Transitions

CONTROL OVER LIFE AND DEATH

Painting of Guru Padmasambhava manifesting the “Rainbow Immortal Body”

The primary purpose in practicing Buddhism is to gain control over your life and death. That is true liberation and true happiness! Disciples of His Holiness Dorje Chang Buddha III have exhibited extraordinary feats at the time of their death. There have also been supernormal phenomena manifest at the time of or after their death. Disciples have even returned from the “Pure Land” to report on their new home to their families and to urge them to follow the teachings of His Holiness.

His Holiness has disciples who are eminent monastics and enlightened laypersons who if they want to live, they live. If they want to die, they die. Many have passed on while sitting in the cross-legged meditation position after they announced that they were leaving. They reached a level where they were liberated from the cycle of reincarnation. Many have left behind shariras or firm relics as evidence of their achievement. They have also left behind their body of flesh that does not rot.

Even non-Buddhist relatives of the Buddha Master’s disciples were able to make the transition to the Pure Land after they received the Buddha Master’s instructions and blessings. In all of these examples, the time of transition was an extremely joyous event. Friends and family were able to know that their loved one was making a peaceful transition to a wonderful existence..

TYPES OF LIBERATION FROM THE CYCLE OF BIRTH & DEATH: Regarding liberation from the cycle of birth and death, His Holiness has told us that there are several ways to obtain it. Roughly speaking, it is divided very crudely into four types. There is a dharma that will lead one to have the lifespan as long as heaven which was called the “immortal body”. This is what Guru Padmasambhava achieved. This is the highest dharma which can not be learned by ordinary people. Then, there is the dharma of the rainbow body transformation, which one achieves by transforming one’s entire fleshy body into a rainbow body. Another type is passing away in a sitting position and freeing oneself from the cycle of birth and death. The other type is passing away and being reborn in the Western Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. These are the four types of achievement. Other than that, without achieving liberation or enlightenment, it is descending to reincarnation and death.

The rainbow immortal body is also referred to as the body of supreme transformation or the rainbow body attainment of All-Surpassing Realization. In this higher form the rainbow body transmutes all psychophysical components into the light of buddhahood, so that no outward change is visible. This is why Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra, Vairocana and the like can pass into other buddha-lands in the same forms they enjoyed in our world. The lower rainbow body attainment transmutes consciousness, feeling, perception, and habitual tendencies into the light of buddhahood, but the component of form shrinks in size until only fingernails, tooth-enamel, hair, or relics remain, some time as a “vajra sharira” or “human body sharira.”