Rainbow body

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The rainbow body in Buddhism is a body that is made of light, not flesh. The term is mostly used in the part of Tibetan Buddhism called Dzogchen.

According to Dzogchen, the rainbow body is a sign of complete mastery of the Dzogchen view. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche states: “The realized Dzogchen practitioner, no longer deluded by apparent substantiality or dualism such as mind and matter, releases the energy of the elements that compose the physical body at the time of death”.[1]

Padmasambhava, who was the founder of Buddhism in Tibet, is often shown with the rainbow body on paintings known as thankas.

Notes[change | change source]

  1. Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche (2002), p. 141

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