Dharmakaya
Encyclopedia
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya
doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā (The Perfection of Insight In Eight Thousand Verses), composed in the 1st century BCE. It constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (Sanskrit: acintya) aspect of a Buddha, out of which Buddhas – and indeed all "phenomena" (Sanskrit: dharmas) – arise, and to which they return after their dissolution.
Buddhas are manifestations of the Dharmakaya called Nirmanakaya. Unlike ordinary unenlightened persons, Buddhas (and arhats) do not die (though their physical bodies undergo the cessation of biological functions and subsequent disintegration). In the Lotus Sutra
(sixth fascicle) the Buddha explains that he has always and will always exist to lead beings to their salvation. This eternal aspect of Buddha is the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya may be considered the most sublime or truest reality in the universe.
" (Sanskrit). "Sku" has the meanings: "body, form, image, bodily form, figure". Thondup & Talbott (1996, 2002: p. 48) render it as the "ultimate body". In a key scholarly collaborative Nyingmapa translation work published in 2005, furthermore notable as the first complete rendering of the Bardo Thodol
into the English language from the Tibetan, this technical term was configured into English as "Buddha-body of Reality".
, Karma Lingpa
, Gyurme Dorje, Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa (2005: p. 452) define "Buddha-body of Reality", which is a rendering of the Tibetan chos-sku and the Sanskrit dharmakāya, as:
:
and Nirmanakaya, the Dharmakaya does not possess any 'divine attributes' nor 'ornamentation' (Wylie: phyag mtshan) as it is not only 'without form' or 'formless' (Sanskrit: arūpa
) but beyond any concept, form, ornament, attribute or quality of the 'three realms' (Wylie: khams-gsum; Sanskrit: tridhatu). In the early traditions of what has been given the nomenclature Buddhism, depictions of the Shakyamuni Buddha were neither iconic nor aniconic but depictions of empty space and absence: petrosomatoglyph
s and footprints, for example. This is a worthy visual device to draw attention to the 'absence' and 'emptiness' of "thus gone" (Sanskrit: Tathāgata
) and the doctrine of Śūnyatā and represent whilst not representing. Later representations of the buddha were introduced as "skillful means" (Sanskrit: upāya
). In the Dzogchen
tradition, the Five Pure Lights
which are the uncreated origin of the Five Wisdoms
(the Five Wisdoms are the fabric of that which constitutes the Sambhogakaya
, and this is common to both the Dzogchen traditions of the Nyingmapa and Bonpo), the colour blue is an iconographic polysemic rendering of the Mahābhūta
(Sanskrit) element, the "pure light" of 'space' (Sanskrit: Ākāśa). Fremantle (2001: p. 85) states:
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
). In particular refer the Gongpa Zangtal (Wylie: kun tu bzang po'i dgongs pa zang thal du bstan pa; English: Direct Revelation of Samantabhadra's Mind), a terma
cycle revealed by Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408) and part of the 'Northern Treasures' or 'Jangter' (chang ter; Wylie: byang gter).
Sawyer (1998: unpaginated) in an essay to accompany curatorial notes for an exhibition, conveys the importance of mirror
iconography to Dharmakaya:
The Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathagata (the Buddha) is Dhamma-kaya, the "Truth-body" or the "Embodiment of Truth", as well as Dharmabhuta, "Truth-become", that is, "One who has become Truth" (Digha Nikaya). On another occasion, the Buddha told Vakkali: "He who sees the Dhamma (Truth) sees the Tathagata
, he who sees the Tathagata sees the Dhamma (Samyutta Nikaya). That is to say, the Buddha is equal to Truth, and all Buddhas are one and the same, being no different from one another in the Dharma-kaya, because Truth is one."
During the Buddha's life great veneration was shown to him by persons from the highest to the lowest social classes. The Buddha understood that this reverence was sometimes misguided, as it was based on superficial appearances. He advised people against turning him into an object of worship through the use of carvings and sculptures that represented his physical form. Nonetheless, a mythology developed concerning the physical characteristics of Universal Buddhas. In the Pali scriptures it is claimed that all Buddhas have the 32 major marks, and the 80 minor marks of a superior being. These marks are not necessarily physical, but are talked about as bodily features. They include the Ushnisha
—a protuberance on the crown of the head; hair tightly curled; a white tuft of hair between the eyes, long arms that reach to their knees, long fingers and toes that are webbed; his penis is completely covered by his foreskin; images of an eight-spoked wheel on the soles of their feet, forty teeth, etc. If these were physical marks, the Buddha would have been a strange looking individual. However, since not everyone was able to discern these marks, we can assume that they were either metaphorical, or a psychic phenomenon.
