p.943 THE THREE BODIES OF A BUDDHA (TRIKAYA). ONE of the more interesting features of the Great Vehicle, or Mahayana School of Buddhism, is the system of tile Three Bodies. Being at first a 'Buddhology, ' a speculative doctrine of the Buddhahood, this system was afterwards made to cover the whole field of dogmatic, of ontology, and was in particular substituted for the antiquated 'dependent origination' (pratityasamutpada).At first the Buddhas alone had three 'Bodies'; afterwards the whole universe was looked upon as residing in or made of the Bodies. Later, or by parallel development, new mythological, mystic, and physiological reveries caused serious alterations of the primitive 'trinitarian' form, and in particular the addition of two more Bodies to the 'classical' ones; and the Tantric school, in its own fanciful, mystic, and theurgic way, reduced the speculative system to a mere practical method of Yoga. Much has been written by several scholars on the Trikaya. The latter form of the trinitarian theoty, its philosophical aspects, and its points of contact with Hindoo cosmologies have been thoroughly elucidated by the able observations of Professor Kerm; whereas Wassilieff has thrown some light on its older signification, we mean the theological and truly ---------------------------- 1 See Journal Asiatique, 1902, ii, 237; 1903, ii, 358; Museon, 1905, 178.--The MS. of the prestent article has been kindly revised by Dr. W. H. D. Rouse. p.944 Buddhistic one. There are also documents on the Tantric aspect of the three or five Bodies scattered in the works on later or Tibetan Buddhism.(1)It seems, nevertheless, that something remains to be said. There is no hope of fully illustrating the antecedents, the growth, and the numerous alterations of the dogma under examination, as it is too intimately connected with Buddhist dogmatic as a whole and the history of the schools. But even if our researches should be completey wanting in chronological accuracy, and even fruitless as concerns the historical development of the Faith, we are confident that they will to some extent ascertain the meaning of some important Buddhist tenets. At least it is interesting to gather new original documents and to collect the interpretations which have been presented by native or European authorities. It is a common misfortune when dealing with Indian or Buddhist topics that comprehensive and detailed accounts are far from being clear, and that intelligible summaries are always somewhat misleading. The genuine methods of the Indian thought are on the one hand the genial but incoherent effusions of the Brahmana-Upanisads, on the other the pedantic categories of the Brahmanic or Buddhist 'matrkas' (compilations of technical terms). The Buddhists of old, as a rule, scarcely realize what they mean, and the best scholastical statements and nomenclatures of the Sutras. Therefore, tradition must be squeezed through a filter if one wants coherent theories. This very case offers special diffculties, because the philosophical views are mixed together with ----------------------------- 1 See H. Kern, "Over den aanhef eener Buddhistische Inscriptie uit Battambang (Versl. en Med. der k. Akad., Letterkunde, 4e r., 3 deel, Amsterdam, 1899), French translation by L. de la Vallee Poussin, Museon, 1906, 46; Wassilieff, Buddhism, p. 127; Schlagintweit, Waddell, passim.--Csoma, Jaschke, Eitel, see below, pp.946, 958, 968.--A small treatise, Kayatraya
Kandjur, Mdo,
xxii, 16 (Csoma-Feer, p. 274), has been translated
by Rockhill, " Life of the Buddha," pp. 200-202.
p.945
theological postulates find mythological
traditions, because we gather documents from Sutras
so old as the Prajnaparamitas, the Saddharmapundarika
, or the Amitayurdhyanasutra, down to the Tantric
literature , which knows too much about Jinas (the
so-called Dhyanibuddhas) and Vajrasattvas.
We shall endeavour to make out the prominent
lines of the diverging theories, and to characterize
their mutual relations. The expose of the sources
will enable the reader to correct or to complete our
very imperfect sketch.
General view of the matter
I. The doctrine of the Trikaya as Buddhology,
after its completion, but yet free from 'ontological'
and cosmogonic speculations.
(A) The very nature of a Buddha is the Bodhi (En-
lightenment), or Prajnaparamita (Perfect Wisdom), or
knowledge of the Law (Dharma), i.e. of the absolute
Truth. By acquiring this knowledge, nirvana is
realized in potentia or in actu. The Dharmakaya, Body
of Law, of a Buddha is the Buddha in nirvana or in
nirvana-like rapture (samadhikaya = dharmakaya).
(B) A Buddha, as long as he is not yet merged
into nirvana, possesses and enjoys, for his own sake
and for others' welfare, the fruit of his charitable
behaviour as a Bodhisattva. The second body is the
Body of Enjogment or Beatific Body (sambhogakaya)
(C) Human beings known as Buddhas are magical
contrivances (nirmanakaya) created at random by real
Buddhas, i.e. by Buddhas possessed of beatific bodies
sovereigns of celestial worlds, Tusita-heavens or
'Paradises' (Sukhavatis).
II. The doctrine of Trikaya as an ontologic and
cosmologric system.
p.946
947
(A) By Body of Law one has to understand the void
and permanent reality that underlies every phe
nomenon (dharma), or the store of the 'dharmas,' or
more exactly the uncharacterized Intellect (vijnana).
(B) Body of Enjoyment is the Dharmakaya evolved
as Being, Bliss, Charity, Radiance, or the Intellect
as far as it is individualized as Buddha or Bodhi-
sattva.
(C) Magical or rather Transformation's Body is
the same Intellect when defiled, when individualized
as 'common people' (prthagjana), infernal being, etc.
I. DHARMAKAYA, BODY OF THE LAW.
---------------------------
1 See Csoma, Diet., p. 305, "The Supreme Moral
Being"; Jaschke, Diet., p.22a, "Absolute Body,
Buddha in the Nirvana, the so-called first world
of abstract existence, i.e. non-existence ";
Eitel, Handbook, p. 179; sources quote by St.
Julien, " Voyages," n ii, 224; Wassilieff, pp.
127, 286.
2 Sarvaprapaneavyatirikto bhagavatam svabhaviko dha
rmakayah sa eva cadhigamasvabhavo dharmah.
(Bodhicaryavatarapanjika, 3. 16.)
According to Csoma, Diet, p.305
the
svabhavakaya should be a fourth and yet more
sublime body: '' the body, substance, or essence
of nature itself, the First Being, God."--Jaschke,
Diet., p.22a, supports the same view: "More recent
speculators hare even added a no-bo-nid-sku
superior to the three, viz., that which is eternal
in the essence of a Buddha, even chos-sku, the
absolute body, being deseribecd by these
philosophers as transient." [That would very well
suit the conclusions at which Professor Kern
arrives (op. cit., p.72 = Museon, 1906, 55): "For
the Realists (and amongst Buddhists Realism
p.947
suddhakaya, (1) that is to say, the Body in its
true nature, resting in itself, free from
developments (prapanca) or external coverings or
hindrances (avarana) , translucid or
radiant(prabhasvara)
1. THE DOCTRINE OF THE DHARMAKAYA AS BUDDHOLOGY.
(1) The material bony of Buddha contrasted with
Buddha as the Law embodied.
As early hints or foreshadowings of the 'Body of
Law,' one can quote the identification of the Law
with the Buddha, to be met frequently in the Pali
literature: " To see the Law is to see the Buddha."
To follow Sakyamuni and to touch his robe is not to
see the Buddha: "He is far from me and I am far from
him, because he has not seen the Law."(2) The meaning
seems to be that, when one has understood the Dharma,
i.e. the doctrine of dependent origination (pratitya-
samutpada),(3) one has seen the best of a Buddha, one
has reached everything that can be derived from a
Buddha. Preachers first and foremost and preachers
only,(4) the Buddhas are the 'embodied Iaw' or the
'living law'; in
------------------------
had supporters) is the Dharma something really
existing; not so for the Idealists of the
Mahayana: according to them Dharma is a production
of the mind, of the Samvrti, and therefore an
appearance, a kaya, a body: therefore the
Mahayanist can consider the Body of the Law like
the two others, as an apparent manifestation of
the sole and real Being."]
I think that the 'svabhavika kaya as a fourth body
is a Tantric conception (see below, p.977). We are
said in the Amrtakanika, a commentary to the
Namasamgiti (v.156), that the Law-body (styled
'yuganaddhakaya'), to be knomn by the ascetic in
himself, is different from the 'sambhogikakaya'
(Enjoyment-body) and from the 'svabhavika'(the very
Body, etc.).
1 Kalacakra, quoted ad Namasamgiti, Amrtakanika,
v. 92.
2 See Minaveff, Recherches, p.218 n.
2.--Mahaparinibbanas. 60; Itivuttaka, 91. 12; Sam.
N. III, 120; Saddhammasangaha, 62.3 (J.P.T.S.
1890) Salistambasutra, quoted Madhyamakavrtti,p.6,
note 2.
