Dr Asa Heshoff

Healing the Full Spectrum of You

In Search of the Elemental Body

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In Search of the Elemental Body

Seeking the Buddhist Body

The Tibetan empowerment or wongkur is an essential part of Vajrayana—Buddhist tantra—as well as Shaivite and other Eastern traditions. It is the entry point, the transmission of the seed of enlightenment, and permission to enter the mandala of enlightened mind. One obtains the stream of form, energy and consciousness, transforming mundane aspects of embodiment, sound and awareness into their sacred, transcendent form. Empowerments can be brief or quite elaborate, lasting days. During the preparation process of the longer empowerment rituals, one is given a stick or flower that is thrown onto a colorful mandala plate of the five Buddha families. Depending on where the object lands, this shows the family to which you belong. Maybe some invisible karmic hand guides the placement of that flower, or maybe it is purely symbolic or suggestive. In remote times, before empowerments had become highly formalized and stylized, this may have been left to more than chance. A teacher or master meditator likely directed the student towards the body of practices subsumed under one of the five possible families. This could be a life long proscription, or something to be reviewed and reassessed at a future date, depending on the inner changes of the meditator.
Of course teachers still do prescribe specific meditations for students, but this is often generic and colored by the guru’s lineage and background. In any case, it behooves the seeker to investigate and develop a personal understanding of what such family alignments mean. Doing a variety of deity meditations, we may receive a direct experience (Tib: nyam) or psychic insight (Tib: ngön shay) into a meaningful connection. This is not common, nor something upon which we can reliably depend. But we can learn much from our own particular body, mind and emotions. They reveal our predilections, tendencies, strengths and weakness, and our basic make up as an embodied human being. There is a saying that if you want to know about your past karma, look at your present thoughts, feelings and activities. And so investigation into our body and mind is not outside our spiritual, transformative path.

Why It’s Useful

There are good reasons why we should want to know our Buddha family connection, organically and inherently. Most obviously, it directs us towards the deities, protectors, meditations and mantras that are aligned with our nature. Such practices would be a more certain path to both personal healing and inner change. Since the five Buddha families are also expressed as the five Elements, this orientation can be a roadmap to one’s entire life trajectory. We expect a strong correspondence between spiritual typology, psychological type, and body type. Knowing and confirming this relationship gives valuable guidance towards our career, lifestyle, diet, activities and more. And like other typologies, a Buddha family-Elemental system can show what kinds of compatibilities and antipathies there are between people.
Yet, body-mind typology can be over-simplified. For further refinement, there are excesses, deficiencies and distortions for each category and also a series of possible subelements. Because the universe is built upon a 5-part template, The Buddha family is an accurate base upon which to build these understandings. With investigation, we can discover that today’s most popular typologies, such as the Enneagram and the Jung-based Myers-Briggs system, all have the five Elements as their foundation, but with a series of omissions, duplications, mixtures and subelements that them inaccurate on many levels. They each deserve a detailed analysis to demonstrate what is right and what is mistaken, using the litmus test of the 5 Elements and their variations.

Seeking the Elemental Body

In seeking our Buddha family, the physical form is a rich area of investigation, and absolutely central to Tantra. It is thus interesting that in the more informal West there has been less attention to the body than tantric tradition itself would dictate. This problem was already inherent in Vajrayana, where body practices (Tib: tsa lung) are compartmentalized and separate from daily life. In the past, Tibetan lamas and monks were notoriously out of shape and unhealthy, largely because of this disconnect. Chinese Qi Gong has had a far more complex and integrated approach to embodiment, which includes extensive health practices, movements and diet. But without needing to alter or disrupt the extraordinary tradition of Buddhist Vajrayana, we can greatly augment our own body practice and development, drawing on both the East and West. So before building up a picture of the Elemental body, we need to look at the resources that can help us complete this process.

Ayurveda and Tibetan Medicine

Ancient Ayurvedic science was transplanted to Tibet, augmented by revealed teachings, including the Yutok medical system. Ayurveda is based on the five elements, which are parallel to the five Buddha families. People, diseases and medicines are classified according to their elemental properties. This includes body types and temperaments. Unfortunately we are limited by the traditional dosha system, which (inexplicably) compacts the five elements into a more convenient three modes. This same truncated system was to form the basis of Tibetan medicine. Apparently though, a pure 5-element system did exist as Buddhist Ayurveda which arrived in Thailand intact, though as Indian Ayurveda took root during modern times it is now only known to a few. Nevertheless, the body types of Fire (Skt: pitta Tib: may), Air (Skt: vatta Tib: loong) and Water (Skt: kapha Tib: beken) give us a good start in understanding our Elemental body constitution—and its Buddha family allocation.

The Hindu Body

Some of the most ancient writings on the Elements are found in the Vedas and Upanishad commentaries. Like its close Buddhist relative, Hindu tantra, in the form of Shaivite, Vishnavite, and Samkya-based yogic traditions, gave tremendous attention to internal energy anatomy. The dynamics of pathways, chakras, inner deities and seed syllables are described in detail, as a guide to working directly with these forces. However there is no actual body typology, other than the Ayurvedic influence as seen in modern day yoga.
At the same time, it is ironic that the caste system which was so fundamental to India and most pre-modern civilizations, makes “type” into an inherited trait, and creates a false hierarchy of more and less valuable kinds of people. This sadly demonstrates how even the greatest truths—such as the five Elements—can be turned upside down into disempowering dogmas instead of elevating ideas.

The Western Humoral Body

The Western Elemental tradition is perpetually attributed to Empodocles (430 BC), though there is ample evidence that this originated through the five Elemental systems of India and Egypt by way of Pythagoras (500 BC). Losing the element of Space, the four element system developed through Aristotle and Hippocrates (400 BC), morphing into the full-blown four-humoral system by the Roman physician Galen (200 AD). Thus arose the four temperaments—melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric and sanguine—representing both a psychological and physical type. Fully materialized, Elements went from formative forces and information grids to liquids sloshing around the body as “humors.” These ideas would last over 2,000 years, up until the present day, persisting in its near-original form within Greek Medicine and Unani-Tibb of the Middle East, Pakistan and the India subcontinent. Fortunately, they do give us wonderful observations of four body types, with space gone missing.

Western Bodywork

Touch and physical manipulation are likely the most ancient of healing arts, taking different forms in ancient China, Greece, Egypt, Rome and on through the development of Western civilization. But the trail we are following here begins with, of all people, a student of Freud. William Sheldon had already developed his well-known somatotype theory in the 1940’s. Based on three primary tissues that exist in the newly created human embryo, he described the basic body types of Ectomorph, Mesomorph and Endomorph with many gradations in between. Around the same time Wilhelm Reich, Freud’s pupil, had observed very specific types of protective adaptations or body-armoring in people. This was further developed by Alexander Lowen and others, becoming the first full-fledged form of body psychotherapy. The five types that were codified in this system are named according to their pathological distortion. Taken up by a series of authors and clinicians, these types have gone through a number of name changes, the one by Kessler being the most elegant: Leaving, Merging, Aggressive, Enduring and Perfectionist. These correspond to the characteristics we would expect from a preponderance of Space, Air, Fire or Water and Earth in our biological make-up. Reich, Lowen, Kessler and others had rediscovered the existent template of body typology—and distortion.

The Homeopathic Body

The central process of homeopathic medicine is matching a total medicinal remedy profile to every aspect of the patient. This entails all symptoms, sensations and psychological events experienced by the person, but also includes various signs and observable differences, such as body structure, facial characteristics and so on. In spite of all the variables, they conform to the fact that in homeopathy there are five underlying patterns that create all chronic illness. It is important to understand that the concept of Miasms developed based on observation, without reference to the tradition of humors or Elements. Again, the natural template of reality was re-discovered in this set of constitutions. With a greater focus on internal disease, homeopathy does not an extremely detailed approach to body morphology.
Observation and analysis of the meaning in the body’s form has it origins in ancient India, Mesopotamia, Greece and China, particularly focusing on the face (physiognomy). This physiognomical approach was particularly popular in 1800’s before it fell out of favor with modern medical science. Also, the Chinese system of facial diagnosis, while very detailed, follows the quite different five-phase or five-process system, rather than the five Elements. However some intrepid Australian homeopathic investigators have created an in-depth system of miasmatic, facial feature analysis. This corresponds to the 5-Element paradigm perfectly, in spite of the fact that they are unaware of these ancient traditions.

Vajrayana as Base

In spite of all these additional resources from different locations and historical epochs, it is Vajrayana, Himalayan Buddhism, that forms the base on which we can successfully build. The five elements are part of the original teachings of Buddha, both as cosmology and as meditation objects, as part of the ten kasinas. These ideas flowered into the Mahayana and reached a high level of sophistication in Tantrayana. Though it focuses much more on the spiritual, transformative aspects of life, a number of modern pioneers have begun to integrate Western psychology with Buddhist Element systems, including Chogyam Trungpa, Tenzin Wangyal, Ngakchang Rinpcohe and others. While these focus on the human psyche, as Western Buddhist practice matures, the body must inevitably follow, like two sides of the same coin.
Next month we will go further in detailing what impact our Buddha family and a preponderance or deficiency of Elements, has on body composition, both as a long term pattern and a defensive adaptation. This can guide our practice towards ever greater expansion and realization.

