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TheFive Pure Lights (Wylie:'od lnga) is an essential teaching in theDzogchen tradition ofBon andTibetan Buddhism which relates to the symbolism of colours and their use inmeditation. Each colour of the Five Pure Lights is representative of a state of mind, one of theFive Tathāgatas, a natural element, and a body part.[1] Meditating upon one of the Five Pure Lights works to transform a delusion, or one of thefive poisons into one of thefive wisdoms.[2]
The colours of the Five Pure Lights are:
These colours are often seen onprayer flags andmandalas.[4]
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In the basis (Tibetan:གཞི,Wylie:gzhi) there were neutral awarenesses (shes pa lung ma bstan) that did not recognize themselves. (Dzogchen texts actually do not distinguish whether this neutral awareness is one or multiple.) This non-recognition was the innate ignorance. Due to traces of action and affliction from a previous universe, the basis became stirred and the Five Pure Lights shone out. When a neutral awareness recognized the lights as its own display, then that wasSamantabhadra (immediate liberation without the performance of virtue). Other neutral awarenesses did not recognize the lights as their own display, and thus imputed "other" onto the lights. This imputation of "self" and "other" was the imputing ignorance. This ignorance started sentient beings and samsara (even without non-virtue having been committed). Yet everything is illusory, since the basis never displays as anything other than the five lights.
For the deluded, matter seems to appear. This is due to non-recognition of the five lights. Matter includes themahābhūta or classical elements, namely: space, air, water, fire, earth. The illusion of matter includes even theformless realms and the minds of sentient beings. For example, the beings of the formless realms are made of subtle matter. And the mind of a human is merely matter, specificallyvayu (wind, air).
The Five Pure Lights are essentially theFive Wisdoms (Sanskrit:pañca-jñāna).[5]Tenzin Wangyal holds that the Five Pure Lights become theFive Poisons if we remain deluded, or theFive Wisdoms and theFive Buddha Families if we recognize their purity.[6]
In theBonpo Dzogchen tradition, the Five Pure Lights are discussed in theZhang Zhung Nyan Gyud and within this auspice two texts in particular go into detail on them asThe Six Lamps (Tibetan:སྒྲོན་མ་དྲུག་,Wylie:sgron ma drug) andThe Mirror of the Luminous Mind (Tibetan:འོད་གསལ་སེམས་ཀྱི་མེ་ལོང་,Wylie: 'od gsal sems kyi me long).[7]
The Five Pure Lights are also evident in theterma traditions of theBardo Thodol (Gyurme,et al. 2005) where they are the "coloured lights" of thebardo for example, associated with the different "families" (Sanskrit:gotra) of deities. There are other evocations of the rainbow lights as well in theBardo Thodol literature such as Namkha Chokyi Gyatso (1806-1821?), the 3rd Dzogchen Ponlop's "Supplement to the Teaching revealing the Natural Expression of Virtue and Negativity in the Intermediate State of Rebirth", entitledGong of Divine Melody (Tibetan:སཏྲིད་པའི་བར་དོའི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་དགེ་སྡིག་རང་གཟུགས་སྟོན་པའི་ལྷན་ཐབས་དབྱངས་སྙན་ལྷའི་བཎཌཱི,Wylie:strid pa'i bar do'i ngo sprod dge sdig rang gzugs ston pa'i lhan thabs dbyangs snyan lha'i gaND-I[a]), wherein the "mandala of spiralling rainbow lights" Gyurmeet al. (2005: p. 339) is associated withPrahevajra. Dudjom,et al. (1991: p. 337) ground the signification of the "mandala of spiralling lights" (Tibetan:འཇོའ་འོད་འཁིལ་བའི་དཀྱིལ་བཧོར,Wylie: 'ja' 'od 'khil ba'i dkyil khor) as seminal to the visionary realization oftögal.
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