After the Buddha's Parinirvana
a distinction was made between the Buddhas physical body, rupakaya; and his Dharmakaya aspect. This was an understandable and necessary development. As the Buddha told Vakkali, he was a living example of the 'Truth' of the Dharma. Without that form to relate to, the Buddha's followers could only relate to the Dharmakaya aspect of him. Despite the growth of the stupa
cult in which the remains, or relics, of enlightened beings were worshipped, Buddhism sees such things as symbols of the Truth, rather than the Truth itself.
Buddhists were concerned with the transcendent aspect of the Dharma. So therefore if the Dharma is transcendental, totally beyond space and time, then so is the Dharmakaya. One response to this was the development of the Tathagatagarbha Doctrine
, wherein the Tathagatagarbha or Buddha Nature is on occasion equated with the Dharmakaya or Self of the Buddha (see Nirvana Sutra). Another was the introduction of the Sambhogakaya which conceptually fits between the Nirmanakaya (which is what the Rupakaya came to be called according in the Buddhist Canon) and the Dharmakaya.
The Trikaya
doctrine (Sanskrit
, literally "three bodies" or "three personalities"; 三身 Chinese
: Sānshén) is an important Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality, and what a Buddha is. By the 4th century CE
the Trikaya doctrine had assumed the form that we now know. Briefly the doctrine says that a Buddha has three "bodies": the nirmaṇakāya or "created body", which manifests in time and space; the sambhogakāya or "body of mutual enjoyment", which is an archetypal manifestation; and the Dharmakāya or "reality body", which embodies the very principle of enlightenment and is omnipresent and boundless.
The Sambhogakaya is that aspect of the Buddha, or the Dharma, that one meets in visions and in deep meditation. It could be considered an interface with the Dharmakaya. What this doctrine does, as well as that of the Tathagatagarbha, is to bring the transcendental within reach—it places the transcendental within the plane of immanence
.
's 19th century commentary to the Lojong
slogan, "To see confusion as the four kayas, the sunyata protection is unsurpassable" (as translated by Ken McLeod
) when one meditates on ultimate bodhicitta
and rests 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 sambhogakaya
is that they appear with clarity, the nirmanakaya is that this emptiness and clarity occur together, and the svabhavikakaya aspect is that these are inseparable.
argues that this concept is dhatu-vada (essentialist
) and hence not Buddhist, because it posits that all things arise and return to an all encompassing one.
, and is affiliated with his global organization the United Trungram Buddhist Fellowship (UTBF). Gyaltrul Rinpoche's Dharmakaya organization was founded for the specific purpose of bringing the teachings and meditation practices from the Trungram Tradition of the Karma Kagyu
lineage to North America.
Trikaya
The Trikāya doctrine is an important Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of a Buddha. By the 4th century CE the Trikāya Doctrine had assumed the form that we now know...
doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā (The Perfection of Insight In Eight Thousand Verses), composed in the 1st century BCE. It constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (Sanskrit: acintya) aspect of a Buddha, out of which Buddhas – and indeed all "phenomena" (Sanskrit: dharmas) – arise, and to which they return after their dissolution.
Buddhas are manifestations of the Dharmakaya called Nirmanakaya. Unlike ordinary unenlightened persons, Buddhas (and arhats) do not die (though their physical bodies undergo the cessation of biological functions and subsequent disintegration). In the Lotus Sutra
Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...
(sixth fascicle) the Buddha explains that he has always and will always exist to lead beings to their salvation. This eternal aspect of Buddha is the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya may be considered the most sublime or truest reality in the universe.
Etymology
Tibetan: chos sku "Chos" (Tibetan) can be glossed as "dharmaDharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
" (Sanskrit). "Sku" has the meanings: "body, form, image, bodily form, figure". Thondup & Talbott (1996, 2002: p. 48) render it as the "ultimate body". In a key scholarly collaborative Nyingmapa translation work published in 2005, furthermore notable as the first complete rendering of the Bardo Thodol
Bardo Thodol
The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State , sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text...
into the English language from the Tibetan, this technical term was configured into English as "Buddha-body of Reality".
Definitions
PadmasambhavaPadmasambhava
Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...
, Karma Lingpa
Karma Lingpa
Karma Lingpa , a great tertön, is embraced as a reincarnation of Chokro Luyi Gyaltsen , a great master, and accepted as the revealer of the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead. Karma Lingpa took body in southeast Tibet as the eldest son of Nyida Sangye , the great Tantric practitioner...
, Gyurme Dorje, Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa (2005: p. 452) define "Buddha-body of Reality", which is a rendering of the Tibetan chos-sku and the Sanskrit dharmakāya, as:
...the 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.
