Five eyes (Buddhism)

Madhyamaka Buddhism recognizes five eyes or levels of understanding which must be purified by the bodhisattva so that the elements are not clung to.

1. Mamsacaksus (the eyes of flesh): These see only the immediate and are purified by the performance of moral deeds.

2. Divyacaksus (the Deva eyes): These see the karmic chain and its factors, such as good and bad, causal relations. Like the eyes of flesh, these eyes see in terms of poles and dualities. They are purified by dhyana (meditation).

3. Prajnacaksus (The eye of wisdom): This eye sees Nirvana, undifferentiated oneness, the universe through no categories. Different views disappear, activities of the mind return and enter dharmata, there is no other sphere for the mind to reach. All words cease and the world is seen in its true nature as no different from Nirvana. The wisdom by which this ultimate truth is seen is the eye of wisdom. Having once seen with this eye of wisdom the bodhisattva no longer clings to the elements of analysis, mundane, transmundane or Nirvana. This is contrasted with viewing only the mundane, which brings a false notion of existence, or the transmundane (incomposite), bringing a false notion of non-existence. The middle way (madhyamaka) abandons both these extremes. With unerring wisdom all elements of ignorance, whether general or particular, are put to an end.

4. Dharmacaksus (the eye of dharma): This eye reveals its wisdom from infinite compassion for all sentient beings, it sees all the different ways in which people conceptualize. The Bodhisattva sees that the only way to save all beings, as he has promised, is by uncovering the eye of dharma and seeing the conceptual networks of people. Then conceptual monsters can be seen and defined, shown to be unreal, relative constructs which are empty, mutually dependent poles. Thus others can be guided to Nirvana through the particular paths suited to their own circumstances.

5. Buddhacaksus (the eye of Buddha): This eye is not separate from the other four but it is not the same. The other eyes are consummated in this eye, it incorporates all the other levels into a basic integration.