Asa Hershoff

San Diego, January 2021

References

Bentley, G. (2003). Appearance and Circumstance: Miasms, Facial Features and Homeopathy. Niddrie, Australia. Pennon Publishing.
Chögyam Ngakpa. (1997). Spectrum of Ecstasy: Embracing Emotions as the Path of Inner Tantra. New York: Aro Books.
Greek Medicine. Taken from http://www.greekmedicine.net/
Flood, G. (2006). The Tantric Body: The Secret Tradition of Hindu Religion. London: I. B. Tauris.
Jabin F. (2011). A guiding tool in Unani Tibb for maintenance and preservation of health: a review study. African journal of traditional, complementary, and alternative medicines: AJTCAM, 8(5 Suppl), 140–143. https://doi.org/10.4314/ajtcam.v8i5S.7
Jouanna, J. trans Allies, N. (2012). Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen. Boston: Brill.
Kahn, C. H. (2001). Pythagoras and Pythagoreans: A Brief History. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.
Kingsley, P. (1995). Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empodocles and Pythagorean Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kingsley, P. (1994). Pythagoras and the Turba Philosophorum: Egypt and Pythagorean Tradition. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Vol. 57, pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.2307/751460
Longrigg, J. (1993). Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Almaeon to Alexandrians. New York: Routledge.
Lowen, A. (1975). Bioenergetics. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Norbu, T. (1981) Magic Dance: The Display Of The Self-Nature Of The Five Wisdom Dakinis. Boston: Shambhala Publications.
Pierrakos, J. (1987). Core Energetics: Developing The Capacity To Love And Heal. Mendocino: Life Rhythm Publication.
Rockwell, I. (2002). The Five Wisdom Energies: A Buddhist Way of Understanding Personalities, Emotions, and Relationships. Boston: Shambhala.
Trangu Rinpoche. (2001). The Five Buddha Families and the Eight Consciousnesses. Creosote: Namo Buddha Publications.
Wangyal, T. (2002). Healing with Form, Energy and Light: the Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications.
Wallis, C. D. (2013). Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, And Practice Of A Timeless Tradition. 2nd Ed. San Rafael. Mattamayūra Press.

The Mystery of the 5 Elements

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The Mystery of the Five Elements

The Elemental Conundrum

The five Elements are the very bedrock of Vajrayana. Which makes it all the more extraordinary that, to date, there has been no attempt to define more precisely what these phenomena are, and how they exist as principles that structure our entire world. Those master yogins and yoginis that have achieved an inner realization of the Elements should have more to say about them and the part they play in our bodies and minds. Maybe all that is needed is to learn the method, follow the practice, and receive the fruition, as tradition dictates. While the illustrious history of highly realized beings within Vajrayana demonstrate this to be true, there are shortcomings to this approach, especially for the West.

The Need for Renewal

All significant innovation or discovery—including spiritual truths—eventually becomes increasingly codified and structured. Likewise, Vajrayana follows a set of highly structured dogma, creeds and ideologies. Those boundaries serve a useful purpose in keeping the integrity and meaning of a spiritual path intact. Group culture and modes of thought and action need to be preserved, but they can also become excessively dogmatic, canonized and rigid. Such systems might even transform into a lifeless husk, instead of a living, evolving organism. That is the tight-rope of human striving. One way to keep a tradition from becoming petrified is the healthy encounter with new thought, fresh insight, and the experiences of those who plumb the depths of that system, and then bring new pearls of wisdom to the surface. These are the wellspring of new growth and evolution, and s defense against losing the essence, while merely maintaining the outer facade of the tradition.

Western Mind 2.0

We do have a square peg and round hole situation with Western Buddhism. Those who have traveled to “exotic” locations and immersed themselves in Eastern life know how profoundly and essentially different the shape of the mind can be in different cultures and epochs. The interface of Buddhism with modern physics and psychology are two prominent attempts at bridging the gap between how we experience life today, and that of 10th century Tibet or 5th century India. Such dialogues look for similarities and common ground, or for confirmations, but do little to explain or expand on the crucial points of ancient knowledge. The West seeks understanding from the outer world, while Easter wisdom specializes in inner exploration. A possible bridge between the language of the inner and the outer is none other than the Five Elements.
Here we are not trying to solve the riddle of the existence of the Elemental template, but to look at different approaches to that mystery. This can only enhance our path of inner development. A deeper Elemental understanding also augments our ability to heal body and mind, to benefit others, and repair the natural landscape we inhabit. In so doing we fulfill what Buddhism calls the “two benefits” of self and other. Indeed Elemental work is fundamental to our spiritual unfoldment, but also can be a tool for treating illness, mental stress and anxiety and the underlying traumas that limit our vast potential.

Light Body 10—When 3 becomes 4.

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When Three Becomes Four

Meditator made of trianglesFive Becomes Three

I am obsessed with the five element model, certain at my core that it is a fundamental formative principle of body, mind, world, life. But it is not the only operant system that still alludes modern science. The Law of Three also pervades our experience, and knowledge of its workings is a feature of religious, spiritual and transformative systems throughout time and place. G. I. Gurdjieff propounded this principle lucidly, naming them Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, and Holy Reconciling. In simple terms these could be thought of as active or motive, passive or inertial, and mediating or harmonizing. The are the electron, proton and neutron of the unseen world, in actuality. Note that the third force, while neither active or passive, is not neutral. It has a catalytic or unifying effect, without which those opposing forces could never produce a reaction or result. Also, these are not hierarchical in a strict sense, so various series of three’s related to ever higher levels may be something altogether different.

The Buddhist three sacred bodies—Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya or cosmic, energetic/etheric and material—are examples of these kinds of stages. Neither are they a temporal sequence, such as the Hindu Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the forces of creation, maintenance and destruction. And it really won’t help us to become entangled with the mathematical properties of three, as fascinating as they are. What we are interested in is the rarely studied knowledge of these world-creating dynamics, whose traces can be seen in all deeper, esoteric transformative practices. Traditionally, it was these inner spiritual traditions that were the keepers of these truths, at a time when science was still sacred science, and “how things work” was simply mechanics. But the fact remains that three archetypal forces are always involved with the processes of both material objects and living beings.

Traditions of the Three

In some spiritual paths of old, various forces and conscious energies were personified as deities or “gods,” while traditions used symbols and technical terms to point towards these formative energies. Medieval European alchemy, based on Arabic and Persian works, portrayed the three forces as three minerals: sulfur, mercury and salt (active, resistant, reconciling). In this same tradition, the marriage or unification of the three forces were seen as sun (male), moon (female) and spirit (a cosmic bird). They are also graphically portrayed in the familiar Christian Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (or Mother-Sophia, Jesus-Sophia, Spirit-Sophia of Cynthia Bourgeault). Remember, we are not speaking of the exoteric, “Wikipedia” or theological meanings of these terms, but their inner, Essene or Gnostic meaning.

The Egyptian priests recognized these forces as the Osiris, Isis and Horus—though this triplet of gods also existed in several other guises depending on the epoch and region of ancient Egypt. The Vedanta of ancient India maintains the concept of the three gunas: rajas, tamas and sattvic. These can be taken as purely psychological characteristics of desire, dullness and harmonious reason. But on a deeper level, they represent the law of three. Very prominently and well known is the Daoist concept of the opposing forces of Yin and Yang and their unifying context, the Dao.

We must however, focus a particularly bright light on Buddhist Vajrayana, with its practice of the mixing of these three fundamental forces within the physical organism. However, nowhere is the movement, location and characteristics of biological energy more fully discussed than in Chinese Daoism. Yet sifting through the seemingly countless lineages and styles can seem chaotic because, unlike Buddhism, there was no strict codification of teachings, as different masters in the vast land of China developed a wide range of unique schools of thought and practice. To complicate matters, it was a standard ethos to keep the inner teachings of one’s lineage under a strict wall of secrecy. However, there is agreement within Qi Gong and inner alchemy (Nei Dan) that there are two main forms of chi or energy in the body. As we can expect, one is yang and the other is yin. But as the modern Western master, Damo Mitchell explains, they can accurately be described as electric and magnetic energy, respectively. Because electrical energy (ionic depolarization and field creation) is considered yang, it is associated with the nervous system. Magnetic energy is yin in nature and associated with the breath and circulation of fluids. Here we will avoid the  muddle of the difference between magnetic and electrical fields, field oscillation, how they influence and create each other and the mathematical complexities of quantum theory. They are simply quite different energetic forces and contained meanings, as observed (but not understood) by physics. In doing various spiritual practices, we accumulate, condense and spread our electro- and magnetic energies. But what is the third force needed for this alchemy? It is biophotons—carriers of consciousness itself—that is the required reconciling force to cook our inner energy concoction. These three forces—electrical, magnetic and photonic—are the primal yin-yang-dao, the active-passive-reconciling, the sulphur-mercury-salt that we see in so many traditions.

Finding the Three

While every phenomena, small and vast, takes place because of the three forces, it helps our understanding to go beyond theory and discover how they are localized in the body. Indeed, three focal areas are present in different medical and spiritual anatomy systems around the globe. In Daoism, these are the three “dantiens,” or energetic spheres,  denoting the lower body, chest field and head area. This is identical to Gurdjieff’s three centers: intellectual, emotional and moving. It also corresponds to the well-known 3-chakra or three-center system of Vajrayana that we have examined many times. The white father energy, the world of form and name, lives in the head. The red mother energy or life force, dwells in the pelvis. In the center, consciousness resides in the heart, beyond either form-formless and alive-inert.

There is also the three chakra expression of Om-Ah-Hung, symbolic of the form-energy and consciousness that uses the short-hand of forehead, throat and heart. These are the great forces that need to be mixed, stored, circulated, and controlled within our human form. This is one of the major purposes of mantra recitation, pranayama, breath retention, body postures and body movements (tsa lung). But what we seek is the union of the three forces, not just a  build-up of the electro and magnetic fields.   The practice of Tumo in Vajrayana and various internal firings of Chinese inner alchemy or Neidan, are some of complex ways in which these three become a unitary force of change.

The Fourth and Final

And yet the union of these three is not the end of the story. It is only the means towards transformation. If the three are harmonized and truly reconciled, a fourth state is produced. “The interweaving of the three produces a fourth in a new dimension.” And here is the final product in the Light Body formation process. A new “something” arises, something we can barely name. This could be called the “rainbow body cell.” It is a cosmic molecule, one built of internal bioenergies, different forms of chi or prana, the different Hyrdogens in the Gurdjieffian scale of spiritual substances. And that is why the Light Body is not built in a day. These atoms, cells, or molecules of Light Body have to be accumulated over decades, over a lifetime of work, which may run the whole gamut of meditation, yoga, mantra-recitation and energy manipulation techniques that have been perfected over the millennia. This gives the lie to the “ascensionist” school of light body wishful-thinking, or those that believe “heaven” is the reward for a life well lived. It certainly helps, but much more is required for such a gargantuan step beyond our feeble human existence. How many light-cells does it take, and what degree of luminous structuring do we need in order to have a rainbow body framework that will assure an after-life continuity? This gets into Harry Potter territory, with the “muggles” or ordinary folk on one side, and the “wizards-in-training” on the other. But such categorization was already necessary long ago. Buddhists called those who went beyond the karmic wheel, “stream-winners.”

