As regards the five skandhas, we can think of them as summarizing all the possible experiences of the mental continuum. There are five different types of things we can experience – forms, sensations, conceptions, processes, and consciousness itself. On the road of spiritual cultivation, you must learn to detach from the control of the skandhas by ceasing to identify with them. By refusing to be ruled by them, by detaching from them, this purifies them. Chi and consciousness are linked, so upon purifying each of the skandhas you are actually purifying a certain type of chi whose energies predominate with the influences or functions of what the skandha represents.

When one breaks through the conception skandha, it is equivalent to “seeing the Tao,” or “seeing the clear light” mentioned in Esoteric Buddhism, realizing non-ego as explained by Hinduism, achieving the selflessness of Christianity, seeing Truth or emptiness as described by Zen, the “shen transforming into emptiness” of Taoism, entering the Bodhisattva bhumis of the Mahayana path, opening up the heart chakra in tantra, Vajrayana and the Esoetric school, and many other correspondences mentioned by the world’s spiritual traditions.

You can cultivate the various samadhi without ever opening up the heart chakra but once you truly open up the heart chakra, then you achieve the stage of initial enlightenment or awakening we call “seeing the Tao.” As the Zen school says, if you don’t achieve this stage of practice, then all your prior cultivation work really accounts for nothing. This is what starts the Stage of True Cultivation Practice, or true cultivation path. Zen starts from this stage of seeing Truth, and then progresses on to the stages of cultivating realization and carrying out vows. So true Zen practice only really starts at a very high stage of spiritual attainment. It doesn’t start at samadhi, but at realizaing non-ego.

After opening up the heart chakra by letting go of thoughts and breaking through the skandha of conception, one can begin to cultivate the illusory bodies of Esoteric Buddhism, and the Sambhogakaya or Reward body. When the heart chakra opens, all the inner chi channels can start emptying themselves of a level of dirty chi that has collected and solidified over aeons. Buddha did not want people to get attached to this tantric explanation, so he simply called the process the “transformation of the five elements” since during this time you will see the dirty chi of the body exude out of the channels (through the portal of the third eye, throat chakra, heart chakra, bottom of the feet, through the toes, and so forth).

The physical body and chi body are truly transforming, so it is entirely a process of the purification of the five elements. However, the entire process occurs because of mind cultivation. It cannot occur without letting go, so Shakyamuni Buddha described the process in terms of mind to emphasize the mental aspect of practice without which none of this is possible. This was a brilliant teaching method, because as history has shown, otherwise practitioners tend to become attached to any descriptions of chi and chakras and channels and inner form, and thus inhibit their further cultivation progress because they cling to the cultivation of these as the path rather than recognizing it is all Mind-Only. When you cultivate form, you tend to get stuck to form. By emphasizing the cultivation of emptiness and wisdom, and letting form trasnfrom naturally, you tend to climb far higher on the spiritual trail.

As the dirty chi of the five elements pours out of the chi channels (the earth chi has the consistency of sand as it pours out the channels, the fire chi colors any other chi with a distinctive red [or brownish] color, the water chi is liquidy but when mixed with the earth element chi takes on the consistency of plastic, paste, vomit or apple sauce, etc.), one can also then unravel the coatings of dirty chi that actually entirely wrap or coat the chakras and inner chi body system. It is as if the entire chi channel and chakra system were wrapped with a coating of wax or plastic, and thus warping their actual shape. As the obstructions within the inner channels are removed, this outer wrapping can also be peeled away. But since the outer wrapping is tightly tied around the inner chi channel system, the unwrapping is more accurately described as an unwinding, unbinding or untying process. As the outer wrappings are removed, with each complete set of unwrappings a truer and more perfect shape of the underlying chi channels and chakra system is revealed. A psychic who thinks they know what chakras look like never sees their real shape because they never see people who have broken through the skandhas.

If take a plastic figurine and keeping dipping it in hot wax, over time it will become so coated with layers of wax that its original shape cannot be distinguished anymore. When someone therefore looks at the chakras of an ordinary meditator, what they think is the shape of the chakras is far different than their true shape after all these layers of chi have been stripped away. Thus, the original shape of the chakras is only revealed after all this dirty chi is stripped away from within the channels and from around them, revealing a structure of chi channels and chakras that looks progressively more beautiful and fully developed each time one progresses through a skandha. One needs to pull off at least three coatings of this chi before they can free themselves from each of the conception, volition and consciousness skandhas. There are a total of 3 x 3, or nine unwindings, before one is through it all, which is why Manjushri told the Zen monk Wu Cho “Previous to, 3 x3.” He also said, “Afterwards, 3 x 3,” but we won’t go into these higher stages of purifying the pure illusory body.

