Human Development
Enjoyment-body awareness
Description:
This state of awareness is characterized by omniscience and represented as Buddha-consciousness beyond the ten degrees of development. Its "place" is Akanistha, the Superior Heaven, from which it sends forth the Emanation Bodies. The [enjoyment]- or [fruit]-body is the culmination of effort; it is a state of enlightenment resulting from the accumulated merit of good action; and its powers sustain the communion of Buddhist saints. Here the Buddhas are in paradise as embodied truth, the ecstasy of enlightenment. It arises from and embodies the qualities of [dharmakaya] and, as a "form body", communicates the experience of the absolute (in Zen, the experience of the "dharma mind"). The qualities are known as [buddhakula] and embody [prajna] (wisdom) in its five aspects, but each may be either positive or negative. Every phenomenon is associated with these aspects and, for example, in the [bardo] state it is manifest as mandalas of five colours deriving from the five fundamental qualities or [buddhakula].The [buddhakula] - buddha families - are:
(i) Tahagata, the family of Vairocana, representing, in the positive sense, the wisdom underlying everything, that of ultimate reality; and, in the negative sense, [avidya], the ignorance which leads to [samsara], the unending cycle of birth and death. Vairocana is coloured white and is usually at the centre of the mandala.
(ii) Vajra, the family of Aksobhya, representing aggression which, in the positive sense, transmutes to reflective wisdom. Aksobhya is coloured blue is usually at the lower (eastern) side of the mandala.
(iii) Ratna, the family of Ratnasambhava, representing, in the positive sense, the wisdom of equanimity; and, in the negative sense, pride. Ratnasambhava is coloured yellow and is usually at the left (southern) side of the mandala.
(iv) Padma (lotus), the family of Amitabha, representing, in the positive sense, the wisdom of discrimination; and, in the negative sense, desire and passion. Amitabha is coloured red and is usually at the top (west) of the mandala.
(v) Karma, the family of Amoghasiddhi, representing, in the positive sense, the wisdom accomplishing; and, in the negative sense, jealousy or envy. Amoghasiddhi is coloured green and is usually at the right (northern) side of the mandala.
Context:
In [Mahayana] Buddhism, one of the [trikaya] (three bodies) of a buddha. In Tibetan Buddhism it is related to the second of three phases experienced in the "in-between" or [bardo] consciousness between death and rebirth, each being connected with one of the [trikaya] of Buddha and in any of which a being may attain liberation. In Tibetan Sakya Buddhism this is one of the states in the "Ascension Stages Game". In some sets it is numbered 92 on the board.< Broader:
Liberation through hearing in bardo Related:
Mandala