Gurdjieff spoke of “person number 4” who had developed beyond those centered on intellect, emotions or physicality (person numbers 1, 2 and 3), having harmonized their three forces such that they were connected to higher internal centers. There are obviously numerous other titles for those with a little or a major amount of attainment, from rinpoche to shaman, magi or maestro. Mostly these are ceremonial, as outer distinctions are no guarantee of inner development. But according to a private teaching (whose source cannot be attributed) the average “good” person may develop about 10-15% light-form cells within their lifetime, while it requires some 30% of this kind of transmutation in order to assure that one can continue their Light Body development into future lives. This additional requirement is significant, as it simply does not happen by itself. It is not part of Gaia, of the natural or biological world. Nature does not need this, as it loves conformity, every blade of grass like every other. It is the spiritual seeker who shatters the natural order, breaking free of the mundane, the fatal path. They go against the downstream current of life, which takes tremendous force. This is the alchemical meaning of creating gold from lead, of creating the “second Kesdjan body” of Gurdjieff, the transubstantiation of Christianity, the Vajra Body of Tibetan Buddhism, the hong hua (rainbow body) of the Daoists, and the Lataif or subtle body of the Sufis. Wherever we are in our lives, if we clear negative karma, and try to accumulate positive force through thought, word and deed, practicing earnestly in a tradition in which we have confidence, the goal will inevitably arise.

Suggestive Bibliography

Baker, Ian. Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practice. (2019). Rochester: Inner Traditions.

Bourgeault, C. The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three: Discovering the Radical Truth at the Heart of Christianity. (2013). Boston: Shambala.

Guinness, Lowel. Rainbow Body. (2018). Chicago: Serindia Publications.

Johnson, Jerry Alan. The Hidden Teachings of Christian Mysticism (Vol. 1): Spiritual Transformation & Divine Healing. (2017). Pacific Grove: International Institute of Qi Gong.

Mitchell, Damo.  White Moon on the Mountain Peak: The Alchemical Firing Process of Nei Dan. (2016). London: Singing Dragon.

Rainbow Body 9—Dying into the (Elemental) Light

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The Road Beyond this Life

An individual who achieves a fully perfected Light Body or Rainbow Body in this very life is like a hologram, a gossamer web of photons, a powerful electromagnetic field that holds to human form until that allotted moment when it is time to leave the bubble of flesh behind. In the dying process, such a being can negotiate the after-death or bardo (in between) state with certainty. They may move on to another life consciously, or manifest in a luminous pure land in a far off star system. But what about the rest of us? How can we learn to navigate this uncertain territory with any kind of clarity or direction? The presence of highly developed gurus with masterful techniques would be nice. I have been fortunate to witness such beings literally pluck a lost soul out of the after-death state, or send off an ordinary mortal (even an animal) into a cloud of rainbows on a clear sky day, through the practice of transference or powa. But such people don’t grow on trees. For ourselves, we need a method, a road map and an instruction booklet of some sort. Fortunately these do exist, thanks to the fact that we are not the first to face that precipice! Through the last 1,400 years of Vajrayana Buddhism, many brilliant minds have done the transformational work and traveled the internal dimensions of mind to investigate the territory. Others have died and come back as delogs (literally “returners from the beyond”) and written about their journey. This amazing legacy is available to us, no matter the stage of our development nor the state of our busy lives.

The Traditions

Tibetan Buddhism is vast in its range and depth. But undoubtedly the most well known and popular corner of that landscape is the book collection known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. First translated and published in the West by Walter Evans-Wentz in 1927, this text influenced a generation of thinkers. And in this century, Sogyal Rinpoche’s Book of Living and Dying was a pop sensation some 65 years later. Today we can find more than a dozen such books by Tibetan and Bhutanese masters and Western practitioners alike. They contain a wealth of valuable common-sense and Dharmic advice. Much of the content of these texts is based on Karma Lingpa’s collection of “revealed” texts from the 15th century. But regular readers will not be aware that this is just one of many systems of after-death teachings. Some 300 years earlier, the famed yogi and author Yonangpa relates knowing 16 different bardo traditions. The system of chöd of Tibet’s greatest female saint, MaChik Labdrön (1055–1149), also has a concise and powerful after-death guidance ritual that is quite distinct from the elaborate visions of Karma Lingpa’s Liberation Upon Hearing. Indeed, working with the transition states of living, dying, dreams, and the afterlife were well-established in the 1100s, originating with the teachings of the great 84 Mahasiddhas from 750 CE onward. Tilopa, Naropa, and Matripa were important adepts in the transition of these texts to the snowy fastness of the Tibetan plateau.

Stages of Bardo

The entire bardo process is generally divided into the dying stage, the intermediate or after-life stage, and the rebirth process. The various books of the dead represent very extensive and complex rituals with many moving parts, mostly concerned with the after-death process, extending from seven to 49 days. In this short article we are focusing on the dying process, particularly because it prominently involves a sequential dissolution of the Elements. It is notable that the Shangpa tradition (c. 1100), which came from two remarkable female mahasiddhas of India, Sukasiddhi and Niguma, has a practice focused solely on this dissolution process, a wonderful rehearsal for the act of dying. Compared with the more difficult after-death stage, conscious dying provides an opportunity for taking a massive spiritual leap forward. And it teaches us much about our ongoing investigation of both the Five Elements and the Light Body.

Dying Well

The mindset of the dying process is a huge consideration and discussed widely in Western books on hospice and death caretaking (doola). The advice to be surrounded by smiling friends and well-wishers is not just based on sentiment and compassionate care. Yes, what we did in our life has great import, but there is also something within the Vajrayana tradition called “throwing karma.” This means that what we dwell on in the last days, hours, and minutes of life can propel us forward with either positive or hellish momentum. With regard to others, this is not the time for blame, shame, anger, hatred, jealousy, or a thousand other negative emotions. For ourselves, this is not the time for regret, self-admonition, self-pity, worrying, theorizing, fantasizing—or doubting. Letting go of all that, while appreciating the amazing life journey we have enjoyed, is a solid strategy. That is the karma (action) that throws us (propels the mind) past all kinds of obstacles and can even compensate for all manner of missteps that we have inevitably made in our lifetime. Love and compassion toward our loved ones, our helpers, and toward our spiritual teachers, is paramount. Now we are ready for the stages of Elemental dissolution.

Element Transitions

When the Elements drop away, they do so in sequence. If we have practiced working with the Five Elements, learning to dissolve them one into the other on a daily basis, we will already have a familiarity with what is to come. But beyond anything we can train for, something very special is about to happen, something that we would be fortunate to have experienced even once during our lifetime. Because, as each Element appears on the stage of mindbody, a kind of purification happens. One of the great hidden mysteries of our human incarnation is that there are different strata of Elemental forces within us, from gross to fine. We do not yet have a proper nomenclature for this energetic layering, though the basic bones are there. There is the traditional Samkhya or Hindu system of the five koshas or fields. J. G. Bennett provides us with a powerful system of 12 energies in his book Energies: Vital, Material and Cosmic, ranging from the mechanical to the cosmic, based on the works of his teacher, the famed mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. Ken Wilbur in his A Brief History of Everything (1996) and other books has an enlarged schema of eight, 12, or 13 patterns of personal and universal development. These all closely follow our knowledge of the Elements and sub-elements. We can conceive of them in a numerical sense. For example Fire Element appears on different levels: Fire-1 (molecular); F-2 (cellular); F-3 (biological); F-4 (bioenergetic), F-5 (psychological), and so on. Clearly there could be many more divisions and subdivisions, especially on the level of tissues, organs, and mind processes. But for now, this schema provides a framework for the reality of these levels. The deepest gift in all this is that our body contains the highest possible level of these Elemental matrices. Let us call this ultimate cosmic level “Element zero” (Element-0). These finest formative forces are usually not available to us. In life they are inextricably mixed with our material, biological, molecular, and even atomic identity. Much of the work of physical yoga, mantra recitation, meditation, visualization, and other sacred methods are involved with freeing up these primordially pure Elements. Indeed, Light Body formation is not other than freeing, collecting, condensing, activating, and co-mingling these original Elements.

In the Elemental dissolution process as described in traditional Tibetan texts, those pure Elements are described as goddesses, buddhas or dakinis. For many millennia, these indescribable and unutterable phenomena have been personified as spiritual beings, as a kind of bridge to our way of perceiving mundane reality. Since these Elements do entail the highest levels of consciousness, this is quite appropriate. The entire universe is sentient and everything partakes of varying levels of consciousness, from photons to space-time itself, and each strata of the Elements also encompass those stages of awareness.

Signs: Outer, Inner, Secret

Various outer manifestations and inner experiences of the Elements dissolving are extensively discussed in Tibetan texts and their translations. Descriptions of these sensations, sounds and visions­ help an outside observer to monitor the situation for the dying individual. And they can be useful but these signs can be difficult to grasp in the rapidly evolving situation. More accessible are the major shifts in energy that are taking place. Through familiarity with our usual bio-energy states and with the Elements on a day-to-day basis, we have a better chance of monitoring our process with a dispassionate curiosity and happy expectation. After all, we only get to do this once per lifetime. Before we can outline the stages, however, we need to clarify an important technical detail about the process called “untying the knots.”

Knots that are Not

Symbolic and mythological language is used in describing how the channels in the body are transformed. During yogic practices, or during the death process, there is an unraveling of the so-called “knots” within the subtle channels, particularly those that encircle the chakras. These entwinements need to be straightened out, so it goes, so that the winds or bio-energies can flow freely. Texts show painstaking line drawings of these tangled skeins, as well as a version of straightened channels. We now know that the primo vascular system is an important part of the subtle energy pathways, but the model of a kinked rubber hose should be understood as figurative, not literal. So what is being pointed at? During normal life, energy fields around the chakras have been enmeshed with our biophysical processes. When they are suddenly released—either through inner work or at death—that forcefield is withdrawn. The ultimate atom of the Elements is then set free. Whether this lives at the heart of the DNA spiral or in a different molecular or atomic formation, we can only suspect. But once freed, the process of merging the pure five elements with our impure elements is possible. If the “untying of the knots” is done in our meditative lifetime, through tummo or other tsa-lung (channels and psychic energy) methods, we are helping create Light Body. When it happens at the point of death, it is called the bardo of dying.