When one cultivates the volitions skandha, they will encounter the source of life and understand the meaning of yin and yang, or Shakti and Shiva, which they will see crackling around the surface of the cosmic birth egg of the sambhogakaya that had first formed from the heart chakra. It looks like an egg, but is a bit flattish at the top, and an esoteric body forms within. In the western alchemy schools and in Taoism, this outside differentiation of the true yin and yang forces, which you see for the first time, is called discriminating between yin and yang.

It is easy to become misled as one passes through this skandha, because in one’s imagination you will also see also sorts of images regarding the sources of creation and destruction in the world or universe, which are ceaseless processes that turn and turn and turn. The volitions skandha is forever involved in processes of ceaseless transformation, and at this level you can begin to understand the chi aspects of creation and destruction on a personal, worldy, and universal level. Thoughts arise and disappear and will ever continue to do so. The key is never to cling to what arises.

At this stage, the chi of the root chakra will seem as if enclosed in a crystal dome, and when this odd shaped dome pops off the wavering nature of this life force chi wavering across the mouth of the root chakra will be revealed for the first time. When one first passes through the conception skandha and opens up the root chakra at that level of practice, the pumping of the root chakra chi that is unleashed will cause the famous “Zen sickness.” When one cultivates through the volitions skandha and unplugs the root chakra at this layer of inner chi body, they will experience the Zen sickness again but at a more refined level of chi, and the same thing will happen again when they unplug the root chakra at the level of chi purification corresponding to clearing out the chi routes for the inner chi layers of the consciousness skandha. If you read any of the poetry written when an individual is at this stage, its rhythm and cadence will help open up your channels and transform your ether body, too. This is one of the reasons Buddha, Milarepa, and many Hindu sages often spoke in verse or “songs.”

Upon breaking through the consciousness skandha, one can reach a state of nonproduction, attain direct perception, and merge into the pristine crystal clarity of the original nature. It’s like there is no inside or outside, and two clarities merge into one another. Is this final stage of clarity permanent? We can only say after doing all this work that you have made a good dent in your cultivation by purifying the inner chi bodies and thus laid a good foundation for cultivation attainment. But to consider oneself enlightened is a mistake indeed. Much more work is to be done. Much more. You’ve only really started. At best you have purified your body somewhat and made it easier to cultivate your mind and behavior.

At this stage, you must continue cultivating now that the five elements have been somewhat purified, your inner chi body has been somewhat purified, and the layers of chi that enwrap its original structure have been stripped away. In fact, with each level of stripping you are unraveling the chi binding the most original etheric forms of the chakras, and while it seems you are unwrapping the crown chakra at each stage, you have not really freed that particular chakra from all the bindings until you really succeed past the consciousness skandha. This is a supreme teaching and supreme event of which little is known except to successful practitioners.

This is an extremely high level secret, including the fact that freeing the crown chakra from the layers of consciousness chi will cause a definite reaction in the environment. Each time you pull off these layers of chi you are disturbing the chi in the local environment, collapsing the castles and denizens of ghosts and demons. In the Surangama Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha explained this, which is why they sometimes arise to oppose you. When you break through the consciousness skandha you will even feel a small earthquake in the entire chi of the surrounding area, but when you really pull the crown chakra out of these chi layers, which will happen much later, you will produce a gigantic response in the human world. This type of event is extremely rare, and it is because such individuals who have won their freedom can become cultural and cultivation leaders of mankind that such a ripple effect is felt that shakes the world. If a fish jumps out of a lake the surface of the water is broken to create ripples, and as you break free of the chi layers that form the world, the pulling to freedom creates reverberations in the world as well.

While this process of breaking through the three upper skandhas, or “three gates,” can take a short period of time, to complete the cleansing of the chi channels after one breaks through the five skandhas requires a much longer period. That’s why you go into retreat to cultivate the samadhi and the Tao. It is especially difficult to open the chi channels to bottom of the feet when going through this process. One is thereafter more mentally empty after all this unwinding, but old habits still arise and thoughts still arise. They’re just easier to mentally see so that a cultivator aimed at purification can better police themselves at changing their own behavior. The Buddha Samantabhadra said that the cutting off of old errors and the progression of gong-fu at this stage takes time and cannot be done away with all at once. The gong-fu proceeds step-by-step as it matures. What one has to do at this time is continue to cultivate the Tao and the various samadhi to lay a yet firmer foundation, and for this the Anapanasati Sutra is the top, top method used by the greatest Zen masters, a secret rarely shared. Breathing methods and prajna watching cultivation are key.