Qualities
Though attributeless and unattributable, Dharmakaya is held to possesses three great qualities: great purity (Wylie: sPang Pa Chen Po), great realization (Wylie: rTogs Pa Chen Po) and great mind (Wylie: Sems Pa Chen Po).Iconography
Thondup & Talbott (1996, 2002: p. 48) identify Dharmakaya with the "naked" ("sky-clad"; Sanskrit: Digāmbara), unornamented, sky-blue SamantabhadraSamantabhadra
Samantabhadra , is a bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism associated with Buddhist practice and meditation. Together with Shakyamuni Buddha and fellow bodhisattva Manjusri he forms the Shakyamuni trinity in Buddhism...
:
Unlike the 'form bodies' (Sanskrit: rūpakāya) of Sambhogakaya
In Nyingma icons, Dharmakāya is symbolized by a naked, sky-coloured (light blue) male and female Buddha in union [Kāmamudrā], called Samantabhadra [and Samantabhadri].
Sambhogakaya
The Sambhogakāya is the second mode or aspect of the Trikaya. Sambhogakaya has also been translated as the "deity dimension", "body of bliss" or "astral body". Sambhogakaya refers to the luminous form of clear light the Buddhist practitioner attains upon the reaching the highest dimensions of...
and Nirmanakaya, the Dharmakaya does not possess any 'divine attributes' nor 'ornamentation' (Wylie: phyag mtshan) as it is not only 'without form' or 'formless' (Sanskrit: arūpa
Arupa
In Hinduism and Buddhism, arūpa , refers to formless or also non-material objects or subjects. Ether is somewhat arūpa, while the classical elements are rupa....
) but beyond any concept, form, ornament, attribute or quality of the 'three realms' (Wylie: khams-gsum; Sanskrit: tridhatu). In the early traditions of what has been given the nomenclature Buddhism, depictions of the Shakyamuni Buddha were neither iconic nor aniconic but depictions of empty space and absence: petrosomatoglyph
Petrosomatoglyph
A petrosomatoglyph is an image of parts of a human or animal body incised in rock. Many were created by Celtic peoples, such as the Picts, Scots, Irish, Cornish, Cumbrians, Bretons and Welsh. These representations date from the Early Middle Ages; others of uncertain purpose date back to megalithic...
s and footprints, for example. This is a worthy visual device to draw attention to the 'absence' and 'emptiness' of "thus gone" (Sanskrit: Tathāgata
Tathagata
Tathāgata in Pali and Sanskrit) is the name the Buddha of the scriptures uses when referring to himself. The term means, paradoxically, both one who has thus gone and one who has thus come . Hence, the Tathagata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena...
) and the doctrine of Śūnyatā and represent whilst not representing. Later representations of the buddha were introduced as "skillful means" (Sanskrit: upāya
Upaya
Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is derived from the root upa√i and refers to a means that goes or brings one up to some goal, often the goal of Enlightenment. The term is often used with kaushalya ; upaya-kaushalya means roughly "skill in means"...
). In the Dzogchen
Dzogchen
According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...
tradition, the Five Pure Lights
Five Pure Lights
The Five Pure Lights are experiential manifestations in the Dzogchen tradition of Bön and Nyingma and are aspects of non-dual clarity and primordial luminosity of dharmakaya, kunzhi and/or emptiness...
which are the uncreated origin of the Five Wisdoms
Five Wisdoms
The Five Wisdoms is an upāya or 'skillful means' doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism. The Five Wisdoms may be understood as the indivisible 'continuüm of bodhi ' , especially according to Yogācarā based Mahāyāna doctrines, ultimately derived from the Buddhabhūmi Sūtra.Capriles in...
(the Five Wisdoms are the fabric of that which constitutes the Sambhogakaya
Sambhogakaya
The Sambhogakāya is the second mode or aspect of the Trikaya. Sambhogakaya has also been translated as the "deity dimension", "body of bliss" or "astral body". Sambhogakaya refers to the luminous form of clear light the Buddhist practitioner attains upon the reaching the highest dimensions of...
, and this is common to both the Dzogchen traditions of the Nyingmapa and Bonpo), the colour blue is an iconographic polysemic rendering of the Mahābhūta
Mahabhuta
Mahābhūta is Sanskrit and Pāli for "great element." In Buddhism, the "four great elements" are earth, water, fire and air...
(Sanskrit) element, the "pure light" of 'space' (Sanskrit: Ākāśa). Fremantle (2001: p. 85) states:
Space is simultaneously the first and the last of the great elements. It is the origin and precondition of the other four, and it is also their culmination...The Sanskrit word for space is the same as for the sky: akasha, which means "shining and clear." What is it that we call the sky? It marks the boundary of our vision, the limit our sight can reach. If we could see more clearly, the sky would extend infinitely into outer space. The sky is an imaginary boundary set by the limitations of our senses, and also by the limitations of our mind, since we find it almost impossible to imagine a totally limitless [U]niverse. Space is the dimension in which everything exists. It is all-encompassing, all-pervading, and boundless. It is synonymous with emptiness: that emptiness which is simultaneously fullness.
