Dharmakāya
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The dharmakāya (
The
Origins and development
Pali Canon
 | This section uses secondary sources that critically analyze them. (November 2017) ) |
In the
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'.[2]
Trikaya doctrine
The trikaya doctrine (Sanskrit, literally "three bodies" or "three personalities") is a Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality, and the appearances of a Buddha.
The dharmakaya doctrine was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, composed in the 1st century BCE.
Around 300 CE, the
- The nirmāṇakāya, "transformation body"
- The sambhogakāya, "enjoyment-body"
- The dharmakāya, "dharma-body"
Qualities
Tulku Thondup states that dharmakaya must possess three great qualities:[4]
- Great purity (Wylie: spang pa chen po, "the great abandonment"),
- Great realization (Wylie: rtogs pa chen po),
- Great mind (Wylie: sems pa chen po).
Interpretation in Buddhist traditions
Mahāsāṃghika
According to Guang Xing, two main aspects of the Buddha can be seen in Mahāsāṃghika teachings: the true Buddha who is omniscient and omnipotent, and the manifested forms through which he liberates sentient beings through skillful means.[5] For the Mahāsaṃghikas, the historical Gautama Buddha was one of these transformation bodies (Skt. nirmāṇakāya), while the essential real Buddha is equated with the dharmakāya.[6]
Sarvāstivāda
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 defiled dharmas, and therefore is not a source of refuge. The refuge is the Buddha's fully accomplished qualities (aśaikṣadharmāḥ) which comprise bodhi and the dharmakāya.
Theravāda
In the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, the Dhammakāya (dharmakāya) is explained as a figurative term, meaning the "body" or the sum of the Buddha's teachings.[8][9] The Canon does not invest the term dhammakāya with a metaphysical or unrealistic connotation.[10] 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.[a]
In the
In a post-canonical Sri Lankan text called Saddharmaratnākaraya, a distinction is drawn between four different kāyas: the rūpakāya, dharmakāya, nimittakāya and suñyakāya. The rūpakāya refers to the four
In a more unorthodox approach,
The usage of the word dhammakāya is common in Tantric Theravāda texts. It is also a common term in later texts concerning the consecration of Buddha images.
Dhammakaya tradition
The
The Thai meditation masters who teach of a true self of which they claim to have gained meditative experience are not rejected by Thai Buddhists in general, but tend, on the contrary, to be particularly revered and worshipped in Thailand as arahats or even bodhisattvas, far more so than more orthodox Theravada monks and scholars.[23]
Mahāyāna
Prajnaparamita
According to Paul Williams, there are three ways of seeing the concept of the dharmakaya in the prajnaparamita sutras:
First, the dharmakaya is the collection of teachings, particularly the Prajñaparamita itself. Second, it is the collection of pure dharmas possessed by the Buddha, specifically pure mental dharmas cognizing emptiness. And third, it comes to refer to emptiness itself, 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 in stupas.[24]
Lotus Sutra
In the Lotus 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 the tathagatagarbha sutric tradition, the dharmakaya is taught by the Buddha to constitute the transcendental, blissful, eternal, and pure Self of the Buddha. "These terms are found in sutras such as the Lankavatara, Gandavyuha, Angulimaliya, Srimala, and the Mahaparinirvana, where they are used to describe the Buddha, the Truth Body (dharmakaya) and the Buddha-nature."[25] They are the "transcendent results [of spiritual attainment]".[25]
Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan, the term chos sku (ཆོས་སྐུ།, phonetically written as chö-ku)[citation needed] glosses dharmakāya; it is composed of chos "religion, dharma" and sku "body, form, image, bodily form, figure".[citation needed] Thondup & Talbott render it as the "ultimate body".[26] Gyurme Dorje and Thupten Jinpa define "Buddha-body of Reality", which is a rendering of the Tibetan chos-sku and the Sanskrit dharmakāya, 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.[27]
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 of
Rime movement
According to
Iconography
Emptiness
In the early traditions of Buddhism, depictions of Gautama Buddha were neither iconic nor
Sky blue
Thondup and Talbott identify dharmakaya with the naked ("sky-clad"; Sanskrit: Digāmbara), unornamented, sky-blue Samantabhadra:
In Nyingma icons, dharmakāya is symbolized by a naked, sky-coloured (light blue) male and female Buddha in union [Kāmamudrā], called Samantabhadra [and
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.[31]
The colour blue is an iconographic polysemic rendering of the mahābhūta element of the "pure light" of space (Sanskrit: आकाश ākāśa).[32]
The conceptually bridging and building poetic device of analogy, as an exemplar where dharmakaya is evocatively likened to sky and space, is a persistent and pervasive visual metaphor throughout the early Dzogchen and 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 the terma Gongpa Zangtel,[c] a terma cycle revealed by Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408) and part of the Nyingma "Northern Treasures" (Wylie: byang gter).[33]
Mirror
Sawyer conveys the importance of melong ('mirror') iconography to dharmakaya:
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).[34]
References
Notes
- ^ Jantrasrisalai 2008, p. 288: "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."
- ^ For further discussion of 'Kāmamudrā' (English: "love-seal") refer: mudra, Mahamudra and Yab-Yum.
