[MF] Dharmakaya light

[Lorenz Gude]

Hi Maggie,

Persig brings up the Dharmakaya light on Page 344 or more loosely the 
last 4-5 pages of Chapter 26 of Lila. The first mention of the 
Dharmakaya light is followed by the sentence "That was a huge area of 
human experience cut off by cultural filtering." He also later refers to 
seeing the light on Lila and mentions seeing it when he was was insane 
and at other times and takes it as an indication that Lila has Quality. 
In general when he sees it, he knows there is something important 
happening that he should not dismiss. Time to slow down and take careful 
note.

I presume Persig uses a Hindu term because we don't have a direct 
equivalent in the West. Dharma = truth Kaya = body according to Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmakaya

They don't have a a separate article on Dharmakaya light specifically. 
But we are in deep water here. In answer to a question about why 
Buddhism has no God of creation The Dalai Lama begins his answer this way:

"I understand the Primordial Buddha, also known as Buddha Samantabhadra, 
to be the ultimate reality, the realm of the Dharmakaya-- the space of 
emptiness--where all phenomena, pure and impure, are dissolved." 
http://hhdl.dharmakara.net/hhdlquotes22.html

Here is Dr. Yutang Lin, an intellectual and Buddhist practitioner, 
talking to an academic audience on the subject:

In that experience, everything, including one’s own body, disappears. 
There is nothing left, except the light of blue sky everywhere. In 
Tibetan Tantric Buddhism this is called "the Dharmakaya Light." 
Dharmakaya Light is the basis of Dharmakaya, the Buddhist terminology 
for the universe. Nevertheless, the concept of Dharmakaya assumes that 
all things are basically on the same footing, which goes beyond the 
distinction of reality and non-reality, while the usual concept of the 
universe implies the factual existence of things and distinguishes 
between reality and illusion. In Buddhism, Dharmakaya is the collection 
of all Dharmas, i.e., all things as they are. Hence the chair that I am 
sitting on, and the thoughts and sensations I have, are considered 
equally as Dharmas. So we cannot replace the term "Dharmakaya" with the 
term "universe" at will.

http://www.buddhistinformation.com/pureland/seminar_in_zen_and_pure_land_bud.htm

Big stuff so there is no easy answer that I can see. I am tempted to say 
that these concepts are all beyond the MOQ because they are all like 
undefined Quality, words that point to but cannot encompass the 
undefined whole. Back on earth, if you haven't read it already you might 
want to read my personal experience of the Dharmakaya light that I wrote 
down in 1991 when I first read Lila.

http://www.moq.org/forum/LorenzGude/drmakya.html

It is just my personal experience of how special experiences of light 
came through the cultural filter so that I recognized Persig'd 
description cited above. I expect it is quite a common experience as 
Persig implies - because we lack a word for it it is just hard to 
recognize it when it happens. Funnily enough I can hear Johnny cash 
singing "I Saw the Light" as I write this. :-)

Lorenz Gude

Steve Mack wrote:
> Hi Maggie,
> you're not being rude at all & you're very welcome.
>
> Now, forgive my ignorance but what IS the dharmakaya light?
> ~Steve
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: Maggie Hettinger 
>   To: moq_focus at moqtalk.org 
>   Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 5:54 AM
>   Subject: [MF] Dharmakaya light
>
>
>   Hello, all.
>
>   I hope I'm not being too rude to jump in with this, but has anyone  
>   gone about gathering more information/research on the dharmakaya light?
>
>   If it's inappropriate to answer on the forum, please email me  
>   directly.  I looked through the archives some, but didn't find  
>   anything, but I missed a couple of years, so maybe the subject HAS  
>   been addressed.
>
>   Many thanks!
>   maggie hettinger
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