Sanskrit Japanese Chinese Tibetan

Vairocana Dainichi Nyorai Pilu Rulai Nampar Nangdze or Nam Nang

Akṣobhya Ashuku Nyorai Ajiu Rulai Mitrugpa
Amitābha Amida Nyorai Mituo Rulai Öpakme
Ratnasaṃbhava Hōshō Nyorai Baosheng Rulai Rinchen Jungne or Rin Jung
Amoghasiddhi Fukūjōju Nyorai Chengjiu Rulai Dönyö Drubpa or Dön Drub

Qualities Chart of the Five Dhyani Buddhas

Dhyani
Buddha Vairochana Akshobhya Ratnasambhava Amitabha Amoghasiddhi
Almighty
The Jewel-born Conqueror, He
Meaning of He Who Is Like the Sun, Immovable,
One, Origin of Infinite Light Who Unerringly
Name The Radiating One Unshakable
Jewels Achieves His
Goal
Direction/ center east south west north
Color/ white blue yellow rose(red) green
Element ether water earth fire air
volition,
Skandha consciousness form feeling, sensation perception mental
phenomenon
jewel (ratna) or
wheel of the Teaching, or thunderbolt or
wish fulfilling lotus double vajra
Symbol Law diamond scepter
jewel (padma) (vishvavajra)
(dharmachakra) (vajra)
(chintamani)
Throne-
lion elephant horse peacock garuda
bearer
All-
All Pervading Wisdom of Accomplishing
Mirrorlike Wisdom of Discrimination
Wisdom the Dharmakaya, Wisdom Wisdom,
Wisdom Equality Wisdom
of the Dharmadatu Wisdom of
Perfected Action
the passions-all
Poison spiritual,
cravings, envy and
Antidoted ignorance hatred and anger intellectual and
covetousness, jealously
by Wisdom human pride
greed and lust
teaching, or turning the fearlessness and
earth-touching giving or charity meditation
Mudra wheel of the Law protection
(bhumisparsha) (varda) (dhyana)
(dharmachakra) (abhaya)
Bija/Mantra   Om/ Hum/ Tram/ Hrih/ Ah/
Om Vairochana Om Om Akshobhya Om Om Amitabha Om
Hum Ratnasambhava Hrih Amoghasiddhi
 Tram Ah
Buddha Vairochana Akshobhya Ratnasambhava Amitabha Amoghasiddhi

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The Five Wisdom Goddesses

The consorts of the five Dhyani Buddhas represent and purify elements in
ourselves and our environment.
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The Five Dhyani Buddhas with the Five Goddesses

Five Buddha Families: The five families (father and mother aspects)
represent the manifestation of all buddha's purified psycho-physical
aggregates, our environment and the cosmos. The fathers represent the
transformation of negative energies and delusions into wisdom (enlightened
attitudes), the females represent transformation and protection of our
physical internal and external world.

The five Dhyani buddhas represent the basic mandala in ourselves, our
environment and in the cosmos. All deities belong to one of these buddha
families. Through their tantric practice negative energies and attitudes are
transformed into enlightened wisdoms.
 Dakinis of the Five Families

The Padma Buddha Ratna or The Karma or Vajra (Dorje) or

or lotus (Sangye) jewel dakini activity dakini thunderbolt
dakini is dakini is is tall, slim, is white and dakini is fair,
stocky with bluish golden- radiant. flushed and
oily, pink white.  skinned with She is smiling, radiant. 
skin.   She is white hair. respectful,  She has special
smiling, She sings and trustworthy, marks such as 5
She is placid and dances. and generous. white moles at
talkative long-lived. She grants She grants her brow.
and lusty.  She confers wealth and worldly Compassionate,
longevity success in success and pure, virtuous
She controls and rebirth life. rebirth as a and devout,
gods, in the dakini With her the human. with her there
demons and paradise. hell realms is no falling
men. will be into any lower
closed.  realm.
With her,
the doors to
rebirth in
lower
realms are
closed.

Here is a speech from the internet given by a lama I took empowerment

with in Bodhgaya. It was in pretty broken English, so I edited it some.

When we do different visualizations, at that time one-pointedly concentrate,

this is very important. And then during visualization, we have to make
everything perfect pure, we don’t think of anything as impure. This includes
the place where we are staying, seeing it as a pure land, a pure buddhaland,
and this includes everything outside of us. And then all the living beings
gradually transform into buddhas and bodhisattvas, and by this we make the
inner beings be pure. And then of course, your body is also transformed to
being a perfect pure buddha or bodhisattva. Ya. we have to try like this pure
means. And just a little is not enough, when we do visualization meditation
and your body is visualized as a buddha or bodhisattva, at that moment
you must have full confidence in yourself. Full confidence in yourself
means thinking, “I’m real Buddha!” (laughing) not just in your imagination!
In Vajrayana teachings this is mentioned as wisdom pride. When you do
visualization, at that time you must have Wisdom Pride. For
example, if you visualize your body as Avalokiteshvara but at the same time
you think, ‘Ya, I have to try to visualize my body as Avalokiteshvara, but
I’m negative karma person... (laughing)...actually I’m not Avalokiteshvara,
but still I’m wearing like clothes like Avalokiteshvara...” Don’t think like
this. If you think like this, this can’t work. Ya! You have to have full
confidence in yourself, which means, “I am real Avalokiteshvara!” Ya, you
have to really think this way. This is Wisdom Pride. This is very important,
you must have this. Thinking everything everywhere is perfect pure, do it
like this. Ah ya, actually, not only do we try to make everything pure
naturally, if we think about the ultimate level, naturally everything is
perfectly pure, our whole being. Everyone has Buddha nature, only
temporary obscurations covered it a little bit. But on the ultimate level we
are Buddha.

Our body has the essence of the four elements. The four elements are
naturally of the essence of different buddhas and bodhisattvas. In the same
way, the outer place is also naturally of the elemental essence of the buddhas
and boddhisattvas. So if we think at the ultimate level everything is
perfectly pure, but we don’t perceive it that way, for this
Reason we have to try all these visualizations, seeing the outer world as a
pure buddhaland, all the beings as buddhas and bodhisattvas, and your body
also visualized as a buddha or bodhisattva. Ya, we have to try it first, and
then slowly it will be accomplished, and then we can see everything in a
pure state, you won’t be able to see any negative beings. Even if there is
some negative being, but you won’t see that one as a negative being. Ya, in
this way we have to try to make our mind pure, and for this reason we have
to visualize everything in a pure state. I previously mentioned, the four
elements are naturally pure in the outer environment. For example, in the
tantric teachings they mention the Earth is Sangye Chenma (Buddhalocana),
and Wind is Damtshig Drölma (Samayatara), and Fire Gökarmo
(Pandaravasini), and Water is Mamaki. Ya, these are actually the four
female buddhas, the consorts of the wisdom buddhas (the fifth being the
self-nature of space, Yingkyi Wangchugma or Dhatvishvari). Ya, in this
way, naturally these outer four elements are of the nature of the buddhas and
bodhisattvas.

