Dharmakāya

The ''dharmakāya'' (, "truth body" or "reality body", zh, t=法身, p=fǎshēn, ) is one of the three bodies (''trikāya'') of a Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The ''dharmakāya'' constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (''acintya'') aspect of a Buddha out of which Buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution. When a Buddha manifests out of the ''dharmakāya'' in a physical body of flesh and blood'','' which is perceptible to ordinary sentient beings, this is called a '' nirmāṇakāya'', "transformation body".

The Dhammakāya tradition of Thailand and the '' Tathāgatagarbha sūtras'' of the ancient Indian tradition view the ''dharmakāya'' as the '' ātman'' (true self) of the Buddha present within all beings.

Origins and development

Pāli Canon

In the Pāli Canon, Gautama Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathāgata (the Buddha) is ''dhammakaya'', the "truth-body" or the "embodiment of truth", as well as ''dharmabhuta'', "truth-become", that is, "one who has become truth."

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 yogacara school systematized the prevalent ideas on the nature of the Buddha in the ''trikaya'' "three-body" doctrine. According to this doctrine, buddhahood has three aspects:
# The '' nirmāṇakāya'', "transformation body"
# The '' sambhogakāya'', "enjoyment-body"
# The ''dharmakāya'', "dharma-body"

Qualities

Tulku Thondup states that ''dharmakaya'' must possess three great qualities:

# ''Great purity'' (, "the great abandonment"),
# ''Great realization'' (),
# ''Great mind'' ().

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. For the Mahāsaṃghikas, the historical Gautama Buddha was one of these transformation bodies (Skt. ), while the essential real Buddha is equated with the ''dharmakāya''.

Sarvāstivāda

Sarvāstivādins viewed the Buddha's physical body (Skt. ) 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 the '' Mahāvibhāṣā'':

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. The Canon does not invest the term ''dhammakāya'' with 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 the '' atthakathā''s (commentaries on the Buddhist texts), the interpretation of the word depends on the author. Though both Buddhaghoṣa and Dhammapāla describe ''dhammakāya'' as the nine supramundane states (''navalokuttaradhamma''), their interpretations differ in other aspects. Buddhaghoṣa always follows the canonical interpretation, referring to the ''teaching'' of the ''lokuttaradhamma''s, but Dhammapāla interprets ''dhammakāya'' as the ''spiritual attainments'' of 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 to '' kamma'' and 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 different ''kāya''s: the ''rūpakāya'', ''dharmakāya'', ''nimittakāya'' and ''suñyakāya''. The ''rūpakāya'' refers to the four '' jhāna''s here; the ''dharmakāya'' refers to the attainment of the first eight of the nine ''lokuttaradhamma''s; the ''nimittakāya'' refers to the final ''lokuttaradhamma'': ''Nibbāna'' with a physical remainder (''sopadisesanibbāna''); and the ''suñyakāya'' refers to ''Nibbāna'' without physical remainder (''anupādisesanibbāna''). However, even this teaching of four ''kāya''s does not really stray outside of orthodox Theravāda tradition.

In a more unorthodox approach, Maryla Falk has made the argument that in the earliest form of Buddhism, a yogic path existed which involved the acquisition of a ''manomayakāya'' or ''dhammakāya'' and an ''amatakāya'', in which the ''manomayakāya'' or ''dhammakāya'' refers to the attainment of the ''jhānas'', and the ''amatakāya'' to the attainment of insight and the culmination of the path. In this case, the ''kāyas'' refer 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 in ''Yogāvacara'' texts, often called Tantric Theravada.

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. In these later texts, which are often descriptions of '' kammaṭṭhāna'' (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 in ontological terms, and commonly use only Theravāda terminology.

Dhammakaya tradition

The Dhammakaya tradition and 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 the ''dhammakaya'' is the eternal Buddha within all beings. The ''dhammakaya'' is ''nibbāna'', and ''nibbāna'' is equated with the true self (as opposed to the non-self). In some respects its teachings resemble the buddha-nature doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism. Paul Williams has commented that this view of Buddhism is similar to ideas found in the shentong teachings of the Jonang school of Tibet made famous by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen.

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.

Mahāyāna

Prajnaparamita

According to Paul Williams, there are three ways of seeing the concept of the ''dharmakaya'' in the ''prajnaparamita'' sutras:

''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.". They are the "transcendent results f spiritual attainment.

Tibetan Buddhism

In Tibetan, the term ''chos sku'' (ཆོས་སྐུ།, phonetically written as ''chö-ku'') glosses ''dharmakāya''; it is composed of ''chos'' "religion, dharma" and ''sku'' "body, form, image, bodily form, figure". Thondup & Talbott render it as the "ultimate body".. Gyurme Dorje and Thupten Jinpa define "Buddha-body of Reality", which is a rendering of the Tibetan ''chos-sku'' and the Sanskrit ''dharmakāya'', as:

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 Brahman because Buddhism adheres to the doctrine of emptiness (sunyata).

= Rime movement

=
According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the founder of the Rimé movement, in his 19th century commentary to the Lojong slogan, "To see confusion as the four kayas, the sunyata protection is unsurpassable", "When you rest in a state where appearances simply appear but there is no clinging to them, the ''dharmakaya'' aspect is that all appearances are empty in nature, the '' sambhogakāya'' is that they appear with clarity, the ''nirmanakaya'' is that this emptiness and clarity occur together, and the natural ''kāya'' aspect is that these are inseparable."Jamgon Kongtrul; The Great Path of Awakening; Shambhala Publications; p. 20

Iconography

Emptiness

In the early traditions of Buddhism, depictions of Gautama Buddha were neither iconic nor aniconic but 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: ), unornamented, sky-blue Samantabhadra:

Fremantle states:

The colour blue is an iconographic polysemic rendering of the '' mahābhūta'' element of the "pure light" of space (Sanskrit: ).

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: ). It is particularly referred to by the '' terma'' ''Gongpa Zangtel'', a terma cycle revealed by Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408) and part of the Nyingma "Northern Treasures" ().

Mirror

Sawyer conveys the importance of '' melong'' ('mirror') iconography to ''dharmakaya'':

References

Notes

Citations

Works cited

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Further reading

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External links

What Are the Three Kayas?
at '' Lion's Roar''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dharmakaya
Buddha-nature
Buddhist philosophical concepts
Dzogchen
Nonduality
Shentong
Sanskrit words and phrases