I’ll just touch on this for now, as it’s deep theory, and also both speculative and ultimately irrelevant. I have mentioned a number of times how the Buddha was very pragmatic, so there’s no need to linger here.
All reality comes from an unmanifest, which is called the Dharmakaya. Although it’s not written in scripture, my intuitive feeling is that it is an underlying awareness of reality, and it is… hard to explain. In my mind there is an awareness, as the back of it all. I don’t mean my individual consciousness, I mean an awareness beyond that. It is underlying my mind, and also your mind, and it is the same Dharmakaya. Like if we were swimming in one ocean and there is only one body of water, but also out bodies are water.
The Adi-buddha is as a step below. There are various representations in different traditions but this is essentially a primordial Buddha, and I see this to be the awake part of yourself, the virgin mind with no images of impulses in but the potential for all. From this, karma is held within, but also your volitioned choices including wholesome desires for awakening. The representations of the adi-buddha are often blue colour (like the Hindu god Brahmin), actually sky coloured, and the sky is infinite and can hold any shape or object, like the imagination.
So from the underlying, awake, universal unmanifest, a universal light emerges, and from this overarching consciousness above, an individual consciousness is made manifest below, a pure ‘awakeneess’ (your virgin imagination) that then descends into ignorance due to contact with the senses and thus creates karma and a cycle of unwholesome creation, and a journey through lifetimes back to the state of being fully awake.
I mentioned earlier that one of the advantages of coming to Buddhism as an ‘outsider’, (born in a different tradition) is that you are not in a cultural straightjacket concerning the various teachings, and the distinct ‘flavours’ of Buddhism can suit different temperaments, like the simplicity of Zen or magical visualisations of Tibetan practices. Let’s also be frank and realistic, Buddhism was handed down originally as an oral tradition as a series of lists to aid memorisation. Each person that practiced and mastered the teaching would have added their own insight and personality into the teaching to the point that we don’t really know for sure what the original person we are calling the Buddha really said.
It might be sacrilege to say that but it’s actually better. Remember that the first refuge is the Buddha, meaning the whole thing started with an ordinary person who found the answer and ended suffering completely. The refuge is the ‘ordinariness’, the ‘humanness’, a person like us. The awakening is available to anyone. So the tradition that has been handed down was an original teaching, condensed to a mnemonic list and then developed as a huge group project of many wise people who adapted the core understanding to different personalities and cultures. As modern devotees, we can overview the vast accumulated knowledge to forge our own understanding and practice that will best awaken us.
I’m going to return to my speculations on how reality is ultimately created now, which is something that the Buddha advised against. He didn’t say don’t do it at all, but not to dwell on irrelevant questions. The quest was never to find out how consciousness evolved or how reality was created, but to end suffering. I think it’s necessary to at least cover this in the light of ‘right livelihood’, if reality is created via self somehow, and all that the senses perceive are preceded by mental activity, then reigning all mental activity (discipline) can lead to awakening, and by default a change in the reality you perceive. That can clearly include material abundance. Anyone who attracts abundance has somehow done this with their mind, consciously or not, and so – skillfully used – the methods that reign the mind to create the conditions for awakening can (and do) create material conditions according to will. My Zen master, on the day I took the precepts, said there is ‘a wish and an answer, a call and a voice’, and this is towards awakening and ‘reality’. IF WE AWAKE TO THE DREAM, THEN WE CAN DREAM WHAT WE PLEASE.
The following is my own reasoning.
There are things we can see, perceive in the world, with our physical senses. Then there are things we can see subjectively in the inner-world. Then there are things we can’t see, the unmaifest. There is:
- Physical existence
- Mental existence
- Non-existence
If something exists now, it can’t have always existed, it must have come from a state of non-existence. So the unmaifest is the potential for anything to exist. A primordial state. This is somewhat deified in the various traditions of Buddhism.
Adi Buddha is a significant concept in certain branches of Mahayana Buddhism, particularly within Vajrayana traditions. The term “Adi Buddha” translates to “Primordial Buddha” or “First Buddha,” and it refers to the original source from which all Buddhas emanate. This concept is often associated with self-emanation and the idea of a transcendent, unconditioned reality.
