prabhāsvaratā

From Buddha-Nature
Sanskrit Noun

prabhāsvaratā

luminosity
प्रभास्वर
འོད་གསལ་
光明

Basic Meaning

In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.

On this topic
Interview
'Luminous Is This Mind, O Monks': An Intertextual Excursion by Peter Skilling
Skilling, Peter. "'Luminous Is This Mind, O Monks': An Intertextual Excursion." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 1:14:13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlwOE_JzknM.
Skilling, Peter. "'Luminous Is This Mind, O Monks': An Intertextual Excursion." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 1:14:13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlwOE_JzknM.
Article
A Eulogy of Mind’s Connate Qualities, Zhwa dmar Chos grags ye shes on the Hidden Meaning of Luminosity
The Fourth Zhwa dmar pa Chos grags ye shes (1453–1524) as well as being a prominent student and biographer of the famous ’Gos Lo tsā ba, also established himself as a scholar, a central Tibetan ruler, and a monk. His collected works discuss among much else the topic of luminosity as it is developed in the Bka’ brgyud pa Mahāmudrā tradition.
      This paper focuses on his writings on the “hidden meaning of luminosity”. According to Chos grags ye shes the nonaffirming negation in the second cycle of the Buddha’s teaching is of not fully perfected definitive meaning while the affirming negation of the third wheel, the inseparability of mind’s emptiness and luminosity, in other words mahāmudrā, constitutes the fully perfected definitive meaning. (Draszczyk, introduction, 1)
Draszczyk, Martina. "A Eulogy of Mind's Connate Qualities, Zhwa dmar Chos grags ye shes on the Hidden Meaning of Luminosity." In Zentralasiatische Studien 44 (Part 1), edited by Klaus-Dieter Mathes, 99–120. Andiast, Switzerland: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies GmbH, 2015. http://www.bodhi.at/files/draszczyk_2015b_a_eulogy_of_mind_s_connate_qualities_zas.pdf.
Video
Casey Kemp at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Casey Kemp presents an overview and analysis of Jigten Gonpo’s explanation of luminosity as outlined in his text 'Od gsal rnam lnga gcig tu bsre ba'i man ngag, a pith instruction on merging (bsre ba).
Kemp, Casey. "The Luminous Basis for Buddhahood: ’Jig rten mgon po’s Pith Instructions for Merging the Nature of Mind with the Dharmakāya." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 41:36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7VQkhK1CE0.
Article
Consciousness and Luminosity in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism
Dr. Tadeusz Skorupski in ‘Consciousness and Luminosity in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism’ invokes the juxtaposition of the phenomenal world of saṃsāra and the perfected state of nirvana, noting that they reflect and essentially correspond to the dynamic operating in the Buddhist analysis of consciousness and the propensities of the human mind: the mind produces the factors contributing to rebirth, but is also the primary vehicle in the attainment of salvation. He identifies several key features that permeate early Buddhist doctrine: the pre-eminence of mind, the notion of inherent radiance, the alien nature of the defilements that contaminate the mind, and the interplay of the image of purification and corruption. Starting with a close reading of Buddhaghosa's interpretations of the nature of luminosity, the author extends his discussion to include the Mahāsaṅgikas, who emphasize the inherent radiance of a mind obscured by adventitious defilements, and the Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣikas, who aver that an inherently radiant mind could not be obscured, for to them it has a propensity, rather than an innate disposition, to luminosity. Delineating various attributes of the description of consciousness according to different schools, the author moves from Pāli Abhidhamma to Mahāyana and Vajrayāna sources and Bodhicitta doctrine. Alighting on subsequent Indian Tantric theories that posit a fourfold luminosity of consciousness as four kinds of emptiness, he notes that such an understanding of consciousness and luminosity was applied in the Tibetan understanding of the processes occurring during death, as described in the work known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The author describes this account of death, as involving the transition through four kinds of luminosity, as unique to Tibet, in particular to the Nyingma and Kagyu traditions. He concludes that although varied schools often disagree in certain features, all concur in the possibility of and access to a purified mind. Tracing the continuity between early Abhidhamma through to the various Mahāyāna schools, the author avers, provides an insightful range of perspectives on luminosity and nature of the mind itself. (Editorial Committee, introduction, 10)

