain there until this
eon has come to an end in the form of a human being for as long as the Buddha's
teachings endure; an emanation of his will appear every century in Tibet.”[88]
Though these
early lineage masters are highly revered within the Nyingma tradition and their
rainbow body achievements held out as examples of the fruit of the Dzogchen
practices, they are merely six rainbow body exemplars amongst countless
others. The biography of twelfth
century Dzogchen
master, Katokpa Dampa Deshek
highlights this point. At one
point, the biography recounts a gathering of “180,000 monks” for a purification ceremony that resulted in
“many hundreds of thousands” of people attaining rainbow bodies.[89] Dudjom Rinpoche, who was the head of
the Nyingma School until his death in 1987 claims that “it is impossible to
enumerate all those who passed into the rainbow body by the paths of the
profound treasure…Even during this late age, this can still be illustrated.”[90]
Hair and Nails in Modernity
The Nyingma
tradition’s history is dotted with biographical recounts of the lives of Dzogchen masters who attain some form of
rainbow body. These tales continue all the way up into modernity. Penor Rinpoche, who headed
the Nyingma School until his death in 2009, said he “personally knew of six
Tibetan contemplatives in his lifetime who manifested rainbow bodies when they died.”[91] The corpse of one of the most famous
Nyingma School masters of the twentieth century, Dilgo Khyente Rinpoche was
said to have had a significant reduction in flesh and bone after his death.
Another guru, Lama Thubten reportedly attained rainbow body at death. His
miniature-sized corpse is now kept as a relic in a monastery in Manali, India. [92]
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche shared the following rainbow body account in his book,
Born in Tibet:
At Manikengo…we had been told a story of a very saintly
man who had died there the previous year.
We went to the house where he had lived, and met his son and his wife
who recounted the miracle that had occurred at the old man’s death. In his lifetime he had erected a group
of “Mani stones” on which he carved a great number of mantras and sutras and he
had also set up a choten (stupa)
among them.
In his youth he had been a servant with a wealthy family, but in middle
age he left his employment to receive meditational instruction in a monastery. Though he has to work for a living by
day, he spent most of his nights in contemplation only allowing himself two or
three hours’ of sleep. His
compassion was so great that he always helped everyone in need, and opened his
house at all times to pilgrims and the very poor. While carrying out his daily work he used to practice
meditation in his own way, though his son who was a monk told him he should
carry out more formal spiritual exercises, but this he could not accept. Though he had hitherto always been in
good health, three years before his death he fell ill and his family began to
be very worried, yet he himself appeared to become increasingly happy. He composed and sang his own songs of
praise instead of traditional Buddhist chants. As his illness became more and more serious, lamas and
doctors were called in. Just before his death the old man said “When I die you
must not move my body for a week; this is all that I desire.”
They wrapped his dead body in old clothes and called in lamas and monks
to recite and chant. The body was
carried into a small room, little bigger than a cupboard and it was noted that
though the old man had been tall the body appeared to have become smaller; at
the same time a rainbow was seen over the house. On the sixth day on looking into the room the family saw
that it had grown smaller. A
funeral service was arranged for the morning of the eighth day and men came to
take the body to the cemetery, when they undid the coverings there was nothing
left inside except hair and nail.[93]
Trungpa Rinpoche’s account mirrors that of several others
concerning the life of Sonam Namgyal, who is held as a twentieth century
example of small rainbow body achievement. It is interesting to note that rather
then being a bone adorned yogi or high lama; this rainbow body achiever was an
outwardly unremarkable individual, with a family and humble livelihood. Sonam Namgyal’s rainbow body death
affirms a description of Dzogchen
methods by Namkhai Norbu as having “absolutely nothing to be seen outwardly to
show that one is practicing.”[94]
Namkhai Norbu has an interesting account about
the death of his own Uncle Togden, who was relegated to small house under the
supervision of the Chinese in Tibet after the Cultural Revolution. After his
exile, Norbu met a Tibetan man in Katmandu who had just escaped from the area
where his uncle was held. The man reported that:
“One day (when) an official arrived (at Togden’s house),
he found the house closed up. When
he managed to get into it he found Togden’s body on his meditation couch; but
the body had shrunk to the size of a small child. (The official) went at once
to inform the (Chinese authorities) of what had happened. But when he returned to the isolated
house a few days later with high-ranking officers of the regional government,
Togden’s body had disappeared completely.
