Five Dhyani Buddhas

The Five Dhyani Buddhas are five aspects or representations of the Buddha in Vajrayana Buddhism, representing specific qualities. Dhyani Buddhas, or "wisdom Buddhas," is the term most often used in English, but they are also called the Five Great Buddhas, the Five Jinas (a Sanskrit term that literally means "victor" but has a connotation here of "champion" or "exemplar"), or the Five Tathagatas (a Sanskrit word the Buddha uses to refer to himself in the Pali Canon, the meaning of which is not definitively known, but which may mean "one who has thus come").

Each of the Five Buddhas is associated with a host of traits, aspects, and concepts, such that the five of them together form a concept map that assists in comprehending the Dharma (the underlying reality and governing principle or principles of the world—the true essence of the Buddha’s teachings). The Five Buddhas are Vairocana, Amoghasiddhi, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava, and Akshobhya, some of whom have significance in other contexts to other schools of Buddhism. The names given here are Sanskrit; outside of India they are often referred to by other names.

Background

There are many schools and systems of Buddhist thought, due in part to the lack of a central authority in Buddhism and in part because of its geographic spread. Originating in India and dependent on concepts like Dharma which were first developed in Indian thought, Buddhism achieved its full flourishing of popularity and variety of practice when it spread to East Asia. While some schools of Buddhist thought, such as Tibetan Buddhism, are talked about in terms of geography, Vajrayana Buddhism originated in India, but schools can be found in Tibet, Nepal, China, Japan, and elsewhere.

Vajrayana Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, or Tantrayana, and originated in India sometime between the sixth and eighth centuries. The term itself is first attested in the eighth century, but it refers to a Buddhist system already in existence at that point. The development of Vajrayana Buddhism was the final stage of Buddhism’s development in India before its decline; between the thirteenth and twentieth centuries, Indian Buddhist practice was most common in the Himalayan areas. In the 20^th century, Buddhism experienced a resurgence in India due to the mass migration of Tibetan exiles as well as to the interest of Indian intellectuals. But even by the century’s end, Buddhists accounted for less than 1% of India's population.

Vajrayana Buddhism incorporates into Buddhism tantric beliefs and practices. Tantra is more commonly associated with Hinduism, India’s major religious tradition, and Tantric Hinduism and Buddhism developed side by side. Key to Tantric traditions, whether Hindu or Buddhist, are the importance of ritual, the use and importance of mantras, the identification with a sacred figure (a Hindu deity or one of the Five Buddhas), the need for a teacher and to be initiated into the tradition, the emphasis on analogous modes of mystical thought, and the ritual use of mandalas (spiritual symbols, often in the shape of four objects around a center point). For instance, with respect to the latter two points, in Vajrayana Buddhism, the Five Buddhas can be assembled into a mandala. When this mandala is properly meditated upon in terms of all of the things each Buddha is associated with and represents, the symbol becomes a conceptual map of the Dharma, the underlying truth of the universe.

Overview

Although "the Buddha" refers to Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, the term Buddha is a title meaning "awakened one" or "enlightened one," and few Buddhist traditions reserve the title for Gautama alone. However, not every Buddhist tradition agrees on who deserves the title apart from Gautama. The Five Dhyani Buddhas are not the only Buddhas apart from Gautama in Vajrayana Buddhism. Rather, they are five Buddhas who have special status and importance, both in religious practice and in the Vajrayana Buddhist’s understanding of the universe. The Five Buddhas seem to have developed out of an earlier idea of the trikaya, a Mahayana Buddhist idea of a Buddha of three bodies. Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism are closely related and developed at around the same time, and scholars are not in complete agreement about just how separate the two branches of Buddhism are.

Among the Five Dhyani Buddhas, Vairocana represents the Buddhist concept of sunyata, a Sanskrit word translated as openness, emptiness, or the void, depending on context; in meditation, sunyata refers to not-self-ness (an awkward term made necessary to avoid confusion with the very different word selflessness). Unlike the other Five Buddhas, Vairocana is not associated with any direction but rather with the center. Vairocana is also associated with the color white, the sense of sight, the wheel, the destruction of ignorance, and meditation.

Amoghasiddhi is the Buddha associated with the color green, the sense of touch, air and wind, the north, fearlessness, the destruction of jealousy and envy, autumn, and the wisdom of perfect practice. He is often symbolized by the moon.

Amitabha (whose name means "boundless light") is the Buddha associated with the color red, the sense of taste, fire, the lotus, the west, inquisitiveness and perception, the destruction of selfishness, summer, and wise observation. He is not only one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas but also the primary Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism, a system of Buddhism practiced in East Asia. Contemplating the Amitabha leads to an awareness of the ultimate emptiness of the phenomena of the world. In Shingon Buddhism, one of Japan’s major Buddhist schools, Amitabha is one of the thirteen major Buddhas to whom practitioners direct devotional mantras.

Ratnasambhava is the Buddha associated with the colors gold and yellow, the sense of smell, the element of earth, the south, consciousness and feeling (in the sense of sensation), the destruction of pride and greed, spring, and the wisdom of equality.

Akshobhya is the Buddha associated with the color blue, the sense of hearing, water, the vajra (a ritual object representing the thunderbolt), the east, consciousness, humility, the destruction of aggression, winter, and the wisdom of reflection. According to the oldest known text in Pure Land Buddhism, "Scripture of the Buddhaland of Akshobya," from second century China, Akshobya was a monk who achieved enlightenment and became a Buddha after making a vow to feel no anger or malice toward any being, and he became "immovable."

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