Chapter 1: The Five Buddha Families
The five major aspects or “wisdoms” of the Buddha are represented by the five sambhogakaya Buddhas of the five Buddha families. Each Buddha family represents a major disturbing emotion that is overcome by a wisdom. This is symbolically represented by the five Buddha family mandala.
THE ESSENTIAL NATURE of a bodhisattva or a Buddha embraces the enlightened qualities of the five Buddha families, which pervade every living being without exception, including ourselves. Speaking from the level of the path of experience of these five Buddha families, or the five dhyani Buddhas, it is necessary to abandon and overcome the five disturbing emotions of anger, attachment, ignorance, pride, and envy. When these disturbing emotions are purified and removed, the five wisdoms shine forth. Realization of the five wisdoms is realization of the five dhyani Buddhas.
In the short term, anger causes temporary suffering for oneself and others in this lifetime. In the long run, this emotion is so powerful that negative actions or karma accumulated by wishing harm to others can lead one to take rebirth in the lower realms. For example, intense anger can cause rebirth in the lowest hell realm, where there is intense suffering. Therefore anger not only causes suffering and pain in this lifetime, but also causes us to take birth in the lower realms where even more intense suffering ensues.
When anger is purified and removed, we gradually begin to realize mirror-like wisdom. With mirror-like wisdom, there is no distinction between self and other phenomena so that 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 and 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 realization of the dhyani Buddha Akshobhya, who is blue in color. He holds a vajra2 in his left hand and his activity…
The second dhyani Buddha is the Buddha Ratnasambhava, who is realized when the negative emotion of pride or ego is purified. It is necessary to define and describe ego, pride, and arrogance. First, ego begins to develop and thrive the moment the mind separates the self from others. Next, three types of pride evolve in the process of self-centeredness: (1) Feeling one is better than others who are in a less fortunate situation; (2) Feeling one is superior to others by failing to see the equality of self and…
What causes us to embark upon the journey of ego? When the self believes that it is separate from others, then the negative emotion of pride arises in which one believes oneself in some way better than others. From this then arises the belief that there are desirable or “good” things, which are the things we believe in and do,…
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 one with Buddha Ratnasambhava. Buddha Ratnasambhava is gold or yellow in color, with the color representing his enriching qualities. As a symbol of…
The third dhyani Buddha, Amitabha, represents the purification and elimination of the negative emotion of attachment or desire. The disturbing emotion of desire causes much suffering, because desire distracts us and keeps our minds restless and busy. When we are attached to…
With discerning 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 our own. There is no energy or force involved as in the state of desire.
The fourth dhyani Buddha is Buddha Amoghasiddhi. He is realized in the absence of the negative emotion of jealousy, which includes being jealous of others’ wealth, success, and good fortune.
The fifth dhyani Buddha is Buddha Vairochana, who is realized when the obscuring emotion of ignorance is overcome. Ignorance is failing to recognize what is wholesome and unwholesome, failing to know the ultimate and conventional truth3, and failing to realize the highest state of dharmata. Ignorance is the root of the disturbing emotions so that, for example, it is only out of ignorance that one becomes angry. We only act aggressively towards others because we are ignorant that anger will only bring pain and sorrow onto others and ourselves. Likewise, it is only due to ignorance that we have pride, desire, and jealousy.
Elimination of the darkness of ignorance is the realization of Buddha Vairochana. The wisdom that shines forth when ignorance is overcome is the wisdom of dharmata, i.e. realization of the highest state.
Purification of ignorance engenders realization of the wisdom that sees the true nature of phenomena.
SUMMARY In summary, the charts of the five dhyani Buddhas give both the Sanskrit and Tibetan names for the five wisdom Buddhas along with the pure realm in which these Buddhas live. Each wisdom is associated with a particular skandha, which is a stage of perception, and with an obscuring emotion or klesha. Usually the deities are portrayed in a particular color, which is also given. One can recognize the deity because he is holding a particular object and is on a throne supported by a particular animal. Each wisdom has not only a feminine aspect, as the consort of this Buddha, but also represents a particular element and a particular chakra in the body. Finally, the Buddha family is given as well as the hand gesture or mudra.
- Buddha Akshobhya A. Tibetan name is Mikyopo B. He lives in Ngonpargawa pure land C. He represents the skandha of consciousness D. He overcomes the klesha of anger E. He represents mirror-like wisdom F. His color is blue G. His special implement is the vajra H. His consort (feminine aspect) is Mamaki I. His self-nature is the element of space J. His body location is the heart center K. When on a throne, he sits on an elephant throne L. He is a member of the Vajra family M. His hand gesture is earth-touching
Chapter 2: The Eight Consciousnesses
As ordinary persons we function using our eight consciousnesses, which are obscured by the five disturbing emotions; but as we develop spiritually through meditation and practice, we begin to realize the wisdoms of the five Buddha families. At enlightenment the eight consciousnesses are completely transformed into the five wisdoms.