3 Majjh. N. I, 191. 1; Salistambasutra.
4 "You yourself must make an effort: the Tathagtas
are [only] preachers."
p.948
1 949
the same way, after the nirvana, the Law must be
the ruler of the Church, the Refuge, a living Buddha.
Further, the phrase dharmakaya, with the same
import , in the Divyavadana and in a Jataka, (2)
contrasted withorupakaya or bhutikaya, 'material
visible body.' Srona Kotikarna wanted to see the
material body of the Master; he had but seen the
Buddha in his Law-body, that is to say, he knew the
sacred books, of which he gives a very interesting
list. In fact, 'dharmakaya' can be and is understood
as an equivalent of 'dharmasamuha,' the collections
of the books, the second jewel (ratna).(3) Chinese
authorities confirm this distinction of the two
bodies: "Primitive Buddhism (in Chins)," says Eitel,
"distinguished a material, visible, and perishable
body (rupakaya) and an immaterial, invisible, and
immortal body (dharmakaya) as attributes of
[Buddha's] human existence."(4) It would perhaps be
more exact to state that the 'material body' of a
Buddha is his 'body,' endowed with the marks which he
already possesses as a Bodhisattva(5); whereas his
'soul' or his knowledge is his Body of Law, eternal
and inalterable, a "series of undefiled
principles,"(6) the same in all the Tathagatas, and
beyond the range of thought: "The Buddhas ought to be
looked upon b as equivalent to the Dharma; the
leaders indeed are the Dharma embodied; the nature of
the Dharma is beyond the discriminative powers of
mind."(7)
------------------------- 1 See Div. 19. 11, 20. 23.
2 See the story of Upagupta, ibid. 356 (Windisch,
Mara und Buddha, 161). Cf. the Pali text edited
Bulletin de l'Ecole Francaise, 1904, 420 (where
occurs bhutikaya). [Also, as synonyms: tathagatam
vapus, bauddham rupam.]
3 See Bodhicaryavat. p.3.18: samuhartho va
kayasabdah.... [dharmakayasabdena] pravacanasya
grahanam.
4 Handbook, p.178.
5 See below, p.962, n.2; p.971, n. 2.
6 dharmakaya=anasravadharmasamtana (Abhidharmakosav.
MS. Burn. 443b).
7 See Vajracchedika, Max Muller's edition, p.43
(Aneed. Oxon. i, 1). [Read: dharmato buddha
drastavya dharmakaya hi nayakah, dharmata capy
avijneya na sa sakya vijanitum], Madhya makavrtti,
xxii, ad finem; Bodhicaryav. ix, 38.
p.949
(2) Dharmakaya = Bodhi = Nirranr,.
It is the knowledge of the truth (tattvajnana),
the 'arriving at' or understanding the truth
(adhigama = dharma) (1) that makes a Buddha. A
Buddha's mind is made of the 'knowledge of the
non-birth of anything'(anutpadajnana).(2) Now the true
knowledge being styled 'Dharma' or 'Prajnaparamita,'
there is no wonder that the Buddha's real nature
should be defined as 'dharma' or 'prajna,' whereas
'prajna' is styled the mother of the Tathagatas. We
read that "Prajna is the real body of the
Tathagatas";(3) that "all the Buddhas, past, present,
and future, have for body the Dharma."(4)
Prajnakaramati, the commentator of Santideva's
Bodhicaryavatara, well illustrates this topic: "The
Bodhi or Buddhahood is the absolute (paramartha)
reality; empty of any essence, be it unique or
multiple; neither born, nor extinct; neither
perishing, nor permanent; free from any cogitable
contingency, ather-like; it has for name Dharmakaya.
From the point of view of practical truth, it is
styled Prajnaparamita, Void, Suchness, Actual (or
real) apex, Element of existence, etc."(5)
------------------------------
1 see above, p.946, n.2, and Madhyamakavrtti, xxiv,
4, where a fourfod meaning is given of the word
dharma: phaladharma (=nirodha), phalavataradharma
(=margasatyam) , agamadharma (= desana) , and
adhigamadharma.
2 See Madhyamakavatara, quoted below, p. 962.
3 Astasahasrika Praniaparamita, 94. 11. A single
manuscript of the Prajna is worth the whole
Jambudvlpa full of relies, because the Prajna is
the real body (bhutarthika sarira) of the
'Tathagata. Bhagavat has said: "Do not believe
that this [material] body is [my] true body
(satkaya)...."
4 Ibid., 462. 1.
p.950
1 951
In short, the 'Body of Law' of a Buddha is his
possessing Nirvana in actu or in potentia, as
Occidental scholastics would say. The synonym, given
by a Tantric Commentary, 'samadhikaya,' 'the state of
highest trance,' is a very good one.(1) Just as an
Aupanisadic ascetic merges into. Brahman during
dreamless sleep, in the same way the Buddhist adepts
in 'unconscious abstraction' realize the Body of Law,
but for a time only. The Bodhisattva, on the
contrary, since he has become a Buddha, does not
abandon the state of trance,(2) i.e. his never to be
abandoned real Body.
2. DHARMAKAYA AS AN ONIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE.
The dialectie of the old Suttantas, put in the
best; scholastical frame by the Madhyamikas and
already driven to its last results in the
Prajnaparamita books, seems to be such as to prevent
any positive system. It aims at an absolute denial of
the reality of anything, substance or appearance. Not
only the old lesson on 'soullessness' (nairatmya)
coupled with 'dependent origination,' excludes the
notion of being, and reduces the whole world to a
process of becoming 
, but enquiries on
causality, on 'momentaneity, ' on the theory of
knowledge, turn to the negation of the very becoming
of things. The 'samsara is a mere show, like the
water in a mirage, like the daughter of a barren
woman. Nor is nirvana or Buddha anything: "The
Buddhas are namas only, and if there be any more
distinguished (visista) a thing than a Buddha, I
should say it is a mere name." Everything merges into
void; but the distinction of the two truths provides
the doctors with
--------------------------
1 Amrtakanika ad Namasamgiti, v. 146.--See J. de
Groot, Code du Mahayana, p.16.--Perfect samadhi
however, is said to be the characteristic of the
sambhogakaya (Trikya, translated by Rockhill,
p.200).
2 See the sources quoted in Bodhicaryavatara, ix,
36, and also J.R.A.S, 1902. p. 374, n. 1.
p.951
a rather solid basis for the establishing of a
Path (relative truth) leading to nirvana (highest
truth or void).(1)
Nay, actual voidness is a postulatum of this very
Path! If there were something, this 'something' could
not be extinguished. In fact, like the Buddhists of
old, the Mdhyamikas are almost exclusively interested
in final release (moksa); and, in general, one may
say that the Orthodox (amongst whom are the
Madhyamikas) have elaborated metaphysics
(skandha-theory, dependent origination, void,
momentaneity) chiefly to support their eschatology
and the practices leading to one's end, be it
Arhstship or magnified Buddhahood.
There are many Sutras (scriptural texts) and
Sastras (treatises) to inform us whither are going
the Arhats and the Buddhas, i.e. the purified or
magnified individual beings; they are going to
nirvana alias Buddhahood or dharmakaya. And the good
middle Path is also fully described. But whence come
the individual beings? The Orthodox, the
Madhyamikas in chief, content themselves with stating
that there is a term to samsara, an apex or limit of
being (bhutakoti), but that 'samsara' or becoming'
has had no beginning. But the constructive
Vijnanadins attach 1J "" themselves to the realistic
clues forwarded by the nihilistic speculation.(2)
The 'equivalences,' estsblished by nihilistic
speculation, are indeed pregnant with positive
surmises. Granted that 'things' and Buddhas are
equally void, it follows
------------------------
1 See Journal Asiatique, 1903, ii, 358.
2 The attitude of the Madhyamikas can be
appreciated from their authoritative treatises
(Madhyamakasutras and commentaries) and from the
criticisms of the Yogacaras=Vijnanavadins, who
style them sarvavainasikas and nastikas. However,
it is diifficult to state exactly the
contributions of the two great Mahayana schools to
the theories which will be summarized below. Our
observations, so far as the historical relations
of the schools are concerned, are possibly wanting
accuacy: Santideva is sometimes names amongst the
Madhyamika, sometimes amongst the Yogacaras. In
short, by Madhyamika we mean the purely critical
and negative system of the Madhyamakasutras, by
Yogacara the system of Asvaghosa.
p.952
that ordinarly beings and Buddhas are possessed
of the sam nature. Further 'samsara' = 'nirvana, '
but there is no doubt that 'nirvana'= Buddhahood.
Thus the Void (= nairatmya, pratityasamutprada) was
from the first less or more tinged with mystic
colours; it was identified with the Prajna, which, to
speak correctly, is but the knowledge of the
universal nothingness; it became apt to bear a more
or less definite ontological meaning under the name
of 'Dharmakaya,' which associates it with immortal
'Nirvana' or Buddhahood.