Usually we think that things are dirty or clean, but on the ultimate level
everything is pure. Ya, if something is not pure, if
we try to make it pure, it is very difficult, but naturally on the ultimate level
is already perfectly pure. So we can instead accomplish purifying our
minds. I mentioned that we are on the utimate level a buddha, and this is not
just talk. In the Vajrayana teachings it is mentioned, for example, our
Buddha nature is like the sun and our obscurations like the clouds. The sun
can be covered by the clouds, but at that moment, the sun itself, its heat and
light is not lessened, there is no difference in the suns radiance. Because of
our position, at that moment we can’t see the sunlight, only but the sun itself
hasn’t changed when the clouds cover the sun. Like this, we are now in
samsara as sentient beings, and our Buddha nature like the sun is covered by
the clouds of temporary obscurations, but still on the ultimate level our
Buddha nature is nothing less; all the qualities of our true nature have never
been diminished. Buddha nature is unchangeable, and it is the same in
ordinary beings and buddhas, therefore, ultimately there is no difference
between ordinary beings and buddhas. So, in this way we can say we are
buddha. Only we have to take away these temporary obscurations, but on
the ultimate level we are a buddha, just like in the example of the sun and
clouds. Why then can’t we do Wisdom Pride? See? (laughing)

And here follows a bunch of articles I found on the internet. And be

sure to read the poem at the end to the Five Wisdom Goddesses:

The Five Buddha Families

By Irini Rockwell

“I always seem to be fending him off,” Joan blurts out. She’s hosting a
dinner party while her husband out of town and she’s aware of how little
affection she shows him, while he is affectionate to a fault. Two of her
guests, Andrea and Bill, laugh and then exchange quick glances. They’re in
a new relationship and are beginning to see where they get stuck. Andrea
wants to engage in an open, unobstructed way; Bill prefers quiet time alone.
Michael, the other guest, still wounded from a divorce, launches into a
speech about the women in his relationships. “I always seem to fall for
emotional women who can’t communicate well,” he says. “I like working
with strong women who think clearly and get the job done,” he adds. We
don’t know the people at this dinner table, but we can learn a lot about each
of them from the different kinds of energy they display. All of us express a
unique mix of energy through our attitudes, emotions, decisions and actions.
Although we often think of the world in terms of material existence, it is
energy that’s the vibrant aspect of being: the quality, texture, ambiance or
tone of people and environments.Of the many methods for understanding
and working with the energies that pervade our existence, one of the most
profound is the “five buddha families,” an ancient Buddhist system of
understanding enlightened mind and its various aspects. The five buddha
family framework is an instrumental component in Buddhist tantra, a path of
working with and transmuting mind energy.The buddha families are
traditionally displayed as the mandala of the five tathagatas, or buddhas.
The mandala (from the Sanskrit for “circle”) aids meditators in
understanding how different aspects of existence operate together in an
integrated whole. Each of the buddhas in the mandala embodies one of the
five different aspects of enlightenment. However, these manifest themselves
not only as enlightened energies but also as neurotic states of mind. The
buddha families therefore present us with a complete picture of both the
sacred world of enlightened mind and the neurotic world of ego-centered
existence. We see that they are indeed the same thing; the path of awakening
is what makes the difference.Traditionally, at the center of the mandala is
Vairochana, lord of the buddha family, who is white and represents the
wisdom of all-encompassing space and its opposite, the fundamental
ignorance that is the source of cyclic existence (samsara). The dullness of
ignorance is transmuted to a vast space that accommodates anything and
everything.In the east of the mandala is Akshobya, lord of the vajra family,
who is blue and represents mirror-like wisdom and its opposite, aggression.
The overwhelming directness of aggression is transmuted into the quality of
a mirror, clearly reflecting all phenomena. Vajra is associated with the
element water, with winter, and with sharpness and textures.In the south of
the mandala is Ratnasambhava, buddha of the ratna family, who is yellow
and represents the wisdom of equanimity and its opposite, pride. The
fulsomeness of pride is transmuted into the quality of including all
phenomena as elements in the rich display. Ratna is associated with the
element earth, with autumn, with fertility and depth.In the west of the
mandala is Amitabha, buddha of the padma family, who is red and
represents discriminating-awareness wisdom and its opposite, passion or
grasping. The intense desire of passion is transmuted into an attention to the
fine qualities of each and every detail. Padma is associated with the element
fire, with spring, with façade and color.In the north of the mandala is
Amogasiddhi, buddha of the karma family, who is green and represents all-
accomplishing wisdom and its opposite, jealousy or paranoia. The arrow-like
pointedness of jealousy is transmuted into efficient action. Karma is
associated with the element wind, with summer, with growing and
completing.In the early 1970s Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche taught the five
wisdom energies to contemporary practitioners as a way of understanding
who we are fundamentally: our personality, our emotional landscape, and
how we relate to others and our world. He promoted the understanding that
there is nothing inherently wrong or bad about the energy itself. He taught
that to bring the wisdom energies to the path, we first learn to stay with them
through mindfulness and awareness. Then we can work with these energies
as they arise in our experience by applying loving-kindness. We allow them
to express themselves openly rather than trying fruitlessly to manipulate and
control them. The energies then become a way of celebrating our strengths
and working with our weaknesses.These energies are most easily identified
by their colors, which hold the essence of their qualities. Just as light
radiates, so does energy. The color of energy is like colored light. We can
now look at the buddha families described in traditional terms above in
terms of how they manifest themselves in our experience of ourselves and
those around us, capturing both our wisdom and our confusion.

SpaciousnessThe buddha family radiates a white energy, spacious and

peaceful. Buddha energy is an all-pervasive, peaceful space. When people
manifest the wisdom aspect of Buddha energy, they are receptive,
accommodating, easygoing and content with just being. Buddha can also be
solidly immobile with the density of ignoring or denying. When people
manifest the confused quality of buddha, they can be dull, lazy, stubborn and
insensitive.

ClarityThe vajra family reflects a blue energy like a crystal-clear mirror.

Vajra energy reflects what it sees without bias. When people manifest the
wisdom aspect of vajra, they are clear-minded with an intellectual brilliance,
sharp and precise. They maintain a perspective and are full of integrity.
Vajra also has a self-righteousness that can harden into cold or hot anger.
When people manifest the confused quality of vajra, they can be overly
analytical, critical, opinionated, authoritarian and demanding of perfection.

RichnessThe ratna family exudes a golden yellow energy that encompasses

and enriches everything. Ratna energy displays equanimity and satisfaction.
When people manifest the wisdom aspect of ratna, they are expansive,
resourceful, hospitable and appreciative. But ratna can also turn into greedy
territoriality and puffed-up pride. When people manifest the neurotic quality
of ratna, they can be arrogant, ostentatious, oppressive and emotionally
needy. 

PassionThe padma family glows with the vitality of red energy. Padma
sanity is a finely-tuned intuition that discriminates subtle experiences
without bias. When people manifest the wisdom aspect of padma, they are
engaging, magnetizing and charming. This energy listens deeply and speaks
from the heart. Padma also can have an obsessive desire to magnetize and
grasp the most pleasurable and ideal situations. When people manifest its
confused quality, they can cling to what gives pleasure, are overly
emotional, and perpetually seek confirmation.

