|
List Books by:
Title
Author
20% Discount for
3 or more
items.
|
|
The Five Buddha Families &
The Eight Consciousnesses
|
|
| The essential
nature of a bodhisattva or a Buddha is that
he or she embodies the enlightened qualities
of the five Buddha families, which pervade every
living being without exception, including ourselves. |
To achieve the realization
of these five Buddha families or the five dhyani
Buddhas, it is necessary to abandon the five
disturbing emotions (Skt. kleshas) of attachment,
anger or aggression, ignorance or bewilderment,
pride and envy. When these disturbing emotions
are purified, the five wisdoms shine forth.
Realization of the five wisdoms is realization
of the five dhyani Buddha’s.
To begin with, we have to understand what the
five disturbing emotions are. The first, which
seems to be most powerful, is anger. Anger is
an emotion which arises and develops against
someone or something we dislike. If examined
carefully it can be seen that in the short term
anger creates pain and in the long term it brings
about serious harm. The immediate pain and future
harm to us as well as to others, is due to the
power of our own aggression. We therefore need
to understand the first negative emotion.
Anger not only causes suffering and pain in
this lifetime, but also the karma accumulated
by wishing harm to others causes us to take
birth in the lower realms, where even more intense
suffering ensues as a result. To be free of
the experience of suffering and pain in this
lifetime and to be free of the experience of
taking birth in a lower realm, it is necessary
to employ methods to overcome and eliminate
anger and hatred.
When anger is purified, we come to develop and
to gradually realize mirror-like wisdom. With
mirror-like wisdom, there is no distinction
or separation between self and other phenomena,
so everything is experienced in unity and harmony.
It is called mirror-like wisdom because phenomena
appear to the mind in the same way that things
appear in a clean mirror, completely accurate
with no distortion. Understanding and realizing
mirror-like wisdom takes place in the absence
of the negative emotion of anger. Realization
of mirror-like wisdom is the realization of
Buddha Akshobhya, who is blue in colour. He
holds a vajra in his left hand. His activity
is pacifying the emotions, in particular, suffering,
illness, frustration, and sorrow.
The second dhyani Buddha is the Buddha Ratnasambhava
who is realized when the disturbing emotion
of pride or ego is purified. Ego is the belief
in a self which all sentient beings have and
is further developed from birth as soon as our
mind thinks of itself as separate from others.
The next three types of pride evolve in this
process of self-centeredness: We feel that we
are better than others who are in a less fortunate
situation, we feel that we are superior to others
because we fail to see the equality of ourself
and others and we feel we are either spiritually
or materially better than others.
What causes us to embark upon the journey of
ego? When the self believes that it is separate
from others, the negative emotion of pride arises
in which we believe ourself in some way better
than others. From this arises the belief that
there are ‘good’ things, which we
believe in and do, and ‘bad’ things
that others believe in and do. As long as we
believe ourselves to be superior to others,
it is impossible to learn from them. So we must
give up ego clinging in order to develop enlightened
qualities. A purified mind does not distinguish
between pure and impure, good and bad, I and
others; rather it experiences all things in
equality.
When we are free from pride, realization of
the wisdom of equality dawns and we experience
and become Buddha Ratnasambhava. Buddha Ratnasambhava’s
activity is enriching and as a symbol of this
activity of enrichment, he is gold or yellow
in colour. As a symbol of his ability to enrich
all living beings, he holds the precious wish-fulfilling
jewel in his hands.
The third dhyani Buddha represents the purification
and transformation of the disturbing emotion
of attachment or desire. Desire causes much
suffering by being quite distracting and keeping
the mind restless and busy. When we are attached
to things, we are never satisfied and always
crave for more and better things. We are continuously
engaged in achieving and acquiring the mind’s
desires which inevitably leads to experiences
of dissatisfaction and loss in our lives. By
understanding this negative emotion and by purifying
it, discriminating wisdom shines forth. By realizing
discriminating wisdom, the enlightened mind
is experienced and we become one with the Buddha
Amitabha. It is with this wisdom that we understand
and have empathy with each living being and
appreciate others’ qualities. The Buddha
Amitabha’s nature is the absence of attachment
and desire and his activity is magnetizing.
Attachment and desire lead to the suffering
of dissatisfaction, a state in which we always
want and strive for more and better things.
Desire determines our behaviour, and not attaining
what we desire leads to frustration and dissatisfaction.
With discriminating wisdom and the realization
of Buddha Amitabha, there is no attachment and
desire and thus no dissatisfaction, or craving
for more and better things. This realization
is so powerful that all things are naturally
magnetized as one’s own and there is no
energy or force involved as with a state of
desire.
The fourth dhyani Buddha is Amoghasiddhi. This
state is realized in the absence of the negative
emotion of jealousy, which includes being jealous
of others’ wealth, success and good fortune.
With jealousy, negativity is accumulated and
by overcoming jealousy, the all-accomplishing
wisdom of Amoghasiddhi is realised.
Jealousy prevents and impedes an individual
from accomplishing their own well being and
as a result they experience more suffering and
continue developing further jealousy towards
those who have more. This is the reason all-accomplishing
wisdom is experienced in the absence of jealousy:
when jealousy is purified, all wishes are naturally
and effortlessly accomplished.
As long as jealousy determines our attitude,
we are bound to experience more obstacles in
achieving personal success and accomplishing
positive goals. This is why Amoghasiddhi’s
activity is wrathful. It is with wrath that
he removes all obstacles and hindrances preventing
spiritual maturation and success. He is green
in colour, the same colour as growing plants,
symbolizing the numerous activities he employs
to remove hindrances.
The fifth dhyani Buddha is Vairochana, who is
realized when the negative emotion of ignorance
is overcome. Ignorance is failing to recognize
what is wholesome and unwholesome; failing to
know the ultimate truth and conventional truth
and failing to realize the highest state of
dharmata. Ignorance is the root of the negative
emotions. For example, we only act aggressively
towards others because we are ignorant of the
fact that anger will bring pain and sorrow to
ourselves and others. Likewise, it is only due
to ignorance that one has pride, desire and
jealousy.
The elimination of the darkness of ignorance
is the realization of Buddha Vairochana. The
wisdom which shines forth when ignorance is
overcome is the wisdom of dharmata; the realization
of the highest state. We have failed to realize
the true nature of things up until now due to
ignorance, and this ignorance causes all our
mental confusion and misleading actions. Purification
of ignorance engenders realization of the wisdom
which sees all things as they really are. The
natural body of the wisdom of dharmata is Buddha
Vairochana, and since the darkness of ignorance
is eliminated, he is the clear colour of white.
This is a brief description of the five dhyani
Buddhas who represent the purified qualities
of the five disturbing emotions. When these
five negative emotions are purified, the qualities
of the five Buddha’s shine forth purely.
© Copyright Namo Buddha Publications
& Zhyisil Chokyi Ghatsal Publications
2002.
|
|
|