From the very statement that ererything is
'void, chaotic speculation would draw the conclusion
that ererything is evolved out of the 'void.'
Absolute nothingness or nirvana is the perfect
wisdom, Buddhahood, the Lawbody; it is the absolute
truth (paramarthasatya) and the only reality: the
doctrine is near at hand that the process of
purification taught by all the schools (vyaradana, 1
common people (prthagjana), 2 bodhisattva, 3 buddha,
dharmakaya) is but the counterpart of a process of
defilement (samklesa) , from dharmakaya down to
prthagjanatva. Old Buddhism was indeed, mutatis
mutandis, a theory and a method of 'going back into
the Brahman.' The school of the Vijnanavadins, out
of genuine Buddhist tenets, Sunyata = buddhatva =
dharmata, nirvana = samsara, has evolved a positive
system of emanation.
Unlike the Madhyamikas, who identify the 'Void'
with momentaneity and caused origination, unlike the
redactors of the Prajna, who play rather with words
than with ideas, the Vijnanavadins, 'supporters of
the existence of the only Intellect,' maintain that
the 'Void,' as emphasized by the Sacred Books, is
'the absence of characteristics, ' and really
designates a 'something.'(1) "For Vacuity to be a
justifiable position, we must have, firstly,
existence of that which is empty (the receptacle),
and then non-existence of that in
----------------------------------
1 One can refer to the Sutras that the school of
the Yogacaras style " Sutras of exact meaning, "
see Wassilieff, p.302. The Mahabheri goes so far
a to say that Tathagata is possessed of a
permanent bliss, of a pure selt, not of Nirvana,
etc.(ibid., 162).
p.953
virtue of which it is empty (the contents); but,
if neither exists, how can there be vacuity? In
objects to which 'notes' such as form and the like
are commonly attributed, there are not really such
'notes,' but the substrate of the designations such
as form exists in the same map as there is a rope on
which serpent's notion is superimposed. The denotable
properties do not exist."(1) Now the undenotable real
'something' or 'mere thing' (vastumatra) is further
defined as Intellect (vijnana) , receptacle or
quiescent intellect (alayavijnana),(2) according to the
general tenet of the school that the things are only
mental representations. The 'going on' (pravrtti), or
particularizing evolution, or defilement (samklesa)
of Intellect, by work or thinking, is what is called
'samsara,' and by 'nirvana' nothing else can be meant
than the purification (vyavadana) of Intellect, its
restoration to its primitive void or radiant
transparence (prabhasvarata).
Here we find an adequate basis for the
interpretation of the mystic nomenclature of the
Prajnaparamitas: dharmakaya, tathata,
tathagatagarbha, further dharmadhatu and garbhadhatu,
etc.
a. By Tathata, better Bhutatathata, 'Suchness, '
'True nature, ' stress is laid upon the primitive and
permanent nondifferentiation or unheterogeneity of
everything. We might compare the Samkhya 'Nature' or
pradhana.(3) As far as it is evolved and
differentiated, Nature is an illusion (maya), and
when non-evolved it is like a pure void (sunyata).
b. By the phrase Tathagatagarbha, 'Tathagata's
Womb,' we have to understand: (1) The Prajna, mother
of the Tathagatas, knowledge of the 'void reality,'
and identical
------------------------------
1 Bodhisattvabhumi, I, iv (fol. 29b foll. ). The
first part (book I, i and ii) of an English
summary of this excellent book has been published
by Bendall and myself in Museon (1905, 2).
2 On alayavijnana see Asvaghosa, Mahayanasraddhotpad-
asastra, translated by T. Suzuki, "Awakening of
Faith" (Chicago, Open Court, 1900) , Suzuki's
article, " Philosophy of the yogacara (Museon,
1904, 370), Madhyamakavatara, vi, 46.
3 Cf. Kern, " Inscriptie uit Battambang " ; Beal,
"Catena, " p. 12.--0n ' suchness,' Asvaghosa,
Suzuki, 96.
p.954
955
with this 'void reality' itself. But this womb of
the Buddhas is at the same time their cemetery, since
the 'being a Buddha' (buddhatva), the 'being a
Tathagata, ' i.e. the 'being arrived at true
knowledge,' can by no means be realized as long as
the very idea of a distinction remains. (2) The
matrice of every pseudo-individual being. The Lanka-
vatara describes the Womb as "genuinely radiant and
pure, bearer of the thirty-two marks, present in all
beings, like a precious gem covered by dirt, covered
by the skandhas, the dhatus, and the ayatanas;
defiled by the wrong imagi nations due to love,
hatred, and error; permanent, firm, blessed,
everlasting. (1) "But is not such doctrine of a
Tathagata-Womb identical to the doctrine of Atman
supported by the non-believers?" The sutra formulates
this objection, and clearly states that one must not
separate the doctrine of the Tathagatagarbha and the
doctrine of soullessness (nairatmya) : "Like a
pot-maker who would mould different kinds of pots
with the same mass of clay, the Buddha teaches the
soullessness sometimes directly, sometimes under the
veil of the Tathagata's Womb."(2) Indeed, neither the
Tathagatagarbha nor the Prajna is a 'self'; they are
identical with--
c. The Dharmadhatu, alias 'Dharmarasi,'(3) the
store of the 'dharmas' or phenomena, the collection
of the intellectual unconscious elements apt to be
transformed into, i.e. to be perceived as sound
(rutarasi) , as form or matter (ruparasi) , as
happiness (sukharasi, sukhacittarasi). It is scarcely
-----------------------------
1 Buddhist Text Society, p. 80. 3: sa ca kila
[tathagntagarbhas] tvaya
prakrtiprabhasvaravisuddhyadivisuddha eva varnyate
dvatrimsallaksanadharah sarvasattvadehantargatah,
maharghamulyaratnam malinavastuparvestitam iva
skandhadhatvayatanavastuparivestito
ragadvesanohabhutaparikalpamaliano nityo dhruvah.
sivahsasvatas ca bhagavata varnitah.
2 Ibid., p. 80. 20.
3 The Svamatoddesa by Nagarjuna, quoted in the
Namasamgiti's tika, Cambr. 1708(v.156), gives the
following definitions: ruparasir ananto me
nirmanakaya uttamah, rutarasir ananto me sambhoga-
kaya uttamah, dharmarasir ananto me dharmakayah
prakirtitah, sukharasir ananto me sukhakayo
'ksayah parah.
p.955
needful to observe that everything cannot but be
made of mind (monomaya), since Intellect (vijnana.)
is the only matrice and substance.
d. The 'Dharmakaya,' 'the Body of Law of all the
Tathagatas,' is the most remarkable and probably the
oldest amongst these synonymous terms. Since
Buddhahood, according to the quasi-universal tenet of
the Great Vehicle, is a necessary condition of
nirvana;(1) since every creature is hoped to become a
Buddha; since Buddhahood consists in actual cessation
or purification of thought; since thought could never
be purified if it were 'really' defiled; since every
individual being is but mere illusion, it is obvious
to consider Buddhahood, i.e. the Body of Law, as the
real and 'really' unmodified nature of everything.
A good definition of the Dharmakaya is furnished
by a stanza, possibly of Nagarjuna(?), and known to
us from a Chinese transcription of Fa-t'ien.(2) It
runs as follows: -- "Homage to the incomparable
Law-body of the Conquerors, which is neither one
nor multiple, which supports the great blessing of
salvation for oneself and for one's neighbour, which
neither exists nor exists not, which like the ether
is homogenous, whose own nature is unmanifested,
which is
------------------------------
1 It is more difficult to obtain Arhatship than to
obtain Buddhahood, because it is next to
impossible to abandon the sin-hindrance without
pity (karuna). One must, moreover, remark that the
knowledge of the 'void' is a necessary condition;
people who believe in a future 'nirvana,' as the
Arhats of the old schools, cannot reach it by any
means.
2 Published and read by Sylvain Levi as a part of Ed.
Chavannes's first article on the "lnscriptions
chinoises de BodhGaya" (Revue de 1' Histoire des
Religions, xxxiv, 1, 1896). See Nanjio, No. 1072;
Fa-t'ien, 982 A.D. The Chinese document contains
the adoration of the three Bodies, plus a
concluding stanza. A commentary of the
Namasamgiti quotes in full the stanzas 2 and 3
(sambhogakaya, nirmnakaya); it gives us the first
words of the stanza 1 (dharma) aind of a fourth
stanza (mahasukhakaya; = Pindikrama, 1 =
Pancakrama, i, 1) unknown to the Chinese Pilgrim.