Only hair and finger nails were left.”[95]
In another account given by a
modern Dzogchen teacher Tulku Urgyen,
an elderly nun travelling through Tibet took refuge in a vacant cowshed behind
the home of a kindly family. She asked not to be disturbed for seven days and
had her hosts put rocks in front of the cowshed door. After three days
“scintillating, swirling light-rays of different colors were seeping out of the
holes and cracks of the cowshed’s stone walls.” When the shed door was opened after the seventh day “not a
drop of blood, nor bones could be found anywhere. Only the nails from the fingers and toes remained lying
there very neatly, along with a hank of hair.”[96]
This rainbow body account is particularly
significant because the adept was female. Inferable by this paper is the fact
that the Dzogchen lineages and its
history of rainbow body achievers are overwhelming male. The five consorts of Padmasambhava all
are said to have achieved rainbow bodies, most notably Yeshe Tsogyel. But these
female master’s rainbow body achievements are framed by their relationship to
Padmasambhava. This, of course
begs the question: Why aren’t the great male Dzogchen master’s achievements predicated on their relationship
with a consort? Whatever the reasons, female rainbow bodies are a clear
minority when it comes to the lineages of Dzogchen.
The most recent occurrence of a
small rainbow body reportedly happened in 1998 to a monk named Khenpo
Acho. At the end of his life, he was living in a secluded cabin near a Nyingma monastery outside of Nyarong
in Tibet. Reports of his death are in step with
the thematic threads that bind small rainbow body biographies; namely
miraculous events such as lights and sounds, a shrinking corpse, and
dissolution of the physical body over the course of several days:
A few days before Khenpo
Acho died, a rainbow appeared directly above his hut. After he died, there were
dozens of rainbows in the sky. Khenpo Acho died lying on his right side. He
wasn't sick; there appeared to be nothing wrong with him, and he was reciting
the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM over and over. According to the eyewitnesses,
after his breath stopped his flesh became kind of pinkish. One person said it
turned brilliant white. All said it started to shine.
Lama Achos suggested wrapping his
friend's body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug monks wear. As the days
passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his bones and
his body were shrinking. They also heard beautiful, mysterious music coming
from the sky, and they smelled perfume.
After
seven days, they removed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and
a few other individuals claimed that after his death Khenpo Acho appeared to
them in visions and dreams. [97]
These Dzogchen tradition biographies reflect
a reality where physical dissolution of a human body at death is, not only
possible, but is an actual event that sporadically happens.
In general,
biographical accounts of the lives of great masters are a formulaic part of the
Buddhist world. These biographies appear all across the spectrum of Buddhism
and are commonly used “as a
teaching aid, for showing how it is that the teachings have the validity they
do possess – that is, for engendering confidence in the effectiveness of the
teachings themselves.”[98]
The Dzogchen tradition is no exception to
this “pan-Buddhist” phenomenon, containing numerous historical accounts of
their lineage masters, many of whom achieve some form of rainbow body.[99]
In Conclusion
The Dzogchen teachings are undoubtedly a
unique feature within Tibetan Buddhism. Nothing defends this point more then
the appearance of rainbow bodies throughout the history of the Nyingma
tradition. This tradition traces its lineage roots and rainbow bodies to eighth
century Indian yogis and scholars.
However, there is evidence that hints of indigenous Bon and Chinese
Taoist influence in the appearance of Dzogchen
and rainbow bodies in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Nyingma tradition’s adherence to old tantras and the Dzogchen teachings, thought not to be
genuinely Buddhist by critics, has been a controversial matter in the Tibetan
Buddhist world. Rainbow body achievement is a powerful device used by the
Nyingma School to justify its practice system and to assert the superiority of
its methods over other Tibetan Buddhist schools.
Rather then
some random occurrence, like a spontaneous combustion, rainbow bodies are
purposefully cultivated by Dzogchen masters,
using nuanced esoteric practices. These practices rely on maintaining an
awareness of the intrinsic luminosity that pervades the mind. There are two
specific methods in Dzogchen that
generate rainbow bodies called Thregchod and
Thodgal. The perfection of Thregchod leads to the small rainbow
body and is the foundation of Thodgal
practice. The perfection of Thodgal results in the achievement of
the rainbow body of great transference or a body of light.
