Five lights.

The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

According to Dzogchen, the five poisons are nothing but the manifestation of the luminosity of rigpa. They are called ö nga, the five luminous lights. The five luminous lights of rigpa are white, yellow, red, green, and, like the color of Kuntuzangpo, deep blue.

Each of the five lights has meaning. The luminous white light of wisdom is the manifestation of rigpa's immaculate nature. That completely pure nature, that completely pacified nature,
manifests as the white luminous light.

The yellow luminous light is the manifestation of rigpa's fully completed qualities. This means that rigpa is fully enriched with all the qualities of Buddha. Rigpa is fully equipped, so to speak, with all the enlightened wisdoms necessary to overcome our emotions and ego-clinging. That
completeness of qualities manifests as yellow light, which is richness.

The red luminous light is the manifestation of the quality of rigpa that encompasses and magnetizes. Like a magnet, it draws all things in that direction. In a similar way, that very nature of our mind called rigpa encompasses all qualities, encompasses all wisdom. This means that everything is included within rigpa, nothing is left outside. That's why we have this magnetizing red light, which encompasses all the qualities.

The difference between the yellow and the red light is that the yellow light of enriching has the quality of possessing all the many different elements of buddha wisdom, while the red light of magnetizing encompasses all these qualities that actually boil down to rigpa. It's rigpa that has all these qualities. So everything boils down to one and only one essence. The single essence, which that contains all, is rigpa. It is the primordial mind, the primordial wisdom.

The luminous green light means that rigpa manifests all the activities of buddha. Rigpa has the compassion, love, and wisdom that buddhas manifest as physical activity, verbal activity, and samadhi, meditative absorption. All of these activities of buddha are complete within rigpa. Symbolizing that is the luminous green appearance of light, which is the fourth light taught in
Dzogchen.

The fifth light is the deep luminous blue light that symbolizes the unchanging nature of rigpa. No matter what confusions we may experience at this point, the true state of rigpa is beyond all confusion. No confusion, ego-clinging, or mind poison can ever touch the true state of rigpa. They can never cause it to change. The absolute state of our mind is in the unchanging nature of rigpa, the unchanging nature of the buddha wisdom. Therefore, we have this luminous blue light.

The five elements manifest from these five lights. The water element manifests from white light. The earth element manifests from yellow light. The fire element manifests from red light. The wind element manifests from green light, and the space element manifests from blue light. These are the five elements.
From these five lights, the five objects of the five poisons also manifest. When we fail to recognize the five-colored luminosity of rigpa manifesting, we misperceive it. We misperceive the luminous white light of rigpa as ignorance. We misperceive the luminous yellow light as pride. We misperceive the luminous red light as passion, desire, and attachment. We misperceive the luminous green light as jealousy, and we misperceive the luminous blue light as aggression. We misperceive these five luminous lights as the five poisons.

According to Dzogchen teachings, the five luminous lights can be the objects of the five poisons as well as the five poisons themselves. If you take them as the objects of the five poisons, then they correspond with the emotions as we have said. As the subjects of the five poisons, they are the five buddha families. Within the five buddha families, ignorance is the Vairochana; aggression is Akshobya; pride is Ratnasambhava; passion is Amitabha; and jealousy is Amoghasiddhi.

Since they do exist in that nature, the Prayer says that samsara begins as a result of the failure to recognize the true nature of the five poisons and their objects. Whenever these appearances of lights arise, these appearances of the five poisons, we can recognize them in their true nature as the five buddha families. We can recognize them in the nature of the five buddha wisdoms. If we recognize them, it becomes liberation. Therefore, Samantabhadra makes this aspiration, saying,

Therefore, since the ground of the confusion of beingsIs mindless ignorance,Through the aspiration of myself, the buddha,May all recognize awareness.
We have these five emotions within the five wisdoms. This is taught in Vajrayana Buddhism in general and Dzogchen in particular. Whenever we have ignorance, it is in the nature of dharmadhatu wisdom.

When we have aggression or irritation, that exists in the nature of mirror-like wisdom. When we have pride, that nature of mind exists in the wisdom of equanimity. When we have passion, desire, or attachment, that mind exists in the nature of discriminating wisdom. When we have jealousy or envy, it exists in the nature of all-accomplishing wisdom. Therefore, these five poisons remain in the five wisdoms of buddha.

It is important to identify the emotion in which we are engaged, even though it is often mixed. Passion, aggression, jealousy, and so on, are all mixed at certain points. Identifying them is the process that naturally takes us to mindfulness, to awareness. There is no other way.
When we recognize an emotion, such as strong passion accompanied by jealousy, we are actually breaking down the speed of that emotion.

The total sense of recognition is quite important in both Sutra and Tantra. In Sutra, it is mindfulness. In Tantra, if we see that nature and look at it nakedly, we will see the nature of that wisdom. You don't need to logically apply any reasoning. You don't need to conceptually meditate on anything.

Just simply recognize and observe it. Whether it is dharmadhatu wisdom, mirror-like wisdom, or any of the other five wisdoms, you will see the nature of that wisdom. We will have the experience of that wisdom by simply being with it without conception. Therefore, recognition is quite important.

The first step is just simply to observe it. Simply recognize the emotion and then watch it as it grows or as it continues. Just simply watch it. In the beginning, just to have an idea that it's coming is very important and very effective. In the Vajrayana sense, the way to watch these emotions is without stopping them.

If we recognize the emotion and say, "Yes, it is passion," and then try to stop it, that's a problem. Rejecting our emotions is a problem in Vajrayana.
Instead of trying to stop it, let it come. Invite it more. Look at the nature of passion more nakedly.

Look at the nature of aggression, look at the nature of ignorance, look at the nature of anything. Once we have received the pointing out instruction from our vajra master, we know how to watch it. We know how to look at it. We don't have to leave something behind and go to a certain place called liberation.

That simple process of looking at it in every moment actually brings liberation on the spot. Within that nature of passion is liberation, within that nature of aggression is liberation.
If we know how to watch in that state, then we find the liberation within that passion. In the shamatha-vipashyana of Mahamudra practice, there are the shamatha methods of calming the emotions and the vipashyana methods of watching our emotions.

In the Dzogchen tradition, there are the methods of Trekchö to cut through the emotions, and the methods of Thögal to experience the luminosity of the emotion, of those states of mind. These things are details that we need to have pointed out.

Therefore, we're making the aspiration for all beings to recognize their awareness because awareness is the primary nature of our minds. Lacking the recognition of awareness, we get into the delusion of ignorance and the whole wheel of samsara. This is the view of Dzogchen. It's simple, right?