ActivityThe karma family emits a green energy, swift and energetic like the
wind. Karma sanity is all-accomplishing action for the benefit of others.
When people exhibit the sanity of karma, they can be efficient, effective and
practical. Full of confident energy, they act in timely and appropriate ways
in synchronicity with the world. Karma can also be restless and speedy, and
when people manifest its neurotic side, they can be power-hungry,
competitive, manipulative, controlling and dominating. They fear failure, so
they are paranoid and jealous.Now, if we return to our dinner party, we can
see how the party-goers exhibit the various wisdom energies. Michael, who
displayed such strong opinions about the women in his life, manifests vajra
clarity in his thinking, which sometimes gets fixated into rigid views about
things. He also shows some ratna qualities in loving to hang out with family
and friends sharing a big meal and life stories.Andrea is all fun and
engagement. People contact is very important to her. She has lots of friends
and makes connections with people easily. She is dominantly padma but also
loves the richness, expansiveness and caring for others that is her ratna side.
Bill, who rarely spoke during the party, is more inwardly directed. He
radiates a spacious warmth and easy-going manner, and buddha qualities are
quite strong in him. There is also a tinge of padma in his coloring.Joan, who
loves to cook for her husband but finds his physical affection a bit much at
times, displays several qualities in equal measure. Fending off her husband
is a vajra quality, which is also reflected in a general sense of propriety
about what should and should not happen. Though she does not talk much in
the group, her padma qualities come out in private conversations: talking
about how she feels and always longing to connect more closely with others
and situations. Wanting to keep busy is her karma side.It is interesting to
identify energies in others as we observe their behavior, but the wisdom
energies are much more than a classification scheme. They can help us to
work with our emotions creatively and openly, appreciating the basic
energies and seeing the various ways they manifest in our everyday actions.
When I first learned of the energies, they began to color my perspective in
many aspects of my life. Why was it that one man brought out my
intellectual curiosity and another my desire? Why did I feel at ease with one
person and anxious with another? Why would I feel powerful in one
situation but inhibited and frustrated in another? What was the energetic
relationship between myself, these people and these situations?Eventually I
came to understand that we are a mix of colors. We are born with certain
energies; others we learn as an enhancement to who we are; still others arise
as we adapt to life. Some energy patterns are more dominant, others more
background. When we become aware of our mix of colors, we no longer
identify with just one energy. Defining ourselves as one or the other
solidifies and centralizes our sense of who we are. By boxing ourselves in,
we miss the play of totality. Rather than seeing ourselves as red or blue or
green energy, we can perceive our experience more as a rainbow or
kaleidoscope.Working with the energies, we always bring our understanding
of who we are back to immediate experience, rather than to our
conceptualization of who we are. Through our thoughts and emotions, we
experience the energy of our inner being; through our sense perceptions, we
experience the energies of the outer world. All of these energies—inner and
outer—are accessible to us at any time. They are an experience of a subtle
level of being and communication with our world.To work with energy, we
first need to cultivate awareness, attending to the present moment by
observing what is happening. We can train ourselves to do this. Mindfulness
and awareness are the basic components of sitting meditation practice, which
plays a key role. Through this practice we can stabilize our minds, which, in
turn, brings clarity and an inherent mental strength. As well, sitting
meditation acts like a lightning rod. It grounds overly volatile energy in the
simplicity of just being there.We all have moments when we feel
synchronized with ourselves and our world. We experience a quality of
openness, relaxation and inner strength. At these times our concepts drop
away and we ride the energy of the moment. If we feel the sharpness and
directness of vajra as we encounter our daughter's wild defiance, we can just
let it be there. If we find ourselves filled with the wind of karmic
accomplishment, we can just let it get down to business. Suddenly
flirtatious, we can let the padma energy bubble and spark. Reveling in the
earthy richness of possibilities, we can enjoy the ratna feast without
gluttony. Simple and calm, we can let buddha reign. These are times when
we shine and are the best of who we are. At other times we can't get out of
our own way. We solidify and fixate, rather than ride the energy. We feel
awkward at best or stuck in strong emotions at worst.Usually we flip-flop
between extremes of feeling good or bad about ourselves, and never find any
real bridge or connection between these two states. The power of the
teachings on the five wisdom energies is that they show us how we can find
our wisdom within the very darkness of our confusion. Energy itself is
neutral; it is our attitude towards it that determines whether we are open
(sane) or closed (confused). When we are open to our own energy, we
experience ourselves as warm and clear. When we are closed to our energy,
we feel confused and stuck. Being open or closed determines how we view
ourselves and consequently the world. In fact, it is when we experience
intense emotion that wisdom is closest at hand. Fully embracing the
emotions that bind us can liberate us.When energy becomes heightened we
need a very powerful tool—the tool of unconditional loving-kindness, or
maitri—to allow us to be who we are unreservedly. Accepting ourselves as
we are, in both our sanity and our confusion, is the key that unlocks our
heart. It allows us to be in the present moment just as it is, without trying to
cling or push away. Accepting ourselves fully is what stops our struggle, and
only when we love ourselves in this unconditional way can we also love
others. Only when we love ourselves can we be lovable. Maitri has a soft
quality that is open, kind, relaxed, warm and inclusive. It allows us to be
who we are and let all our colors shine. We breathe easily.Maitri is not one-
dimensional, but has various facets, each of which sharpens our
understanding of how it works. First off, maitri has an element of
familiarity. We know our habitual patterns like old friends, so they don't
throw us off so much. Since maitri is accommodating, when we see the
intensity of our closed energy we no longer try to avoid what's happening.
We allow it to be and so expand our palette of acceptable energy states.
Maitri also relaxes us and allows us to be gentle and kind toward ourselves.
Our pain is still there, but instead of avoiding it, we care for it as we would
care for an open wound. Working with maitri enables us to develop bravery,
which means that we can touch our vulnerable, raw spots and still stay open.
Maitri also allows us to see our life experiences are workable. When we
encounter an unwanted circumstance, we don't contract and close but rather
open ourselves to the situation. We see it not as a crisis but as an
opportunity. Finally, the quality of friendliness toward ourselves is
unconditional. We are friendly toward all aspects of our experience,
especially the facets of ourselves that we like the least. We can love
ourselves without reserve, with zero stipulations.The wisdom, or brilliant
sanity, of each energy is open, warm, clear and spontaneous. When the very
same energy manifests neurotically it is frozen, blocked or constricted by a
manipulating, self-serving and solidified sense of self. When we make
friends with and become fully aware of the constricted quality of our
neurosis we realize we are not connecting to the liberated aspect of the
energy, but a distorted manifestation of it.When we encounter an intensified
emotion with these aspects of maitri, a transformative process occurs. We
move from letting go to letting be. The pith instruction is to stay with the
primary emotion we're feeling. Making friends with the essential nature of
the emotion that binds us offers the possibility of liberating it. Both the
storyline and the quality of the basic energy may differ, but the process
remains the same. Each energy has an emotion associated with it that is
transmuted into a particular wisdom.When we use maitri as a tool, we find
that we could either laugh or cry. At the point when we laugh or cry, the
struggle is over. There is a sense of breakthrough. We have broken through
our sense of constricted self. We have touched our heart. We have found the
key to the wisdom within us, which displays itself as a colorful mandala of
liberated qualities.Irini Rockwell is the author of The Five Wisdom
Energies: A Buddhist Way of Understanding Personalities, Emotions and
Relationships (Shambhala, 2002). She leads workshops on the buddha
families throughout North America and Europe.

Chögyam Trungpa – The Five Buddha Families

Tantra is extraordinarily special, and extremely real and personal. The

question in this chapter is how to relate our own ordinary existence or daily
situation to tantric consciousness. The tantric approach is not just to make
sweeping statements about reality and to create calmness and a meditative
state. It is more than learning to be creative and contemplative. In tantra we
relate with the details of our everyday life according to our own particular
makeup. It is a real and personal experience. But in order to relate to our
lives in the tantric fashion, there are certain technical details of tantric
experience that we have to understand. The tantric discipline of relating to
life is based on what are known as the five buddha principles, or the five
buddha families. These principles are traditionally known as families
because they are an extension of ourselves in the same way that our blood
relations are an extension of us: we have our daddy, we have our mommy,
we have our sisters and brothers, and they are all part of our family. But we
could also say that these relatives are principles: our motherness, our
fatherness, our sisterness, our brotherness, and our me-ness are experienced
as definite principles that have distinct characteristics. In the same way, the
tantric tradition speaks of five families: five principles, categories, or
possibilities. Those five principles or buddha families are called vajra, ratna,
padma, karma, and buddha. They are quite ordinary. There is nothing divine
or extraordinary about them. The basic point is that at the tantric level
people are divided into particular types: vajra, ratna, padma, karma, and
buddha. We constantly come across members of every one of the five
families—people who are partially or completely one of those five. We find
such people all through life, and every one of them is a fertile person, a
workable person who could be related with directly and personally. So, from
the tantric point of view, by relating directly with all the different people we
encounter, we are actually relating with different styles of enlightenment.
The buddha family, or families, associated with a person describes his or her
fundamental style, that person's intrinsic perspective or stance in perceiving
the world and working with it. Each family is associated with both a neurotic
and an enlightened style. The neurotic expression of any buddha family can
be transmuted into its wisdom or enlightened aspect. As well as describing
people's styles, the buddha families are also associated with colors,
elements, landscapes, directions, seasons—with any aspect of the
phenomenal world.

