Ten bhumis
Ten bhumis (Skt. daśabhūmi; Tib. ས་བཅུ་, sa chu, Wyl. sa bcu) — ten stages or ‘grounds’ used in the Mahayana to describe the progression of a practitioner on the path to enlightenment. They are:
- Perfect Joy (Skt. pramuditābhūmi; Tib. རབ་ཏུ་དགའ་བ་, rabtu gawa, Wyl. rab tu dga’ ba)
- Immaculate / Stainless (Skt. vimalābhūmi; Tib. དྲི་མ་མེད་པ་, drima mepa, Wyl. dri ma med pa)
- Luminous / Illuminating (Skt. prabhākarībhūmi; Tib. འོད་བྱེད་པ་, ö jepa, Wyl. ‘od byed pa)
- Radiant (Skt. arciṣmatībhūmi; Tib. འོད་འཕྲོ་ཅན་, ö tro chen, Wyl. ‘od ‘phro can)
- Hard to Keep / Hard to Conquer (Skt. sudurjayābhūmi; Tib. ཤིན་ཏུ་སྦྱང་དཀའ་བ་, shintu jankawa, Wyl. shin tu sbyang dka’ ba)
- Clearly Manifest (Skt. abhimukhībhūmi; Tib. མངོན་དུ་གྱུར་བ་, ngöntu gyurpa, Wyl. mngon du gyur ba)
- Far Progressed (Skt. duraṅgamabhūmi; Tib. རིང་དུ་སོང་བ་, ringtu songwa, Wyl. ring du song ba)
- Immovable (Skt. acālabhūmi; Tib. མི་གཡོ་བ་,miyowa, Wyl. mi g.yo ba)
- Perfect Intellect (Skt. sādhuṃatībhūmi; Tib. ལེགས་པའི་བློ་གྲོས་, lekpé lodrö, Wyl. legs pa’i blo gros)
- Cloud of Dharma (Skt. dharmameghaābhūmi; Tib. ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྤྲིན་, chökyi trin, Wyl. chos kyi sprin)
The eleventh bhumi, Universal Radiance (Tib. ཀུན་ཏུ་འོད་,kuntu ö, Wyl. kun tu 'od), is buddhahood according to the sutra system.
Related to the subtle body
There are twenty-two knots between the central channel and the two lateral channels. As they become freed, pair by pair, the meditator attains the successive bhumis, from the first to the eleventh, up to buddhahood.[1]
References
- ↑ From the notes to Retreat at the Hermit's Cave in the Life of Shabkar.
Canonical Literature
Sutras
- Sutra of the Ten Bhumis
- Samdhinirmochana Sutra, chapter 9
Shastras
Alternative Translations
- Ten levels
- Ten grounds
- Ten stages
Further Reading
- Appendix 12, 'The Bodhisattva Bhumis' pp.201-205 in The Light of Wisdom Volume 1. Root text by Padmasambhava and commentary by Jamgön Kongtrül the Great. Published by Shambhala Publications ISBN 0-87773-566-2
