Of the three kayas, the Dharmakaya is linked to our mind, Sambhogakaya to
our speech, or communicative principle, and the Nirmanakaya to our ordinary
body.
The process of the three blendings in brief is as follows.
We experience the clear light of the waking state naturally during cIimax,
and it can also be induced with yogic methods. Moreover, we naturally
experience it at the moment of going to sleep, and at the moment of death.
The principle here is that this clear light mind as experienced in each of the
three occasions (waking, sleep and death) is the highest experience of our
consciousness, and in it we dwell in a mental state of blissful, formless non-
duality similar to that of the Dharmakaya wisdom of a buddha. Thus when we
experience the clear light mind in any of these three occasions we should
blend it with the Dharmakaya.
The first movement from this clear light mind is likened to the
Sambhogakaya experience. In the waking state this occurs in our meditation
when we fall out of the clear light that is induced with yogic techniques and
the conceptual mind is aroused. In sleep it occurs after the clear light of
the moment of entering sleep passes and we begin to dream. At death it occurs
when the clear light flash at the moment of death passes and we leave our body
and enter the bardo realm.
A buddha's Sambhogakaya is only visible to an arya, or saint, and not to
an ordinary being; in the same way our thoughts, dreams, and bardo visions are
not visible to ordinary beings but nonetheless are experiences of form. These
subtle form experiences are to be linked to the natural realization of the
illusory, blissful, and perfect nature of being; they are to be seen as an
illusory theater made manifest for the benefit of the world. In other words,
they are to be blended with the Sambhogakaya. This is the second set of three
blendings.
The third blending is that of blending rebirth with the Nirmanakaya.
Rebirth from the bardo of the waking state occurs every time that we arise
from a meditation session and once more go about our ordinary life; rebirth
from the bardo of the sleep / dream state occurs when we wake up and once more
enter the work-a-day world; and rebirth from the bardo of becoming, or death
bardo, occurs when we complete the unwinding process of the afterlife state
and once again are ready to enter into a new body.
The basic principle underlying these three blendings is that what occurs
to us at the time of death also occurs to us in miniature form at the time of
going to sleep and can be induced in the waking state by means of the inner
heat yogas.
-- "Readings on the Six Yogas of Naropa," translated, edited and introduced
by Glenn H. Mullin, published by Snow Lion Publications
|