The first buddha family is the vajra family, which literally means the family
of sharpness, crystallization, and indestructibility. The term vajra is
superficially translated as "diamond," but that is not quite accurate.
Traditionally, vajra is a celestial precious stone that cuts through any other
solid object. So it is more than a diamond; it is complete indestructibility.
The vajra family is symbolized by the vajra scepter, or dorje in Tibetan. This
vajra scepter or superdiamond has five prongs, which represent relating to
the five emotions: aggression, pride, passion, jealousy, and ignorance. The
sharp edges or prongs of the vajra represent cutting through any neurotic
emotional tendencies; they also represent the sharp quality of being aware of
many possible perspectives. The indestructible vajra is said to be like a heap
of razor blades: if we naively try to hold it or touch it, there are all kinds of
sharp edges that are both cutting and penetrating. The notion here is that
vajra corrects or remedies any neurotic distortion in a precise and sharp way.
In the ordinary world, the experience of vajra is perhaps not as extreme as
holding razor blades in our hand, but at the same time, it is penetrating and
very personal. It is like a sharp, cutting, biting-cold winter. Each time we
expose ourselves to the open air, we get frostbite instantly. Intellectually
vajra is very sharp. All the intellectual traditions belong to this family. A
person in the vajra family knows how to evaluate logically the arguments
that are used to explain experience. He can tell whether the logic is true or
false. Vajra family intellect also has a sense of constant openness and
perspective. For instance, a vajra person could view a crystal ball from
hundreds of perspectives, according to where it was placed, the way it was
perceived, the distance from which he was looking at it, and so forth. The
intellect of the vajra family is not just encyclopedic; it is sharpness,
directness, and awareness of perspectives. Such indestructibility and
sharpness are very personal and very real. The neurotic expression of vajra is
associated with anger and intellectual fixation. If we become fixated on a
particular logic, the sharpness of vajra can become rigidity. We become
possessive of our insight, rather than having a sense of open perspective.
The anger of vajra neurosis could be pure aggression or also a sense of
uptightness because we are so attached to our sharpness of mind. Vajra is
also associated with the element of water. Cloudy, turbulent water
symbolizes the defensive and aggressive nature of anger, while clear water
suggests the sharp, precise, clear reflectiveness of vajra wisdom. In fact,
vajra wisdom is traditionally called the mirrorlike wisdom, which evokes
this image of a calm pond or reflecting pool. Incidentally, the use of the term
vajra in such words as vajrayana, vajra master, and vajra pride does not
refer to this particular buddha family, but simply expresses basic
indestructibility.

The next buddha family is ratna. Ratna is a personal and real sense of
expanding ourselves and enriching our environment. It is expansion,
enrichment, plentifulness. Such plentifulness could also have problems and
weaknesses. In the neurotic sense, the richness of ratna manifests as being
completely fat, or extraordinarily ostentatious, beyond the limits of our
sanity. We expand constantly, open heedlessly, and indulge ourselves to the
level of insanity. It is like swimming in a dense lake of honey and butter.
When we coat ourselves in this mixture of butter and honey, it is very
difficult to remove. We cannot just remove it by wiping it off, but we have to
apply all kinds of cleaning agents, such as cleanser and soap, to loosen its
grasp. In the positive expression of the ratna family, the principle of richness
is extraordinary. We feel very rich and plentiful, and we extend ourselves to
our world personally, directly, emotionally, psychologically, even spiritually.
We are extending constantly, expanding like a flood or an earthquake. There
is a sense of spreading, shaking the earth, and creating more and more cracks
in it. That is the powerful expansiveness of ratna. The enlightened
expression of ratna is called the wisdom of equanimity, because ratna can
include everything in its expansive environment. Thus ratna is associated
with the element of earth. It is like a rotting log that makes itself at home in
the country. Such a log does not want to leave its home ground. It would like
to stay, but at the same time, it grows all kinds of mushrooms and plants and
allows animals to nest in it. That lazy settling down and making ourselves at
home, and inviting other people to come in and rest as well, is ratna.

The next family is padma, which literally means "lotus flower." The symbol
of the enlightened padma family is the lotus, which grows and blooms in the
mud, yet still comes out pure and clean, virginal and clear. Padma neurosis is
connected with passion, a grasping quality and a desire to possess. We are
completely wrapped up in desire and want only to seduce the world, without
concern for real communication. We could be a hustler or an advertiser, but
basically, we are like a peacock. In fact, Amitabha Buddha, the buddha of
the padma family, traditionally sits on a peacock, which represents
subjugating padma neurosis. A person with padma neurosis speaks gently,
fantastically gently, and he or she is seemingly very sexy, kind, magnificent,
and completely accommodating: "If you hurt me, that's fine. That is part of
our love affair. Come toward me." Such padma seduction sometimes
becomes excessive and sometimes becomes compassionate, depending on
how we work with it. Padma is connected with the element of fire. In the
confused state, fire does not distinguish among the things it grasps, burns,
and destroys. But in the awakened state, the heat of passion is transmuted
into the warmth of compassion. When padma neurosis is transmuted, it
becomes fantastically precise and aware; it turns into tremendous interest
and inquisitiveness. Everything is seen in its own distinct way, with its own
particular qualities and characteristics. Thus the wisdom of padma is called
discriminating-awareness wisdom. The genuine character of padma
seduction is real openness, a willingness to demonstrate what we have and
what we are to the phenomenal world. What we bring to the world is a sense
of pleasure, a sense of promise. In whatever we experience, we begin to feel
that there is lots of promise. We constantly experience a sense of
magnetization and spontaneous hospitality. This quality of padma is like
bathing in perfume or jasmine tea. Each time we bathe, we feel refreshed,
fantastic. It feels good to be magnetized. The sweet air is fantastic and the
hospitality of our host is magnificent. We eat the good food provided by our
host, which is delicious, but not too filling. We live in a world of honey and
milk, in a very delicate sense, unlike the rich but heavy experience of the
ratna family. Fantastic! Even our bread is scented with all kinds of delicious
smells. Our ice cream is colored by beautiful pink lotus-like colors. We
cannot wait to eat. Sweet music is playing in the background constantly.
When there is no music, we listen to the whistling of the wind around our
padma environment, and it becomes beautiful music as well. Even though
we are not musicians, we compose all kinds of music. We wish we were a
poet or a fantastic lover.

The next family is the karma family, which is a different kettle of fish. In
this case we are not talking about karmic debts, or karmic consequences;
karma in this case simply means "action." The neurotic quality of action or
activity is connected with jealousy, comparison, and envy. The enlightened
aspect of karma is called the wisdom of all-accomplishing action. It is the
transcendental sense of complete fulfillment of action without being hassled
or pushed into neurosis. It is natural fulfillment in how we relate with our
world. In either case, whether we relate to karma family on the
transcendental level or the neurotic level, karma is the energy of efficiency.
If we have a karma family neurosis, we feel highly irritated if we see a hair
on our teacup. First we think that our cup is broken and that the hair is a
crack in the cup. Then there is some relief. Our cup is not broken; it just has
a piece of hair on the side. But then, when we begin to look at the hair on
our cup of tea, we become angry all over again. We would like to make
everything very efficient, pure, and absolutely clean. However, if we do
achieve cleanliness, then that cleanliness itself becomes a further problem:
We feel insecure because there is nothing to administer, nothing to work on.
We constantly try to check every loose end. Being very keen on efficiency,
we get hung up on it. If we meet a person who is not efficient, who does not
have his life together, we regard him as a terrible person. We would like to
get rid of such inefficient people, and certainly we do not respect them, even
if they are talented musicians or scientists or whatever they may be. On the
other hand, if someone has immaculate efficiency, we begin to feel that he is
a good person to be with. We would like to associate ourselves exclusively
with people who are both responsible and clean-cut. However, we find that
we are envious and jealous of such efficient people. We want others to be
efficient, but not more efficient than we are. The epitome of karma family
neurosis is wanting to create a uniform world. Even though we might have
very little philosophy, very little meditation, very little consciousness in
terms of developing ourselves, we feel that we can handle our world
properly. We have composure, and we relate properly with the whole world,
and we are resentful that everybody else does not see things in the same way
that we do. Karma is connected with the element of wind. The wind never
blows in all directions but it blows in one direction at a time. This is the one-
way view of resentment and envy, which picks on one little fault or virtue
and blows it out of proportion. With karma wisdom, the quality of
resentment falls away but the qualities of energy, fulfillment of action, and
openness remain. In other words, the active aspect of wind is retained so that
our energetic activity touches everything in its path. We see the possibilities
inherent in situations and automatically take the appropriate course. Action
fulfills its purpose.

