About Rainbow Body
His Holiness Lama Achuk Rinpoche showed his great achievement by demonstrating the Great Perfection rainbow body. “Rainbow body” is a phenomenon that when the person dies, his body is transformed partially, or totally into five pure lights. This means either the physical body shrinks to a size much smaller than before, and the skin quality becomes as fresh as that of a newborn baby, or even that nothing is left behind. According to modern science, this phenomenon is hard to understand, but historically it has been well documented .
A teacher or yogi who has acquired the highest forms of accomplishment can manifest “the rainbow body” or “body of light”. It is a body made, not of flesh, but of pure light. The stories of luminosity or saintly radiance are not only popular in Tibetan Buddhism, but also common among Christian saints, Sufis, Taoist sages, Hindu yogis and indigenous shamans.
In Tibetan Buddhism it can be realized in three ways; through the practices of Anuttara tantra, the special practices of the Kalachakra Tantra , or through Dzogchen. In Dzogchen, it is the physical mastery state where the trikaya (Nirmanakaya, Sambakaya and Dharmakaya) is in accord and the nirmanakaya is congruent with body mind and the integrity of the mindstream to the heartmind that is realized as Dharmakaya. The corporeal body of the realised Dzogchenpa, which is now
hallowed, returns to the primordial energetic essence of the Five Pure Lights of the five elemental processes through the Bardo of Mahasamadhi or parinirvana. This is then projected as the mindstream through the process of Phowa. The realiser of Jalus resides in the timeless, eternal space that is considered a mystery. According to Dzogchen folklore, the attainment of the Rainbow Body is the sign of complete realisation of the Dzogchen view.
Kathok Monastery, eastern Kham in Sichuan Province, China, has records indicating that over 100,000 within the Kathok lineage achieved this state since its founding in the 12th century while nearby Dzogchen Monastery had 60,000 lineage holders reach such a state since the monastery was established in the 17th century. Both monasteries are of the Nyingma Sect.
One recent case that has been well documented was Baimachaiwan Rinpoche who went into parinirvana on March 10th, 2002. He had demonstrate the perfect rainbow body.
