Читать книгу The Buddha Book: Buddhas, blessings, prayers, and rituals to grant you love, wisdom, and healing - Lillian Too - Страница 29

In mystical Buddhism there are five buddha families in the cosmos, led by five transcendent buddhas, or tathagatas, who symbolize the purity of the five associations of body and mind (form, feeling, recognition, consciousness, and conformation, or compound aggregates).

These are the Dhyani buddhas (exalted ones) who preside over the five elements, the five directions, the five colors, and the five wisdoms. They manifest the vitality of Buddhism transcending space and time. These cosmic buddhas have distinct appearances and colors, but we can also think of them as separate manifestations of the one Buddha, each representing an aspect of the total experience of enlightenment that are involved in spiritual transformation.

In the abstract, we can imagine these buddhas taking form in response to the meditative creativity of Buddha’s disciples and, over the centuries, becoming popular images for enlightenment. Like white light refracting through faceted crystals to produce a rainbow of colors, so from the single white light of Buddha comes a spectrum of hues, which imbues each of the Dhyani buddhas with attributes that give existence to humankind.

Traditionally, when you have been initiated to Tantric Buddhism (a branch of Mahayana Buddhism), you enter into the mandala (here meaning a sacred palace) of one of the Dhyani buddhas or deities who are in the type of one of five. In Highest Yoga Tantra you also take what are known as the “samaya vows” which transcends your attitude toward the guru and which keeps your attitude pure – not separable from the guru who is giving the initiation. These vows are repeated six times daily in a practice known as the six-session guru yoga – recited three times in the morning and three times in the evening.

Six session guru yoga contains the samaya of the Five Dhyani buddhas and through the practice of six-session guru yoga it causes to achieve the tantra path, method and wisdom, which purifies the five impure aggregates and the purity of each aggregate manifested as the five types of Buddha. As there are doctors who are specialists in dealing with cancer and different types of sickness, these five Dhyani buddhas help overcome these five delusions, which makes us sentient beings suffer. By ceasing these five delusions you can achieve wisdom. When you achieve the five wisdoms you can achieve the five buddhas as well.

The Dhyani buddhas are always shown in meditation pose and are sometimes referred to as buddhas in meditation. In Nepal they adorn many stupas. These four forms are inset around a small shrine at Bhaktapur, Nepal.