Luminous mind (Skt: prabhāsvara-citta or ābhāsvara-citta, Pali: pabhassara citta; Tib: འོད་གསལ་གྱི་སེམས་ ’od gsal gyi sems; Ch: 光明心 guangmingxin; Jpn: 清浄心 syōzyōshin) is a Buddhist term that appears only rarely in the Pali Canon, but is common in the Mahayana sūtras[1][2] and central to the Buddhist tantras.
In the Saṅgīti-sutta, for example, it relates to the attainment of samadhi, where the perception of light (āloka sañña) leads to a mind endowed with luminescence (sappabhāsa).
[15] According to Analayo, the Upakkilesa-sutta and its parallels mention that the presence of defilements "results in a loss of whatever inner light or luminescence (obhāsa) had been experienced during meditation".
[15] The Pali Dhātuvibhaṅga-sutta uses the metaphor of refining gold to describe equanimity reached through meditation, which is said to be "pure, bright, soft, workable, and luminous".
[15] Analayo sees this difference as due to the propensity of the reciters of the Theravada canon to prefer fire and light imagery.
[15] Another mention of a similar term in the Pali discourses occurs in the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta of the Majjhima-nikāya, and in the Kevaḍḍha-sutta of the Dīgha-nikāya, the latter has a parallel in a Dharmaguptaka collection surviving in Chinese translation.
[18] The Theravadin Anguttara Nikaya Atthakatha commentary identifies the luminous mind as the bhavanga, the "ground of becoming" or "latent dynamic continuum", the most fundamental level of mental functioning in the Theravada Abhidhammic scheme.
[21] Thanissaro Bhikkhu holds that the commentaries' identification of the luminous mind with the bhavanga is problematic,[22] but Peter Harvey finds it to be a plausible interpretation.
To perceive its luminosity means understanding that defilements such as greed, aversion, or delusion are not intrinsic to its nature, are not a necessary part of awareness."
[22] The Mahāsāṃghikas also held that the mind’s nature (cittasvabhāva) is fundamentally pure (mulavisuddha), but can be contaminated by adventitious defilements.
[27] Jeffrey Hopkins's Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary glosses the term compound as:clear light; clearly luminous; transparently luminous; translucent; brightly shining; transparent lucidity; splendor; radiance; illumination; spread the light; lustre; come to hear; effulgence; brilliance.
[21] In the Pañcavimsati Prajñaparamita sutra, the prabhsvara-citta is interpreted thus:This mind (citta) is no-mind (acitta), because its natural character is luminous.
When the mind is neither associated with nor dissociated from greed, hatred, delusion, proclivities (anusaya), fetters (samyojana), or false views (drsti), then this constitutes its luminosity.
According to Shi Huifeng, this term is not present in the earliest textual witness of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā, the Daoxing Banruo Jing, attributed to Lokaksema (c. 179 CE).
[29] Mahayana texts like the Ratnagotravibhanga also associate prabhsvara with awakening (bodhi) and another term, natural or original purity of mind (cittaprakrtivisuddhi).
[32] Asanga's Mahayanasamgraha, for example, states:The essential purity (prakṛtivyavadāna), i.e., the true nature (tathatā), emptiness (śūnyatā), the utmost point of reality (bhūtakoti), the signless (animitta), the absolute (paramārtha), the fundamental element (dharmadhātu).
[33]The Bhadrapala-sutra states that the element of consciousness (vijñanadhatu) is pure and penetrates all things while not being affected by them, like the rays of the sun, even though it may appear defiled.
[35] He writes that the three layers of the mind (citta, called "luminous" in the passage discussed above, manas, and vijnana) as presented by Asanga are also used in the Pali Canon.
In the canonical discourses, when the brightly shining citta is "unstained", it is supremely poised for arahantship, and so could be conceived as the "womb" of the arahant, for which a synonym is tathagata.
[40][41] Upon the destruction of the fetters, according to one scholar, "the shining nibbanic consciousness flashes out of the womb of arahantship, being without object or support, so transcending all limitations.
This is in accord with Anguttara Nikaya I,10, which goes from a reference to brightly shining citta to saying that even the slightest development of loving-kindness is of great benefit.
[49] See also Casey Kemp Forgues research at the University of Vienna and her edited book with Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Buddha Nature Across Asia (open access)[50]
The Indian tantric commentator Indrabhuti, in his Jñanasiddhi, writes: Being luminous by nature, this mind is similar to the moon's disc.
Just as the moon becomes fully visible, once it is freed from the accidental obscurities, in the same way the mind-jewel, being pure by nature (prakṛti-pariśuddha), once separated from the stains of defilements (kleśa), appears as the perfected buddha-qualities (guṇa).
[52] Various Vajrayana practices involve the recognition of this aspect of mind in different situations, such as dream yoga.