Stages of Dissolution

Earth Element is the first element to let go. The forces which hold our structure together, the forces of constructive energy in Bennett’s schema, begin to withdraw from the entire body. Where does it go? According to the Buddhist tradition, it dissolves back into the outer Earth element. This is consistent with the famous “dust to dust” pronouncement of Christianity. It also conforms to the schema of different levels of our Elemental mandala, where a more elevated or sophisticated level of the element downgrades into a more primitive or impure form. Solidity, structure, and stability fall away. At the same time the navel chakra field collapses, releasing the pure Earth Element (E-0). This enters the central channel of the body, the uma, and it is possible directly glimpse the Wisdom form of the Element, as the color yellow, a square, a buddha, a goddess.

Water Element is next in sequence. Traditional texts and their translations talk about Earth dissolving into Water. This should be understood as strictly metaphor. No Element actually merges or slips into another, but rather assumes prominence as its denser counterpart slips away. Fluidity, cohesion, and the connectedness of our “universal solvent” of water slips away. This is Bennett’s sensitive energy. Now the heart chakra bio-field collapses. It is possible to experience pure Water Element (W-0) as the Wisdom Element as a white color, a circle, or a white buddha. Once this happens, Water gives way to Fire.

Fire Element begins to be released in its mundane form. The pilot light of cellular machinery, our internal combustion, begins to take flight. The throat bio-field or chakra plexus collapses. Heat dissipates from the head down to the feet and out (the reverse in experienced meditators) and the Wisdom Fire element is released and slips into the central channel. If our mind is lucid and calm enough, we may glimpse or meet directly, the primal Element of Fire (F-0) as a red color, a triangle, or a red buddha or goddess of the Western direction.

Air Element now takes center stage. The power that moves our tissues, nerve impulses, even the atomic vibration of our molecular structure, begins to lose momentum. The pelvic chakra bio-field collapses, releasing the primal Air Element. The four winds (upper, lower, digestive, pervading) all dissolve into the life-upholding wind, which then enters into the five-element life force channel at the heart. The outer breath stops at this point. And Air “dissolves” into Space. We may experience a green color, a semi-circle, or the form of the enlightened beings that personify this Element.

Space Element. The last step is described differently in various traditions. In the Karma Lingpa cycle, Space Element dissolves first, before Earth. In other lineages, Air is said to dissolve into consciousness directly, and only then into Space. This seems to be a conflation between local space and ultimate Space (i.e. S-1–5 with S-0). Here we follow with logical sequence in which Air finally dissolves into Space. The head chakra field collapses, releasing the pure Space element bindu, which enters the central channel. Finally Space gives way to pure consciousness. The bio-energetic field of our five mundane Elements have all dissipated, releasing the original matrix of the Pure Five, which now travel through the central channel to the heart. The accompanying diagram gives some visual sense to these transitions points, and the meditations which can be built around them.

Death is the Beginning

After these stages, a new series of transformations begins, which brings the upper and lower polarities of our being together, as discussed in my previous essay on uniting above and below.* This is done during the practice of tummo, neidan, and other advanced tantric, alchemical, or yogic practices. This also happens during deep sleep. The descent of the white seed of the father from above—the mind of experience—and the red seed of the mother from below—the wisdom mind—and their merger at the heart, is a story for another day. And much more could also be said about the Elemental journey just described, especially in light of the psychological components that must fall away at each stage. The crucial understanding is that we have no less than five opportunities to step directly through the doorway of Elemental purity. And each of those thresholds leads to illumination, the chance to avoid any further illusory meandering in the after-life landscape. Instead, we can return home, merging into the luminous openness where our limited ego-self is neither useful nor needed.

Further Reading

Anyen Rinpoche. 2010. Dying With Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide To Preparing For Death. Somerville: Wisdom Publications.

Bennett, J. G. 1964. Energies: Material, Vital, Cosmic. Coombe Springs. Coombe Springs Press.
Cuevas, B. J. 2005. The Hidden History of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Santa Barbara: University of California.
Fremantle, F. 2001. Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Boston: Shambala.
Phuntsok Tashi, Khenpo. 2017. The Fine Art of Living & Manifesting a Peaceful Death. Thimpu.
Sogyal Rinpoche. 1992. Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. San Francisco: Harper.
Wilbur, K. 1996. A Brief History of Everything. Boston: Shambala.

Light Body 8 – Stages of Transformation

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To create a Light Body is not magic, nor the result of wishful thinking. It is science—transformational science. A new embodiment made of quarks and photons does not arise without cause, nor without the interaction of many moving parts. Like everything else in our manifest world, the process follows specific steps and stages. Just like a plant, it requires the equivalent of the right soil, moisture, atmosphere, solar energy, temperature, and much else. There must also be a seed in the first place, a lineage stretching back to ancient primal forests. But simple DNA is not enough, for the forces that create the actual shape of our liver, legs, arms, or that of a leaf, are unknown to contemporary science. All growth and development occurs in spirals, in geometric forms whose mathematical formula are written in the ether.

The morphogenic fields of which English author Alfred Rupert Sheldrake speaks are also the stuff of the visionary, the mystic, the meditating tantric, the illuminated yogi. An energetic scaffold already exists for living things, for the growing plant, the budding embryo. But in the case of the fully formed human being, trying to form a secondary body, a new spiritual embodiment, there is nothing ready-to-wear. The Light Body structure is present only as a potential, an incomplete outline waiting to be colored in. The fascial sheaths, primo vascular system, cell microtubules, and stabilized fourth state water are our latticework. And the whizzing universe of photons and electromagnetic forces within us are the stuff to be molded into a body of rainbows. These are the templates, as well as the raw material that will become “enlightened.” For, as we know, in some cases the entire body becomes nothing other than luminosity, while others leave a form shrunken down to a miniature version of its previous bulk.

Energy economy

For this creation, we need plentiful raw materials. But the daily allotment of energy we produce to maintain our existence is simply not enough. Some of the required subtle substances are not produced at all by the average person. Others, we make in quantities that are only enough for repair, cellular detoxification, and the millions of mundane operations the organism requires. Sacred traditions, Vajrayana Buddhism primary among them, are intensely involved with helping the aspirant create those special materials in adequate amounts. This process is not child’s play and is the underlying reason why students go into isolated retreat for prolonged periods. Normal life depletes energy. When it comes to our vitality, usually whatever we make, we spend. An enormous amount is also wasted with meaningless talk, scattered attention, ceaseless circular thoughts, and futile activity. While the renunciant may be fed up with the banality of life, this is a simple rejection of society and shunning of ordinary activity. It is about efficiency, energy preservation, and being able to retain the precious substances that come from intense, focused practice. However, raw materials do not a house make. We had better know how to build—and especially in what order.
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Stages of transformation

Knowing the working details of our energetic transformation is intellectually fascinating, but it is also highly practical. Understanding which levers to pull, what kind of energy we need, and how to fill in the missing pieces is the essence of tantric practice. But where to look for this information, this hidden manual of step-by-step biological transfiguration? As a spiritual practitioner, it is best to follow one tradition and follow it to its end. But if we want an in-depth understanding, it behooves us to look at the meanings contained within many different traditions, existing in different times and places. Every bona fide, well-established lineage holds substantial secrets that others do not. This cross-cultural investigation can only reinvigorate and strengthen our chosen path.

Tantric stages

Vajrayana literature is extremely rich in its description of the anatomy of the subtle body. The branch channels of the various chakras are cataloged and their functions outlined, such as the 64 sub-channels or “petals” of the pelvic chakra. Each has a visual syllable, a sound, and a specific function, described in both Vajrayana and ancient Shaivite texts. Such sounds are recited or folded into mantras for developing and maturing the luminous body. The energies and winds that move within the channels (tsa or nadi) are also laid out clearly. Yet there is very little information about the actual stages of going from a physical form to a light-based body. The exception concerns our old friends the five elements. It is only here that we see a sequential transformation, and then it is only at death. In the process of dying, the denser, coarser elements dissolve into the lighter, more refined. We see earth melt into water, water into fire, fire into air, and air into space. Space will ultimately merge with pure consciousness. This same sequence happens in a temporary way each night when we sleep, as our consciousness separates from the physical form. Or when we move our energies from the side channels into the central channel (uma) through various tantric meditations. But this elemental dissolution is not spoken of as the mechanism by which a Rainbow Body is achieved. And so we must glean clues from other traditions on how this proceeds.

Indian roots

We can start on familiar ground, in the knowledge of Buddhist Vajrayana, Ayurveda, and Hindu tantra. In Western physiology, we know that our digestion breaks food down into its component parts and then recombines these to form flesh, blood, nerve tissue, and the rest. We produce energy in our cells to do work, generating thermal, electrical, and photonic energy along the way. But in the Eastern concept, going back to the ancient Indian Vedas (1200 BCE) and Buddhist Abhidharma (300 BCE), there is the idea of progressive refinement, of producing ever more rarefied levels of substance. In both ancient and modern texts, a seven-step transformation cycle is described. Each phase or dhatu is represented by a particular body tissue, which then transforms into the next. Roughly translated into English these are: plasma, blood, muscle, fat, bone, marrow, and regenerative fluids. A final eighth stage is primal vitality or healing intelligence (ojas). This is mirrored in the Tibetan medical system, itself largely derived from Indian Ayurveda, but with a Chinese and local medicinal contribution. But one bodily organ turning into another makes no biological sense. Like the ancient Greeks who turned the five formative elemental forces into four liquid humors sloshing around inside the body, Ayurveda falls into a materialist trap. In fact, the sequence is actually describing an energetic shift. What is striking is that there is an octave of substances which corresponds to our traditional Western (and Eastern) system of musical notes. It is also echoed in the seven visible colors of the spectrum (although, in fact, there are infinite gradations, limited only by our vision). This shows up again in certain Indian and Tibetan seven-chakra systems. It also relates to the seven planets of ancient India, China, and Greece, which were understood as a hierarchy of energetic forces, not spinning globes.

Daoist transformation

The Chinese system of inner alchemy or neidan is an advanced level of Daoist thought that brings us an embarrassment of riches. Here lie some of the most extensive—and possibly the oldest—systems of bioenergy anatomy, function, and practice. Inner alchemy encompasses a vast array of lineages and methods geared toward creating an immortal Light Body or sacred embryo (shengtai). The stages, phases, levels, and subsets of this process are intricate and overwhelming, defying a simple overview. However, at its core, Daoist alchemy follows a familiar pattern. Our most physical substances (jing) are transformed into subtle energy (qi), which moves into spiritual or mind energy (shen), then into emptiness, and finally into the Dao itself. These same ideas are echoed in traditional Chinese medicine and in Qigong and Medical Qigong. Neigong and neidan are the epitome of these approaches, being analogous to the inner tantras of the Hindu and Tibetan traditions. Until recently, the lineages and methods of these approaches were extremely secret. Only in recent decades have they become available to the avid Western seeker.

