Illusory Body
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Illusory body is a term for one of the
Six Yogas of Naropa The Six Dharmas of Nāropa (, Skt. ''ṣaḍdharma'', "Naro's six doctrines" or "six teachings") are a set of advanced Tibetan Buddhist tantric practices compiled by the Indian mahasiddhas Tilopa and Nāropa (1016–1100 CE) and passed on to t ...
, also called ''luminosity''. In his commentary, Pema Karpo says that the clear light is experienced briefly by all human beings at the very first moment of death, by advanced yogic practitioners in the highest states of meditation, and unceasingly by all Buddhas. ''Luminosity'' or ''clear light'' (;
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
: ''prabhāsvara''), is a central concept in Esoteric Buddhism,
Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism is a form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the Himalayas, including the Indian regions of Ladakh, Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, D ...
and
Bon Bon or Bön (), also known as Yungdrung Bon (, ), is the indigenous Tibetan religion which shares many similarities and influences with Tibetan Buddhism.Samuel 2012, pp. 220–221. It initially developed in the tenth and eleventh centuries but ...
. It is the innate condition of the mind, associated with
buddha-nature In Buddhist philosophy and soteriology, Buddha-nature ( Chinese: , Japanese: , , Sanskrit: ) is the innate potential for all sentient beings to become a Buddha or the fact that all sentient beings already have a pure Buddha-essence within ...
, the realisation of which is the goal of meditative practice. It is said to be experienced when the coarse and subtle minds dissolve during deep
sleep Sleep is a state of reduced mental and physical activity in which consciousness is altered and certain Sensory nervous system, sensory activity is inhibited. During sleep, there is a marked decrease in muscle activity and interactions with th ...
, during orgasm, and during the
death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...
process.Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Jr., Donald S. (2013). ''The Princeton dictionary of Buddhism.'' Princeton: Princeton University Press. . Entry on "''prabhāsvara''".Skorupski, Tadeusz. "Consciousness and Luminosity in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism." In ''Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation Practice: Academic Papers Presented at the 2nd IABU Conference,'' Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Main Campus Wang Noi, Ayutthaya, Thailand, 31 May–2 June 2012. All systems of Tibetan Buddhism agree that the clear light nature of mind is non-conceptual and free from all mental afflictions, and that
tantra Tantra (; ) is an esoteric yogic tradition that developed on the India, Indian subcontinent beginning in the middle of the 1st millennium CE, first within Shaivism and later in Buddhism. The term ''tantra'', in the Greater India, Indian tr ...
is the superior method of working with this nature of the mind. Various
Vajrayana ''Vajrayāna'' (; 'vajra vehicle'), also known as Mantrayāna ('mantra vehicle'), Guhyamantrayāna ('secret mantra vehicle'), Tantrayāna ('tantra vehicle'), Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a Mahāyāna Buddhism, Mahāyāna Buddhis ...
practices involve the recognition of this aspect of mind in different situations, such as
dream yoga Dream yoga or ''milam'' (; , ''svapnadarśanayoga'')—the Yoga of the Dream State—is a suite of advanced tantric sadhana of the entwined Mantrayana lineages of Dzogchen ( Nyingmapa, Ngagpa, Mahasiddha, Kagyu and Bönpo). Dream yoga consist ...
. In this case, the practitioner trains to lucidly enter the deep sleep state. If one has the ability to remain lucid during deep sleep, one will be able to recognize the luminosity of death and gain
Buddhahood In Buddhism, Buddha (, which in classic Indo-Aryan languages, Indic languages means "awakened one") is a title for those who are Enlightenment in Buddhism, spiritually awake or enlightened, and have thus attained the Buddhist paths to liberat ...
. This is called the meeting of mother and child luminosities, resulting in the state of ''thukdam'' at death.


Description

The Indian tantric commentator Indrabhuti, in his ''Jñanasiddhi,'' states that
Being luminous by nature, this mind is similar to the moon’s disc. The lunar disc epitomises the knowledge (''jñāna'') that is luminous by nature. Just as the waxing moon gradually emerges in its fullness, in the same way the mind-jewel (''cittaratna''), being naturally luminous, also fully emerges in its perfected state. Just as the moon becomes fully visible, once it is freed from the accidental obscurities, in the same way the mind-jewel, being pure by nature (''prakṛti-pariśuddha''), once separated from the stains of defilements (''kleśa''), appears as the perfected buddha-qualities (''guṇa'').