[Namasamgititika: yo naiko napy aneka ityadina
dharmakayalaksanam, lokatitam acintyam ityadina
samhbhogakayasya, sattvanam pakahetor ityadina
nirmanakayasya, trailokyacaramuktam ityadina
mahasukhakayasya.]
p.956
undeiled, unchanging, blessed, unique in its kind,
diffused, transcendent and to be known by everyone
himself."(1)
The Body of Law is not 'one,' since it pervades
and supports everything; nor multiple,(2) since it
remains identical with itself. It is the supporter of
Buddhahood, by which every Buddha realizes his own
aim and universal welfare. It is unmanifested, being
free from 'form' (arupa).(3) It is transcendent,
being free from any cogitable characteristic
(prapanca) . As it is the universal pervader,
everybody can recognize it as his true self;(4) and
there is not another way of knowing it, as it is
uncogitable and out of the range of words.(5)
Frorn the above representation it follows that
the Body of Law is a purely metaphysical conception,
alien to any mythological exegsis. But, as a matter
of fact, although every Buddha has for 'dharmakaya'
the unique 'dharmakaya,' every Buddha has been said
to hare his own 'dharmakaya' and receives under this
aspect special denominations: thus, whereas Amitabha,
and Aksobhya are 'dharmakayas, ' Amitayus and
Vajrasattva respectively are their 'sambhoga kayas.'
One distinguishes two Vairocanas and two Amogha
------------------------
2 Asvaghosa, Suzuki (p.96),has anekartha.ananartha.
(Cf.Madhyamakasutras, introductory stanza.)
3 Namasamgiti, Comm. ad v. 79.--Or, when
manifested, it is pure light,
4 pratyatmavedya, svasamvedya. Cf. Vedantic
theories on the knowledge of Brahmon.
5 The definition offered by the sutra, whose
summary apud Wassilieff, p.161, is purely
Vedantic. The little Trikaya sutra has: "perfectly
pure svabhava, exempt from svabhava like space"
(Rockhill, 200) . Another source, hitherto
untouched, is Samdhinirmocanasutra, chapter x.
p.957
siddhis, under different Law and Enjoyment forms.
Further, as Manjusri is from of old a
personification of Wisdom or 'prajna,' it is said to
be by excellence the jnanakaya (=dharmakaya) .
Nevertheless, in the Tantras and in the modern
monotheist school, the Body of Law is named
Vairocana,(1) Vajrasattva, or Adi Buddha. It seems
that Vairocsna, 'the Radiant,' or the mythological ;
delegate to 'dharmakayatva,' whatever be his name, is
the complete or integral Dharmakaya, being made of
the five 'sciences' or constituents of Prajna;
whereas the five Jinas (Dhyanibuddhas) are parts of
the Dharmakaya, each of these being the
personification of one 'science.' We cannot insist on
these details, as they are later than the full
development of the doctrine under examination, and
generally admit of a fourth and even a fifth Body
(ananda, paramananda, vajrakaya, etc.). But to show
the speculative deficiency of these theories of the
Dhyanibuddhas, we will observe that sometimes the
best amongst the Jinas are not placed higher than the
Akanistha abode, i.e. in the very world of Form,
whereas the Dharmakaya is by definition 'immaterial'
(arupin).(2)
II. SAMBHOGAKAYA, BODY OF ENJOYMENT.
Sambhoga is well translated by Tibetan
'enjoy
ment, abundance, wealth.' Wassilieff has 'Seligkeit'
or 'beatitude.' The Chinese 報 conveys the idea of
recompense, or, rather, of retribution. Both
interpretations are correct. The 'Body of Bliss' is
the state in which a Buddha enjoys his Buddhahood,
or, more accurately, his
--------------------------
1 See Eitel. s. voc. and the " Lotjana Buddha " apud
J. de Groot, Code du Mahayana, p. 16.
2 A better system apud Eitel, p.180, the Dharmakaya
resides in the Arupadhatu, and the Akanistha abode
is occupied by the second body. See also Waddell,
"Lamaism, " p.349 (Dharmakaya = Samantabhadra =
Vajradhara = Vajrasattva), and contrast p. 351.
J.R.A.S. 1906.
p.958
merits as a Bodhisattva. (vipakakaya) . (1)
Although the 'glorious body' be not theoretically
predicated of the Bodhisattvas;, such beings as
Avalokitesvara are scarcely inferior to the Buddhas
in this respect.(2)
1. ANTECEDENTS OF THE SAMBHOGAKAYA'S THRORY.
The phrase 'dharmakaya' does not occur in the
oldest literature, but it is clearly foreshadowed by
such expressions as are mentioned above (p. 947,
n.2). On the contrary, I fear that not a single trace
of a 'sarmbhogakaya' has been met with in the books
of the Little Vehicle. We nevertheless are told that
the Sautrantikas did admit both Law and Enjoyment
bodies; yet we are not able to test this assertion of
Wassilieff.(3)
Be that as it may, let us observe that the theory
according to which the Tathagatas may choose to live
during a 'cosmic period' or the rest of the period;(4)
that the tenets concerning the Uddhamsota, a kind of
'never returning saints' (anagamin) who will go up
the heavens to the Akanittha abode before reaching
nirvana; (5) that the sculptures of
------------------------
1 Kern: ''Het lichaam waarvan de genietingen
volkomen zijn" (op.cit.,p.71).--St. Julien: "Le
corps de la jouissance, l'etat de celui qui a pu
unir son intelligence avec ]a nature subtile de
la loi."--Csoma: " The most perfect
Being." --Jaschke: " The body of happiness or
glory, Buddha in the perfection of a conscious and
active life of bliss in the second world (heavenr
or Elysium)."-- Sarad Candra (p. 91) has:
= 'celestial existence.'
2 But see Eitel, Handbook (p.179): "Buddha was said
to be living, at the same time, in three different
spheres, viz., (1)....; (2) as living in reflex in
the rupadhatu, and being, as such, in the
intermediate degree of a Dhyani Bodhisattva in the
Sambhogakaya state of reflected Budhi." This view
is not supported by any text I know; but see
below, p. 963.
3 See p. 286 (German, 313)
4 Mahaparinibbana, iii, 1--4, etc.; also Cullavagga,
xi, 1, 10.
5 J.R.A.S.1906, p.450 ('Akanisthaga' is given by the
Trikandasesa as a synonym of Buddha).
p.959
Gandhara, illustratingr, as they do, divine Buddhas
and Bodhisattvas, (1) can be reckoned as more
or less suggestive tokens or antecedents of the
Buddhology of the Great Vehicle--Buddhas as living
gods, eternal or quasi-eternnal, kings of blissful
lands, worshipped by hosts of Bodhisattvas and holy
beings.
The orthodox schools of the Little Vehicle well
stated the fact that, since " the Buddhas are only
preachers," the worship of the Buddhas is a mere cult
of commemoration; that there is no difference, as
concerns the benefits to be drawn from him, between
living or extinguished Buddha.(2) But, on the other
hand, it was by no means held certain, even by the
compilers of the Pali Nikayas, that the Tathagatas do
not exist after death.(3)And one cannot help thinking
that the vulgar worshippers of the Buddha, o f his
relies, of his symbols and icons, believed in some
existence of their deceased god, did not pay much
attention to the dogmatic of the scholars, did not
even dream of a puja whose devata were extinguished
and no more to be seen by gods or by men.
2. BUDDHOLOGY.
(1) The Sambhogakaya of the mahayana.
(a) Some beings long after rest: they become
ordinary saints in this very world of men (arhats) or
in some heaven (anagamin), and will directly plunge
into final Void. One can observe, by the way, that
such a good Mahayanist as Hsuan Chwang was not
assured as concerns the future Buddhahood of every
creature. Some beings long for others' welfare: these
are of the stock and breeding of the Bodhisattvas who
make a firm resolve to obtain Buddhahood
----------------------------
1 See Grunwedel, Buddhistische Kunst(2), p.170.
2 The author of the Milinda perfectly agrees
with Santideva (Bodhicaryavatara).