Alchemical connections

Centuries and worlds away, Western alchemy thrived all over Europe over 700 years ago. Transforming the base metal of our being into the purest immortal gold, the alchemist creates a homunculus, a spiritual form within the crucible of the material body. This is identical to the Asian Light Body traditions from whence this knowledge came. But while its roots are Egyptian (al-kemi), Indian, and Arabic (by way of ancient Greece), by the time of its full blossoming it was couched in a hidden language of arcane symbolism. The Indian tantrics used a similar kind of “twilight language” in order to hide the nature of their culturally transgressive activity from the religious power structures. The alchemists were certainly in similar danger of persecution from the Christian authorities, and the whole idea of making material gold out of lead was a clever smokescreen for the real work of creating the inner golden child. What strikes us again is the seven-stages of transformation at the core of the alchemical process. Studying the obscure symbols of the phases of calcination, dissolution, separation, conjugation, fermentation, distillation, and coagulation offers a veiled view into the same stair-step path toward full illumination as we find elsewhere.

Gurdjieffian transformation

In the modern era, a detailed system of transformation comes to us through the system of the great mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. Variously identified with esoteric Christianity, Sufism, and Gnosticism, this Fourth Way school provides a detailed schema of how our three kinds of nourishment—food, air, and mental impressions—interact to generate ever more subtle energies. The Law of Octaves is portrayed in hydrogen diagrams that show what happens in the normal course of living, and how the entire process can shift when we engage in the right spiritual work. Demonstrating how to change from having just enough energy for life, to a transformative process where rarefied energetic “substances” are created, it echoes the hierarchical transformation of Chinese, Indian, Tibetan, and other traditions. In the Gurdjieffian path, the result is two “higher being bodies,” as we move from either a mental, emotional, or physical-centered type to a fully integrated human being. The diagram below shows the series of hydrogens that occur in a human body—seven normally, or eight if we are on a transformative path.

Musical scales

There are many other correlations that could be made in terms of sacred music and inner change. But unraveling the complex musical scales and mathematics of ancient Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Islamic, and other traditional musical systems is far beyond our discussion or my expertise. However, the familiar Pythagorean octave (without discussing tunings or temperament) is a useful standard and an essential part of the mystical tradition of that ancient Greek master. The seven-part octave (eight if we arrive at the next beginning) perfectly expresses the movement from a lower vibration to a higher one—literally. This is more than just a theoretical scheme. This pattern of inner musical ascension is the basis of healing and transforming music, mantra, and seed syllables in traditions across every epoch.

A comparison of the seven stages as described by various lineages is shown in the table below:
Table of Energy Transformations

The Way of Light

In looking at the spiritual paths of very distinct cultures, surprisingly similar patterns emerge. Although usually hidden from superficial view, the magnificent path of the Light Body emerges as the center of the world’s great spiritual traditions. By its very nature, growing this interior radiant form progresses according to well-trodden stages. And it may be true that the entire natural world follows a similar vibrational octave in order to grow and reproduce. Understanding where we are in this process would be tremendously useful—even crucial—during inner development. But it also highlights another important spiritual truth. Even with a knowledge of spiritual sequence, it is difficult to impossible to see our own precise stumbling block or where our next inner opportunity lies. For that, an insightful and highly developed guru, a spiritual friend, is an essential ingredient. Such a one may be able to coax us, orally, silently, secretly, openly, or with any number of skillful means, to keep on track and jump to the next stage of our journey towards effulgence. Voyaging in the wilderness of our own mind, sailing within the oceans of our stormy karma, requires an accurate map—but also a skilled guide who knows well the territory.
While the octave sequence is not discussed in every tradition, it is certainly folded into the Vajrayana practices of deity meditation, mantra, visualization, and tsa-lung—inner energy manipulations. These practices generate spiritual energies that fuel a conflagration that will burn away our physicality, leaving only the body of energy. That fire begins with enthusiasm and continues through unwavering commitment and diligence.

References

Baker, Ian. 2019. Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.

Jinpa, Thupten. 2018. Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics. Volume 1: The Physical World. New York City. Simon & Schuster.

Ouspensky, P. 1949. In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching. New York City: Harcourt Brace.

Plummer, Tony. 2013. The Law of Vibration. Petersfield: Harriman House.

Roob, Alexander, 2001. Alchemy & Mysticism. Cologne: Taschen.

Wallis, Christopher. Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History and Practice of a Timeless Tradition. San Rafael: Mattamayūra Press.

Yangöngpa, Gyalwa (trans. E. Guarisco). 2015. The Secret Map of the Body: Visions of the Human Energy Structure. Arcidosso: Shangshung Publications.

Light Body 7 – Elements Become Luminous

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Rainbow Body. Image courtesy of the author

Back to purity

Within the great enterprise of Light Body creation is a great mystery that is rarely addressed: what is the relationship between the Five Elements and the transformation of a physical form into one of gossamer radiance? We purify the elements through the practice of visualization, mantric sound, concentration on body areas, manipulating energy streams, and yogic postures. We work with the chakras, circles, letters, and sounds within them, stream energy through a vast network of energy channels—the nadis or tsa. But how does this translate into the kind of shift we are seeking, from the material to the non-substantial? Indeed, all this purification activity has a purpose and an end goal other than purity for purity’s sake alone. It is part of the truly magical process of how flesh becomes spirit-like.

The essence of that wizardry might be surprising as it is the fusion of the Five Elements, the coming together of the trillions of “atoms” of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space, into something completely other, something that we might call “light atoms.” This is the core reason why those years and decades of purification are needed. Without this preparation, the impure Five Elements simply cannot come together. Think of a group of colored magnetic steel balls that need to unite, but their surfaces are too dirty, coated with some kind of gunk, some plastic layer. Their magnetic charges cannot pass through this useless layer. That kind of padding represents our accumulated karma, our patterns of biological, psychological, and especially spiritual distortion. Once this husk is removed, the extraordinary becomes possible.

Baking the elements

But there is also a secret sauce here—another ingredient necessary for the alchemical transformation of five into one. We are already familiar from previous articles in this column, or our own studies, with the necessary catalyst for Light Body gestation. When the white masculine polarity, the father seed residing in the head, meets the red feminine mother seed which rests in the belly, a cosmic forge is created. Enlisting the lower winds and pelvic or digestive fire, we ignite a blaze that can cook and congeal the entire elemental mix. This alchemical process is the tummo of the Tibetan Buddhists, the kundalini of the Hindus, the neidan of the Daoists, the sacred marriage of mystical Christianity, and the whole process of medieval alchemists. This final result, the unified light atom, may be analogous to, or even identical with, the recently discovered pentaquark—five quarks held together by some unknown matrix, a seemingly perfect vehicle for non-corporeal consciousness.


Chakra diagram from an old Hindu manuscript,. Image courtesy of the author

While the exact physics of this form is not yet understood, what we do know is that it co-exists with the physical form. Attaining a working Light Body does not supersede or somehow displace the physical form. But at death, when the organism built of proteins, fluids, fats, starches, and minerals becomes inert matter and is no longer a vehicle for life, the so-called Light Body or Rainbow Body bursts forth. Sometimes such fortunate beings dissolve into pure light, showing that the physical form was a mere holographic representation—light simulating solid matter. At other times the human form shrinks down to the size of a small child, as the existing percentage of pure five-element luminosity merges and pervades open space. And at other times, it is only when the body is cremated that signs of a major transformational event ripple through the whole fabric of reality, such that multiple rainbows pervade a clear sky, and other manifestations.

Living and dying into light

We can see that the process of dying and of the birth of the Light Body are, in many ways, opposite. The teachings of Vajrayana tell us that at death the elements dissolves into each other, one by one, in stages. Earth merges into Water. Water dissolves into Fire and Fire into Air. Air moves into Space and finally merges with consciousness itself. Of course there are simultaneous inner and outer experiences for the individual who is undergoing the dying process. But this about the departure of the enlivening elemental forces from the elemental shell; the break-up of the remarkable fusion of the elements and sub-elements into a vehicle of life.

For the Light Body, the process is reversed. Now they combine, fuse, merge, rather than dissolve or dissipate. The whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts. This is echoed in the uniting of the sperm and ovum in the elemental creation of the human form. Science understands something about DNA, which dictates the making of proteins, but has no clue as to how the form or shape of a human being occurs. In the same way, there is no understanding of what force holds the pentad quark together. We can speculate that it is the famed “sixth buddha” (or sixth element of certain traditions such as Shingon and certain Shaivite lineages), which is none other than consciousness itself. This connotes a meaningful and intelligent design, a true coming together of wisdom (consciousness) and skillful means (the Five Elements) that is the basis of the Vajrayana path.

Back to the mandala

Now the well-known mandala of the Five Elements, central to the whole of Tibetan Buddhism and Hindu tantra, takes on quite a new and additional meaning. It is, in fact, not just a representation of the composition of the world, of the body, and of the mind. It is also a picture of a light atom, the final product of the extraordinary transformation that is our potential, our birthright. Detailed drawings and three-dimensional constructs of mandalas give an even deeper understanding of what the Rainbow Body particle might look like, symbolically and in terms of an as yet unknown biophysics.

In the next article we will tackle the tangled and tortuous story of the chakras as a necessary knowledge for Rainbow Body creation, and the strange fiction that pervades the Western concept of yogic energy centers.

Rainbow Body 6 – Elements High & Low

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The Missing Elemental Link

We have looked at some aspects of what modern biophysics, biophotonics, phonics (sound), and neurology can bring to our understanding of the Light Body. And the anatomical discovery of the microscopic primo vascular system and fascial tissue give us new perspectives on tsas, nadis, meridians, and the body’s energy channels in general. But at some point science is left in the dust. It cannot keep up with ancient esoteric knowledge, cooked for millennia in the crucible of direct inner experience, not intellectual theories. This particularly refers to the science of the Five Elements, and the loss and distortion of this knowledge in Western intellectual culture, medicine, and religion.