- ^ Wylie: kun tu bzang po'i dgongs pa zang thal du bstan pa; English: Direct Revelation of Samantabhadra's Mind.
Citations
- ^ Thrangu Rinpoche 2003, p. [page needed].
- ^ Walshe 1995, p. 409, Digha Nikaya III.84.
- ^ Snelling 1987, p. 126.
- ^ Thondup 1996, p. 50.
- ^ Xing 2005, p. 53.
- ^ Padma & Barber 2008, pp. 59–60.
- ^ Xing 2005, p. 49.
- ^ Reynolds 1977, pp. 376–7.
- ^ Dutt 1929, p. 523.
- ^ Dutt 1929, p. 521-523.
- ^ a b Reynolds 1977, pp. 376–80.
- ^ Collins 2014.
- ^ Reynolds 1977, pp. 380–2.
- ^ Falk 2006, p. [page needed].
- ^ Strong 1979.
- ^ Reynolds 1977, pp. 380–4.
- ^ Swearer 1995.
- ^ Kinnard 2005.
- ^ Crosby 2000.
- ^ Reynolds 1977, pp. 384–7.
- ^ Williams 2009, p. 126.
- ^ Williams 2009, p. 237.
- ^ Williams 2009, p. 328.
- ^ Williams 2009, p. 177.
- ^ a b Duckworth 2008, p. xiv.
- ^ a b Thondup 1996, p. 48.
- ^ Padmasambhava & Karma Lingpa 2008, p. 452.
- ^ "Dalai Lama Answers Questions on Various Topics".
- ^ Kongtrul 2005, p. [page needed].
- ^ Huntington 1990.
- ^ Fremantle 2001, p. 85.
- ^ Fremantle 2001, p. 86.
- ^ Tweed & Schmidt 2006, p. 209.
- ^ Sawyer 2004.
Works cited
- Collins, Steven (15 July 2014), "Reflections on the Dichotomy Rūpakāya/Dhammakāya", Contemporary Buddhism, 15 (2): 261–2, S2CID 143200561.
- 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, S2CID 145379175.
- 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, retrieved 2023-01-09.
- Falk, Maryla (2006), Nāma-rūpa and dharma-rūpa: origin and aspects of an ancient Indian conception, Fremont, California: Jain Publishing, ISBN 978-0-89581-978-9.
- ISBN 1-57062-450-X.
- Huntington, Susan (Winter 1990), "Early Buddhist art and the theory of aniconism", Art Journal, 49 (4): 401–408, .
- Kinnard, Jacob N. (2005), "Iconography: Buddhist iconography", in Jones, Lindsay (ed.), Encyclopedia of Religion, vol. 7 (2nd ed.), Detroit: ISBN 978-0-02-865740-0.
- ISBN 978-1-59030-214-9.
- Jantrasrisalai, Chanida (2008). Early Buddhist Dhammakaya: Its Philosophical and Soteriological Significance (PDF) (PhD thesis). Sydney: Department of Studies in Religion, University of Sydney. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-12-03.
- Padma, Sree; Barber, Anthony W., eds. (2008), Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0791474853.
- ISBN 9780141903316.
- Reynolds, Frank E. (1977), "The Several Bodies of Buddha: Reflections on a Neglected Aspect of Theravada Tradition", History of Religions, 16 (4): 374–389, S2CID 161166753.
- Sawyer, Chad (2004) [1998], "Offerings to Mahakala", Mirrrs of the Heart-Mind, archived from the original on January 25, 2009, retrieved March 14, 2009.
- Snelling, John (1987), The Buddhist handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Teaching and Practice, London: Century Paperbacks.
- S2CID 161186961.
- Swearer, Donald K. (1995), "Hypostasizing the Buddha: Buddha Image Consecration in Northern Thailand", History of Religions, 34 (3 (Image and Ritual in Buddhism)): 270, S2CID 161907366.
- Thondup, Tulku (1996), Talbott, Harold (ed.), Masters of Meditation and Miracles: Lives of the Great Buddhist Masters of India and Tibet, Boston: Shambhala, ISBN 978-1570621130.
- ISBN 978-1-55939-857-2.
- 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. ISBN 978-962-7341-57-4..
- 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 from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-29, retrieved 2016-12-21.
- Xing, Guang (2005), The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory, RoutledgeCurzon, ISBN 978-0415333443.
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, ISBN 0-7914-3432-X.
- Nagao, Gadjin (1973), "On the Theory of Buddha-Body", Eastern Buddhist, New Series, 6 (1): 25–53, JSTOR 44361355.
- Palden Sherab Rinpoche; Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche (December 9, 1989), Craig Bialick (Pema Shugchang) (ed.), "The Three Kayas" (PDF), Pema Mandala (published 2005), retrieved 2024-01-06.
- 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, retrieved 2024-01-06
- Traleg Rinpoche (1998), "The Three Kayas, the Bodies of the Buddha", Kagyu.org, Karma Triyana Dharmachakra, archived from the original on 2006-07-24.
- Yogi, P. G. (January 3, 2000), The Doctrine of Kaya (Trikaya), University of Cambridge, retrieved 2024-01-06