BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Buddhism Five Buddha Wisdom Qualities

This week I decided to write on the five buddha families, a teaching from Tibetan and Shingon Buddhism that provides a very interesting framework for working with the energies in our awareness that cause us suffering:

Five Buddha Families

This teaching classifies our awareness energies into 5 groupings, each of which may be expressed through us in an unenlightened or an enlightened form. The practices related to this teaching are designed to help us recognize the unenlightened forms in our awareness and transform them into the enlightened forms. So the emphasis is not as much on ridding ourselves of certain traits, but on transforming them. Like all Buddhist practices, it takes a high level of self-awareness and mindful practice to do this in the moment.

Although we all experience all of these aspects, most of us primarily relate to 1 or 2, so it's interesting to look at them and consider which you might be. At a high level:

Buddha Family
Enlightened Aspect: Open, keen and spacious
Unenlightened Aspect: Dull, lazy or ignorant

Vajra (Diamond) Family
Enlightened Aspect: Clear, wise, insightful
Unenlightened Aspect: Fearful, controlling, and overly conceptual

Ratna (Jewel) Family
Enlightened Aspect: Expansive and inclusive
Unenlightened Aspect: Prideful, greedy, and materialistic

Padma (Lotus) Family
Enlightened Aspect: Understanding and creative
Unenlightened Aspect: Grasping and trapped in desire

Karma (Action) Family
Enlightened Aspect: Compassionate and service-oriented
Unenlightened Aspect: Frantic, impulsive, or jealous

Please read the full article for details. I'd love to hear which you think you are your primary tendencies.