3 See Oldenberg's Buddha.
p.960 951
in order to teach the Law and to secure universal
happiness in their future kingdoms or 'fields of a
Buddha' (buddhaksetra). Carried out during numerous
'periods' the 'vow' of the Bohisattvas will succeed
in the end; and thus we see that, according to their
more or less generous principles and behviour as
Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas govern more or less
glorious universes, with their he11s, their ordinary
worlds, their paradises or Sukhavatis: in the case of
Amitabha, the whole field of Buddha' is a paradise
exclusively peopled by holy beings. The Buddhas,
who differ as concerns radiance, length of life,
etc., reign as colossal figures framed of light and
surrounded with 'halos' made of created or magical
Buddhas. Their fellow-workers, or more accurately-as
the Buddhas content themselves with attitudes of
teaching, of meditating, of appeasing-their officers,
the Bodhisattvas of high rank, masters of the ten
Bodhisattva-stages (dasabhumisvara), possess, like
their kings or patrons, beatific bodies. But, as a
rule, they bear on the head a smaller image of the
Buddha whom they attend. It happens that the body of
It Bodhisattva is no less marvellous than any
Buddha's body can be, and e.g. in the case of
Avalokita we have a description of a 'glorious body'
which proves of great interest. Avalokita's body is
either an enthroned image at the side of Amitabha(1)
or the receptacle of the whole chiliocosm: in each of
the pores of his skin there are worlds with hosts of
meditating or singing worthies.(2)
One finds in the Bhagavadgita, a good parallel of
this cosmological-theological doctrine: we mean the
eleventh lesson, where Hari shows to Arjuna "his
sovran form supreme, framed of radiance, universal,
boundless "; it bears some anthropomorphic features,
just as the fantastical icon of Amitabha does in
Sukhavati; but "the whole universe in its manifold
divisions is solely lodged in it."(3) The relation
------------------------
1 Sukhavativyuha.
2 See Karandavyuha apud Burnouf, Intr., p.224. cf.
the body of Sakyamuni, Karunapundarika, p.122.
3 See L. D. Barnett's translation, p.137.
p.961
between Brahman and transfigured Krsna is not
unlike the relation between 'dharmakapa 'and
'sambhoga.' And again, the third body of a Buddha, as
we shall see later on, has something in common with
the human and 'unnatural' form of Krsna.
(b) The preceding account is drawn from various
sources.' We are happy to meet a still better piece
of theology in the little poem mentioned above.
The Fa-t'ien's stanza, as I may venture to style
it, describes the Sambhogakaya in every particular:
"Homage to the Enjoyment-Body, which develops in the
middle of the (holy) assembly for the joy of the
meditative saints, his large, manifold, supramundane,
uncogitable manifestation, acquired by numberless
good actions, which shines into all the Buddha's
worlds, which uninterruptedly emits the sublime sound
of the good Law, which is enthroned in the great
kingship of the Law."(2)
Unlike the Dharmakaya,(3) the Enjoyment-body is
visible (rupavan), manifested
(vibhutim..prathayati),although it is 'made of mind'
or 'spiritual.' It manifesetation is above the
[three] worlds [of love, form, non-form], beyond
explication (acintya), made for the joy of the
'meditating' (dhimatam),(4) i.e. of the Bodhisattvas,
who alone can behold it in rapture, and are, as it
were, already Buddhas (yatha bodhiprapta). It emits
uninterruptedly the good preaching, and therefore is
elsewhere named 'collection of sounds' (rutarasi).(5)
It is the very body of the King of the Law
(dharmaraja): it bears the thirty-two marks of a
Buddha.
1 Sukhavativyuhas (147-186 A.D.) ,
Amitayurdhyanasutra(424 A.D., Karandavyuha(? ).
2 lokatitam acintyam sukrtasataphalam atmano yo
vibhutim " parsanmadhye vicitram prathayati mahatam
dhimatam pritihetoh │ buddhanam sarvalokaprasytam
aviratodarasadharmaghosam │ vande sambhogakaram tam
aham iha mahadhatmarajyapratistham ││
3 I add some details from the commentaries of the
Namasamgiti.
4 Dhiman=bodhisattva, see Mahavyutpatti, 22. 3,
andnd Bodhi-caryavatarapanjika p.23. 2.
5 See above, p. 954,n.3.
p.962
As far as a Buddha can be visible--the problem
shall be debated later on--this body of Enjoyment is
his real visible body (svabhavikarupakaya).
(2) Sambhaogakaya and Nirmanakaya in their
relation to Dharmakaya.
Candrakirti, in fact, uses the phrase rupakaya as
a synonym of Sambhogakaya, and contrasts it with the
dharmakaya. His observations on this topic well
deserve attention, as they illustrate the relations
between the Body of Law, or 'voidness,' and the Body
of Enjoyment, which seems to belong to the 'world of
becoming.'
In his own commentary to his Madhyamakavatars,(1)
Candrakirti states that the 'equipment of knowledge'
( jnanasamnbhara ) , i.e. the full achievement in
meditation (dhyana) and wisdom (prajna), causes the
Body 'consisting in Dharma, 'whose characteristic is
no-birth' (anutpada); whereas 'equipment of merit'
(punyasambhara), i.e. long and energetic practice of
gift, morality, and patience, is the cause of the
rupakaya of the perfect Lords Buddhas, "endowed with
the mark of hundred merits, marvellous, incogitable,
and multiform."(2) " This last epithet, methinks,
alludes to the Body's
---------------------------------
1 Chapter iii v. 12, pp. 62-63 of the forthcoming
edition in Bibl. Buddhica. Our translation is from
the Tibetan; the original Samakrit would run as
follows: tatra yah punyasambharah sa bhagavatam
sumyaksambuddhanam satapunyalaksanavato 'dbhutacin-
tyasya nanarupasya rupakayasya hetuh; dharmatmakasya
kayasya anutpadalaksanasya jnanasambharo hetuh.
2 A svnonym of rupakaya is vipakakya, 'the body
where is enjoyed [the merit of good acts]'
(Asvaghosa, Suzuki, p.102).-- The fragment of the
Prajnaparamita quoted Siksasamuccaya, 244,
[bodhisattvana buddhakayam nispadayitukamena dva
trimsanmahapurusalaksanany asitim canuvyanjanani
pratilabdhukamena... ] , clearly alludes to a
rupakaya; but it seems that the human body of
Buddha is meant. Also, in Bodhisattvabhumi on
Buddhapuja: yad bodhisattvah saksat
Tathagatarupakayam eva pujayatiyam asyocyate
sariapuja.--On the contrary, Bodhicaryav. 323. 12
(Bibl. Indic.), the lokottarakaya, contrasted with
the decaying body of men, is a beatific body.
p.963
faculty of manifesting itself under various
appearances (see below, Nirmanakaya).
The reader of Mahayanist treatises, whether
Madhyamika or Yogacara, is frequently confronted with
the doctrine that Buddhahood it; the result of the
two so-called 'equipments' (sambhara), knowledge
(jnana) and merit (punya), or wisdom (prajna) and
charity (karuna); these are the two wings without
which the bird cannot fly. Charity, morality, and
patience, without wisdom, are blind, do not even
deserve the name of Paramitas. Conversely, although
wisdom be the unique way to Buddhahood, nay,
Buddhahood itself, it requires a purified ground to
grow in; merit, therefore, is only a mediate means,
but a necessary means, to the reaching of Buddhahood.
The theorem of Candrakirti, as we may call his
above quoted saying, illustrates this topic with a
new light, and teaches us a double lesson. The first
is easy enough to understand; the second requires
more attention.
1. If the 'equipment of merit' causes the
'beatific body, no wonder that the Bodhisattvas
partake of it with the Buddhas themselves; some of
them, heroes of compassionate behaviour, have indeed
better claims to its possession than such and such a
Pratyekabuddha-like Buddha. Further, Bodhisattvas are
not deficient in wisdom; they remain in the world,
because they are compassionate, but they think, act,
speak, etc., without being defiled, because they are
'purified by Prajna'. They have claims to all 'Buddha
principles' or Buddha's qualifications (buddhadharma)
, but do not as vet realize thern (na saksatkurvanti).
2. Candrakirti suggests to us that the
'Enjoyment-Body' is something real, from the point of
view of practical truth, even as concerns the Buddhas
who are perfectly accomplished, who have perfectly
understood and reached the Dharmakaya, i.e. the
Vacuity.
There is indeed a double-edged problem, as
Milinda would say. Granted that the Buddhas have
achieved the equipment of knowledge, and are merged
into the Dharmakaya, how can they be possessed of a
'sambhogakaya'? Inversely,
p.964
965
how can they be styled Buddhas if they have not
achieved the equipment of knowledge?
On the one hand, in the later literature under
examination, Buddhahood is commonly defined as
twofold: (1) Full realization of the Law-Body, pure
and void knowledge, nonproidution of thought, (2)
The immaterial yet visible image in the Paradrse,
such as Sakyamuni in the Lotus, Amitabhasin the
Sukhavatis. --And Candrakirti seems to agree with
this Buddhology.
0n the other hand, even from the point of view of
practictal truth, Bodhisattvas sink into nothingness
by the very reaching of Buddhahood, and therefore
Buddhas are only possessed of the 'body of Law,'
that is to say, a 'non-body.' How can Enjoymentbody
be prediiicated of them? Two answers may be given:--
(A) The scholastical or philosophical answer call
easily be drawn from some well-attested principles:
the Buddha's 'sambhogakaya,' fruit of his charitable
behaviour, does indeed exist as concerns the
Bodhisattvas who behold it; but it does not exist as
far as the Buddha himself is concerned, since a
Buddha, from the very moment of Supreme
Enlightenment, has abandoned the world of becoming
for the everlasting 'dharmakaya.' Sakyamuni on the
Vulture-Peak in the Lotus, or Amitabha, etc., no more
exist than the Buddhas of old whose miraculous stupas
enrich the 'fields' of Buddhas. Owing to
his-equipment of knowledge a Bodhisattva at last
realizes his own aim and sinks into Buddhuhood, ie.
