Dharmakāya

Thedharmakāya(Sanskrit:धर्म काय,"truth body" or "reality body",Chinese:Pháp thân;pinyin:fǎshēn,Tibetan:ཆོས་སྐུ་,Wylie:chos sku) is one of the three bodies (trikāya) of abuddhainMahāyānaBuddhism. Thedharmakāyaconstitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (acintya) aspect of a buddha out of which buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution. Buddhas are manifestations of thedharmakāyacalled thenirmāṇakāya,"transformation body".

TheDhammakāya traditionof Thailand and theTathāgatagarbha sūtrasof the ancient Indian tradition view thedharmakāyaas theātman(true self) of the Buddha present within all beings.

Origins and development

Pali Canon

In thePāli Canon,Gautama Buddhatells Vasettha that theTathāgata(the Buddha) isdhammakaya,the "truth-body" or the "embodiment of truth", as well asdharmabhuta,"truth-become", that is, "one who has become truth."

He whose faith in the Tathagata is settled, rooted, established, solid, unshakeable by any ascetic or Brahmin, any deva or mara or Brahma or anyone in the world, can truly say: 'I am a true son of Blessed Lord (Bhagavan), born of his mouth, born of Dhamma, created by Dhamma, an heir of Dhamma.' Why is that? Because, Vasettha, this designates the Tathagata: 'The Body of Dhamma,' that is, 'The Body of Brahma,' or 'Become Dhamma,' that is, 'Become Brahma'.

Trikaya doctrine

Main article:Trikaya

Thetrikaya doctrine(Sanskrit, literally "three bodies" or "three personalities" ) is a Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality, and the appearances of a Buddha.

Thedharmakayadoctrine was possibly first expounded in theAṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā,composed in the 1st century BCE.

Around 300 CE, theyogacaraschool systematized the prevalent ideas on the nature of the Buddha in thetrikaya"three-body" doctrine. According to this doctrine,buddhahoodhas three aspects:

1. Thenirmāṇakāya,"transformation body"
2. Thesambhogakāya,"enjoyment-body"
3. Thedharmakāya,"dharma-body"

Qualities

Tulku Thondup states thatdharmakayamust possess three great qualities:

1. Great purity(Wylie:spang pa chen po,"the great abandonment" ),
2. Great realization(Wylie:rtogs pa chen po),
3. Great mind(Wylie:sems pa chen po).

Interpretation in Buddhist traditions

See also:Anatta

Mahāsāṃghika

According to Guang Xing, two main aspects of the Buddha can be seen inMahāsāṃghikateachings: the true Buddha who is omniscient and omnipotent, and the manifested forms through which he liberates sentient beings through skillful means.For the Mahāsaṃghikas, the historical Gautama Buddha was one of these transformation bodies (Skt.nirmāṇakāya), while the essential real Buddha is equated with thedharmakāya.

Sarvāstivāda

Sarvāstivādinsviewed the Buddha's physical body (Skt.rūpakāya) as being impure and improper for taking refuge in, and they instead regarded taking refuge in the Buddha as taking refuge in the dharmakāya of the Buddha. As stated in theMahāvibhāṣā:

Some people say that to take refuge in the Buddha is to take refuge in the body of the Tathāgata, which comprises head, neck, stomach, back, hands and feet. It is explained that the body, born of father and mother, is composed of defileddharmas,and therefore is not a source of refuge. The refuge is the Buddha's fully accomplished qualities (aśaikṣadharmāḥ) which comprisebodhiand thedharmakāya.

Theravāda

In thePali CanonofTheravadaBuddhism, theDhammakāya(dharmakāya) is explained as a figurative term, meaning the "body" or the sum of the Buddha's teachings.The Canon does not invest the termdhammakāyawith a metaphysical or unrealistic connotation.Jantrasrisalai disagrees though, arguing that the term originally was more connected with the process of enlightenment than the way it later came to be interpreted. In all references to dhammakāya in early Buddhist usage, it is apparent that dhammakāya is linked always with the process of enlightenment in one way or another. Its relation with the Buddhist noble ones of all types is evident in the early Buddhist texts. That is to say, dhammakāya is not exclusive to the Buddha. It appears also that the term’s usage in the sense of teaching is a later schema rather than being the early Buddhist common notions as generally understood.