Definition and Attributes
Adi Buddha is described as a self-originating entity, existing before anything else. In Tibetan Buddhism, he is often identified with figures such as Samantabhadra, Vairocana, or Vajradhara. Each of these figures embodies different aspects of the Adi Buddha, but they all share the common theme of representing the ultimate truth and the source of enlightenment. Adi Buddha is not considered a creator deity in the theistic sense; rather, it symbolizes the essence of enlightenment and the potential for all sentient beings to achieve Buddhahood.
There is also the concept of Dharmakaya, which is the unmaifest aspect of a Buddha, a formless truth, and the adibuddha is a manifestation of this.
Mahavairocana
Mahavairocana, often referred to as the “Great Sun Buddha,” is considered a cosmic or primordial Buddha in many Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions. He embodies the Dharmakaya, which is the ultimate reality or truth body of a Buddha. In this role, Mahavairocana is seen as the source of all phenomena and is often associated with the entirety of the universe, representing wisdom and purity.
Amitābha Buddha
Amitābha Buddha, also known as Amitāyus, is the central figure in Pure Land Buddhism, particularly in East Asian traditions. He is known for his vows to save all sentient beings, offering them the opportunity for rebirth in his Pure Land, Sukhāvatī, which is characterized by bliss and devoid of suffering. Amitābha’s teachings emphasize faith and devotion, particularly through the recitation of his name, which is believed to facilitate rebirth in his Pure Land and ultimately lead to enlightenment. The name Amitabha means ‘limitless light’ (from the Sanskrit, and the same word translates to Aminda in Japanese). It’s very interesting as the names of God in the kabbalah are essentially the same, ‘limitless light’. I’m no expert on this, but I think the Kabballah has other names also, the others are based on ‘nothingness’ or similar (which to me equates to the Dharmakaya). So there is a similarity, at the top of the Kabalistic tree of life is the ‘unmanifest/nothing’ aspect of God (the Dharmakaya) and it manifests down on a lower level as a ‘light’, which is a primordial potential for all, like an infinite sky, and below this is the world and the contact between the light and the world sparks the twelve dependent links as individual consciousness arises in the light and so this is your individual will within the astral light creating as it seems fit, aka YOUR IMAGINATION.
Relationship Between Mahavairocana and Amitābha
Cosmological Context: In the broader Mahayana cosmology, Mahavairocana is often seen as the source from which other Buddhas, including Amitābha, emanate. This aligns with the view that all Buddhas are manifestations of the ultimate reality represented by Mahavairocana. Thus, while Amitābha has his own Pure Land, he is part of the larger framework established by Mahavairocana.
Pure Lands: Both Mahavairocana and Amitābha have their own Pure Lands, which serve as realms for practitioners to aspire to. Mahavairocana’s Pure Land, often referred to as Akaniṣṭha, is considered the highest realm, while Amitābha’s Sukhāvatī is specifically designed for the liberation of sentient beings through faith and devotion. This reflects the diverse paths within Mahayana Buddhism that cater to different practitioners’ aspirations and capacities.
[To me, this means that THE MIND IS A PLACE. I know this from my own experience when I have woken up in my own mind, embodied in another mental reality. We each have a Pure Land and it is here and now and is your imagination and it is a place.]
So, there is a great unmaifest, the source of all, and within this, primordial states of being occur, the primordial Buddha. The infinite source and potential is somehow existing and aware and a watcher. It is the unifying source of all that exists, and that includes us, and if it is ultimately the source of creation and aware as a primordial Buddha, and each of us is a Buddha, then to me it feels that this is the bare attention of the mind. Not the Buddha’s mind, well, yes, a Buddha’s mind, but your mind. The awake part of yourself. The watcher behind your pure imagination, a universal, underlying awareness.
There’s a passage in the scripture where the Buddha tells a story of a wrestler who had a famous gem adorning his forehead. Over the years, it got pushed into his skull and covered with dirt and he forgot it was there. There are constant references to awakening being within us, an ultimate unmaifest state, but it’s not a dead state, it is an aware state, a living universe, and when you are quiet in your mind with only a watcher then it is living through you.
So it, the unmaifest, ‘descends’ into creating, rather than a cosmic awareness it separates somehow into different Buddhas, like the cosmic Buddha. This is also like the gem in your forehead. The famous Buddhas have their own realm, their own Pure Lands.
Pure Lands are a significant concept in Mahayana Buddhism, representing celestial realms where beings can be reborn and practice under the guidance of a Buddha. The most renowned of these is Sukhāvatī, the Pure Land of Amitābha Buddha, which is often viewed as a paradise where enlightenment can be more easily attained.