'nirvana without residue.' His equipment of merit,
which has caused the storing of knowledge, causes,
par surcroit, even after nirvana, the welfare of the
creatures, and that in the following way. Although ex
tingnished--and extinguished he must he since he is a
Buddha-the Buddha will be seen for thousands of
cosmic periods as 'sambhogakaya' and as
'nirmanakaya, ' that is to say, endowed with a
glorious and beatific body or with a human frame,
according as the ripening of Bodhisattvas or the
conversion of men is to be promoted. Buddha's former
merits cause the delusion, the joy, and the salvation
of
p.965
the beings who behold him under various aspects.
More explicitly, his surabounding good Karman has
been 'parinamita' or 'turned to others' welfare, (1)
and will fructify for others. When this immeasurable
store of merit is at last nearly exhausted, the ideal
image of the Glorious Body will fade away,Tathagata's
earthy apparitions (nirmanakaya) will come to an end,
and a stupa will appear, less effective than the
apparently living Tathagata was, but still an
abundant principle of benediction.
I venture to believe that Candrakirti's answer
would be such or approximate to it.(2) (The point of
view of the Yogacaras will be presently illustrated,
see pp.967-8.)
(B) But, beyond doubt, such a system will not
prove satisfactory historically.
Without underestimating scholastical tenets,
which can often be ascertained, and the deductions we
may draw from them, which map be sound, without being
over-anxious to understand the doctrines ill their
historic shape, generally to be only guessed by
doubtful yet prudent assumptions, one is overcome
with the conviction that the Buddhists have not
commonly framed their philosophical terms and
concepts with the same precision as we do; nor do
they. carry any principle to its legitimate
consequences. Whereas we are led, by their apparent
earnestness, to suppose that they are building
coherent theories, we afterwards too often ascertain
that they have been indulging in reveries, sharpening
arms for disputes, or framing at random nomenclatures
and mystic identifications. The long labours of the
compilers of the
--------------------------
1 And, in so many words, turned "in ordel that they
could be reborn in purified Buddha's fields," etc.
See Siksamuccaya, p.32.
2 There is, it may be, another answer bearing on the
difference between 'nirvana with residue' or
'nirvana in potentia and 'nirvana without residue'
or nirvana in actu.' But granted that thtre are
material element (rupa). it is quite possible to
understand what 'nirvana with residue' may be:
the survival of the material body after extinction
or liberation of thought. But, according to the
Mahayanist tenets, there is no matter in the case
of dignified saints.
p.966
967
Suttantas , of the Madhyamika doctors , of the
Dignaga's school of logic succeeded, indeed, in
making out a rather clear notion of vacuity, sunyata,
nirvana; it is, in short, full and conscious negation
of any cogitable characteristic, material (rupin) or
spiritual (arupinah skandhah). But, without even
mentioning the wild speculations that have the word
'vajra' ('thunderbolt' or 'diamond') for origin and
support, no Buddhist would admit that 'void' or
'nirvana' could be the same in the case of an
ordinary saint (Arhat) and of a Buddha. Is it
reasonable to compare the small part of void ether in
a pore-hole and the limitless expanse of the sky?(1)
So great a being as a Buddha ought to possess perfect
wisdom and highest trances; but it cannot even be
surmised by a pious Mahayanist that he does not
interfere amongst worldly things. No wonder that he
is styled "free from 'nirvana' (absolute quiescence)
and from 'samsara' (becoming),"(2) that is to say,
that he is active and self-conscious, in so far as
he is free from 'nirvana,' yet undefiled by this very
actirity, since he is free from becoming; and
Santideva, when he quotes a Sutra to this import,
seems not aware that this statement, right as it is
in the case of a Bodhisattva, is rather questionable
in the case of a Buddha. Conversely, the same idea,
in short the idea of a living God, will be expressed
by an opposite phrase. Buddha has reached 'nirvana,'
but remains in the world of becoming; he is
possessed of a double body: the 'Body of Law,' since
he is all-wise, the 'Body of Enjoyment,' since he is
compassionate(3) and perfectly happy. The former, as
we saw above (p.957), can be styled 'Immeasurable
light' and 'All-propitious'; the latter is not a mere
show, but
--------------------------
1 See Matrceta's Varnanarhavarnana, v. │l (edited and
translated by F. W. Thomas, Ind. Ant. 1905, 145).
2 samsaranirvanavimukta. See Siksasamuccaya, p.322.7
(from Dharmasamgitisutra).
3 "Is Buddha compassionate?" The question was put at
the so-styled Pataliputra Council (see
Kathavatthu, xviii. 3). As it of'ten happens, the
heretics (Uttarapathakas) are right in denying
Buddha's pity.
p.967
visible and embodied Buddhahood. Buddhas are at the
same time Brahman and Brahma.
3. THE DOCTRINE OF SAMBHOGAKYA AS ONTOLOGY.
From the orthodox point of view--we mean from
the point of view that has some claims to be styled
Buddhist-- the Sambhogakaya, or glorious possession of
Buddhahood, is but a stage leading to the effective
and exclusive possession of the Dharmakaya, or a
rather active state mystically associated with the
possession of quiescence (Dharmakaya). In any case
the Enjoyment-body is to be obtained by the practice
of the Bodhisattvas. Further, every Buddha is endowed
with such a body.
Now we observe several transformations of the
theory bearing upon very important points in it.
(1) It seems that the 'Enjoyment-bodies' belonging to
the host of the Buddhas unite to form one; we mean
the marvellous appearance manifested in the abode of
the gods Akanisthas, which is substituted for the
innumerable 'Paradises' of old.(1)
(2) According to the doctrines stated above (p.
954), Tantrikas maintain that the Sambhogakaya is "an
effluence or emanation (syandana)(2)of the Dharmadhatu
(or Dharmakaya)," an AEon as Neo-Platonists mould
say, but the first AEon, 'the Womb,' 'the abode from
which all things take their origin by emanation.' (3)
The Vijnanavadins practically agree with the
Tantrikas. Under the name of "subtle dependent
origination "(suksma pratityrasamutpada) they
understand a very well delineated system: Vijnana,
pure, immaculate, and quiescent, gives birth to the
mind (manas), which in turn becomes defiled
--------------------------------
1 Sriguhyendratilaka, quoted Gudhartha,
v.42.--Journal Buddhist Text Society, i, 45, n.3.
--Waddell. "Lamaism." p.85.
2 dharmadhatunisyanda(Namasamgiti, ad v.79)
3 Sarvasattvanam utpattisthanatvan
mahasukhakarasambhogakayo yonih (Amrtakanika ad
Namasamgiti, v.60) , prakrtisyandanasamartha
(Gudhartha, Namasamgiti, v.41).
p.968
(klistamanas) and originates the whole complexus
of thought which constitutes this very world.(1)
Traces (vasanas) made on Vijnana by the thought cause
uninterrupted continuance of the circle.
Enjoyment-body corresponds to the undefiled mind. We
scarcely need to observe that this system, very like
the Brahmanic ones, well harmonizes with the process
of purification and defilement taught in the oldest
books of the Vijnanavadins. (See above, p.952 and
below, p.975.)
III. NIRMANAKYA.
There can be but little doubt of the etymological
meaning of this word, 'created or transformed body.'
The Tibetan translation,
, conveys the idea of a
magical, fictitious, or metamorphic phantom; just as
we see that the Buddha creates magical beings
(nirmita, nairmanikas) of different kinds, Buddhas,
bhiksus, etc., to promote the conversion of men.(2)The
Chinese 化身 or 應身, ' body of transformation, '
illustrates another feature of the theory.(3)
------------------------
1 "World as representing the mind."
2 Not only Buddhas, but magicians also, can create
such phantoms. In the Divyavadana, Mara creates an
image of Buddha; elsewhere he appears under the
appearance of Buddha. (See Hardy, ''Mara in the
guise of Buddha," J.R.A.S. 1902, p.951.)
3 See Burnouf, Introduction, 601: "Nirmana, et les
termes appartenant a la meme fanille que ce mot.
n'ont jamais d'autre sens, dans le style
bouddhique, que celui de 'transformation resultant
de la magic.' "--Sarad Candra, Diet., p.91 (
),
has: "bodily existence, also miraculously emanated
existence." Both translations are very good, see
below, p.973.--Csoma, Dict., p, 305: "an emanating
person, a Buddha."--Jaschke, p.22 : '' body of
transformation and incarnation....Buddha in the
third or visible world, as man on earth."--"Vie et
Voyages de Hiouen-Thsang," 231 and note, and i,
241: "Nirmanakaya (litter. le corps doue de la
faculte de se transformer), 1'etat de celui qui,
p.969
1. OLD FORESHADOWINGS OF THE NIRMANAKAYA'S
DOCTRINE.
