Rainbow body

The rainbow body phenomenon is pre-Buddhist in origin and is related to the indigenous Tibetan Bon religion,[1] and is a topic which has been treated fairly seriously in Tibet for centuries past and into the modern era.

The rainbow body phenomenon is a third person perspective of someone else attaining complete knowledge (Tibetan: རིག་པ, Wylie: rigpa).

In Dzogchen, the fundamental point of practice to attain the rainbow body is to distinguish rigpa (natural state) from sems (mind).

[7] Usually fingernails, toenails and hair are left behind[8] (see e.g. Togden Ugyen Tendzin, Ayu Khandro, Changchub Dorje).

[9] Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen's Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, a Kunzang Nyingtik Dzogchen meditation manual commentated on by Lopon Tenzin Namdak, contains an eyewitness account of his main students' bodies shrinking and rainbows appearing in the sky at death.