THERE ARE VARIOUS approaches to realizing the five dhyani Buddhas. According to one approach, they can be realized by purifying and eliminating the five disturbing emotions. When the five obscuring emotions are removed, the five wisdoms shine forth and the five dhyani Buddhas manifest. Another approach teaches that they can be realized by purifying the eight consciousnesses. This approach will be discussed now.
Our mind constantly creates confusion and doubts, and thus it is not possible to really understand the mind’s true nature. Since we fail to understand what the mind is, an explanation of how the mind works is given using either a system of six or a system of eight consciousnesses. By studying the teaching of the mind as taught by the Buddha, we come to appreciate what sentient beings truly are.
When thinking about the mind, we usually assume it is a solid, stable, and independent entity. This is mistaken, and so the Buddha began by describing the different consciousnesses.
They are eight things that arise when a mind does not recognize its own nature. The basic idea of the development of consciousness is that when a mind does not recognize its own nature, its inherent lucidity, which is just mere cognition, runs wild. And running wild, it becomes coarse or develops into deluded consciousness, which is characteristic of samsara. Nevertheless, in the midst of all of this confusion, the nature of these consciousnesses, the true nature of this deluded mind, is unchanged. This unchanging nature of the mind is called “the pure all-basis” as opposed to the “all-basis consciousness.” This pure all-basis is mere cognition, fundamental jnana itself.
There are five gates or doors: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. These gates are the five sense organs: the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body. They are called “gates” because they seem to be gates by which the mind encounters stimuli from the outside. So they are like gates by means of which your mind can project itself beyond the body. Perception doesn’t take place in the organ itself, but takes place in the mind.
The first consciousness is the visual consciousness, which sees visual images. The second auditory consciousness hears sounds. The third smell consciousness relates to the nose organ and differentiates smells. The fourth consciousness is the taste consciousness. When you taste something, it is not the tongue that distinguishes a taste; rather, it is the taste consciousness. The fifth consciousness relates to the tactile organs of the body and perceives touch. The sixth mental consciousness is internal and refers to the individual’s experience of happiness, suffering, excitement, and frustration. Some people think that all mental events—all thoughts, memories and anticipation of the future—take place in the brain. The brain is involved, but actually recollecting the past, reflecting on the present, and planning the future, with all its emotions of happiness, sadness and frustration, takes place in the sixth, mental consciousness.
The Buddha explained that the five sense organs and their corresponding sensory consciousnesses are “without thought,” meaning they do not discriminate and make judgments about the perception. The eye consciousness merely sees a visual form; the nose only smells, without the ability to distinguish, for example, between two different smells. It is the mental consciousness that differentiates and identifies perceptions, and therefore the mental consciousness is said to be “with thought.”
Finally, there is the eighth consciousness, which is called the “ground” or “all-basis” consciousness in English or the alaya consciousness in Sanskrit. This consciousness is so called because it is the foundation from which the habits instilled by the other consciousnesses arise again when the situation and circumstances are appropriate. The eighth consciousness is classified into two types, with the division describing its ability: (1) to know everything taking place in the mind in the moment (the immediate aspect) and (2) to record all habitual patterns accumulated through mental and physical activities (the storehouse function).9 The immediate aspect is the foundation out of which all the other consciousnesses arise. The storehouse function is to store all the latent impressions (Tib. bakchag) that are created by the first six consciousnesses. If we do good and beneficial activities, we store positive karmic latencies that later come back to create positive impressions. If we do negative acts such as killing and stealing, these will create negative latencies and these latencies will create tendencies for us to kill and steal at a later time, which can extend even into other lifetimes.
To give a very brief example of how this works: when we dream, our five sensory consciousnesses are not receiving information but we receive these latencies from the eighth consciousness.
What the mind creates in the dream makes us feel happy or sad, hopeful or fearful; yet it is all an illusion made up by part of our mind.
It says that the immediate mind causes the lack of recognition of dharmata, or lack of recognition of the nature of things, in which case it would be considered an aspect of the seventh consciousness. The seventh consciousness in that way has an inward-directed aspect to it, which is the aspect of the seventh consciousness that causes the other consciousnesses to arise and function; that is the immediate mind.
The Five Sensory Consciousnesses
Instead these qualities come from the mind, because there is no sensory object that exists outside that mind.
There are four conditions necessary for a perception of an external object that results in a disturbing emotion to occur. The first condition, called the “causal condition,” is the condition where the ground (eighth) consciousness and the afflicted (seventh) consciousness have to be present. The second condition, called the “primary condition,” is the condition where the actual sensory faculty and its consciousness of the eye, the ear, the nose, the tongue, or the body must be present. The third condition, called the “objective condition,” is the condition that the external sensory object such as a sight or sound or smell must be present. Without this sensory object, the sensory consciousness cannot arise.