Buddha used to compare himself to a lotus-flower:
"Just as a lotus born in water, bred in water,
overcomes mater, and is not defiled by water, in the
same way, born in the world, bred in the world, I
have overcome the world.''(1) Sakyamuni was born as a
man; but Buddhahood has caused an ontological
modification, not only a spiritual one, as it is the
case (at least according to the former dogmatic) with
Arhatship. No one would say that an Arhat is not a
man, although he be living his existence; whereas,
according to the earliest records, Gautama, when
asked what kind of being he is, flatly and
categorically denies that he is a man: "Are you a
Deva? a Gandharva? a Yaksa? a man?"-"I am not a man..
.. Know, O Brahman, that I am a Buddha."(2)
That the historical or rationalistic school, of
which a subbranch had its books written in Pail did
not suppress such declarations, attests indeed the
antiquity of the schools which held the Buddha for a
hyperphysical or supramundane being (lokottara).(3)
Further, if the Singhalese tradition were to be
relied upon, one could lay some stress on the
so-called Council of Asoka (246 B.C.). At this early
date the Pali Vibhajjavadins ( alias the
Sthavira-school) are said to have strongly
----------------------------
etant deja doue des deux [corps] precites, peut
suivant les circonstances apparaitre ou il veut,
developper la voie, et sauver les
creatures.''--Eite1, Handbook, s. voc trikaya and
nirmanakaya. --H.Kern, Inscriptie uit
Battambang.--J.J.M. de Groot, Code du Mahayana, pp.
16, 17. --Bodhisattvabhuml, I, v, on the
nairmaniki rddhi (nirvastukam nirmanam
nirmanacittena yathakamam abhisamskrtam),
1 Ang. N., II, 38; Sam. N.,III, 140.
2 Ang. N., II, 38; see Kern, Manual, 65.
p.970
opposed some varieties of primitive Docetism,
namely, the Vetulyaka theory that the Buddha remained
in the Tusitaheaven, and only sent a phantom of
himself to the world.(1)
2. NIRMANAKAYA.--MAHAYANIST ORTHODOX BUDDHOLOGY.
The strictly Buddhist theories of the great
Vehicle embodied in the dogma of the Nirmanakaya are
easily accounted for by the speculations met with in
the Anguttara or in the Kathavatthu, granted that the
belief in magical phantoms created by Buddhas, by
Mara, by holy men of any kind, was a current one.
Our documents allow us to analyze this dogma
under three entries.
(A) as soon as a Bodhisattva--we mean a future
Buddha of the old human type--becomes a Buddha, he is
immediately promoted to the high state of radiance
above described as Beatific Body; in the same way, it
happens that Arhats directly sink into nirvana, and
that their mortal frame is consumed by a mystic fire.
But, " out of pity for the world," the new Buddha
causes his human body to survive: the men and the
gods see it, hear the lessons it gives, admire the
wheel it moves, become pious witnesses of its
nirvana, and preserve its bones in the stupas. One
scarcely needs to remark, but texts expressly state
it, that a Buddha's bones are not bones(2); that
after Enlightenment nothing earthy, human,
heavenly, or mundane remains in a Tathagata.
Therefore, his visible appearance is but a contrived
or magical body. Thus we obtain the definition,
nirmanakaya = 'human Buddha,' or more explicitly
'unsubstantial body which remains of a Bodhisattva
after he has reached Buddhahood.'
----------------------------
1 Kathavatthu, xviii, 1.2.
2 See Surarnaprabhasa, p. 8 : anasthirudhire kaye
kuto dhatur bhavisyati. --Contrast the views of
the Astasahasrika, pp. 94-5 on the worship of the
relies.
p.971
As it has been ably observed by Wassilieff, this
theorem seems to be a primitive Mahayanist
interpretation of the Hinayanist tenets on nirvana
with residue (sopadhisesanirvana). It very well suits
what may be anticipated from the above quoted Pali
documents, although, to say the truth, it rests on
the sole authority of the Russian scholar.(1)
(B) It cannot be questioned, however, that more
coherent and advanced 'hyperphysical' (lokottaras)
theories have been framed, and, very possibly, at the
very dawn of Buddhist speculation.
The reader is well aware that, according to one
school of the Little Vehicle, or, more exactly,
according to a dogmatical and religious tendency
largely spread in the whole Buddhist world, Sakyamuni
was an extraordinary being, not only after his
reaching Buddhahood, but even from his last birth as
a Bodhisattva. To content ourselves with the mention
of a single point, it seems evident that the thirty-
two marks are more than mere tokens of the future
Buddhahood of a Bodhisattva; they assure to the
Bodhisattva's body founded claims to be looked upon
as supramundane.(2)
The Lokottaravadins believe that the
Boddhisattvas are 'superior to the world'; and it is
not a mere clerical or pious mistake if the
Mahavastu, one of their authoritative books, styles
them 'Bhagavantas' ('Lords'). There is no precise
difference between Lords Buddhas and Lords
Bodhisattvas; what is human-like in the appearance
and behaviour of the latter is such by charitable
contrivance (upaya). "To comply with the world" (this
phrase is a Pali one), "out of compassion for the
world," they cause to appear as made of blood and
flesh a body that is 'made of mind.' People believe
that Bodhisattvas have father, mother, wife, son; but
it is a mere show, etc.(3)
-------------------------
1 See Wassilieff, 127 (137) . The statements of
Grunwedel (Mythologie, 35, 112)and others depend
on Wassilieff.
2 The Bodhisattvabhumi has elaborate theories on the
gradual acquisition of the marks by the
Bodhisattvas of the different stages.
3 See the Mahavastu and Barth, Journal des Savants,
1899, August.
p.972
Very similar is the opinion held by Vetulyakas,
according to Buddhaghosa, and already disposed of by
the Fathers of Asoka's Council, that the Buddha did
not for a moment resign the royalty amongst the
Tusita-gods, and sent a phantom to be born as
Bodhisattva, to reach Bodhi, and to play the part of
a Tathagata. Howerer this system is unknown to the
redactors of the Mahavastu. But the phrase used in
Kathavatthu's commentary, nirmitarupamatraka, 'being
only artificial body,' exactly covers the notion
conveyed by the word nirmanakaya, and Buddhaghosa's
description well agrees with the Mahayanist human
(i.e.phantom-like) and celestial Buddhas.
Mythological features only are modified, the Vulture
peak (Saddharmapundarika) , the sukhavati or Paradise
(Vyuhas and Amitayuh-sutras), the Bhagavatiyoni or
Female-Buddha's lap (Tantras) making for the Tusita
heaven of old, as residences of the 'real' or
beatific Buddha. From measureless AEons, nay, at the
very beginning, Sakyumuni (or Amitabha, or
Vajrasnttva) has reached the supreme and perfect
Enlightenment, not, as people fancy, first at Gaya:
he is repeatedly born in the world of the living,
i.e. he causes magical Buddhas to obtain Body, teach
the Law, and be extinct.(1)
This Buddhology, so very like the Visnuit system
of Avatars, overrules multiple mythological surmises.
One can mention the lists of the thousand human
Buddhas of the Blessed AEon or Glorious Age
(Bhadrakalpa), where the same names occur more than
once; Vairocana e.g. appears five times. Another
application of the principle, and a more celebrated
one, is the system of the Five Jinas (the so-called
Dhyanibuddhas) , and of the corresponding five
Manusibuddhas: the former are real Buddhas, like the
Sakyamuni of the Lotus; the latter would be exactly
termed 'nairmanikas' ('contrived').
(C) Further, the question can be raised whether
a Buddha has many contemporaneous 'magical bodies, '
and whether
-----------------------
1 See Saddharmapundarika, S.B. of the East, xxi,
Introduction, p.xxv, and pp.295 (xiv), 307 (xv,
1).
p.973
they always appear in a Buddha-shape? The old
legends (Divyavadana, etc.) show us that Sakyamuni
created such 'phantoms' (nirmitakas) that were
required, and, accordingly, the principle seems to be
that the magical forms mill be adapted to every
particular case. The 'nirmanakaya' of a Buddha is
multiform,(1) or, in other words, Buddha transforms
himself according to the dispositions of the
creatures to be saved. Therefore 'nirmanakaya' is
rightly translated 'transformation body.'
