Shechen Monsatery Video

Video of Shechen Monastery, Nepal

Buddhafields

Buddhafields

Buddhakshetra

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says:

In the sutras we can read how, on their eve of their attaining enlightenment, bodhisattvas such as Amitabha would make profound prayers and tremendous offerings to all the buddhas. They prayed that they might manifest a buddha field and then emanate themselves within that buddha field, so as to bring the greatest possible benefit to all sentient beings.

From the Vajrayana perspective, however, the understanding of buddha fields is a deeper one. The root of the Vajrayana is "pure vision", or the perception of the perfect purity of all phenomena. To enact this purity of perception, we do not perceive the place where we are now as just an ordinary place; we imagine it to be a celestial buddha field."^[1]

The Ushnisha

From Dilgo Khyentse's The Heart of Compassion: Thirty Seven Verses on the Practice of a Boddhisattva (translated by the Padmakara Translation Group)

"The ushnisha (gtsug tor), or crown prominence, one of the major marks of a fully enlightened Buddha, is usually represented in paintings and statues asa protuberance resembling a topknot in size, but is said to rise up from the top of a buddha's head to the infinity of space. Its full extent, however, can only be seen by a boddhisattva who has attained the first bhumi.* In the Kalachakra Tantra, the ushnisha corresponds to the sky chakra (nam mkha'i 'khor lo), the sixth chakra, which extends upward without limit and respresents the unlimited wisdom of enlightenment. In the thogal practice of the Great Perfection, the ushnisha corresponds to the five-colored lights and buddhafields that manifest above one's head as the infinite display of sambhogakaya realization (footnote 89, p. 248 Heart)."