Within
the Nyingma tradition, rainbow body achievement is believed to be the highest
possible expression of Buddhist attainment, synonymous with Buddhahood. The hagiographies of the early lineage
masters all include the achievement great rainbow bodies or bodies of
light. In addition to these,
numerous biographical accounts of small rainbow body masters has dotted the
Nyingma traditions history and continue into the modern era.
Bibliography
B. Allen
Wallace, Mind in the Balance: Meditation
in Science, Buddhism and Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press
2009.
Cathy Cantwell & Rob
Mayer, “The sGang steng-b rNying ma'i rGyud 'Bum manuscript from
Bhutan,” Revue d’Etudes
Tibétaines 1
(June 2006).
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu,
Crystal and the Way of Light. Ithaca: Snow Lion 2000.
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1996.
Dalai Lama, Dzogchen:
Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, Ithaca: Snow Lion 2004.
Daniel Scheidegger, “Different Sets of Light Channels
in the Instruction Series of Rdzogs chen,” Revue
d’Etudes Tibétaines, 12 (2007): 24-38.
David Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies, 17 no 2 (1994): 203-336.
David Germano, “The Shifting Terrain of the Tantric Bodies of Buddhas and
Buddhists from an Atiyoga Perspective” in
The Pandita and the Siddha:
Tibetan Studies in Honour of E. Gene Smith. ed. Ramon N. Prats, Dharamshala
(H.P.), India: Amnye Machen Institute,(2007): 50-84.
Frances Garrett, “The Alchemy of Accomplishing
Medicine ( Sman Sgrub ): Situating the Yuthok Heart Essence ( G.yu Thog Snying
Thig ) in Literature and History,” Journal
of Indian Philosophy. 37, no. 3, (2009): 207-230.
Gail Bernice Holland, “The Rainbow Body,” IONS Noetic Sciences Review 59, (2002): 32-35.
Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized
Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies, Washington: Smithsonian Institute
Press 1993.
Geoffrey Samuel, “The Body in Buddhist and Hindu
Tantra: Some Notes,” Religion, 19 no. 3(1989): 197-210.
Jean-Luc Achard, “The Tibetan Tradition of the Great
Perfection,” The Vajrayana Research
Resource Website: Nyingma Studies, accessed 2/20/12,
http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/rich_text_6.html
John Powers, Introduction
to Tibetan Buddhism, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1995.
John Myrdhin Reynolds, The Golden Letters, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1996.
Liz Wilson, Charming
Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic
Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Longchen Rabjam, The Practice
of Dzogchen, trans.Tulku Thondup, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1989.
Matthew Kapstein, “The Strange Death of Pema the Demon
Tamer,” The Presence of Light, ed.
Matthew Kapstein, Chicago: University of Chicago 2004, 119-156.
Nyoshul Khenpo, Natural
Great Perfection, trans. Lama Surya Das, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1995.
Nyoshui Khenpo, A
Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, trans. Richard Barron, Junction City Ca.:
Padma Press 2005.
Paul Williams, “Some Mahayana Buddhists Perspectives on the
Body,” Religion and the Body, ed.
Sarah Coakley, Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2000, 205-230.
Paul Williams with Anthony Tribe, Buddhist Thought, London:
Routledge 2000.
Reginald Ray, Secrets
of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, Boston: Shambala 2001.
Samten Karmay, The
Great Perfection, New York: EJ Brill 1989.
Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen with commentary by Lopen Tanzin
Namdak, Heart Drops of Dharmakaya:
Dzogchen Practice in the Bon Tradition. Ithaca: Snow Lion 1993.
Susanne Mrozik, , “Cooking Living Beings: The
Transformative Effects of Encounters with Bodhisattva Bodies,” The Journal of Religious Ethics, 2004
32, no. 1: 175-194.
Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles. Boston: Shambala 1996.
Vesna Wallace, “Why is the Bodiless (Ananga) Gnostic Body
(Jñāna-kāya) Considered a Body?,” Journal
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[1] Matthew Kapstein,“The Strange Death of Pema the Demon
Tamer,” The Presence of Light. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2004,
127.
[2] On a conventional level, it is impossible to say that
there is one, absolute Buddhism.
