Five Eyes; 五眼; Tibetan: སྤྱན་ལྔ (chen-nga); Wylie: spyan lnga;
Five Eyes describes five progressive levels of vision or perception, ranging from ordinary sight to the omniscient awareness of a fully awakened Buddha. Each eye represents a different capacity to see reality, with the higher eyes encompassing and transcending the lower ones. The five are:
- Flesh Eye: The ordinary physical eyesight of human beings, which is limited by distance, obstruction, and darkness.
- Divine Eye: The clairvoyant perception that sees all physical forms unobstructed, including the death and rebirth of beings according to their karma.
- Wisdom Eye: The insight that perceives the emptiness of all phenomena, directly seeing the ultimate nature of reality.
- Dharma Eye: The discerning wisdom that understands the entire range of Buddhist teachings, including the various paths, capacities of beings, and methods for guiding them.
- Buddha Eye: The perfect and all-encompassing awareness of a fully awakened one, which simultaneously perceives both the conventional and ultimate truths without any limitation.
五眼指從凡夫到成佛之間,五種逐漸昇華的感知層次,每一層都是對實相不同深度的照見,後者包含並超越前者。五眼分別為:
- 肉眼: 凡夫肉體所具備的普通視覺,受限於距離、障礙與光線等條件。
- 天眼: 超越物質障礙的照見能力,能清晰看見遠近一切形色,並觀見眾生隨業流轉、生死去來。
- 慧眼: 證悟空性的智慧,能直接洞見一切萬法皆無自性的究竟真理。
- 法眼: 了知一切佛法教義的智慧,能辨別眾生根器、通達各種修行法門,並善巧引導眾生。
- 佛眼: 佛陀圓滿無礙的遍知智慧,能同時照見世俗與勝義二諦,無所不知、無所不見。