The Tree of Enlightenment

the Buddhas of the Five Families: the Buddha, Ratna (or jewel),
Padma (or lotus), Karma, and Vajra families, respectively. ese
are the symbols that stand for the five aggregates in their transformed
mode of being.
Just as, on the untransformed and impure level, the five
aggregates are associated with the five afflictions, so on the
transformed and purified level, the five celestial Buddhas correspond
to the five transcendental knowledges, or wisdoms. e
first of these transcendental knowledges is the knowledge of the
Dharmadhatu, which corresponds to the Buddha Vairochana.
e knowledge of the Dharmadhatu is the knowledge of things
as they are in reality, the knowledge of the quintessential nature
or character of things. In other words, the Dharmadhatu is
that essential nature of all phenomena which is their emptiness,
their nonduality. us the transformed aggregate of form is the
Buddha Vairochana, and this transformation similarly implies a
transformation from the affliction of ignorance to the transcendental
knowledge of the true nature of all things, or emptiness.
Second, with the Buddha Ratnasambhava, who is the
transformed appearance of the aggregate of feeling, we have a
transformation of the affliction of pride into the transcendental
knowledge of equality. is is the knowledge which makes
all things equal. Here, again, we have a specific echo of something
which occurs in the Perfection of Wisdom literature. In
the Heart Sutra, it is said that the perfection of wisdom makes
the unequal equal. In the case of Ratnasambhava, we have the
knowledge which makes things equal. More than anything else,
the knowledge of equality sees no distinction between samsara
and nirvana. e transcendental knowledge of equality which
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