Rainbow Body, by Loel Guinness

PUBLICATION ANNOUNCEMENT | JANUARY 2021

January 2021 will see the publication of a new edition of Rainbow Body, by Loel Guinness. The original work, published in 2018, was the outcome of several years of scholarly research and an even longer period of personal experiential engagement on the part of the author, an individual who has dedicated his life to exploration beyond the conventional limits. The concept of the book, as well as the story of its origins as a Masters thesis at Oxford University and its subsequent development into a richly-illustrated, 300-page volume, are summarised above/below (link to page of original publication), as well as in greater detail in the preface to the book itself. Measuring 35cm x 27cm and weighing in at 2 kg, the first edition is a beautiful product but hardly the most convenient format to carry with oneself while travelling. In his wish to ensure that his distillation of his own master’s teachings on a subject that lies at the very heart of the spiritual message of Bon should be made as accessible as possible, Loel Guinness has now published a smaller, more compact – and more affordable – edition of the work. The content of the new edition is substantially the same as in the original, but there are a certain number of cuts, readjustments and additions. Chapter 4, “Architecture of the Mind,” has been slightly abridged. The cuts do not affect the main tenets of the Bon Dzogchen philosophy but are confined to certain comparative and commentarial passages: discussions of topics such as the concept of “eight consciousnessess,” and detailed descriptions of the system of the channels in the subtle body, have been reduced, while the comparison of different understandings of concepts such as the “base” and “storehouse consciousness” in Dzogchen and Yogacara philosophy have been omitted. The section on rushan practices that had previously been included with A-tri in chapter 5 has been shifted to its more natural home in chapter 4, which is concerned with preliminary practices, while chapter 5 is now dedicated to A-tri and other advanced procedures. Chapter 9, originally “Shardza’s Varieties of Rainbow Body,” has now been re-entitled “Varieties of Rainbow Body” to reflect a reduced emphasis on the works of Shardza Trashi Gyaltsen (1859–1935), who undertook a major systematisaton of Dzogchen and other tenets of the Bon religion. Chapter 10 includes more examples of reports of attainment of Rainbow Body in recent times. In chapter 11, “Rainbow Body in Comparative Perspective, the discussion of parallels with other traditions such as Manichaeism have been reduced. And finallly, in addtion to retaining all the images contained in the first version – most of which were specially commissioned for the publication – the new edition includes reproductions of spectacular manuscript images from the private collection of a lama in Dolpo, Nepal, illustrating the channels of the subtle body and the visions that are experienced during Dzogchen meditation. A number of personal observations and pertinent deductions make it a stronger book, easier to assimilate and more convincing to the reader. It is the author’s hope that this new, streamlined edition of Rainbow Body will help to bring some of the most profound teachings of Bon to a wider readership, in accordance with the wishes of his spiritual master, Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak Rinpoche.