That massive misstep began long ago. While ancient Greece is taken to be the fount of our Western scientific tradition, it is also where materialism took hold fiercely, relegating scientists to the study of physical objects, functions, and ever smaller components. It’s only now, thousands of years later, that physics—and a good dose of Eastern spirituality—promise a revived view of a living, conscious universe. In nature, and in the realm of biology, it is grids of information-energy that rule supreme. Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen could not abide the idea of five intangible formative forces and downgraded the elements into gloppy fluids sloshing about in the spaces of the body. To be fair, this was in response to the Egyptian and Babylonian perspective, held for thousands of years, of the elements as deities. Empedocles famously called these deities “roots,” turning them into a proprietary system and establishing his place in history. But the notion of a space element, already an integral part of Pythagorean knowledge adopted from Egypt and Babylon a century before, was out in the cold. This left us with the fantasy of hydraulic fluids running the body (the humoral theory), which would pervade European and Middle Eastern thought right into the modern era—tainting astrology, alchemy, and reflected in the truncated four-part psychology of Jung, Keirsey, and Myers-Briggs. But while this artifact of materialistic thinking affected a hundred generations of beings, the true knowledge of elemental forces has remained intact, preserved in Tibetan Buddhism, Indian Shaivism, Sufic healing, and the Western gnostic lineages. That is a good thing, since they play a central role in the development of the Rainbow or Light Body. That is as it should be, since it is not myth that we are composed, mind and body, of five dynamic patterns of meaning and manifestation.

Elements, elements everywhere

In the process of creation, of manifestation, the higher is separated from the lower: gravity and levity, roots and fruits, sky and earth. Now, we reverse the process, climbing back toward union. But a simple reversion to the primordial state, to a pure unity of warm consciousness incomprehensible to our dull intellect would miss the point. Our journey as an embodied five-elemental being is not just a movement within an illusion of time and space where “nothing actually happens.” The return is everything, and in many ways the fulfillment of creation itself. It is the ouroboros, the snake that devours its own tail, the completion of the circle, which is itself empty and contains everything.

This elemental transformation process is commonly portrayed in Tibetan thangkas and repeated in almost every ritual. Within a human skull cup we visualize five kinds of meat (forbidden foods, according to Brahmanical literature) and five kinds of bodily fluids. Their specific names are not important for this discussion, but they represent the Five Elements in their female and male aspects. This mishmash is the sum of our physical existence. Here is biology; here is embodiment; here is incarnation—being in the flesh. But here is the possibility of the birth of a new, non-material form as a vehicle for a renewed consciousness. These elements will be cooked and transformed into wisdom nectar, due to the magical addition of Om Ah Hung. In Tibetan, these three syllables represent form, energy, and consciousness, although I prefer G. I. Gurdjieff’s more colorful nomenclature of “Holy Denying, Holy Affirming, and Holy Reconciling.”

Inherent fives

The reason for this transformative possibility in the first place is that the Five Elements exist within us in a multi-layered context. We contain the five material elements, but also the five original, pure Wisdom Elements, the cosmic spark as it were. The Hindu tradition describes five koshas or levels of existence, from gross to subtle, from bioenergetic to pure consciousness. The Buddhist world speaks of three bodies or kaya in a similar spectrum. The Kabbalah describes five worlds in a descending chain of existence. Whether we count in threes, fives, or beyond, the problem remains—how to unite the lower and the higher to create something altogether new. Traditionally, we perceive each of the Vajrayana chakras as the center of gravity of one of the elements—but containing an inner structure of five subelements. And so we have elements within elements waiting to be impregnated with divine radiance and to ascend to their true potential.

Cooking the elements

Down in the depths of our viscera, in the dark recess of the pelvic container, is a secret bindu, an energetic sphere, a “bubble” of immense import. The yogin or yogini will have long prepared, through visualization, mantra recitation, focused meditation, and the gathering of blessings, creative forces, and the richness of material, planetary, biological, and spiritual energies. Prolonged purifications have taken place, readying for this moment. Now, in this most secret of places, the alchemical process, the gestation of a new Light Body begins. Conception took place long ago, in different forms of initiations, meetings with the guru, or even a direct download from transcendent sources. Now the quickening begins, the “cooking” process. As in our visualized skull cup of animals and fluids, we ignite the fire in the belly and fan it with the reversed turbulence of our “downward descending wind.” The digestive and liver fire is harnessed, and winds are drawn down and held in the vase of the belly. The anus and lower doors are drawn up and sealed. As the sub-navel furnace blazes, the Earth mandala in the belly dissolves and is drawn upward by a natural osmosis, the force of levity, of ionic attraction, in the oldest dance in the universe.

Spiral dynamics

In this “mating” process, the flame rises up to melt the Wisdom Elements dwelling in the head. This inner heat or tummo process involves spiral energies. The heavenly father energies move clockwise, always. The earthly mother energies move in an anti-clockwise spiral, always. This is clearly seen in the way that a mantra circles within the heart, depending on whether one is self-visualized as a male or female yidam or deity form. The male mantra circles to the right and the female mantra always circles to the left (from the perspective of your own body’s orientation). Spiraling down, the flow moves through the chakras producing the “four joys.” But it spirally ascends to the head again, thrusting through the chakras with another more intense effulgence of innate bliss and the experience of pure awareness (or emptiness, as it is misleadingly called).

By this process, each element in its lower or biological state is transformed, united with and blended with its wisdom form. But what is very surprising here is that, in the Vajrayana tradition, the story somehow ends. We rest in this new state of unfabricated being-knowing, merging it with various aspects of mundane existence, including arising thoughts and feelings and experiences. All is painted with a new brush. The “doors of perception” are cleansed in a utopian brave new world of consciousness.

Beginning, not ending

But the journey is far from over. What has been described above in traditional terms involves a massive movement within the water-based electron grid of cells and interstitial tissue. It is a volcanic eruption and lava flow of the packets of massed biophotons from the cerebrospinal fluid and brain’s ventricles. We have every reason to understand that photons are the vehicles of consciousness—or that consciousness is an intrinsic quality of photons. And we have clear indications that the structured water in cells, tissues, and blood is the electron-source of prana or lūng itself. As a result of this co-mingling of side-to-side, front-to-back, and finally top-and-bottom, the Light Body begins to form in earnest. Each of the elemental chakras is now part of the Rainbow anatomy containing a mandala of subelements brimming with pristine Wisdom Element force. Channels, energy, and consciousness—tsa, lūng, and tiglé—are all benefactors of the primary template of all things: the Five Elements known as Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space.

In part seven, we will look more closely at the nature of prana, as well as the strangely overlooked reason why Vajrayana has two systems of chakras.

Rainbow Body 5 – Uniting Sky & Earth

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Colorful Buddha

Further Union

In our continued investigation of the process of inner union, we have looked at the meaning and practice of uniting our left and right sides. These could be expressed as our male-female polarity or rationality and intuition. We also began to examine the union of our upper and lower poles, the literal unity of heaven and earth, spirituality and embodiment, mind and body, depending on nomenclature or tradition. Thus we have spoken of two dimensions of top to bottom and side to side. But beyond the vertical and horizontal, our three dimensional being also has an “anterior-posterior” reality, a front to back. Our side to side polarity is fairly symmetrical and complementary. Our vertical polarity is about two radically different poles, but that are anatomical variations on the same theme. Our upper limbs and lower limbs, their bones and muscles, are different versions of a pattern, one designed for maximum stability and locomotion (our legs), the other made for flexibility and extremely fine motor skills.

There are many other correlations in internal organs, with the heart at the center of the upright span. Plants are quite different, with root and flowering tops not being at all analogies of each other. When it comes to our front-back polarity, the differences are not variations on a theme like either the right-left or up-down contrasts. They do not reflect each other, mirror-like. The back of the head really is the back, and the front the front. All sense organs face forward, even though we like to think that some people seem to have “eyes in the back of their heads.” The heel and the toe move in one direction and were designed for a single orientation. We may come to understand why this is so by looking at the union that is necessary between the two.

Back to Front

In the transformative methods of Chinese qi gong practice, the “back-to-front” union is accomplished through the important “microcosmic orbit.” Visualized energy is sent down through the front meridians of the body, and then up through the back meridian, through the brain, across the bridge formed by pressing the tongue against the palate—and down the front again. The benefits of this technique are enormous, both in terms of overall vitality and as a requirement for later transformations. In Vajrayana, this process takes place during the visualizations of karmamudra, where there is a real or imaged sexual union and energy flow between lovers. The circular motion is the same, though the location of the visualized “loop” moves forward six to ten inches. In karmamudra, the forward flow is in front of one, as a real or imagined partner. The returning backward flow is not up the back, but through the central channel within the spinal cord. In a number of deity and protector practices, as well as during empowerments, the flow of mantras makes a similar circuit. In this case, the deity is in the sky, far in front of our own form. Now the energy must fly through the air before re-entering oneself. Also, the direction of the flow can go either way, forward or reverse. Mantra chains enter our mouths and circulate down into our heart or navel during empowerments. In certain meditation practices they will travel to the navel plexus of the deity, up through their heart and back out of their mouth. It is an extraordinary process of spiritual transmission, exchange, and unification itself.

In all of these cases, this front-back integration is a profound process with many symbolic and actual meanings. Most commonly spoken of is the union of self and other, of inner and outer worlds. This really means the coming together of awareness (the self) with the experienced phenomena. This dual-worldly integration is also called the union of skillful means (Tib: thab) and wisdom (sherab). Vajrayana tells us that this is the most basic error of pure awareness: to split experience and experiencer into “it” and “I.” This turns pure knowingness (rigpa) into ignorance or mistaken, illusory experience (ma-rigpa). It is where all the trouble of experiencing oneself as an actor in the world, a “stranger in a strange land,” begins.

Past & Present

Our back is where we have been, not where we are going. It is the past, while our front is the future. In the middle, we are meant to be fully present. We actually lie on our backs to let go of our intellectual experience and sink into imaginal and pre-verbal realms. This union is the synchronizing of the unconscious and conscious, but also the coming in of life energy (up the back) and manifesting that energy into the world. This process helps one live in both those worlds, either of which alone can consume one, preventing true liberation.