Read more here . . .
Skorupski, Tadeusz. "Consciousness and Luminosity in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism." In Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation Practice: Academic Papers Presented at the 2nd IABU Conference, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Main Campus, Wang Noi, Ayutthaya, Thailand, edited by Khammai Dhammasami, Padmasiri de Silva, Sarah Shaw, Dion Peoples, Jamie Cresswell, and Toshiichi Endo, 43–64. Ayutthaya, Thailand: Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, 2012.
Video
Emptiness or Luminosity: What's the Deal?
Karl Brunnhölzl discusses the qualities of buddha-nature as they relate to emptiness or luminosity with insightful comments about how to relate to each concept in our practice.
Brunnhölzl, Karl. "Emptiness or Luminosity: What's the Deal?" Interview by Marcus Perman. Tsadra Foundation Research Department, December 3, 2018. Video, 2:09. https://youtu.be/5ColQ_xRPYo.
Video
Hong Luo at the 2019 Tathāgatagarbha Symposium
Hong Luo discusses Ratnākaraśānti’s understanding of self-awareness (svasaṃvedana/svasaṃvitti) and its relationship to buddha-nature in his Prajñāpāramitopadeśa.
Luo, Hong. "Observing the Link between Self-awareness and Buddha Nature in Ratnākaraśānti’s Prajñāpāramitopadeśa." Paper presented at the University of Vienna Symposium, Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia, Vienna, Austria, July 2019. Video, 39:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5iFwWLJUAc.
Article
Luminous Clarity and the Completion Phase of Union
Chapter 12 of The Treasury of Knowledge Book Eight, Part Three: The Elements of Tantric Practice, by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé
Guarisco, Elio, and Ingrid McLeod (Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group), trans. "Luminous Clarity and the Completion Phase of Union." Chapt. 12 in The Elements of Tantric Practice: A General Exposition of the Process of Meditation in the Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra, edited by Ingrid McLeod. Book Eight, Part Three of The Treasury of Knowledge. By Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2008.
Article
Luminous Mind among the Logicians—An Analysis of Pramāṇavārttika II.205–211
Roger R. Jackson, in his essay "Luminous Mind Among the Logicians", treats the Indo-Tibetan commentarial discussions of the affirmation of the mind's natural luminosity (prabhāsvaratā) found in Pramāṇavārttika II.208. Such an affIrmation, as he shows, has deep roots in the Buddhist tradition, and is usually connected with tathāgatagarbha thought. That it is also affirmed by Dharmakīrti and discussed extensively by his commentators in India and Tibet shows that it is not without significance for the logicoepistemological tradition represented by Dignāga and his successors. The idea that the mind is naturally luminous or radiant and that its defIlements have only an adventitious status is of obvious relevance to Buddhist soteriology; it affirms that, in some important sense, the goal of Buddhist religious practice has already been attained or is already present. The importance of Jackson's study is that it shows the same idea to be relevant also to Buddhist epistemological theory: it is precisely the mind's natural radiance that makes apprehension of things as they really are a possibility. It is this metaphysical and epistemological fact which leads Jackson to categorize Dharmakīrti and his school as epistemological optimists. (Griffiths and Keenan, introduction to Buddha Nature, 5)
Jackson, Roger R. "Luminous Mind among the Logicians—An Analysis of Pramāṇavārttika II.205–211." In Buddha Nature: A Festschrift in Honor of Minoru Kiyota, edited by Paul J. Griffiths and John P. Keenan, 95–123. Tokyo: Buddhist Books International, 1990.
Video
Peter Skilling: On Practices Associated with Luminosity in the Early Pāli & Theravāda Tradition
Skilling, Peter. "On Practices Associated with Luminosity in the Early Pāli & Theravāda Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 4:40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEA9d87mns.
Skilling, Peter. "On Practices Associated with Luminosity in the Early Pāli & Theravāda Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 4:40. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzEA9d87mns.
Video
Peter Skilling: On the Concept of Luminosity in the Aṅguttara Nikāya
Skilling, Peter. "On the Concept of Luminosity in the Aṅguttara Nikāya." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 5:09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpGVdTNgw2k.
Skilling, Peter. "On the Concept of Luminosity in the Aṅguttara Nikāya." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 5:09. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpGVdTNgw2k.
Video
Peter Skilling: On the Importance of Luminosity in the Early Stages of the Pāli Tradition
Skilling, Peter. "On the Importance of Luminosity in the Early Stages of the Pāli Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 2:41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x6nT5lyuCI.
Skilling, Peter. "On the Importance of Luminosity in the Early Stages of the Pāli Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 2:41. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x6nT5lyuCI.
Video
Peter Skilling: On the Origins and Dating of the Concept of Prabhāsvara (Luminosity)
Skilling, Peter. "On the Origins and Dating of the Concept of Prabhāsvara (Luminosity)." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 8:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_wVpCl7-u8.
Skilling, Peter. "On the Origins and Dating of the Concept of Prabhāsvara (Luminosity)." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 8:15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_wVpCl7-u8.
Video
Peter Skilling: On the Source of the Luminous Mind in the Aṅguttara Nikāya & the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras
Skilling, Peter. "On the Source of the Luminous Mind in the Aṅguttara Nikāya & the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 2:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0g4AjM0dGQ.
Skilling, Peter. "On the Source of the Luminous Mind in the Aṅguttara Nikāya & the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, Oct 29, 2022. Video, 2:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0g4AjM0dGQ.
Article
Rest in the Sky of Natural Mind
The tantric path of Buddhism is complex and arduous, but its surprising culmination is the practice of spaciousness, ease, and simplicity known as Dzogchen, the Great Perfection.
Mingyur, Yongey, 7th. “Rest in the Sky of Natural Mind.” Lion's Roar, July 1, 2007. https://www.lionsroar.com/rest-in-the-sky-of-natural-mind/.
Interview
The Basis for Buddhahood: The Naturally Luminous Mind and Buddha-Nature in the Early Mahāmudrā Tradition by Casey Forgues
Why are we able to attain enlightenment? Is buddha-nature merely a metaphor for emptiness or something more? Is buddhahood something that is produced or uncovered? In this conversation, Casey Forgues explores these questions and more with Lopen Karma Phuntsho by referencing some of the earliest Mahāmudrā masters, including Nāropa, Marpa, and Gampopa. This discussion focuses on how the luminous mind (also sometimes known as clear light) was emphasized in terms of the basis, path, and fruition in this tradition, and how the three can be merged through meditative practices on luminosity.