To do so would be akin to squeezing the Catholic, Protestant, and
Orthodox Christian worlds into one box called “Christianity.” Though such an approach would not be
inaccurate, it would, to a level of insult, disregard the historical,
philosophical, scriptural, and institutional realities that have sewn a diverse
tapestry of meaning about what it is to be Christian. Similarly, beneath the term “Buddhism” sits endlessly
complex worlds that, like tributaries, have been flowing in different directions
since the moment the Buddha achieved enlightenment while sitting at the base of
a fig tree.
[3] Paul Williams, “Some Mahayana Buddhists Perspectives
on the Body,” appearing in Religion and
the Body, ed. Sarah Coakley, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000,
205-230.
[4] Vesna Wallace, “Why is the Bodiless (Ananga) Gnostic
Body (Jñāna-kāya) Considered a Body?,” Journal
of Indian Philosophy, 37 no. 1 (2009): 45.
[5] Vesna Wallace, 50.
[6] Kapstein, 151.
[7] Kapstein, 145.
[8] Jean-Luc Achard, “The Tibetan Tradition of the Great
Perfection,” The Vajrayana Research
Resource Website: Nyingma Studies, accessed 2/20/12, 8.
http://vajrayana.faithweb.com/rich_text_6.html
[9] Kapstein, 147.
[10] I like the material that I am researching. I hold it close to my heart. I am a
student of a Dzogchen master named Khenpo Choga Rinpoche. This will undoubtedly
impact my presentation of the material.
However, I don’t feel that my personal investment in the subject
disqualifies me from pursuing this research project. It is an unremarkable fact that most (I’m sure there are
sadists out there) scholars research and write on matters that are born from
deep levels of personal inspiration and interest (How else could one produce
book length treatises on a subject).
Enthusiasm naturally
tints the perceptions of the researcher.
But it is clear that good scholars do not allow personal motivations to
cloud their ability to critically analyze their chosen subject matter. My intention is be a good scholar. I aspire to present the following
research on the rainbow body phenomenon that is born of the Dzogchen practices
of Tibetan Buddhism with as much critical vigor as possible, while not
pretending to be free of emotional pretense.
[11] Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized
Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies, Washington: Smithsonian Institute
Press 1993, 230-231.
[12] Samuel, Civilized
Shamans, 231.
[13] Samuel,
Civilized Shamans, 231.
[14] Nyoshul Khenpo, Natural
Great Perfection, Trans. by Lama Surya Das, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1995, 112.
[15] Kapstien, 142.
[16] Samten Karmay, The
Great Perfection, New York: EJ Brill 1989, 11. Karmay notes in the book’s
preface that the association of Dzogchen with
the “sudden path” of Chinese Chan Buddhism is mostly “derived from the
attitudes of the Tibetan Buddhist orthodox schools” and is “without
foundation.”
[17] John Powers, Introduction
to Tibetan Buddhism, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1995, 383.
[18] Karmay, 203.
[19] John Myrdhin Reynolds, The Golden Letters, Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1996, 157.
[20] Archard, 4.
[21] Archard, 3.
[22] Longchen Rabjam, The
Practice of Dzogchen, trans. Tulku Thondup. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1989, xiv.
[23] David Germano, “The Shifting Terrain of the Tantric
Bodies of Buddhas and Buddhists from an Atiyoga Perspective” in The Pandita and the Siddha: Tibetan Studies in Honour
of E. Gene Smith. ed. Ramon N. Prats,
Dharamshala (H.P.), India: Amnye Machen Institute,(2007): 50.
[24] See Karmay, 195 and Kapstein, 148.
[25] Kapstein, 132.
[26] Karmay, 195.
[27] Karmay, 13.
[28] Kapstein, 151.
[29] Norbu, Crystal and the Way of Light, 158
[30] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 157.
[31] Geoffrey Samuel, “The Body in Buddhist and Hindu
Tantra: Some Notes” Religion, 19
(1989): 197.
[32] Williams, 222.
[33] The Nyingma tradition’s canon also uniquely includes
hidden teachings that are occasionally revealed within the minds of modern
masters, through dreams, or in texts and artifacts that are recovered from the
Tibetan landscape. These termas are teachings supposedly composed
by Padmasambhava and hidden by his consort,
Yeshe Tsogyal. The termas are
discovered only when beings are ready to receive them. The terma
tradition gives the Nyingma School a unique scriptural bent within the Tibetan
Buddhist world.