Conscious and Unconscious

Another clear division between our front and back haves, is that in the person facing you “what you see is what you get.” Facial expressions, the depth and connection of the eyes, the forward gestures, all have to do with a full presentation of the person. Of course there is much unseen and unknown, and that is precisely what is “behind the eyes.” The back is tantamount to the interior, the unknown or unknowable, the subconscious (a theoretical construct) or the unconscious. Our back is what even we don’t know about ourselves, or what is creeping up on us. Integrating back and front is a reconnection of biology and psychology, of something primal and mechanical with something very advanced and aware. Small wonder that the practice of microcosmic orbit or karmamudra has a strong sexual connection. This too is the ultimate union of unconscious or preconscious being, pure awareness, with the mundane intellectual version of life.

Within the Central Channel

The yogic practitioner has gone to great efforts to guide the body’s energies toward the center, having corralled, controlled, and forced them to enter into the core pillar of the energetic pathway called the central or middle channel (Uma). This is where union can take place. It is possible to enter the central channel through other means, and specifically through other chakras. For example, meditation on symbols, sounds, or feelings of love and devotion in the heart charka have been used by Christian, Sufic, Hindu, and Buddhist meditators for millennia. However, meditators can get into trouble if energies become stuck in the head, heart, or throat charkas, or if they are too forcibly engaged. The abdomen tends to be the most robust and safe area to secure entry.

The Lower Gate

The Tradition

Every spiritual tradition, and many related health systems, recognize the navel area to be a special accumulator of energy, and indeed a source of the life force itself. In Japan, it is called the hara and is considered the source of vitality and physical prowess that is also central to the practice of martial arts. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is known as the emanation wheel or chakra (trulpai khorlo). It is taught that this is the place from which the whole of creation or phenomenal appearances arises. This is graphically portrayed in the Shangpa practice of illusory body, where one visualizes all beings of the six realms as emanating from that center.

The navel is the center of gravity of the upright human form, the balance point of posture and weight distribution. It is a hub of another magnificent polarity in the body—the two parts of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic is the “yang” or masculine functions of reaction, drive, defense, and attack. The opposing parasympathetic is the “yin,” passive, nutritive, nourishing, relaxing. These are constantly working in tandem to maintain the appropriate tone for whatever is going on in our body and mind, controlling respiration, digestion, cardiac function, blood flow, and so on. These nerves pervade the entire body, from the smallest of blood vessels to the contraction of the large muscles of the colon, bladder, and heart. We have already seen the sympathetic chain on the right and left sides of the spine. Here in the lower abdomen, the mesenteric plexus is part of the “second brain,” the massive neuronal matrix that lives in and around the gut.

The Missing Alchemy

Once at the threshold of the central channel, the journey toward the upper pole, the apex or nadir, must take place for ultimate union. But how can this be carried out, especially since Western science truly abandons us at this juncture. To understand the next phase, we rely instead on ancient science. And that leads us to the Five Elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—the basic substrata from which all is created. It is in the crucible of their transformative powers that we can emulate death and have our poles give birth to a new cosmic self, where the word “self” losings its usual meaning. And this is what we undertake in next month’s article.

Rainbow Body 4: Inner Union

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The final consummation of the human journey—the ultimate fulfillment of our possibility of finding this precious human birth—is the Light Body. Its birth and maturation requires many steps, but its final stage is a process of union, and that means the union of opposites. If we look at our inner and outer worlds, we see that we are a striking study in contrasts and polarities. It is small wonder that we suffer, caught between seemingly irreconcilable opposites. Male-female within the same body, gravity and levity, right and left paths, earth and air, fire and water, active and passive, advancing and retreating, falling down and rising up. Even the most casual observation of a life well-lived shows a dramatic flux in events, inner experiences, feelings, and thoughts. At times we go in one direction and a few years later our path impels us to make a 180-degree turn, forcing one to re-evaluate priorities, goals, and undertakings. This is the nature of samsara, of duality. This well known split is not simply brushed away by talk of “non-dual” states of mind. Until the duality in our body, in our energy fields, and in our cellular structure itself changes, it is all just smoke and mirrors. Here we look at some of the ways in which this union is achieved, while translating these traditional descriptions into a modern idiom that strikes closer to home.

Side by side

The Tradition

The first polarity that must be resolved is our right-left reality. Without a discussion of the often misrepresented idea of the right intuitive brain and the left logical brain, traditional tantric anatomy makes it clear that our right and left channels, branching from the nostrils down into the lower abdomen, represent a masculine and feminine energy system. This has nothing to do with “gender” as we define it socially or even medically. But just as it is a feature of plants, birds, and bees, it is an essential feature of esoteric anatomy. This hoped-for union is portrayed clearly in Buddhist iconography of the internal channels, as well as the yab-yum or male-female in orgasmic embrace that is present in various deity thangkas. But it is also overtly shown in Western alchemical writings, with a half male, half female figure, as well as the classic Indian representation of the Shiva-Shakti half-and-half body. Many other traditions, including the Christian demonstrate this in works of art, architecture and literature, where its real import is often hidden from the uninitiated. Right-handed and left-handed actions and connotations pervade every culture, even influencing our anatomical nomenclature, the right side being “dextra” as in dexterous, and the left “sinistre” as in passive, hidden.

While a right-left union could take place in many ways, in Vajrayana it is most clearly expressed in the practice of tsa-lung, of working with the energy channels and the vital energies that surge through them. Through visualization and breath control, as well as yogic “magical movements” or trul-kor, these energies are forced down through the side channels to meet below the navel. The right channel, in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, is the solar (Skt: ida or Tib: roma). The left channel is considered lunar (Skt: pingala or Tib: kyangma). Here we have a strong male-female sense. The Sun energy is forever linked to the concept of the drive and focus of the male archetype. The cool and nurturing female archetype is forever lunar. In Vajrayana this split is also designated as skillful means (tab) and wisdom (sherab), or being in the world versus knowing what is beyond appearances. The union must take place somewhere neutral to these two, or even to the place that unites them. And that is the central channel (Skt: shushumna or Tib: uma), the region of undivided consciousness and luminosity.

This merging requires a number of steps, not only to prepare these three channels, but to bring the entire body on board with the transformation. Channels must be stretched, straightened, and purified, while energies must be condensed and accumulated. Physical yoga accomplishes a number of these, as do a variety of breath practices, such as alternate nostril breathing. The Light Body adept will have already spent years on visualizations, mantras, and work with chakras to bring the biological physical form and bioenergetic subtle body up to par.

Daoist practice has a virtually identical process, with its own unique nomenclature, and indeed a far more detailed and complex bioenergy theory and anatomy. Qigong is largely involved with the preliminary clearing and charging up process, as opposed to neigong or neidan, which is the actual alchemy of change or stage of union. The neidan tu is a complex diagram of the human body as a landscape, with waterwheel, rivers, and furnace, and other symbols, which mirrors more diagrammatic portrayals in the Tibetan and Shaivite systems of channels and chakras.

The two sides of our energy could be joined in the central channel through any chakra, and through various means. There are fast and slow, gentle and intense methods. The most rapid and forceful occurs in the navel area, emanation chakra of Buddhism or lower Dantien of Daoist nomenclature. When that union happens, we begin to unite and resolve our own male-female polarity and its inherently conflicted state.

The Science

Anatomically, the prime candidate for the central channel is a small fluid-filled tube at the very center of the bundle of nerve tracts known as the spinal cord. It may also be within the microscopic primo vascular system vessels that we know is all around the cord. The Shaivite system actually describes a number of parts of the central channel, corresponding to the sensory and motor tracks of the spinal cord, the choroid or circulatory layer, and the cerebrospinal canal itself. The linings of the channel and the sheaths around the cord also have conductive properties that contribute to this complex pathway. The cerebrospinal fluid flowing in the cord has extraordinary properties, as a carrier of biophotons and the assortment of neurotransmitters and hormones that it picks up and circulates in the four ventricles of the brain.

The right and left channels should be the anatomical equivalent of the right and left sympathetic chains. From a Western physiology perspective this is our “fight or flight” system that regulates all organs and opposes the parasympathetic system originating in the brain (vagus nerve) and sacrum. Even though there are intricate ways in which these systems interact with the nervous system and brain areas, there is no known division into right and left function in Western medicine as there is on the brain level. And the idea of breathing energies into these channels still faces a huge gap in our understanding of Eastern spiritual knowledge and Western anatomical and physiological knowledge. But certainly, where the mind is focused there is an increase in blood flow, metabolic activity and biophoton production.

Top to Bottom

But in Vajrayana, the side-to-side union moves directly into the next phase, which is the most profound of all—top and bottom. This process is analogous to the conjoining of the DNA from the male and female seed. In our current state, one could say that this body is in a perpetual state of meiosis. This is the kind of cell division that happens in our sex cells (sperm and egg). Generative cells split in such a way that each has half of the original DNA, so that half of a child’s chromosomes (23 pairs or a haploid) come from the father, and half (23 pairs) from the mother—making our full DNA complement of 46 pairs of chromosomes. In tantric science, this “father” principle or haploid resides in the head, while the “mother” principle dwells in the pelvis. They will only meet again at death—or if we become enlightened in this very life.

The top-bottom union (or re-union) is the essential process of the well known Vajrayana method of called tummo (literally, the fierce mother), and closely allied to both Hindu kundalini and Daoist neidan. Widely taught in the West and the subject of a number of English books, tummo’s origin is in the tantra of the motherland of India, mainly through the scholar-yogi Naropa and female adept Niguma. This is a remarkable “cooking” process that forces a meeting of our upper and lower poles prematurely, either creating a new self within us, or uncreating us, depending on your viewpoint. Here the white crystalline father seed in the head and the female red seed in the pelvis are easily confused with the elements of fire and water. But the symbology here points to something notably different. It is not merely a conjoining of hot and cold, or even male and female. Indeed, the female seed is not fiery, but considered our lifeblood. The heat comes from drawing in energies from other vital channels and forces.

The meaning of this uniting of polarities is best understood by another symbol, one that plays a part in tummo as well, visualized as a base for the pelvic fire. It is the double triangle or dharmadayo, the “origin of all phenomena,” also known as the Star of David in other traditions. It is of course prominent in Hindu traditions and indeed is extremely ancient. If we look at two merging triangles, the lower has a wide base that spreads out upon the earth, infinitely. However, its apex ends in a single point in the brain. The upper triangle is exactly the opposite. It holds a point in the pelvis, barely incarnated. But it then spreads upward to the infinite cosmos. So, this merging of creation and source, evolution and devolution.