To break through these last three skandhas are what is known as the “three gates of Zen.” During this time, the Esoteric school says that one is actually purifying the illusory body, and in tantric parlance one is emptying out the chi channels and unwrapping the inner chi body of the layers of dirty chi wrapped around it, as if it were bound or tied to a covering. They describe the process as like untying a knot, though you could also describe the unwrapping of these outer chi layers as an unbinding or unwinding.

Not only will you be cultivating your inner chi body, but by progressing through the three higher skandhas you will also be cultivating the sambhogakaya, known as the Enjoyment Body or Reward Body. Upon breaking through the conception skandha you will see the chakra within this body that corresponds to the Desire Realm. It is royal blue in color with petals that are like a white wall because to Desire Realm inhabitants the color white is their concept of purity. It is upon reaching this stage that you attain the Bodhisattva bhumis and understand how the third is no different than the seventh, and the sixth is no different than the second, and so forth. To break the solidified chi resting in the base of this chakra requires a tremendous feat of will because of your Buddha vows, and without great vows of compassion and merit it is impossible to cultivate through this. Only great Buddha vows can break this chi within the chakra base, and the other enlightened beings will gather round to watch you and hear your vows when you attempt this. This is why I always tell people to imagine what they would wqnt to be able to do for the universe if they had miraculous powers like a Buddha, and endless time to devote themselves sin compassionate ways for living beings. What you decide to do is entirely up to you.

Upon breaking through the volitions skandha you can discern a smaller royal blue chakra that corresponds to the Form Realm. Its petalled wall is also royal blue, the same color as its base, because to Form Realm inhabitants, who abide within samadhi dhyana, their concept of emptiness is also like samadhi (a thought form) as well. Breaking through the consciousness skandha, the smaller Formless Realm chakra appears whose color is a bit grayish blue, the gray having a tinge of red or brown because of a subtle hate for existence that runs through the mentality of Formless Realm inhabitants. The wall (petals) here are transparent and clear because to Formless Realm beings, transparency is their concept of emptiness.

While this elucidates somewhat upon the tantric purification process of the Vajrayana or Esoteric school, in most cases the Esoteric school only explains all the processes we’ve covered by referring to the purification of the impure and then pure “illusory body.” The methods are considered secret and only available to someone who undergoes an empowerment or initiation, but even then the information you just read is never revealed. So this is the first time the descriptions of the various sambhogakaya chakras, as well as the different unbindings and unwrappings of the inner chi body, have been given. Not only are the descriptions freely offered, but you now have instructions on how the various cultivation school teachings, together with the skandha system and Vajrayana tantra are linked together. And in a bit you’ll see how they link to yet other teachings to reveal facts that have never been taught previously.

The samadhi you can cultivate at these levels of chi purification and chakra opening are much higher than the same samadhi you can cultivate without opening up the heart chakra and progressing through these purifications even though the first, second, third or fourth dhyana will reach the same heavens. And thus the Esoteric school claims that its four levels of the merging of emptiness and bliss, corresponding to each of the four dhyana, is different than the regular four dhyana. In effect they are the same, in effect they are different.

You can say this is true, and you can say this is not true. To be sure, an Orthodox, rather than Esoteric (Vajrayana or tantric) practitioner can also achieve these unwindings, so the same stages can be attained via either route. The same high stages of samadhi can be attained. You just need to know the method and teachings and put in the work. Furthermore, the esoteric and orthodox school dhyana will reach to the same heavens. Nevertheless, each of the four dhyana has a higher, lower and middle level of proficiency in attainment. It is more likely that one who undergoes the purification of the chi channels and chakras at this level, unknown to those who never open up the heart chakra to give them access to purifying the three upper skandhas, will achieve the highest levels of the samadhi attainments. That’s the meaning of the Esoteric school boasting that its samadhi are higher than those of the other cultivation schools. This boasting is not always true.

What is also important to note is that many practitioners who break through to see the Tao leave the world after this feat, and don’t stay to complete this tantric unwinding of the chakras in order to cultivate the sambhogakaya. They don’t stay in this world to finish transforming their physical bodies. However, you must do this, and cultivate all three Buddha (“emligthenment”) bodies (dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya), if you want to complete the path to complete and perfect enlightenment. Since Shakyamuni’s time, perhaps a half dozen or so individuals have fully completed the whole sequence perfectly. Rememebr that “Buddha” does not mean “Buddhism,” it is just a highly respectful term that means someone who has become enlightened.

Another big secret that no one has ever revealed before is that the five skandhas actually correspond to the five koshas of the Hindu Upanishads which form the basis of Advaita Vedanta teachings. Here’s how that works.

For the rest of the article, clik on this link: Buddhist Skandhas, Hindu Koshas, Chakkras, Heavens, Samadhi and Enlgihtenment

Related posts:

1. What is enlightenment?
2. Samadhi versus Enlightenment
3. Unbinding – Unwinding the Chakras