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This chapter is the ultimate “de-mythologizer.” In the world of Tibetan Bön and Buddhism, the Rainbow Body (jalü) is often the “Holy Grail”; the mystical prize at the end of the path where the body literally evaporates.
Vajragoni, in his characteristic Unborn Mind style, pulls the rug out from under the miracle-seekers. He argues that the Rainbow Body isn’t a superpower you attain; it is a description of what happens when you stop pretending you are solid.
1. The “Special Effects” vs. The Reality
Vajragoni distinguishes between Literalism (the body turning into light) and Recognition (the body being seen as light).
Literalism: Focuses on the “atoms” of the body. It turns the Rainbow Body into a “future event” or a “metaphysical trophy.”
Recognition: Focuses on the “grasping” of the mind. It realizes that the only thing making the body feel like a “heavy prison” is the mind’s habit of reification; treating a flow of energy as a solid “thing.”
The Deep Dive: In Bön, “Light” isn’t just photons; it is a synonym for Clarity. To have a “Rainbow Body” means your experience of your body is as vivid as a rainbow, but also as ungraspable. You still have a body, but you’ve stopped “wearing” it like a lead suit.
2. The Dissolution of “Reification”
Vajragoni identifies Reification as the real “glue” of the ego.
The Error: We believe the body is an “object” that contains “us.”
The Rainbow Realization: When the Unborn recognizes itself, it sees that the body is just a “luminous display” (lhun-grub).The Zen Mirror: This is why Zen doesn’t bother with the “Rainbow” talk. Zen says, “Form is exactly Emptiness.” If you truly see that your hand is “unborn” and empty, you have already achieved the “Rainbow Body” in principle. Bön just uses more colorful paint to describe the same lack of substance.
3. The Mirror of Motivation
One of the most “candid” points in this chapter is using the Rainbow Body as a Diagnostic Tool.
Your Reaction – What it Reveals (The Mirror)
Fascination/Lust The ego wants a “spiritualized” version of immortality. It wants a trophy.
Skepticism/Rejection The mind is still clinging to “Materialism” as the ultimate truth.
Recognition You see the teaching as a poetic encouragement to let go of the “solid self.”
Vajragoni’s point is sharp: If you are trying to get a Rainbow Body, you are strengthening the “Grasper,” which is the very thing that prevents the “Light” from being noticed.
4. Continuity Without Trace
Vajragoni uses the metaphor of light perfectly: “Light appears, yet leaves no trace.”
In the Outer Bön level, we try to preserve the body (through health or ritual).
In the Secret Bön/Zen level, we realize there is nothing to be preserved.
The Rainbow Body is the “final release” of the idea that awareness was ever imprisoned in the first place. When the “prison walls” (the belief in a solid body) are seen as light, the prisoner realizes the door was never even there.
Summary: The Body Seen Correctly
To “attain” the Rainbow Body is simply to stop misinterpreting the body.
It is not a departure from the world.
It is a transparency within the world.
As Vajragoni says, “Nothing essential has ever depended on it.” Whether the body vanishes at death or is buried in the ground is secondary to whether the “Unborn” recognized itself while the body was still breathing.