The fifth family is called the buddha family. It is associated with the element
of space. Buddha energy is the foundation or the basic space. It is the
environment or oxygen that makes it possible for the other principles to
function. It has a sedate, solid quality. Persons in this family have a strong
sense of contemplative experience, and they are highly meditative. Buddha
neurosis is the quality of being spaced-out rather than spacious. It is often
associated with an unwillingness to express ourselves. For example, we
might see that our neighbors are destroying our picket fence with a
sledgehammer. We can hear them and see them; in fact, we have been
watching our neighbors at work all day, continuously smashing our picket
fence. But instead of reacting, we just observe them and then we return to
our snug little home. We eat our breakfast, lunch, and dinner and ignore
what they are doing. We are paralyzed, unable to talk to outsiders. Another
quality of buddha neurosis is that we couldn't be bothered. Our dirty laundry
is piled up in a corner of our room. Sometimes we use our dirty laundry to
wipe up spills on the floor or table and then we put it back on the same pile.
As time goes on, our dirty socks become unbearable, but we just sit there. If
we are embarking on a political career, our colleagues may suggest that we
develop a certain project and expand our organization. If we have a buddha
neurosis, we will choose to develop the area that needs the least effort. We
do not want to deal directly with the details of handling reality. Entertaining
friends is also a hassle. We prefer to take our friends to a restaurant rather
than cook in our home. And if we want to have a love affair, instead of
seducing a partner, talking to him or her and making friends, we just look for
somebody who is already keen on us. We cannot be bothered with talking
somebody into something. Sometimes we feel we are sinking into the earth,
the solid mud and earth. Sometimes we feel good because we think we are
the most stable person in the universe. We slowly begin to grin to ourselves,
smile at ourselves, because we are the best person of all. We are the only
person who manages to stay stable. But sometimes we feel that we are the
loneliest person in the whole universe. We do not particularly like to dance,
and when we are asked to dance with somebody, we feel embarrassed and
uncomfortable. We want to stay in our own little corner. When the ignoring
quality of buddha neurosis is transmuted into wisdom, it becomes an
environment of all-pervasive spaciousness. This enlightened aspect is called
the wisdom of all-encompassing space. In itself it might still have a
somewhat desolate and empty quality, but at the same time, it is a quality of
completely open potential. It can accommodate anything. It is spacious and
vast like the sky.

In tantric iconography, the five buddha families are arrayed in the center and
the four cardinal points of a mandala. The mandala of the five buddha
families of course represents their wisdom or enlightened aspect.
Traditionally, the buddha family is in the center. That is to say, in the center
there is the basic coordination and basic wisdom of buddha, which is
symbolized by a wheel and the color white. Vajra is in the east, because
vajra is connected with the dawn. It is also connected with the color blue and
is symbolized by the vajra scepter. It is the sharpness of experience, as in the
morning when we wake up. We begin to see the dawn, when light is first
reflected on the world, as a symbol of awakening reality. Ratna is in the
south. It is connected with richness and is symbolized by a jewel and the
color yellow. Ratna is connected with the midday, when we begin to need
refreshment, nourishment. Padma is in the west and is symbolized by the
lotus and the color red. As our day gets older, we also have to relate with
recruiting a lover. It is time to socialize, to make a date with our lover. Or, if
we have fallen in love with an antique or if we have fallen in love with some
clothing, it is time to go out and buy it. The last family is karma, in the
north. It is symbolized by a sword and the color green. Finally we have
captured the whole situation: We have everything we need, and there is
nothing more to get. We have brought our merchandise back home or our
lover back home, and we say, "Let's close the door; let's lock it." So the
mandala of the five buddha families represents the progress of a whole day
or a whole course of action. Without understanding the five buddha families,
we have no working basis to relate with tantra, and we begin to find
ourselves alienated from tantra. Tantra is seen as such an outrageous thing,
which seems to have no bearing on us as individuals. We may feel the
vajrayana is purely a distant aim, a distant goal. So it is necessary to study
the five buddha principles. They provide a bridge between tantric experience
and everyday life. It is necessary to understand and relate with the five
buddha principles before we begin tantric discipline, so that we can begin to
understand what tantra is all about. If tantra is a mystical experience, how
can we relate it to our ordinary everyday life at home? There could be a big
gap between tantric experience and day-to-day life. But it is possible, by
understanding the five buddha families, to close the gap. Working with the
buddha families we discover that we already have certain qualities.
According to the tantric perspective, we cannot ignore them and we cannot
reject them and try to be something else. We have our aggression and our
passion and our jealousy and our resentment and our ignorance—or
whatever we have. We belong to certain buddha families already, and we
cannot reject them. We should work with our neuroses, relate with them, and
experience them properly. They are the only potential we have, and when we
begin to work with them, we see that we can use them as stepping-stones.

Thrangu Rinpoche
Geshe Lharampa

The Five Buddha Families

The essential nature of a bodhisattva or a buddha is that he or

she embraces the enlightened qualities of the five buddha
families, which pervade every living being without exception,
including ourselves. To achieve the realization of these five
buddha families or the five dhyana buddhas, it is necessary to
abandon the five disturbing emotions of great attachment, anger
or aggression, ignorance or bewilderment, pride and envy. When
these disturbing emotions are purified and removed, the five
wisdoms shine forth. Realization of the five wisdoms is
realization of the five dhyana buddhas.

To begin with, we have to understand what the five

disturbing emotions (Skt. kleshas) are. The first, which seems to
be most powerful, is anger. Anger is an emotion which arises
and develops against someone or something one dislikes. If
examined carefully, in the short run anger creates pain and in the
long run it brings about serious harm. The immediate pain and
future harm is to oneself as well as to others is due to the power
of one’s own aggression. We therefore need to understand the
first negative emotion.
The negative emotion of anger causes temporary suffering
for oneself and others for this lifetime. This emotion is so
powerful that all negative actions or karma accumulated by
wishing harm to others can lead one to take rebirth in the lower
realms.1 For example, intense anger can cause rebirth in the
lowest hell realm where there is intense suffering. Therefore
anger not only causes suffering and pain in this lifetime, but also
causes us to take birth in the lower realms, where even more
intense suffering ensues as a result. To be free of the experience
of suffering and pain in this lifetime and to be free of the
experience of taking birth in a lower realm, it is necessary to
employ methods to overcome and eliminate anger and hatred.
When anger is purified and removed, we come to develop
and to gradually realize mirror-like wisdom. With mirror-like
wisdom, there is no distinction between self and others, there is
no separation between self and other phenomena so everything
is experienced in unity and harmony. It is called mirror-like
wisdom because phenomena appear to the mind in the same way
that things appear in a clean mirror, completely accurate with no
distortion. Understanding and realizing mirror-like wisdom takes
place in the absence of the negative emotion of anger.
Realization of mirror-like wisdom is realization of Buddha
Akshobhya, who is blue in color. He holds a vajra in his left
hand. His activity is pacifying the emotions, in particular,
suffering, illness, frustration, and sorrow.

The second dhyana Buddha is the Buddha Ratnasambhava

who is realized when the disturbing emotion of pride or ego is
purified. Ego is the belief in a self which we all develop from
birth as soon as our mind thinks of itself as separate from others.
The next three types of pride evolve in this process of self-
centeredness: (1) We feel that we are better than others who are
in a less fortunate situation, (2) we feel that we are superior to
others because we fail to see the equality of ourself and others;
and (3) we feel we are either spiritually or materially better than
others.

