Deathless Body of Light and
Why Getting Fully Enlightened Isn't That Simple
Sketch from my upcoming book "Life As A Buddha.
I think there is lots of confusion and mistakes in presentations about "full enlightenment" or the most refined type of buddhahood. In everyday discussions I also use the term full enlightenment for less refined states that nevertheless are states of perfect liberation of the mind (emptiness of all phenomena, bhumis 1-10). However if we think about this in binary fashion there is really only one kind of full enlightenment and this most traditions do not know about.
When a fully enlightened human being dies, there are no physical remains at all. This is because the physical body has been integrated and made a continuation of the enlightened mind. If the body has not been made a continuation, then there will be a physical corpse. What actually happens at death when a fully enlightened master leaves the body is that as the physical body is seamlessly connected to the subtle body, the physical body gets sucked into the subtle body. It is as if the enlightened subtle body pulls or vacuums the physical body into it and in consequence no remains will be left. This has been exemplified by legendary buddhist masters like Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra but also by Jesus, Ramalinga from Tamil Nadu (in 1874) and Du Xin Ling, a taoist master from China, in 1989 (see link below). These masters left no remains at all. Both Ramalinga's and Du Xin Ling's cases have been documented and reported by officials. Also the orthodox christian tradition of desert fathers knows this phenomena well though it is difficult to acquire information from their highly secretive tradition. A technical term for this full enlightenment is "full rainbow body" or just "light body".
People might think all this is crazy talk but even over the past decade there has been written and photographic accounts (see photos from the links below) from Tibet where some highly accomplished practitioners attained "small rainbow body". In small rainbow body, where the physical body and its cells are not completely integrated with the enlightened mind, the body shrinks over the next few days after the heart stops beating. It is as if the body was scaled back to the size of babies body with the exception that also the head shrinks with the rest of the body. This is a sign that the practitioner has reached a point in her/his practice where the smallest building particles (I just call them cells) of the physical body are included and cleaned in the purification process. I will explain this in more detail in my upcoming book about buddhahood.
Anyhow, if we think about the various doctrines and practices of yoga, meditation, dharma and tantra we come to see that most traditions don't even mention this phenomena. In most systems even masters leave corpses to be buried or burned but it simply is a fact that the process can go much further than that and most importantly, if we have the fortune to meet and study with genuine masters, learn highly effective practices and have the readiness and eagerness to go all the way, we - you and I - we all, can actually go all the way to full rainbow body.
In my view this does not require special circumstances like having to become mountain recluses or having to do long retreats. In my experience, as a householder myself, this can be done in the midst of 21st century city living.
-Kim Rinpoche, 4.5.2022
http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2018/06/taoist-master-attains-rainbow-body.html
http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/10/god-took-him-with-body-by-lama-ivo.html
https://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/10/bodily-dissolution-in-dzogchen-by-fr.html