This is the classic possible meeting of Heaven and Earth, the most basic symbol of humanity’s struggle to balance their tenuous existence on the physical plane. It appears in indigenous cultures of South America, in ancient Babylon, in the religion of Zoroaster, the pyramids of Egypt and Sumer, and in various motifs and art of the Christian West. But it is a union of the internal heaven and earth, not one of a utopia on earth. It is really the union of pure consciousness and phenomena, the appearance or experience of form.

Connecting More Dots

There is still more to unite. Less commonly talked about, the back and front must be brought into balance and resolved, that basic polarity that comes from standing upright, and moving in one direction in space—and in time. And there is the actual cataclysmic union within the central channel. To understand that process we need to expand on what goes on in the navel chakra, the hara, the lower dantien to allow entry into the holy mountain, the citadel, the tree of life, the paradise of myths and dreams. Next month we will look at how that atomic reaction might happen, and what tradition and science polarity between can tell us to make the union of heaven and earth more accessible.

Further reading

Baker, Ian. (2019). Tibetan Yoga: Principles and Practices. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions.

Chenagtsang, N. (2018). Karmamudra: The Yoga of Bliss. Portland, OR: Sky Press.

Dixon, J. (2008). The Biology of Kundalini: Exploring the Fire of Life. Lulu Publishing.

Dorje, Rangjung. 2014. Trans. by E. Callahan. The Profound Inner Principles. Boston: Snow Lion.

Mitchell, D. (2016). White Moon on the Mountain Peak: The Alchemical Firing Process of Nei Dan. London: Singing Dragon.

Mitchell, D. (2014). The Four Dragons: Clearing the Meridians and Awakening the Spine in Nei Gong. London: Singing Dragon.

Wallis, C. (2012). Tantra Illuminated: The Philosophy, History, and Practice of a Timeless Tradition. Second edition. San Rafael, CA: Matamuyura Press.

White, D. G. (1998). The Alchemical Body: Siddha Traditions in Medieval India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Yeshe, L. T. 1998. The Bliss of Inner Fire: Heart Practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Rainbow Body 3: Light Body Myths

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Some of the most powerful ideas and effective tools for personal growth and evolution come to us from ancient sources—sources that maintain their vitality and meaning to the present day. But time marches forward, bringing massive displacements of populations, radical changes in cultural patterns and beliefs, shifts in power, and discoveries in science that change the entire face of society. Those ancient truths inevitably become mixed with mundane concepts, and the confused hopes and dreams of frail humanity. The handing down of sacred information is indeed a tough proposition and much can be lost or missed in translation. So, in investigating any spiritual idea, it is good idea start by examining the modern myths that become attached to it.

The possibility of developing a Rainbow or  Light Body from our physical organism is a profoundly important ancient truth that has come out of hiding in recent decades. This biophotonic structure can survive beyond the material organism, acting as a vehicle for a transformed consciousness—a luminous sphere of existence. But in the short time that it has come onto the radar, it has acquired a share of mistaken views. While there may not be any definitive cross-cultural compendium on the ins and outs of Light Body, some things can be stated clearly. And since modern biophysics is only now catching up with the reality of a luminous body, we must rely on the extensive historical evidence, written records, and teachings of past masters of Light Body technology. Based on that knowledge, we can look at seven current myths around the reality, development, and nurturing of Light Body.

1. It doesn’t exist

For reasons both mundane and profound, many people have never heard of a Light Body, or that it is part of our human potential. Others, faced with this remarkable new information for the first time, may experience an inner resistance coming from religious, logical, social, scientific, or cultural concerns. It is a radical piece of knowledge after all, and one that may threaten one’s entire worldview or alter the course of one’s life. We all know that fixed belief systems can can be an absolute barrier to new information, even in the face of convincing evidence. Within the Vajrayana tradition, for example, that evidence is clear. There a dozens of well-documented cases of Light Body development over the last 50 years, and thousands of stories of such attainment over a dozen centuries. The cross cultural and panglobal occurrence is further confirmation, as Rainbow Body tales fill the annals of Christian, Sufic, Daoist, Shaivite, and other spiritual traditions.

2. You already have one

Just open your browser. A search for Light Body reveals a confusing and often bizarre array of websites, videos, and associated persons who talk about “activating” an already present Light Body. It is there for the taking. All that is needed is the right method to “graduate from the human condition” to quote one front page YouTube video. Such teachings use all the appropriate buzzwords, including prana, breathing, high vibrations, bipohotons, and scores of others. Generally, the idea is based on “ascension,” an originally Christian concept that has been equally co-opted in the soup of ideas called New Age. Visualizations, sacred geometry, mantra, and various other forms of meditation are all valid in the right context. Creating a salad of many pieces taken from ancient Eastern, Shamanic, and Western traditions is an interesting exercise in eclecticism. The problem is that, from the practical perspective, it is a false promise.

But how to discriminate between well-meaning but impotent teachers and imaginary paths, versus real schools of inner development?  Knowledge is a good first defense. A good litmus test is simply a broad study of the philosophy, religion, and spiritual trainings that have persisted for millennia. It is clear that nowhere are there indications of a “quick fix” to the problem of the human condition or the possibility of illumination. On the contrary, according to meditative and contemplative traditions of India, China, Tibet, and the Christian West, it is a life-long, difficult climb. Indeed, according to reincarnational traditions, it is likely to take innumerable lifetimes to accomplish. Also, nowhere do we see “results” from these methods. On the contrary, most who claim to be teachers of Light Body are dimmer than a 25 watt light bulb! Nor are their students disappearing into luminous spheres at last count. This is not an entirely innocuous kind of misdirection. Misleading people from the doing work that will bring gradual, but real results is considered to be the most serious spiritual “crime” one can commit. But from our own part, abandoning naivety and gullibility, and learning discriminating wisdom is a huge task, but one that each of us must undertake.

3. Only (substitute your religion) can obtain this

During a recent conference at which I gave a presentation, I discussed the worldwide history of the Light Body. I was surprised when a well-known Tibetan teacher objected to this panglobal approach, intimating that this was an exclusive possibility of Tibetan Buddhist lamas. Like every other field of expertise, there tends to be bias. Whether it is a sports team, a lifestyle, a health regimen, or a fashion trend, our preferences color one’s perception. But when it comes to issues that affect the whole of humanity, clearly no one culture has an exclusive right to inner transformation. Again, the evidence is present in the literature, art, and living traditions of Rainbow Body formation in cultures around the world. Anyone, anywhere is a candidate, if they understand the goal and get to work on it. In Buddhism, recognizing this extraordinary possibility is what turns a mundane existence into a  “precious human birth.”

4. Light Body is “all or nothing”

This is a strange one. Spiritual traditions, such as the Tibetan Vajrayana, speak about and explain the necessary methods to progress along the path to Rainbow or Light body. But there is very little (if any) discussion about what happens along the road to that lofty goal. The point is that there is a progression, actually a growth and accumulation of change within the bio-energetic, cellular and atomic structure of the individual. This is one of the main reasons that it takes, at the best of times, several decades to complete the process. Some types of progress can be lost over time if they are not nurtured. Yet if a certain threshold of development is reached, permanent changes in an individual’s biofield structure can occur. Such changes will be accompanied by a variety of new functions and experiences. In Sanskrit these are called siddhis, and include what we normally call clairvoyance, astral projection, and fresh insights into the nature of life and mind itself. Perceiving one’s own or another’s stage or state, but the oral tradition and a living teacher can make such assessments. In other words, Light Body is like any other organic growth process. It is incremental, not like a light bulb being switched on.

5. Light Body is the answer to life’s problems

This important issue does not just relate to Light Body, but to spirituality altogether. A simple way to understand this is the profound statement: “Psychological and spiritual development are two parallel, non-intersecting lines.” Life’s problems, our stresses, anxieties, depressions, struggles, worries, weaknesses, and failings don’t magically dissolve with spiritual practices such as mantra and meditation. Spiritual development does not equal development of character or psychological health or maturity. The not uncommon occurrence of highly dysfunctional spiritual teachers (and students) should be clear enough evidence of this. Yes, mindfulness may come in handy as a form of psychological observation and insight. But it, too, can become a form of “spiritual bypassing” in which one avoids addressing the deeper issues, traumas, and behavioral patterns that have been programmed into us, or the maladaptive ways we have learned to cope. Fortunately, this problem was much greater in the East, where going into the mountains for 20 years was an option. Being in the nitty gritty of life is a more effective way to create Light Body, while simultaneously developing the character strengths, compassion, open heart, tolerance, and true grit that is required for a successful and fulfilling life.

6. Results are forthcoming . . .

Most practitioners learn the hard way that this process takes time. Not a weekend seminar, not an online summit, but prolonged and often difficult work. At the same time, this may be the easiest way to spot false paths to Light Body and misleading spiritual roads in general. To paraphrase the great Western mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff, it takes at least 10 years to truly master any language or to learn an art or skill fully, such as being a professional cook, designer, carpenter, and so on. And it requires at least double that to gain expertise in scientific or professional fields, such as a researcher, doctor, lawyer, financier, psychologist, and so on. Could gaining mastery over the energy body and achieving the highest goal attainable for a human being take any less than the devotion of a lifetime?

7. It’s impossible—not!

At this point we seem to have painted a picture of an arduous slog up a lonely mountain. But if we leave it there, we are in danger of perpetuating our own myth—that Light Body is only attainable by spending the rest of this century in a Himalayan cave. Not to worry. Although the signs and expression of progress toward Light Body may not always apparent, things do move along. In this natural progression, there is no rigid guidebook by which we can keep score. Moreover, there are many past stories of those who seems quite ordinary, humble, or inconsequential individuals who attained luminosity at death, leaving only their clothes, hair, and fingernails behind. Many others achieve their full fruition only after death, in the bardo state beyond this life. There is a point during one’s development when one crosses a point of no return, after which one’s light development is not lost, but carries over into the next life. But more than this, because of infallible karma, no sincere effort is lost during our time here. Slowly and steadily, with effort, our cellular structure changes, our brilliance accumulates and becomes a fit vehicle for a much greater consciousness. It is just a question of taking the next step, one day at a time . . .