In the recent publication Buddha Nature Across Asia, edited by Klaus-Dieter Mathes and Casey Forgues (Kemp), Casey contributes a chapter focused on an important concept related to buddha-nature and our innate propensity for buddhahood—natural luminosity (prakṛtiprabhāsvaratā), the theory that the inherent condition of mind is luminous and pure, and afflictions (kleśa) are merely adventitious. While this idea is found in the Pāli canon, it came to be particularly thematized as the basis for buddhahood among the various Mahāyāna traditions. The natural luminosity of mind is a central topic in the Ratnagotravibhāga and came to be understood by some commentators to be synonymous with buddha-nature, especially within the Tibetan Kagyü Mahāmudrā tradition. Casey provides a semantic gloss of the term among key Indian canonical texts, including sūtra, tantra, and dohā sources, that directly influenced the doctrine of natural luminosity among the early Mahāmudrā teachings. She looks into how Maitrīpa (986–1063), Nāropa (1016–1041), and Marpa (1012–1097) in particular understood the luminous mind to be inseparable from the dharmakāya, which led to later traditional Mahāmudrā understandings of buddha-nature. While buddha-nature sources are not extensively referenced in the earliest available Mahāmudrā teachings, Casey demonstrates how the doctrine of natural luminosity directly influenced teachings on buddha-nature, and vice versa, in the tradition.

You can download the PDF of the book for free online here: https://wstb.univie.ac.at/wp-content/uploads/WSTB_103.pdf