What causes us to embark upon the journey of ego? When

the self believes that it is separate from others, the negative
emotion of pride arises in which one believes oneself in some
way better than others. From this then arises the belief that there
are “good” i.e. things which we believe in and do and “bad” i.e.
things that others believe in and do. As long as we believe
ourselves to be superior to others, it is impossible to learn from
them. So we must give up ego clinging to develop enlightened
qualities. A purified mind does not distinguish between pure and
impure, good and bad, I and others; rather it experiences all
things in equality.

When one is free from pride, realization of the wisdom of

equality dawns and one experiences and becomes Buddha
Ratnasambhava. Buddha Ratnasambhava’s activity is enriching
and as a symbol of his activity of enrichment, he is gold or
yellow in color. As a symbol of his ability to enrich all living
beings, he holds the precious wish-fulfilling jewel in his hands.
The third dhyana Buddha represents the purification and
elimination of the disturbing emotion of attachment or desire.

Desire causes much suffering by being quite distracting and

keeping the mind restless and busy. Why? When one is attached
to things, one is never satisfied and always craves for more and
better things. One is continuously engaged in achieving and
acquiring the mind’s desires and only experiences loss and
dissatisfaction in one’s life. By understanding this negative
emotion and by eliminating it, the third discerning wisdom
shines forth. By realizing discerning wisdom, the enlightened
mind is experienced and one becomes one with the Buddha
Amitabha. It is with this wisdom that one understands and has
empathy with each and every living being and appreciates
others’ qualities. The Buddha Amitabha’s nature is the absence
of attachment and desire and his activity is magnetizing. As
already said, attachment and desire lead to the suffering of
dissatisfaction, a state in which one always wants and strives for
more and better things. Desire determines one’s behavior and
not attaining what one desires leads to frustration and
dissatisfaction. With the discerning wisdom and the realization
of Buddha Amitabha, there is no attachment and desire and thus
no dissatisfaction, or craving for more and better things. This
realization is so powerful that all things are naturally magnetized
as one’s own. There is no energy and force involved as in a state
of desire.

The fourth dhyana Buddha is Buddha Amogasiddha. He is realized

in the absence of the negative emotion of jealousy which includes
being jealous of others’ wealth, success, and good fortune. With
jealousy negativity is accumulated. By overcoming jealousy,
Amogasiddha and the fourth all-accomplishing wisdom are realized.

Jealousy prevents and impedes an individual from accomplishing

his or her own well-being and as a result he or she experiences
more suffering and continues developing further jealousy towards
those who have more. This is the reason all-accomplishing wisdom
is experienced in the absence of jealousy,  i.e., when jealousy is
removed, all wishes are naturally and effortlessly accomplished.

As long as jealousy determines one’s attitude, one is bound

to experience more obstacles in achieving personal success and
in accomplishing positive goals. This is why Buddha
Amogasiddha’s activity is wrathful. It is with wrath that he
removes all obstacles and hindrances preventing spiritual
maturation and success. He is green in color, the same color as
growing plants symbolizing the numerous activities he employs
to remove hindrances.

The fifth dhyana Buddha is Buddha Vairocana, who is

realized when the negative emotion of ignorance is overcome.
Ignorance is failing to recognize what is wholesome and
unwholesome, failing to know the ultimate and conventional
truth 2 and failing to realize the highest state of dharmata.
Ignorance is the root of the negative emotions, so that, for
example, it is only out of ignorance that one is angry. One only
acts aggressively towards others because one is ignorant that
anger will only bring on pain and sorrow to oneself and others.
Likewise, it is only due to ignorance that one has pride, desire,
and jealousy.

Elimination of the darkness of ignorance is the realization of

Buddha Vairocana. The wisdom which shines forth when
ignorance is overcome is the wisdom of dharmata, i.e.,
realization of the highest state. We have failed to realize the true
state up until now due to ignorance, and this ignorance causes all
the mental confusion and misleading actions. Purification of
ignorance engenders realization of the wisdom which sees all
things as they really are.

The natural body of the purity of the wisdom of dharmata is

Buddha Vairocana. Since the darkness of ignorance is
eliminated, he is the clear color of white.

Qualities Arising from Transforming Negative Emotions

We have given a brief description of the five dhyana buddhas

who represent the purified qualities of the five disturbing
emotions. When these five negative emotions are purified, the
qualities of the five buddhas shine forth purely. Now we will
describe these five buddhas more thoroughly.

1. Buddha Akshobhya
The disturbing emotion of anger is transformed into the Buddha
Akshobhya’s wisdom at enlightenment and we may ask how
aggression or anger relates to Buddha Akshobhya, who is a very
peaceful activity. Or we may wonder how the absence of anger
is Buddha Akshobhya. It is important to know that Akshobhya is
the Sanskrit name and in Tibetan he is called sangay mikyodpa
or the “immovable, stable and changeless Buddha.” He is called
“immovable and changeless” because when the disturbing
emotion of anger is present, everything inevitably changes; our
face becomes red, the body begins to shake and the friend we are
angry with becomes our enemy. When anger is purified,
everything is peaceful and stable which is the realization of the
meaning of the changeless, stable, and permanent Buddha
Akshobhya.
The Buddha Akshobhya’s blue color has a symbolical
meaning. The dhyana buddhas are of the five main colors of
blue, red, yellow, green and white. Blue symbolizes permanence
that is changeless just as the sky has always been blue, whether
this year or a thousand years ago. The Buddha Akshobhya is
blue to represent this changelessness. Furthermore, the buddha
Akshobhya also holds a vajra in his lap which is also a symbol
of his indestructible and changeless nature. He sits in the full
vajra or full lotus posture to symbolize the indestructible nature
and his right hand touches the earth which is also a gesture of
the changeless. In a mannala Akshobhya resides in the east and
is painted as being on an elephant throne. Incidentally, in a
mandala the position away from one is always west regardless of
what the real direction is.

2. Buddha Ratnasambhava
The Buddha Ratnasambhava is the purification of pride.
Ratnasambhava is Sanskrit and the Tibetan name is sangay
rinchenjungdan. The Tibetan word sangay means “buddha” and
the word rinchen means “precious” referring to all precious,
good, and immaculate things. The word jungdan means “the
source.” So Ratnasambhava is the source of all good qualities
with these precious qualities being the absence of pride. When
ego and pride have been removed, one is open enough to
actually receive all knowledge and qualities, that is the
realization of Sangay Rinchen Jungdan.
Knowing the meaning of Rinchen Jungdan, one understands
why his activity encompasses the enrichment of all precious qualities
of realization. Ratnasambhava resides in the south and
is yellow or gold in color. The color gold represents wealth and
Ratnasambhava holds a wish-fulfilling jewel at his heart in his
left hand. The wish-fulfilling jewel is a jewel which gives a
person everything that he or she desires and so this also
symbolizes enrichment. He is seated in the vajra posture of
fulfillment on a horse’s throne representing the four bases or
legs of miraculous powers that enables unobstructed passage
everywhere. His right hand is in the mudra of giving supreme
generosity, i.e., his activity is supreme generosity.

3. Buddha Amitabha
The third dhyani buddha is Amitabha who represents the
purification of desire also called attachment. When we are under
the influence of attachment, we discriminate between good and
bad, beautiful and ugly, and then we cling to what seems to be
attractive and shun those things which seem bad or ugly.
Attachment and aversion are disturbing emotions that arise from
not understanding the nature of things as they are and as they
appear.3 It is due to ignorance that mind accepts and rejects
objects of attachment and aversion. With the wisdom of
discrimination, one knows things as they appear just as they are
without any confused and prejudiced opinions. This comes about
by purifying attachment and realizing Buddha Amitabha.
Buddha Amitabha is the Sanskrit name and the Tibetan name is
sangay odpamed, which means “boundless light.” When one has
developed the awareness of knowing everything as it manifests,
one has developed the clarity of boundless light, which is
completely free from confusion. This realization is described as
odpamed or “boundless light.” We can compare this state with
an example of a lamp. A faulty lamp cannot illuminate a room
clearly, whereas a perfect lamp can allow us to see things
distinctly and clearly. The light of Buddha Amitabha is therefore
boundless and is realized through the purification of attachment
and desire.
Buddha Amitabha is of the lotus family because a lotus
grows in muddy water while its blossoms remain stainless.
Likewise, Amitabha represents freedom from attachment, and it
is attachment which causes us to experience pain, loss, and
dissatisfaction that never finds fulfillment. Purification of the
negative emotion of attachment is a state of immaculate, pure
peace. Therefore, the Buddha Amitabha is seated in the full
vajra posture and both hands resting in the meditative posture of
mental clarity. He fully understands things as they are and as
they appear without subjective notions. This state is one of
peace and ease. He resides in the buddha realm of Dewachen.