In theatthakathās (commentaries on theBuddhist texts), the interpretation of the word depends on the author. Though bothBuddhaghoṣaandDhammapāladescribedhammakāyaas the nine supramundane states (navalokuttaradhamma), their interpretations differ in other aspects. Buddhaghoṣa always follows the canonical interpretation, referring to theteachingof thelokuttaradhammas, but Dhammapāla interpretsdhammakāyaas thespiritual attainmentsof the Buddha.Dhammapāla's interpretation is still essentially Theravāda though, since the Buddha is still considered a human being, albeit an enlightened one. The Buddha's body is still subject tokammaand limited in the same way as other people's bodies are.

In a post-canonical Sri Lankan text called Saddharmaratnākaraya, a distinction is drawn between four differentkāyas: therūpakāya,dharmakāya,nimittakāyaandsuñyakāya.Therūpakāyarefers to the fourjhānas here; thedharmakāyarefers to the attainment of the first eight of the ninelokuttaradhammas; thenimittakāyarefers to the finallokuttaradhamma:Nibbānawith a physical remainder (sopadisesanibbāna); and thesuñyakāyarefers toNibbānawithout physical remainder (anupādisesanibbāna). However, even this teaching of fourkāyas does not really stray outside of orthodox Theravāda tradition.

In a more unorthodox approach,Maryla Falkhas made the argument that in the earliest form of Buddhism, ayogicpath existed which involved the acquisition of amanomayakāyaordhammakāyaand anamatakāya,in which themanomayakāyaordhammakāyarefers to the attainment of thejhānas,and theamatakāyato the attainment of insight and the culmination of the path. In this case, thekāyasrefer to a general path and fruit, not only to the person of the Buddha.Although Reynolds does not express agreement with Falk's entire theory, he does consider the idea of an earlier yogic strand worthy of investigation. Furthermore, he points out that there are remarkable resemblances with interpretations that can be found inYogāvacaratexts, often calledTantric Theravada.

The usage of the worddhammakāyais common in Tantric Theravāda texts. It is also a common term in later texts concerning the consecration of Buddha images.In these later texts, which are often descriptions ofkammaṭṭhāna(meditation methods), different parts of the body of the Buddha are associated with certain spiritual attainments, and the practitioner determines to pursue these attainments himself. The idea that certain characteristics or attainments of the Buddha can be pursued is usually considered a Mahāyāna idea, but unlike Mahāyāna, Yogāvacara texts do not describe the Buddha inontologicalterms, and commonly use only Theravāda terminology.

Dhammakaya tradition

See also:Dhammakaya tradition § True Self

TheDhammakaya traditionand some monastic members of Thai Theravada Buddhism, who specialise on meditation, have doctrinal elements which distinguish it from some Theravāda Buddhist scholars who have tried to claim themselves as the orthodox Buddhists. Basing itself on the Pali suttas and meditative experience, the tradition teaches that thedhammakayais the eternal Buddha within all beings. Thedhammakayaisnibbāna,andnibbānais equated with the true self (as opposed to the non-self).In some respects its teachings resemble thebuddha-naturedoctrines of Mahayana Buddhism. Paul Williams has commented that this view of Buddhism is similar to ideas found in theshentongteachings of theJonangschool of Tibet made famous byDolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen.

The Thai meditation masters who teach of a true self of which they claim to have gained meditative experience are not rejected byThai Buddhistsin general, but tend, on the contrary, to be particularly revered and worshipped in Thailand as arahats or evenbodhisattvas,far more so than more orthodox Theravada monks and scholars.

Mahāyāna

Prajnaparamita

According to Paul Williams, there are three ways of seeing the concept of thedharmakayain theprajnaparamitasutras:

First, the dharmakaya is the collection of teachings, particularly the Prajñaparamita itself. Second, it is the collection of puredharmaspossessed by the Buddha, specifically pure mental dharmas cognizing emptiness. And third, it comes to refer toemptinessitself, the true nature of things. The dharmakaya in all these senses is contrasted with the Buddha’s physical body, that which lived and died and is preserved instupas.

Lotus Sutra

In theLotus Sutra(Chapter 16: The Life Span of Thus Come One, sixth fascicle) the Buddha explains that he has always and will always exist to lead beings to their salvation.

