Thögal - Five Essential Points for the Physical Body
In the tantras of the Nyingma tradition, there is an enumeration of five enlightened bodies (sku lnga/pañcakāya) where the three enlightened bodies are accompanied by the enlightened body of awakening (mngon par byang chub pa'i sku/abhisambodhikāya) refers to the apparitional functions of the three enlightened bodies, and the enlightened body of indestructible reality (rdo rje'i sku/vajrakāya) refers to their indivisible essence.
Thus, the five enlightened bodies are:
1. The body of the absolute nature (dharmakāya/chos sku),
2. The body of complete enjoyment (saṃbhogakāya/longs sku),
3. The emanation body (nirmāṇakāya/sprul sku)
4. The body of manifest enlightenment (abhisambodhikāya/mngon par byang chub pa'i sku), and
5. The adamantine body (vajrakāya/rdo rje'i sku, avikaravajrakaya/mi 'gyur rdo rje'i sku).
For some dzogchen thögal practices the names of these five enlightened bodies or dimensions are used to designate five particular body postures, which are known as the essential points of the body (lus gnad). Thus, instead of the Tibetan term ku (sku/kāya) the term lü (lus) for the physical body is used here.
The five essential points of one's physical body are:
1. Position of the Dignified Lion for the Dharmakāya
Sit and join the soles of your feet together in front of you.Form vajra-fists and plant your hands down on the ground between your legs near your big toes. Extend your torso straight like a lion, pull your neck slightly back.
2. Position of the Declining Elephant for the Sambhogakāya
Rest your knees and your elbows on the ground in a prone or semi-reclined position. Point the soles of your feet outward and support your cheeks with your palms.
3. Position of the Crouching Sage or Rishi’s for the Nirmāṇakāya
Plant the soles of your feet firmly on the ground. Press your chest tightly against your knees. Clasp your knees with both hands.
4. Position of the Soaring Vulture for the Abhisambodhikāya
Sit with the soles of the feet planted on the ground, without allowing the buttocks to touch the ground. Thrust the torso forward and extend the arms behind along the sides of the body like a bird’s wings, placing the hands upon the buttocks.
5. Position of the Unchanging Vajra for the Vajrakāya
Join the soles of the feet together and set the heels against the perineum. Then join the palms together and place them at the crown of the head.
Important Note:
Even though you may easily find those and additional information in books, videos, and internet pages you should make sure to have the complete transmission, which includes the combination of various other essential points such as the essential point of the gaze, breathing, awareness. So please make sure you are not fooling yourself. Thank You!
Further Reading
Dzogchen Thögal - Four Positions of the Abhisambodhikāya, the Body of Manifest Enlightenment (mngon par byang chub kyi sku), the Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya Position. The Tibetn texts states:
སྐུ་བཞིའི་ཞུགས་སྟངས་དེ་ལྟར་བསྟན་པ་་ཡིན་ཡང་རང་ཉིད་ཆོས་གཤའ་མར་ཉམས་སུ་མ་བླང་ན་སྐུ་བྱད་ཇི་ལྟར་སྟོན་ཀྱང་ཁམས་གསུམ་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་དཀའ་འོ།། ཆོས་སྐུ་ནི་རང་ཚོའི་མིག་ལམ་གྱི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པ་དང་། ལོངས་སྐུ་ནི་དག་པའི་དོན་དུ་བྱོན་པ་མ་གཏོག
ས། མ་དག་འཇིག་རྟེན་དུ་ཕེབས་པ་མ་ཡིན་པས་སོ། རང་ཚོའི་མཐོང་རྒྱུ་རང་སྤྲུལ་གཅིག་ལས་རིག་རྒྱུ་མེད་པས་སོ།།
Although the manner of entering into the four kāyas is explained in this way, if you yourself do not genuinely put the dharma into practice, it will be difficult to be liberated from the three realms, no matter how you display the form of the kāya; your body.
The dharmakāya is beyond the scope of our perception, and the saṃbhogakāya appears only for the sake of the pure realms, and does not come to the impure world. Therefore, we can only perceive the nirmāṇakāya.