4. Buddha Amogasiddha
Buddha Amogasiddha is realization of all-accomplishing
wisdom. The Tibetan word for Buddha Amogasiddha is sangay
donyodtrubpa. The word danyod means “meaningful” and the
word trubpa means “accomplishment.” So Buddha
Amogasiddha means “whatever is meaningful and fruitful is
accomplished.” He is also the complete purification of jealousy,
which is a hindrance for both material and spiritual success. His
activity is perfect accomplishment and fulfillment of meaningful
aims. Furthermore, his activity removes ordinary daily
hindrances such as illnesses and obstacles. This is why
Ratnasambhava’s activity is meaningful accomplishment.
Buddha Amogasiddha holds a double-vajra in the form of a
cross in his left hand, which symbolizes that his activity
pervades and touches all directions. He sits in the full lotus
posture. The left hand of all five dhyana Buddhas rests in the
meditative posture of the changeless realization of dharmata.
Amogasiddha’s right hand is in the mudra of fearless protection.
He protects all living beings from any mishaps, obstacles, and
negative influences. So his posture is known as “the mudra of
fearless protection.” He is white which represents “without
fault” and he rests in the center to the mandala and is on a lion’s
throne. Amogasiddha is green and resides in the north holding a
sword representing the cutting of existence.

5. Buddha Vairocana
The fifth dhyana Buddha is Vairocana who is known as sangay
namparnanzad, or in English, “perfect knowledge of all things
as they manifest.” Buddha Vairocana is realized when the
conflicting emotion of ignorance is removed. When one cannot
see things as they really are, one has the conflicting emotion of
ignorance. As a result one judges things from a mistaken point
view. With the realization of the wisdom of dharmata, one
realizes Buddha Vairocana. The example for this that is given is
to say there is a rope lying on the floor in a dark room. Because
of ignorance we mistake the rope for a snake and become
alarmed and feel tremendous fear. The solution to this fear is to
simply see the rope as really a rope and not a snake. This
example shows how mind functions in a state of ignorance. The
distress and fear is simply the result of misperceiving the
situation and simply knowing the rope isn’t a snake eliminates
all the fear and distress created.
Buddha Vairocana holds the wheel of dharma in his hands,
which symbolizes absence of ignorance and complete and clear
knowledge of all things as they are and as they manifest—
dharmata. He is realized when ignorance is removed, the quality
of Buddha Vairocana. This wheel symbolizes the Buddha’s
teachings, which show us what to abandon and what to take up
in our gradual advancement to enlightenment. We learn how to
give up and abandon negative emotions and how to develop
wisdom. Thus the dharma wheel brings us from ignorance to
wisdom. In comparison, it was the wheels of a chariot in
Buddha’s time that brought you to your destination. The wheel
of dharma similarly carries you from the darkness of ignorance
to the clarity of knowing each thing as it is.
Both hands of Vairocana Buddha are placed in the mudra
called “enlightenment” or sometimes “the mudra of turning the
wheel of dharma.” Since the only means to remove ignorance
and defilements is by learning the dharma, Buddha Vairocana
discloses the dharma to all living beings.
He is white which represents “without fault” and he rests in the
center to the mandala and is on a lion’s throne.

The Five Wisdom Dakinis

The term Dakini is Sanskrit. It's Tibetan equivalent is Khadro, kha meaning
sky and dro meaning to go. Taking it together, Khadro means one who can
move through the sky (the sky as a symbol for the open expansive state of
enlightened awareness). It's very important we think about this literal
meaning in trying to understand Dakinis. Now, all dakinis are portrayed in
female form -- there male counterpart being called dakas. There are
enlightened dakinis and unenlightened dakinis.

The unenlightened dakinis are termed worldly dakinis because they are still
caught in the cyclic world of samsara. Worldly dakinis are found in human
form as well as in astral form and could have a form of a beautiful fairy-like
being or a demonic flesh-eating being. Another example of a worldly dakini
is a celestial messenger falling into the category of a protector bodhisattva
performing beneficial actions. Another example might be a great human
practitioner that has accomplished some insight but who is not yet released
from suffering.

The enlightened dakinis are the Wisdom Dakinis. They have passed beyond
samsara into liberation and an example of an enlightened dakini would be
the female consorts to the Five Dhyani Buddhas.

There are five families of Worldly and Wisdom Dakinis: Vajra Dakinis,
Ratna Dakinis, Padma Dakinis, Karma Dakinis, and Buddha Dakinis. And
both the worldly dakinis and wisdom dakinis can have supernatural powers.
Dakinis in general can be a guiding light along the path removing physical
and spiritual hindrances. They can play a great part in an individual's
attainment of enlightenment. They are the forces that awaken dormant
qualities of spiritual impulses hidden in the subconscious. It is the dakini's
inspirational influence that can open one and remove obstacles. But, it is the
Wisdom Dakinis that we should be interested in learning about and who we
can rely on to truly release us from samsara.

One of the ways we are reminded of the important place of the dakinis is that
they are included as a source of refuge. There are six sources of refuge. We
take refuge in the Buddha, of course, relying on his example as having
accomplished the path. We take refuge in the dharma as the methods he used
which spell out completely how to begin, overcome obstacles, enrich
positive qualities and reach the goal. We take refuge in the sangha as
examples of people who has taken the steps and who are able to lead us
flawlessly through all obstacles as a supreme and valuable guide. These are
considered the outer sources of refuge and are known as the Three Jewels.

The inner sources of refuge are known as the Three Roots and this is where
the dakini comes in. We take refuge in the lama as the root of blessings
because it is he or she that imparts the knowledge, methods and wisdom that
will enable us to obtain liberation. We take refuge in the yidam (one’s
chosen deity) as the root of accomplishment because it will be through our
practice of the yidam that we will be able to realize the nature of our mind.
And, we take refuge in the dakas and dakinis as the principle of wisdom as
the root of all Buddha Activity.

The femininity of a dakini is linked with the symbolism of space. It's the
ability to give birth to or actualize the full range of potentialities. It is in the
space of becoming, where the full range of the four kinds of enlightened
activity occur. The four kinds of activity being: pacifying (vajra family),
enriching (ratna family), magnetizing (padma family) and destroying (karma
family).

On a relative level, pacifying energy allays one's fears and sufferings.

Enriching energy increases one's merit, long life and health. Magnetizing
energy draws together the necessary circumstances supporting spiritual
development. And destroying energy is wrathful intervention to quickly cut
through obstacles faced on the path.

Each of these activities has a profound ultimate function as well. Ultimate

pacification is the pacification of the mind's poison. Ultimate enrichment
brings accumulation of merit and wisdom to its fullest potential. Ultimate
magnetizing involves the overcoming of all confusion and superficial
thought patterns and thus awakening the true nature (and the total realization
of love and compassion). And, ultimate destroying annihilates all the ways
we invest things into solidity (including ourselves).

In the symbolism of the feminine aspect of a dakini, the ultimate dakini

embodies the inseparability of emptiness and wisdom. Only when that
dakini takes form in the Five Buddha Families does she represent the
differentiating patterns of experience that are the mental and physical
constituents making up human personality. Seeing the universe in these
different arrangements is a way the Buddha families are used to transform
relative states of consciousness into the understanding of the ultimate mind.
In their neurotic expression the Buddha Families are styles of imprisonment.
In their enlightened expression they are styles of freedom. A particular
neurosis of each family is associated with a particular type of wisdom or
enlightened form it can be transmuted into.