[34] Samuel “The Body in Buddhist and Hindu Tantra: Some
Notes,” 197.
[35] Samuel “The Body in Buddhist and Hindu Tantra: Some
Notes,” 199
[36] Susanne Mrozik, , “Cooking Living Beings: The
Transformative Effects of Encounters with Bodhisattva Bodies,” The Journal of Religious Ethics, 2004
32, no. 1: 175-194.
[37] Williams, 225-226.
[38] Dalai Lama, Dzogchen:
Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, Ithaca: Snow Lion 2004, 142.
[39] Dalai Lama, 167.
[40] David Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the
Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen),” Journal of the
International Association of Buddhist Studies, 17 no 2 (1994): 318.
[41] Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” 318.
[42] Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” 315-316.
[43] Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” 319.
[44] Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” 317-320.
[45] Williams, 227.
[46] Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen with commentary by Lopen
Tanzin Namdak, Heart Drops of Dharmakaya:
Dzogchen Practice in the Bon Tradition. Ithaca: Snow Lion 1993, 74.
[47] Powers, 392.
[48] Karmay, 191.
[49] Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, Ithaca: Snow Lion 1996, 71.
[50] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 163.
[51] Longchen Rabjam, The
Practice of Dzogchen, trans. Tulku Thondup. Ithaca: Snow Lion 1989, 68.
[52] Longchen Rabjam, trans. Tulku Thondup, 83.
[53] Daniel Scheidegger, “Different Sets of Light Channels
in the Instruction Series of Rdzogs chen,” Revue
d’Etudes Tibétaines, 12(2007): 26.
[54] Powers, 386.
[55] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 130.
[56] Scheidegger, 26.
[57] See Archard, 7.
[58] Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles. Boston: Shambala, 1996, 82.
[59] Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen with commentary by Lopen
Tanzin Namdak, 28.
[60] B. Allen Wallace, Mind
in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism and Christianity. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2009, 184.
[61] See Reynolds 140-141.
[62] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 163.
[63] Powers, 387.
[64] Longchen Rabjam, trans. Tulku Thondup, 73.
[65] A detailed description of the four visions can be
found in the “Togal” chapter in Heart
Drops of Dharmakaya.
[67] Reynolds, 165.
[68] Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Crystal and the Way of Light, 163.
[69] Kapstein 144.
[70] Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles, 82.
[71] Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, Crystal and the Way of Light, 163.
[72] Reynolds, 199.
[73] Kapstein, 143.
[74] Cathy Cantwell & Rob Mayer, “The sGang steng-b rNying
ma'i rGyud 'Bum manuscript from Bhutan,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 1 (June 2006):
4.
[75] Achard, 3.
[76] Kapstein, 140.
[77] Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret
Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs
chen),” 234.
[78] Kapstein, 141.
[79] See Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Life, 40 and Tulku Thondup, Masters of Meditations and Miracles, 55-56. It is interesting to
note the pan-religious theme of virgin births in Prahevajra’s hagiographic
tale.
[80] Nyoshul Khenpo,
A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, trans. Richard Barron, Junction City, Ca:
Padma Press 2005, 37.
[81] Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles, 57.
[83] Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles, 60.
[84]
Frances Garrett, “The Alchemy of Accomplishing
Medicine ( Sman Sgrub ): Situating the Yuthok Heart Essence ( G.yu Thog Snying
Thig ) in Literature and History,” Journal
of Indian Philosophy. 2009 37, no. 3: 207-230.
[85]
Reynolds, 140.
[86] Reynolds 140-141.
[87] Tulku Thondup, Masters
of Meditation and Miracles, 91.
[90] Kapstein, 147.
[91] B. Allan Wallace, 185.
[92] Gail Bernice Holland, “The Rainbow Body,” IONS Noetic Sciences Review 59, (2002): 32-35.
[93] Kapstein, 119-120.
[94] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 52.
[95] Norbu, Crystal
and the Way of Light, 160-161.
[96] Reginald Ray, Secrets
of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet, Boston: Shambala 2001,
323-325.
[97] Gail Bernice Holland, “The Rainbow Body,” IONS Noetic Sciences Review 59, (2002): 32-35.
[98] Paul Williams with Anthony Tribe, Buddhist Thought,
London: Routledge 200, 22.
[99] Liz Wilson, Charming
Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic
Literature, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996, 4.
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