The Great Perfection - Rainbow Body ( Chapter 1 )

The way to true happiness is when we can free ourselves from all odds and also liberate ourselves and others from the existence of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

(*The Great Perfection - Rainbow Body)

The ultimate fruition of the practises is a body of pure light, called a rainbow body.  A rainbow body is a level of realisation and a phenomenon where, when the person dies, his body is transformed partially or totally into five pure lights. This means either the physical body became much smaller than before and the skin quality became as fresh as a newborn baby, or even nothing was left behind. This phenomenon is hard to understand according to modern science, but it has been well documented in the history of Tibetan Buddhism.

 The Mother of Lokgar Rinpoche - Tasha Lamo

Tasha Lamo Rainbow body 40 cm long

A Yogi or Lama who has acquired the highest forms of accomplishment can manifest "the rainbow body" or the body of light". It is a body made not of flesh but of pure light. The culmination of one’s life into the rainbow body is widely recognised as a sign of extreme sanctity. The process described in these traditions is generally considered to take approximately seven days, during which time the body progressively shrinks in size. This shrinking is proportional and may stop at approximately small child size.

Chokgyur Linpa - The great transference of rainbow body 

The Rainbow Body—The Body of Light—is a light without shadow; it is awareness without obscurations; it is omniscience; it is pure space. It is the ultimate fruit of spiritual cultivation. The Body of Light represents a complete, total, and radical transformation of one’s status of being, a rediscovery of what was primordially present, and this condition is permanent. It is Awareness itself and is dependent on nothing else.

 

In Tibetan Buddhism, it can be realised in three ways: through the practises of the Anuttara Tantra, the special practises of the Kalachakra Tantra, or through Dzogchen. When Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava, left at the end of his time in physical form, he dissolved his body completely back to its natural elements, leaving nothing behind. This was the start of what has become the Nyingma tradition and is the foundation of Tibetan Buddhism as we have come to know it. At the heart of the Nyingma tradition is the practise of Dzogchen, otherwise called Ati Yoga or the Great Perfection.

The great Yogi Milarepa (1050–1123) dissolved entirely into light, leaving no relics behind at all. The culmination of one’s life into the rainbow body is widely recognised as a sign of extreme sanctity.

The practise found In the Kagyu tradition, this is known as the Mahamudra. The Dzogchen from the Nyingma tradition and the Mahamudra from the Kagyu tradition are both identical in essence. You may follow one or the other; however, each has its own unique instructions. In each system, Mahamudra and Dzogchen, various methods are used to reveal the nature of bare awareness itself.

 

According to the Dzogchen of the Nyinma tradition, it is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of a human being, and the practise of Dzogchen is a body of teachings and meditations aimed at realising that condition. According to Dzogchen literature, Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path to enlightenment.

* Footnote 

For those who have received the empowerment of this Tantric practise, you are reminded not to intentionally or unintentionally disclose the mantra to the public or anyone who may not have the empowerment or permission to practise, and disclosing the mantra intentionally or unintentionally is a form of breaking your Tantric Samaya vows to the lineage masters and Dharma protectors.
 

Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practise! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practise, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain that Bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.
 
Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods that, if practised in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practise is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power, or self-interest.

To be continued in Chapter. 2 

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease.

But increase further and further.

 

Dedication of Merit

By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience?

Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings

May we liberate migrants from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

 

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