Yogic practices purify both the male and female principles within the human
body. It is through the practice of pure view that seeds of the vital force of
the five senses, which are the male aspects represented by the Five Dhyani
Buddhas as the forces of wisdom, and the five outer elements, which are the
feminine aspects of buddha nature represented by the Five Consorts, are
purified. It is through the path of Vajrayana that one is able to attain
enlightenment in just one lifetime by making full use of the very poisons and
illusions that cause delusion.

By consciously invoking a Wisdom Dakini we can begin to develop a

sensitivity to the energy itself. When looking at the iconography of the
dakini we should bear in mind that through understanding her symbolism we
can identify with her and thus we are identifying with out own energy. That
the feminine principle of the wisdom dakini is a root of auspicious
circumstances and enlightened activity.

Now, sentient beings are constantly operating from these grounds of these
Five Buddha Families and manifesting in it's natural manner in any given
situation the energies present within themselves with a reference point that
can either be confused or enlightened. There are polarities and pulls of all
kinds occurring in a pattern. A basic force that relates to this basic patterning
is a kind of clarity. It is a space where the two polarities can exist and
maintain themselves. This space is a totally awake situation where emotions
and thoughts can arise but from an unconditional quality. If we can realize
this very fact when our emotions are happening, we can instead of being
caught up in the emotion or thought can release it in the midst of this space
instead and it will dissolve into its true nature of clarity.

Experiences cannot occur without pain or pleasure. Any form of experience

contains a sense of reference point that is a basis for its reflection. The Five
Buddha Families are the five aspects of a total situation from five different
angles. All these qualities relate with each other and have their basis quality
as completely vast space. Space is the medium for movement, and all of our
experiences are colored by these five energies.

To Live as a dakini means to be aware of this space. This is the true meaning
of a dakini as being one who can move through space. It is a space behind
the poisons and thought patterns. Such an awareness, however, is hard to
maintain. Our mind is totally unstable and most of us have no real control
over it. It flutters from one thing to another. Recognizing and training the
mind is the only way to gain stability. If we really had stability, we could
maintain recognition of our mind's essence in dharmakaya on a continual
basis no matter what was presented to us through our emotions or thoughts.
It isn't long before we are carried away by our numerous distractions of the
mind.

Vajrayana Buddhism uses different methods for developing the mind. In the
development stage of practice, for example, one imagines an outer world
that is perfect in every way, a buddhafield. With everything in the world
being made up of the five elements, visualizing our outer world as a
buddhafield allows us to regard the body, speech and mind in its pure form.
In a completion stage practice, the wisdom aspect of buddha nature itself is
recognized. One of the taming processes used in Vajrayana Buddhism is
shamatha (calm abiding) and vipashyana (insight) meditation. It is beneficial
because the mind must be held down and not left to it's own devices where,
in it's own natural way, it likes to get involved in anger and aversion and
other bad things. Such things like this is what the mind is used to and it is
with real training and effort, such as through shamatha and vipashyana
meditation, that one can amend the habits of one's mind.

Dakinis can transform energy directly through experiences and for this
reason it is the dakini who is associated with tantric teachings and working
with the energies of the body, speech and mind. Meditation on a dakini such
as the Five Buddha Family Wisdom Dakinis is one way of establishing
awareness of dakini energy in all its forms.

Buddha's transcendent qualities are active principles with one type of energy
not being separate from all of the other energies. This is the key point. While
ego naturally evolves because of its psychological components, if one is able
to dissolve the projections of the mind, one can replace it with the five
factors of enlightenment. Thus, if one depends on the Dakinis one can move
toward transforming one's mind through the experiences one comes across in
one's life.

From Thinley Norbu's Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature

of the Five Wisdom Dakinis.

Five Wisdom Sisters,

If we do not complement you,
You become five witches,
Making us ill and bringing us suffering.
Because we cannot banish you,
Always our fate depends on you.

Five Wisdom Sisters,

If we do complement you,
You become five angels,
Making us healthy and bringing us happiness.
Because we cannot separate from you,
Always our fate depends on you.

Five Wisdom Sisters,

Nothing can be done without depending on your mood.

Farmers cannot grow their crops,
Politicians cannot rule their countries,
Engineers cannot work their machines,
Doctors cannot heal their patients,
Scientists cannot do their research,
Philosophers cannot make their logic,
Artists cannot create their art,
Without depending on your mood.

Five Wisdom Sisters,

Nothing can be known without depending on your grace.

Tibetan lamas cannot chant with cool highland habit,
Indian gurus cannot sing with warm lowland habit,
Japanese roshis cannot sit with dark cushion habit,
Muslim sheikhs cannot dance with bright robed habit,
Jewish rabbis cannot pray with soft-voiced habit
Without depending on your grace.

Five Wisdom Sisters,

Even the most mysterious miracles cannot occur without

complementing your purity.
Buddha Shakyamuni cannot rest with tranquil gaze of his lotus eyes
underneath the Bodhi tree,
Guru Padmasambhava cannot play magically with countless sky-
walking dakinis,
Lord Jesus cannot walk weightlessly across the water,
Prophet Moses cannot see the radiantly burning bush,
Brahmin Saraha-pa cannot straighten arrows, singing wisdom hymns
with his arrow-maker girl,
Crazy saint Tilopa cannot eat fish and torture Naropa,
Greatest yogi Milarepa cannot remain in his cave, singing and
accepting hardships
Without complementing your purity.

You are so patient.

Whoever wants to stay,
If you don't exist,
Cannot stay.
Whoever wants to go,
If you don't exist,
Cannot go.
Whoever wants to taste or touch,
If you don't exist,
Cannot taste or touch.
Whatever our actions,
You are always supporting
Patiently without complaining.
But we ignorant beings
Are always ungrateful,
Stepping on you,
Calling you Earth.

You are so constant.

Whoever wants to be purified,
If you don't exist,
Cannot be purified.
Whoever wants to quench their thirst,
If you don't exist,
Cannot quench their thirst.
Whoever wants to hear,
If you don't exist,
Cannot hear
Whatever our actions,
You are always flowing
Ceaselessly without complaining.
But we desiring beings
Are always ungrateful,
Splashing you,
Calling you Water.

You are so clear.

Whoever wants to fight,
If you don't exist,
Cannot fight.
Whoever wants to love,
If you don't exist,
Cannot love.
Whoever wants to see,
If you don't exist,
Cannot see.
Whatever our actions,
You are always glowing
Un-obscuredly without complaining.
But we proud beings
Are always ungrateful
Smothering you,
Calling you Fire.

You are so light.

Whoever wants to rise,
If you don't exist,
Cannot rise.
Whoever wants to move,
If you don't exist,
Cannot move.
Whoever wants to smell,
If you don't exist,
Cannot smell.
Whatever our actions,
You are always moving
Weightlessly without complaining.
But we envious beings
Are always ungrateful,
Fanning you,
Calling you Air.

You are so open.

Whoever wants to exist,
If you don't exist,
Cannot exist.
Whoever doesn't want to exist,
If you don't exist,
Cannot cease to exist.
Whoever wants to know phenomena,
If you don't exist,
Cannot know phenomena.
Whatever our actions,
You are always welcoming
Spaciously without complaining.
But we ignorant beings
Are always ungrateful,
Emptying you,
Calling you Space.

You are our undemanding slave,

Tirelessly serving us,
From ordinary beings to sublime beings
To fulfill our worldly wishes.

You are our powerful queen,

Seductively conquering us,
From ordinary beings to sublime beings,
Into desirable qualities.

You are our Wisdom Dakini,

Effortlessly guiding us with your magic dance,
From ordinary beings to sublime beings,
Into desireless qualities.

And so, I want to introduce you.