body moved in accordance with the shaking of the earth, and a great cry of sorrow
was heard. As for the offerings to him, a rain of flowers showered down, and tents
of rainbows appeared, and furthermore there appeared many amazing signs of
rainbow light and light-spots in the sky. As it is said in the tantra The Blazing Relics,
There are three types of lights: first, an encircling light in the environs
indicates that no matter where he has come from, he will certainly attain
fruition in the first bardo; second, if the light rises straight upward, he will not
go into the bardo at all but in a moment will attain buddha; third, if the light
appears from his body at a tangent, he will attain enlightenment in the final
bardo.Furthermore, the sign that the internal light had been captured was that the body,
surrounded and suffused by the fragrances of camphor, saffron, and sandal
remained for twenty-five days without losing its radiance. A sign that his mind
was released into reality was an irregularity of the four seasons and random
manifestations of the elements: in the coldness of the twelfth and first months of
the year, the ice melted, and leaves grew on the sewa bush. Such signs indicated
that he had attained the goal of the supreme path of atiyoga: dissolution into the
matrix of the Vase Body of Eternal Youth, the consummation of Dzogchen.
Four lamas, with the four tantric karmas of pacification, enrichment, control,
and destruction, performed his cremation. The sign that his heart, tongue, and
eyes were transformed into the ringsel relics of the five buddha-families was that
the sounds shariram, bariram, churiram, pancaram, nyariram were heard just as
an uncountable number of relics of the five colors as large as mustard seeds
appeared. As “multiplying relics,” each of them increased many times through
time, as anyone can see these days, and they became the basis for accumulation of
merit.
If the questions arise, “Why did the great Longchenpa not attain a body of light
after he attained buddha? Why did he leave his corpse behind?” The answer is
that he left his body behind so that his disciples of that lifetime—and also disciples
of the future—could receive the great benefit of the “four chances of liberation.”
These occur first by eating the relics of the body which remain; second, by eating
the salt used to pack the body after death; third, by hearing the crackle of the
cremation pyre; and fourth, by voluntarily allowing the smoke of the cremation
pyre to enter the nose. Read Longchenpa’s biography, Doorway of Threefold Faith,
for more details.
4.3 CONTEMPORARY STORIES OF PHYSICAL DISSOLUTION AND LIBERATION IN A RAINBOW BODY
Stories such as that of Longchenpa are not found only in the distant past. Recently,
on August 29, 1998, at Dome Khamngak in Azi Rong in Tibet, Khenpo Choying
Rangdrol, commonly known as Khenpo Acho, eighty years of age, attained physical
dissolution. Khenpo Acho was a reincarnation of Drokben Kheuchung Lotsawa, as
prophesied by the spiritual head of the Nyingma school, Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe