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The Tibetan Buddhist Rainbow Body of Transformation By Marilyn Schlitz Venerable Lama Lodu Rinpoche ...provided an overview of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of the Rainbow Body. According to Rinpoche, this involves the belief that certain highly accomplished individuals, upon dying, have "departed" in a mass of "rainbow light." Based on the Tibetan terms lus (that which is left behind, ordinary body) and ‘ja’ (rainbow, rainbow hue), the Rainbow Body or Vajra Rainbow Body (‘JA’ lus rdo rje’i sku) is not so much a "body," more a vortex of energy into which certain adepts can apparently transform themselves while dying. To use a Tibetan phrase, they "dissolve into space like a rainbow" (nam mkha’ la ‘JA’ yal ba ltar); a process which, curiously enough, is reported sometimes to leave the practitioner’s hair and nails behind. David Steindl-Rast and Francis Tiso discussed their current field investigations of the Rainbow Body in Tibet and India. They noted that those who undergo the transformation of the rainbow body (‘JA’ lus ‘pho BA chen po) are said to have learned to cease all grasping and to have exhausted all fixations. This inner cleansing of all attachments, so difficult to realize, is at the core of the practice known as Thogal or Tˆgal (Thod-rGal), the "All-Surpassing Realisation" that is part of the Concealed Instructions Series of Dzogchen teachings. Their research has uncovered three biographies of lamas who allegedly manifested the rainbow body, identified several esoteric texts that document the manifestation of the Rainbow Body, and included interviews with witnesses of the death of a high lama who reportedly experienced this exceptional transformation. Murphy concluded the proceedings by quoting Thomas Browne’s description of the human as "that great and true amphibian whose nature is disposed to live, not only like other creatures in diverse elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds." "It seems entirely feasible that we can maintain our present human environment or milieu even as we enter metasomatic worlds that subsume them," Murphy noted. Extending Browne’s metaphor, he concluded: "In my continuing research I find myself drawn to the image of humans coming ashore like amphibians into a world beyond our first habitat, transcending many patterns of ordinary human life."
read more at http://www.noetic.org/publications/research/frontiers_56.htm
other articles Rainbow body The Rainbow Body of Khenp A-chos The Rainbow Body of eternity
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The Internet Library. A collection of books worth reading. Read books online. |