Practice

The practice of the illusory body is a kind of contemplation on the illusory nature (''maya'') of phenomena. Tilopa's oral instructions state:
All animate and inanimate things of the three worlds are like the examples of an illusion, a dream and so forth. See this at all times, both in movement and in stillness. Contemplate an illusory deity reflected in a mirror; take a drawn image of Vajrasattva, and consider how the reflected image vividly appears. Just as that image is an illusory appearance, so it is with all things. The yogi thus contemplates the twelve similes and sees the reality of how all things are illusory. This is the instruction of he mahasiddhaNagarjuna.


Gampopa's presentation

According to Gampopa's ''Closely Stringed Pearls'', the practice of Illusory Body (''sgyu lus, *mayadeha or *mayakaya'') is done by assuming a meditative posture and meditating by looking at one's body in a mirror, contemplating how it has an illusory nature. According to Kragh, "He should then speak to himself, voicing many self-criticisms and check whether he feels any unhappiness or expressing praises and see whether he feels pleased. As long as such emotions arise, he has not trained himself sufficiently in the practice. Once no emotion occurs, he should contemplate all appearances of himself and everything else as having a hallucinatory and dream-like quality." Another meditation manual by Gampopa states that one should meditate on reality as being dreamlike before doing the mirror practice. In a second phase of this practice, a yogi hangs a picture of his chosen deity behind them so that its image appears in a mirror placed in front. Then the yogi scolds or praises the image as his self-reflection and sees if there is any emotional response. When there is no response, the yogi contemplates the illusory (''maya'') nature of themselves and the reflection, feeling that everything is essenceless like the deity's body. This instruction is said to be a postmeditative practice and thus may have meant to be practiced in-between sessions of regular sitting meditation.


Gelug presentation

In the Gelug system, to give rise to the illusory body, one ''must'' first practice the previous dharmas of generation stage, inner heat, karmamudra, and radiance yoga. One begins by practicing inner heat and karmamudra, then going through the stages of the dissolution of the elements, and meditating until radiance and the four blisses arise. Then one uses this radiant blissful mind to meditate on emptiness and rest single pointedly in that non-conceptual absorption. Regarding post meditation,
Tsongkhapa Tsongkhapa ( Tibetan: ཙོང་ཁ་པ་, '','' meaning: "the man from Tsongkha" or "the Man from Onion Valley", c. 1357–1419) was an influential Tibetan Buddhist monk, philosopher and tantric yogi, whose activities led to the format ...
states that in times of the day when one is not meditation, "one maintains awareness of the vision of emptiness, and recollects the previous meditation on transforming all appearances into the mandala and its deities." This will lead all appearances to arise as illusions.


See also

*
Astral body The astral body is a subtle body posited by many philosophers, intermediate between the intelligent soul and the mental body, composed of a subtle material. In many recensions the concept ultimately derives from the philosophy of Plato though th ...
*
Body of light The body of light, sometimes called the 'astral body' or the 'subtle body,' is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, posited by a number of philosophers, and elaborated on according to ...
*
Energy being An energy being is an alleged life form that is composed of energy rather than matter. They appear in paranormal/ UFO accounts, and in various works of speculative fiction. See also * Anchimayen * Angel * Demon * Divine spark * Inward light ...
* Etheric body * Divine spark *
Luminous mind Luminous mind ( Skt: or , Pali: ; Tib: ; Ch: ; Jpn: ) is a Buddhist term that appears only rarely in the Pali Canon, but is common in the Mahayana sūtras and central to the Buddhist tantras. It is variously translated as "brightly shining ...
*
Mindstream Mindstream (Pali: ''citta-santāna'', Sanskrit: ''citta-saṃtāna;'' Ch: ''xin xiangxu'' 心相續) in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment continuum of sense impressions and mental phenomena ( citta), which is also described as continui ...
*
Subtle body A subtle body is a "quasi material" aspect of the human body, being neither solely physical nor solely spiritual, according to various Western esotericism, esoteric, occultism, occult, and mysticism, mystical teachings. This contrasts with th ...


References


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Works cited

* * * {{cite book , editor-link=Glenn Mullin , editor-last=Mullin , editor-first=Glenn H. , author=Tsong-kha-pa , year=2005 , title=The Six Yogas Of Naropa, Tsongkhapa's Commentary Entitled A Book Of Three Inspirations A Treatise on the Stages Of Training in the Profound Path Of Naro's Six Dharmas , publisher=Snow Lion Publications , isbn=1-55939-234-7 Tibetan Buddhist practices