The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
I had asked this question over at the dhamma wheel, and was told to come here to ask for advice on this question.
I was doing a bit of studying, particularly adding some Pali vocabulary into my flashcards and I ran across the term Akshobhya. It is my understanding that this is one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, of Tibetan Buddhism. I do not understand what these are, and I have read around on several pages and still can not grasp an understanding. I have looked at Wikipedia as well. Can somebody please explain what they are?
Mettā pāramī,
Leah
I was doing a bit of studying, particularly adding some Pali vocabulary into my flashcards and I ran across the term Akshobhya. It is my understanding that this is one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, of Tibetan Buddhism. I do not understand what these are, and I have read around on several pages and still can not grasp an understanding. I have looked at Wikipedia as well. Can somebody please explain what they are?
Mettā pāramī,
Leah
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
Nice discussion of the five Buddha families here.
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
justsit,
Thank you for your answer! The PDF clears up a lot of questions I had on the topic.
Mettā pāramī,
Leah
Thank you for your answer! The PDF clears up a lot of questions I had on the topic.
Mettā pāramī,
Leah
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Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
Does anyone know of a good resource which focuses on the Dhyani Buddhas or discusses them in greater detail?
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
An accessible place to begin might be Francesca Fremantle's book _Luminous Emptiness._ Or the most recent translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.Kunga Leshe wrote:Does anyone know of a good resource which focuses on the Dhyani Buddhas or discusses them in greater detail?
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
Just to be clear, we're talking about the Dhyana Buddhas, the five families, right?
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Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas
Hello Jikan,Jikan wrote:Just to be clear, we're talking about the Dhyana Buddhas, the five families, right?
Thanks for your reply! Yes, I am referring to the 5 Buddha Families. I was just reading this: http://www.tibetanart.com/.../THE%20FIV ... MILIES.doc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , which starts off with:
I wonder what is meant here by "somewhat erroneously". Are they not yidams? I've tried looking for information on their sadhanas with no luck. Beside the typical listing of attributes, mantras are the only thing I can find.Central to the principles of Vajrayana Buddhism is the conceptual assembly of the Five Buddhas or ‘Five Enlightened Families’ (Skt. panchakula; Tib. rigs-lnga), which are commonly but somewhat erroneously known as Dhyani Buddhas or ‘Buddhas of Meditation’.
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
You might like to check out the The Maha-Vairocana-Abhisambodhi Tantra (trans. S. Hodge), available at many libraries.
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Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
thanks again Jikan!
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas
In Tibetan Buddhism there can be sadhanas for the individual Dhyani Buddhas. They also usually show up in many sadhanas. So they have an active role in TB sadhanas.Kunga Leshe wrote: I wonder what is meant here by "somewhat erroneously". Are they not yidams? I've tried looking for information on their sadhanas with no luck. Beside the typical listing of attributes, mantras are the only thing I can find.
Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
The 'erroneously' refers to the term 'Dhyani Buddha'. The term originates from the nineteenth-century scholar Hodgson and his Newari informant, Pandita Amritananda, but is not found in original Sanskrit texts where they are rather called five Jinas.Kunga Leshe wrote:I wonder what is meant here by "somewhat erroneously".Central to the principles of Vajrayana Buddhism is the conceptual assembly of the Five Buddhas or ‘Five Enlightened Families’ (Skt. panchakula; Tib. rigs-lnga), which are commonly but somewhat erroneously known as Dhyani Buddhas or ‘Buddhas of Meditation’.
R
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Re: The Five Dhyani Buddhas?
There are individual practices for each of these, and also practices that combine the five, in various ways. For example, the "NamCho Amitabha" sadhana is quite popular amongst Kagyu and Nyingma folks. There's an Akshobya practice that's done in Karma Kagyu 3 year retreat, or afterwards. And the practice of Kunrik or Sarvavid Vairochana is important.
More basically, these five Buddhas appear in many (most? All?) Highest Yoga Tantra sadhanas, during self-empowerment, and at other times. They represent the five families--
Vairochana-Buddha Family
Akshobya-Vajra Family
Amitabha-Lotus Family
Ratnasambhava-Jewel Family
Amoghasiddhi-Karma Family
Each of these "families" in turn relates to the purification of a "poison," or represents the purification of a skandha, or represents one of the five wisdoms. So, for example, Akshobya can represent Dharmadhatu Wisdom, the Dharmakaya, the purification of "anger" and/or the skandha of consciousness, all at the same time. But there are differences between the correspondences, depending on what yidam sadhana you're engaged in....
The PDF from Thrangu Rinpoche goes into some detail about the specifics. It's important to understand this if you're practicing Highest Yoga Tantra in the Sarma traditions, and I think in the Nyingma as well.
More basically, these five Buddhas appear in many (most? All?) Highest Yoga Tantra sadhanas, during self-empowerment, and at other times. They represent the five families--
Vairochana-Buddha Family
Akshobya-Vajra Family
Amitabha-Lotus Family
Ratnasambhava-Jewel Family
Amoghasiddhi-Karma Family
Each of these "families" in turn relates to the purification of a "poison," or represents the purification of a skandha, or represents one of the five wisdoms. So, for example, Akshobya can represent Dharmadhatu Wisdom, the Dharmakaya, the purification of "anger" and/or the skandha of consciousness, all at the same time. But there are differences between the correspondences, depending on what yidam sadhana you're engaged in....
The PDF from Thrangu Rinpoche goes into some detail about the specifics. It's important to understand this if you're practicing Highest Yoga Tantra in the Sarma traditions, and I think in the Nyingma as well.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།
"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")