Vidya is an ancient Sanskrit word that has been incorrectly translated as “area of knowledge” or “science” or wisdom” but none of those translations are correct. The vidyas of ancient India are divided into the five major vidyas and the five minor vidyas. A Buddhist academic program in India and later in Tibet was organized around teaching these ten vidyas, with emphasis on the first five. A Buddhist scholar or practitioner would be ranked according to how well he or she manifested these vidyas. Vidyas is used in many different contexts to mean different things. Taken literally, it represents the opposite of ignorance, which is a-vidya or darkness. You might say that vidya then represents the essential truth of everything or all that is bright and good. However, as H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has explained, these five major categories are much more complex and subtle than their headings would suggest. To think of them as just five items or categories would be incorrect. We would be wrong in our understanding of the five vidyas. Venerable Akou Lamo Rinpoche in the treasure book H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III states it very clearly: “Everything in the universe can be classified into five aspects of brightness and darkness. To develop everything that is good in the universe and that benefits living beings is classified as ‘bright.’ That which confuses and is evil is classified as ‘dark.’ This is the real meaning of the five vidyas of which the Buddha spoke.”
The five vidyas in the Buddhist context represent the underlying principles of the universe. They are comprehensive and profound and totally encompass everything in the universe with life or without life, the spiritual and the material. Everything–all dharmas–are contained in the five vidyas. All animate and inanimate, conditioned and unconditioned phenomena in the entire universe are expressed in the five vidyas. It is essential that they be understood and mastered, if one is to obtain the full power of the Buddha-dharma. You could even say that they are the Buddha-dharma. That is because the Buddha-dharma includes all truth, including the truths of modern day science. However, strictly speaking, these truths are not Buddhist truths or truths that belong to Buddhism. They are the underlying principles of truth and the original nature of all phenomena. They represent the entire interrelated Truth of the Universe.
Different Buddhist sects and also certain non-Buddhist groups understand some aspects of these vidyas, but only a Buddha can understand these universal truths in their entirety. This knowledge was the Buddha’s awakening–His “Enlightenment.” These five principles existed before the coming of the Buddha and were not changed or altered by the arrival of the Buddha. However, the Buddha was able to comprehend the inner-most truth of these principles and thus gain their power. That is part of what is meant by the term Buddha-dharma.