Tathāgatagarbha

In thetathagatagarbhasutric tradition, thedharmakayais taught by the Buddha to constitute the transcendental, blissful, eternal, and pure Self of the Buddha. "These terms are found in sutras such as theLankavatara,Gandavyuha,Angulimaliya,Srimala,and theMahaparinirvana,where they are used to describe the Buddha, the Truth Body (dharmakaya) and the Buddha-nature. "They are the "transcendent results [of spiritual attainment]".

Tibetan Buddhism

See also:Bardo § Six bardos in Tibetan Buddhism

In Tibetan, the termchos sku(ཆོས་སྐུ།, phonetically written aschö-ku)glossesdharmakāya;it is composed ofchos"religion,dharma"andsku"body, form, image, bodily form, figure".Thondup & Talbott render it as the "ultimate body".Gyurme DorjeandThupten Jinpadefine "Buddha-body of Reality", which is a rendering of the Tibetanchos-skuand the Sanskritdharmakāya,as:

[T]he ultimate nature or essence of the enlightened mind [byang-chub sems], which is uncreated (skye-med), free from the limits of conceptual elaboration (spros-pa'i mtha'-bral), empty of inherent existence (rang-bzhin-gyis stong-pa), naturally radiant, beyond duality and spacious like the sky. The intermediate state of the time of death (chi-kha'i bar-do) is considered to be an optimum time for the realisation of the Buddha-body of Reality.

The Dalai Lama defines the dharmakaya as "the realm of the Dharmakaya—the space of emptiness—where all phenomena, pure and impure, are dissolved. This is the explanation taught by the Sutras and Tantras." However he also states that it is distinct from the Hindu concept ofBrahmanbecause Buddhism adheres to the doctrine of emptiness (sunyata).

Rime movement

According toJamgon Kongtrul,the founder of theRimé movement,in his 19th century commentary to theLojongslogan, "To see confusion as the four kayas, thesunyataprotection is unsurpassable ","When you rest in a state where appearances simply appear but there is no clinging to them, thedharmakayaaspect is that all appearances are empty in nature, thesambhogakāyais that they appear with clarity, thenirmanakayais that this emptiness and clarity occur together, and the naturalkāyaaspect is that these are inseparable. "

Iconography

Emptiness

In the early traditions of Buddhism, depictions of Gautama Buddha were neither iconic noraniconicbut depictions of empty space and absence:petrosomatoglyphs(images of a part of the body carved in rock), for example.

Sky blue

Thondup and Talbott identify dharmakaya with the naked ( "sky-clad"; Sanskrit:Digāmbara), unornamented, sky-blueSamantabhadra:

In Nyingma icons, dharmakāya is symbolized by a naked, sky-coloured (light blue) male and female Buddha in union [Kāmamudrā], called Samantabhadra [andSamantabhadrī].

Fremantle states:

Space is simultaneously the first and the last of the great elements. It is the origin and precondition of the other four, and it is also their culmination... The Sanskrit word for space is the same as for the sky:akasha,which means "shining and clear." What is it that we call the sky? It marks the boundary of our vision, the limit our sight can reach. If we could see more clearly, the sky would extend infinitely into outer space. The sky is an imaginary boundary set by the limitations of our senses, and also by the limitations of our mind, since we find it almost impossible to imagine a totally limitless [U]niverse. Space is the dimension in which everything exists. It is all-encompassing, all-pervading, and boundless. It is synonymous with emptiness: that emptiness which is simultaneously fullness.

The colour blue is an iconographic polysemic rendering of themahābhūtaelement of the "pure light" of space (Sanskrit:आकाशākāśa).

The conceptually bridging and building poetic device of analogy, as an exemplar wheredharmakayais evocatively likened to sky and space, is a persistent and pervasive visual metaphor throughout the earlyDzogchenand Nyingma literature and functions as a linkage and conduit between the 'conceptual' and 'conceivable' and the 'ineffable' and 'inconceivable' (Sanskrit:acintya). It is particularly referred to by thetermaGongpa Zangtel,a terma cycle revealed byRigdzin Gödem(1337–1408) and part of the Nyingma "Northern Treasures" (Wylie:byang gter).

Mirror

Sawyer conveys the importance ofmelong('mirror') iconography todharmakaya:

The looking glass/mirror (T. me-long, Skt. adarsa), which represents the dharmakaya or Truth Body, having the aspects of purity (a mirror is clear of pollution) and wisdom (a mirror reflects all phenomena without distinction).