We experience happiness or unhappiness based on our perception. But even when we experience something as pleasant and enjoy it, we may later experience suffering from this same object. Happiness is impermanent and will eventually become a source of suffering because of loss of this desired event or object. This suffering comes from the four conditions: the eight consciousnesses, the continuum of mind, the five senses, and their objects.
Mental Consciousness And Phenomena
As ordinary beings, we believe that there are external objects and an internal consciousness perceiving them. Although we believe these two to be separate, the Buddha taught that these events are not separate, but are only mind. Ordinary logic disagrees with this. For example, if we were to say that this book that we are reading is our mind, we would think, “No, that is not true. The book was made by a printer and did not come from our mind; it is an external object.” But when we dream, we also see external objects, yet none of them have an independent external existence; they are
all just mental creations. In the same way, all external appearances that we perceive are created by our mind and do not have any independent existence.
The relationship between the mental consciousness and these mental phenomena is not direct, but rather like an experience in a dream. In a dream, mental phenomena appear to the sixth consciousness, which takes them as being real.
There is no dualism of something that is seen and something that is doing the seeing. We don’t have to wonder, “What am I thinking?” because we can clearly perceive it.
If we do not recognize self-knowledge, but indulge in the externally oriented aspect of mental consciousness, we will become involved in the usual flow of thoughts and remain in a state of delusion. But if we can reject the externally oriented consciousness and rest in self-knowledge, we will have effective meditation. Therefore, it is taught, “Rest like an infant seeing a temple.” When we bring a baby into a temple, the baby sees all the objects and images directly. It doesn’t think, “Oh, that is a throne, that is the Buddha.” Instead, the baby has a direct experience of the temple. During meditation, we should have this direct experience without thoughts and concepts and experience self-knowledge.
The eighth consciousness is called the fundamental, or all-ground, alaya consciousness. It is called “all-ground” because it is the foundation of the functions that make up the other seven consciousnesses. It is an unceasing cognitive clarity or cognitive capacity. While the eighth consciousness is an unceasing cognitive clarity, it is not really the consciousness that controls meditation. Rather, it is the consciousness that is experienced in meditation. The practice of meditation consists of working with thought, and as thoughts arise in the natural display of your mind, you simply do not follow them. But while not following thoughts, you also don’t try to stop them or get rid of them.
Chapter 3: The Transformation of the Eight Consciousnesses
1. Mirror-like Wisdom
By purifying the consciousnesses, the sacred outlook is achieved and everything is seen with purity. When the eighth alaya consciousness is purified, mirror-like wisdom dawns so that self and others are perceived purely, like a reflection in a mirror; this is the realization of Buddha Akshobhya.
2. Wisdom of Equanimity
The seventh consciousness is the consciousness that clings to an “I” and makes a distinct separation between “I” and “others.” By dividing subject from object, the seventh consciousness causes us to desire well-being for ourselves. This separation leads to wanting the “I” to get what it wants at the expense of the “other.”
The seventh consciousness is thus the cause of our endless struggle in samsara. When this dualism is purified, the wisdom of equanimity is realized so that there is no clinging to a self and others, and all mental and physical activities are experienced impartially. This realization of the wisdom of equanimity is the realization of the Buddha Ratnasambhava.
3. Discerning Wisdom
The sixth consciousness is the mental consciousness, which makes decisions, differentiates good, bad, and indifferent feelings, and creates thoughts of hope and fear. All these thoughts that arise in the sixth consciousness in the absence of discerning wisdom (Skt. prajna) are erroneous and therefore lead to ignorance.
It is the omniscience of a Buddha, who actually realizes all things as they are and how they manifest, that knows what causes the colors of a peacock. Recognizing all phenomena as they are is the realization of Buddha Amitabha.
4. All-Accomplishing Wisdom
When the five sensory consciousnesses are completely understood and purified, all-accomplishing wisdom is attained, which is the realization of Buddha Amoghasiddhi. This wisdom is attained at the first bodhisattva level and continues through all the bodhisattva levels until Buddhahood. All-accomplishing wisdom allows the Buddha to realize the nature of his pupils and what has to be done to help them along the path. For a Buddha, understanding and doing what needs to be done is accomplished effortlessly.
5. Wisdom of Dharmata
In regard to the second aspect of the alaya consciousness, whatever one does is in response to past actions that are stored in the alaya consciousness as habitual patterns. When this consciousness is purified and we no longer react to habitual patterns, then the wisdom of the dharmata shines forth; this is the realization of Buddha Vairochana.