The Buddha-like appearances are the best of the
'trans formations'; rather, they ought to be called
'reflexes' (pratibimba) , (2) as they bear the
excellent marks which characterize 'real' Buddhas in
their Enjoyment-body. But the Buddhas are sometimes
transformed as glowing bolids, as Mahesvara, as an
ape, etc. There is not a place where they do not
manifest themselves; and therefore 'nirmanakaya' is
styled 'omnipresent' (sarvatraga) , and rightly
defined 'collection of forrms' (ruparasi).(3)
One could be of opinion that, according to the
'better orthodoxy, ' transformrations are more
suitable in the case of the Bodhisattvas than in the
case of the Buddhas, except as far as Buddha-like
appearances are meant. A Buddha's nirmanakayas are
rather Avatar-like, human Buddhas; a Bodhisattva's
transformations are more like the 'rupas' or forms
of some Hindu deities. Be that as it may, Avalokita
is par excellence the polymorphical being.
The 'Fa-t'ien's stanza' well illustrates the
Nirmanakaya, and can be quoted as a summary of what
precedes:-- "Homage to the greatly beneficent Magical
[or Transformation] Body of the Munis, which, in
order to promote
-----------------------
1 nanarupa, Namasamgiti's Commentary ad v. 79. Cf.
Karuna pundarika, 94.12.
2 Vajrapni is the reflex (pratibimba) of
Vajrasattra. There are two classes of 'contrived
Buddhas': some of them are immediate creations of
the Buddha and produce new 'contrived Buddhas';
these last are wanting in this generative power
(de Groot, Code du Mahayana, p.16).
3 See above, p. 954, n. 3.
J.R.A.S. 1906.
p.974
the ripening of beinge, sometimes blazes and
glows like fire; sometimes, on the contrary, at the
Illumination or in moving the Wheel of the Law,
appears in full appeasment; which evolves under
numerous aspects, gives security to the triple world
by its various contrivances, and visits the ten
regions."(1)
3. DOCTRINE OF NIRMINAKAYA AS A PART OF THE
ONTOLOGY
We have seen how the doctrine of 'magical
projections' completes the orthodox or semi-orthodox
Buddhology, peoples the heavens, and, in the case of
Lamaism, furnishes the Church with worthies. This
doctrine has yet another claim to our attention. wing
to the vicinity of some philosophical views, both
Buddhist and Hindoo, met above (pp. 954,967), it has
been curiously modified. In a great number of late
documents (Tantras), and according to the tenets of
the Vijnanavadins, which are pretty old, one has to
understand as Buddha's nirmanakaya not only the
Buddha-like appearances contrived by some Buddha for
special aims, the complete or partial Buddha's
Avatars, as many mythological entities can be, but,
rather, the universality of worldly things. These are
hut 'untrue' transformations of the cosmic ether-like
substance known as 'Body of Law' or 'Vijnana')
(Intellect). Nirmanakaya is multiple or manifold, as
it; is caused by the disintegantion of the Body of
Law, by the particularization of the Intellect, or
more accurately as it is the particularized Intellect
itself. Nevertheless, granted that its matrix
(garbha), or 'spring source' (syandanasamartha) is
unique and 'really' remains undivided, the world as a
whole can be styled Buddha's nirmanakaya.
-------------------------
1 sattvanam pakahetoh kvacid anala ivabhati yo
dipyamanah │ sambodhau dharmacakre kvacid api ca
punar drsyate yah prasantah │
naikakarapravattam tribhavabhayaharam visvarupair
upayair ││ vande nirmanakayam dasadiganugatam
tam mahartham muninam ││
p.975
Here, again we have to do with speculations which
are very like the Samkhya or Vedantist cosmologies.
Dharmakaya = pradhana = brahman; nirmanakaya =
prakrti or pradhanaparinama = brahmavivarta, etc. It
is of interest to observe that, compared with
'parinama' of the Samkhyas, 'nirmana' has the
advantage, of illustrating the irreality of the
evolved or transformed things, and well suits a
philosophy which is pervaded by Vacuitp (sunyata).
Nor is the character of the doctrine under examination
to be understood. Asvaghosa, its earliest known
promoter, was not, we can assume, a Vedantist sans
le savoir.
His "Awakening of Faith in the Great Vehicle, "
one of the best Buddhist treatises that have been
written, furnishes us with a very strongly organized
synthesis of the theological and ontological notions
connected with the three bodies.(l) Void (sunya) and
radiant (prabhasvara) Intellect is the Dharmakaya or
Buddhahood. When agitated by all-good influences its
limpidity is lost to some extent, and it originates
or transforms itself into 'karmavijnana,' actual or
active Intellect, out of which are projected, i.e. by
which are thought, the beatific conceptions known as
Bliss- or Enjoynmant-bodies. Further, primordial
Intellect, owing to previous traces (vasanas), is
brought down to the state of 'Intellect who
distinguishes particulars' (vastuprativikalpa-
vijnana): this is the creator (nirmatar) of the
so-called material world and world of concupiscence
(rupaloka, kamaloka). Common people, sravakas and
Pratyekas beget, i.e. see, numberless and various
transformation bodies.
People who believe that there is a self, that
there are pleasant and unpleasant things, create such
'bodies' as human body, enjoyable things, Isvara,
Mahadeva; at the best they keep a very wrong idea
of a Buddha, as they have not yet removed the notion
of existence and non-existence: they believe in a
human Buddha to be extinct in nirvana, and themselves
long for nirvana; they behold a Buddha in
'nirmanakaya, ' and themselves appear as 'nirmanakayas'
-------------------------
1 See Suzuki's able translation, p. 100.
p.976
of definite order. Not so as concerns the
Bodhisattvas: such beings have got the notion of the
'Body of Law,' as they know that there is neither
existence nor non-existence; they are en communion
with the Dharmakaya (dharmakaya-prabhavita), (1) as
they theoretically know their substantial
non-differentiation therefrom; but they have not yet
realizeed (saksatkar) it, since they are conscious of
their identity with it. Although undefiled by the
world, owing to their knowledge (jnanasambhara), they
practise the career of merit (punyasambhara), and
enjoy an illusory but purifving activity: they will
obtain or have already obtained beatific bodies; they
behold celestial Tathagatas, endowed with marvellous
qnalifications, ripe for, if not already arrived at,
everlasting quiescence in Dharmakaya.
I shall not endeavour to unravel the many
problems and sub-problems that the preceding expose
will no doubt suggest to the reader. Some of them
need long and wearisome discussion. The most
interesting, viz., the statement of the historical
and speculative affinities of the Buddhist
theologies and metaphysics with the Brahmanical ones,
is hardly ripe for inquiry, and in any case requires
wider knowledgre of the Brahmanism and Hinduism than
I call profess to have.(2)
On the other hand, I have avoided any too
technical reference to Tantrism, althongh Tantrism
lays much stress on the Bodies, and that for some
obvious reasons. Tantric books profess to be
mysterious, and such they really are. Again, whereas
Madhyamika and Vijnanavadin scholars are as
intelligible as the common deficiencies of Hindoo
mind and the general rules of dialectic disquisition
bearing on mixed mythological-ontological postulata
allow them to be, it is an unquestionable yet painful
fact that the Tantric
-------------------------
1 See Siksasamuccaya, 159, 7; Suzuki, 64, 94.
2 Jaina theories are also of interest; I see, for
instance, Upamitabhavaprapanca Katha, pp. 677
foll., on the Sadgiri, the Jainasatpura, which
bear strong analogies with the Sukhavatis of the
Buddhists.
p.977
authors, Vajracaryas and Siddhas of every rank,
are the more obscure and abstruse the more vulgar or
obscene are the facts that they have made the
starting-point of their insane or frantic
lucubrations. Without mentioning the five
'vital-airs' and the Tantras of 'common yoga,' which
chiefly deal with them, a commentary tells us in so
many words that the five Bodies identified with the
five Jinas--the so-called Dhyanibuddhas, with the
five Knowledges, with the five 'Vital-airs,' with the
five Joys (ananda)--are nothing else than five carnal
pleasures, to be better explained in a Kamasastra
than in a Bauddha tract. Nevertheless, the Tantras
contain much that is old, philosophical views,
nomenclature, mythology. In their worst exegesis they
pretend to be truly Buddhistic, namely, when they
identify with the 'fifth joy' this Law or
Thunderbolt-body (vajrakaya), "which is present in
everyone like a precious gem, and is to be known by
personal experience."(1) They afford strange and
interesting instances of the plasticity of the
Buddhism; but their speculations are to some degree
coherent and organic, and therefore are not beyond
the reach of European analysis. Professor Grunwedel
and M. A. Foucher have done much to elucidate their
hagio graphly in every respect; such publications as
Bendall's edition of Subhasitasamgraha afford good
materials for their dogmatic. But I cannot as yet
deal seriously with the Five Bodies.
-----------------------
1 The Siddhas aim at obtaining a hypercosmic
(lokottara) body, on the pattern of the
Bodhisattva-body.