References

Works cited

• Collins, Steven (15 July 2014), "Reflections on the Dichotomy Rūpakāya/Dhammakāya",Contemporary Buddhism,15(2): 261–2,doi:10.1080/14639947.2014.932481,S2CID143200561.
• Crosby, Kate (2000), "Tantric Theravada: A Bibliographic Essay on the Writings of Francois Bizot and others on the Yogavacara-Tradition",Contemporary Buddhism,1(2): 141–198,doi:10.1080/14639940008573729,S2CID145379175.
• Duckworth, Douglas S. (2008),Mipam on Buddha-Nature: The Ground of the Nyingma Tradition,Albany: State University of New York Press.
• Dutt, Nalinaksha (September 1929),"The Doctrine of Kaya in Hinayana and Mahayana",The Indian Historical Quarterly,5(3): 518–546,retrieved2023-01-09.
• Falk, Maryla (2006),Nāma-rūpa and dharma-rūpa: origin and aspects of an ancient Indian conception,Fremont, California: Jain Publishing,ISBN978-0-89581-978-9.
• Fremantle, Francesca(2001),Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead,Boston: Shambala Publications,ISBN1-57062-450-X.
• Huntington, Susan (Winter 1990), "Early Buddhist art and the theory of aniconism",Art Journal,49(4): 401–408,doi:10.1080/00043249.1990.10792724.
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• Kongtrul, Jamgon(2005),The Great Path of Awakening: The Classic Guide to Lojong, a Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Cultivating the Heart of Compassion,translated byKen McLeod,Shambhala Publications, Inc.,ISBN978-1-59030-214-9.
• Jantrasrisalai, Chanida (2008).Early Buddhist Dhammakaya: Its Philosophical and Soteriological Significance(PDF)(PhD thesis). Sydney: Department of Studies in Religion,University of Sydney.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-12-03.
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• Sawyer, Chad (2004) [1998],"Offerings to Mahakala",Mirrrs of the Heart-Mind,archived fromthe originalon January 25, 2009,retrievedMarch 14,2009.
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• Thondup, Tulku (1996), Talbott, Harold (ed.),Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet,Boston: Shambhala,ISBN978-1570621130.
• Thrangu Rinpoche(2003),Pointing Out the Dharmakaya: Teachings on the Ninth Karmapa's Text,Shambhala,ISBN978-1-55939-857-2.
• Tweed, Michael; Schmidt, Marcia Binder, eds. (2006).Wellsprings of the Great Perfection: Lives and Insights of the Early Masters in the Dzogchen Lineage.Translated by Eric Pema Kunsang. Hong Kong: Rangjung Yeshe Publications.ISBN978-962-7341-57-4..
• Walshe, Maurice (trans.) (1995),The Long Discourses of the Buddha,Boston: Wisdom Publications
• Williams, Paul (2009),Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations(PDF)(2 ed.), Oxford:Routledge,archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2017-03-29,retrieved2016-12-21.
• Xing, Guang (2005),The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory,RoutledgeCurzon,ISBN978-0415333443.

Further reading

• Harrison, Paul (1992),"Is the Dharma-Kāya the Real" Phantom Body "of the Buddha?",Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies,15(1): 44–94.
• Makransky, John J. (1997),Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet,State University of New York Press,ISBN0-7914-3432-X.
• Nagao, Gadjin (1973), "On the Theory of Buddha-Body",Eastern Buddhist,New Series,6(1): 25–53,JSTOR44361355.
• Palden Sherab Rinpoche; Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche (December 9, 1989), Craig Bialick (Pema Shugchang) (ed.),"The Three Kayas"(PDF),Pema Mandala(published 2005),retrieved2024-01-06.
• Sebastian, C. D. (2010),"Dharmakaya: the expression of the numinous in Mahayana Buddhism.",Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics,5(1): 80–88,retrieved2024-01-06
• Traleg Rinpoche (1998),"The Three Kayas, the Bodies of the Buddha",Kagyu.org,Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, archived fromthe originalon 2006-07-24.
• Yogi, P. G. (January 3, 2000),The Doctrine of Kaya (Trikaya),University of Cambridge,retrieved2024-01-06

External links

• What Are the Three Kayas?atLion's Roar