Casey Forgues (Kemp) is a PhD candidate at the University of Vienna and editorial director of Khyentse Vision Project. Casey received her MPhil in Tibetan Studies at the University of Oxford and has translated sūtras for 84000. Her research focuses on tantric philosophical views of the luminous nature of mind in the early Mahāmudrā tradition (eleventh-thirteenth centuries). She is the coeditor of Buddha Nature Across Asia and has published on topics including death and dying in tantric Buddhism, buddha-nature, the six yogas of Nāropa, and the Kalācakra tradition.
Forgues, Casey. "The Basis for Buddhahood: The Naturally Luminous Mind and Buddha-Nature in the Early Mahāmudrā Tradition." Conversations on Buddha-Nature with Lopen Dr. Karma Phuntsho. Produced by the Tsadra Foundation Research Department, July 27, 2024. Video, 1:09:48. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tg9Oia359A.
Book
The Elements of Tantric Practice
Jamgön Kongtrül's Treasury of Knowledge in ten volumes is a unique encyclopedic masterpiece embodying the entire range of Buddhist teachings as they were presented in Tibet. Tibetan Buddhist teachers expected their students to study Buddhist philosophical texts as well as practice reflection and meditation; present-day students have also realized that awakening has its source in study as well as in reflection and practice. The Elements of Tantric Practice sets forth the essential components of the path of highest yoga tantra, a system of meditation that unites wisdom and compassion in its two phases of practice. The first phase, that of creation, relies primarily on the use of the imagination to effect personal transformation. The phase of completion allows the practitioner to perfect the process of transformation by training in methods that manipulate the energies and constituents of the mind and body. The result of this path is the direct experience of the fundamental nature of mind and phenomena. The Elements of Tantric Practice concerns the meditative processes of the inner system of secret mantra—that of highest yoga tantra—and is based primarily on tantric sources. The author introduces the subject by describing the path of tantra and its underlying principles. The main body of the book deals with two major elements essential to all highest yoga tantras: the practice of the creation phase and that of the completion phase. For the first phase, Kongtrül describes the visualization sequences in which ordinary perceptions are transformed into the forms of awakening and explains how these practices purify the stages of cyclic existence—life, death, and rebirth. The creation phase prepares the practitioner for the techniques of the completion phase, which entail focusing directly on the channels, winds, and vital essences that form the subtle body. Kongtrül presents the key elements of a variety of tantras, including the Guhyasamaja and Yamari, belonging to the class of father tantras and the Kalachakra Hevajra Chakrasamvara Mahamaya Buddhakapala and Tara mother tantras. All these tantras share a common goal: to make manifest the pristine awareness that is the union of emptiness and bliss. (Source: Shambhala Publications)
Guarisco, Elio, and Ingrid McLeod (Kalu Rinpoché Translation Group), trans. The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Eight, Part Three: The Elements of Tantric Practice, A General Exposition of the Process of Meditation in the Indestructible Way of Secret Mantra. By Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha’ yas). Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2008.
Article
The Strange Death of Pema the Demon Tamer
[Matthew Kapstein] discusses Tibetan esoteric traditions in which experiences of light and obscuration play prominent roles. The focal point here is the Great Perfection (rdzogs-chen) tradition of meditation, above all its teaching that some adepts who achieve the highest realization attain a "rainbow body" at death. When this takes place, the adept's physical remains dissolve into light and so make manifest the thoroughgoing transformation of the person that had been catalyzed by prior spiritual discipline. (Kapstein, preface, xii)
Kapstein, Matthew T. "The Strange Death of Pema the Demon Tamer." In The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and Religious Experience, edited by Matthew T. Kapstein, 119–156. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Term Variations
Key Term prabhāsvaratā
Topic Variation luminosity
Tibetan འོད་གསལ་  ( ösel)
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration 'od gsal  ( ösel)
Devanagari Sanskrit प्रभास्वर
Chinese 光明
Chinese Pinyin guāng míng
Japanese Transliteration kōmyō
Korean Transliteration kwangmyŏng
Buddha-nature Site Standard English luminosity
Richard Barron's English Term sheer lucidity, utter lucidity
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term clear light
Dan Martin's English Term luminosity
Gyurme Dorje's English Term inner radiance, luminosity
Ives Waldo's English Term luminous clarity
Term Information
Source Language Sanskrit
Basic Meaning In a general sense, that which clears away darkness, though it often appears in Buddhist literature in reference to the mind or its nature. It is a particularly salient feature of Tantric literature, especially in regard to the advanced meditation techniques of the completion-stage yogas.
Related Terms Prabhāsvaracitta
Term Type Noun
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism See page 653: In Sanskrit, “luminous,” “resplendent”; referring to an effulgence of light and often used as a metaphor for either deep states of meditation or, especially, the nature of the mind.



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