The conceptually bridging and building poetic device of analogy
Analogy
Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
, as an exemplar where Dharmakaya is evocatively likened to 'sky' and 'space', is a persistent and pervasive visual metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
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
Acintya
Acintya, also Atintya , also Tunggal is the supreme god of Hinduism as practiced in Indonesia , and most of all in the island of Bali, equivalent to the concept of Brahman...
). In particular refer the Gongpa Zangtal (Wylie: kun tu bzang po'i dgongs pa zang thal du bstan pa; English: Direct Revelation of Samantabhadra's Mind), a terma
Terma (Buddhism)
Terma are key Tibetan Buddhist and Bön teachings, which the tradition holds were originally esoterically hidden by various adepts such as Padmasambhava and his consorts in the 8th century for future discovery at auspicious times by other adepts, known as tertöns. As such, they represent a...
cycle revealed by Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1408) and part of the 'Northern Treasures' or 'Jangter' (chang ter; Wylie: byang gter).
Sawyer (1998: unpaginated) in an essay to accompany curatorial notes for an exhibition, conveys the importance of mirror
Melong
Melong is a Tibetan term that means "mirror", "looking glass". The melong is a polyvalent symbol, divine attribute, and quality of the enlightened mindstream or bodhicitta.-Discussion:The mirror is an ancient symbol throughout Indian religions...
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).
Origins
In the Pali CanonPāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
The Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathagata (the Buddha) is Dhamma-kaya, the "Truth-body" or the "Embodiment of Truth", as well as Dharmabhuta, "Truth-become", that is, "One who has become Truth" (Digha Nikaya). On another occasion, the Buddha told Vakkali: "He who sees the Dhamma (Truth) sees the Tathagata
Tathagata
Tathāgata in Pali and Sanskrit) is the name the Buddha of the scriptures uses when referring to himself. The term means, paradoxically, both one who has thus gone and one who has thus come . Hence, the Tathagata is beyond all coming and going – beyond all transitory phenomena...
, he who sees the Tathagata sees the Dhamma (Samyutta Nikaya). That is to say, the Buddha is equal to Truth, and all Buddhas are one and the same, being no different from one another in the Dharma-kaya, because Truth is one."
During the Buddha's life great veneration was shown to him by persons from the highest to the lowest social classes. The Buddha understood that this reverence was sometimes misguided, as it was based on superficial appearances. He advised people against turning him into an object of worship through the use of carvings and sculptures that represented his physical form. Nonetheless, a mythology developed concerning the physical characteristics of Universal Buddhas. In the Pali scriptures it is claimed that all Buddhas have the 32 major marks, and the 80 minor marks of a superior being. These marks are not necessarily physical, but are talked about as bodily features. They include the Ushnisha
Ushnisha
The ushnisha is a three dimensional oval at the top of the head of the Buddha. It symbolizes his attainment of reliance in the spiritual guide....
—a protuberance on the crown of the head; hair tightly curled; a white tuft of hair between the eyes, long arms that reach to their knees, long fingers and toes that are webbed; his penis is completely covered by his foreskin; images of an eight-spoked wheel on the soles of their feet, forty teeth, etc. If these were physical marks, the Buddha would have been a strange looking individual. However, since not everyone was able to discern these marks, we can assume that they were either metaphorical, or a psychic phenomenon.
After the Buddha's Parinirvana
Parinirvana
In Buddhism, parinirvana is the final nirvana, which occurs upon the death of the body of someone who has attained complete awakening...
a distinction was made between the Buddhas physical body, rupakaya; and his Dharmakaya aspect. This was an understandable and necessary development. As the Buddha told Vakkali, he was a living example of the 'Truth' of the Dharma. Without that form to relate to, the Buddha's followers could only relate to the Dharmakaya aspect of him. Despite the growth of the stupa
Stupa
A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
cult in which the remains, or relics, of enlightened beings were worshipped, Buddhism sees such things as symbols of the Truth, rather than the Truth itself.
Trikaya doctrine
Later MahayanaMahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
Buddhists were concerned with the transcendent aspect of the Dharma. So therefore if the Dharma is transcendental, totally beyond space and time, then so is the Dharmakaya. One response to this was the development of the Tathagatagarbha Doctrine
Tathagatagarbha doctrine
In Mahāyāna, The "Tathāgatagarbha Sutras" are a collection of Mahayana sutras which present a unique model of Buddha-nature, i.e. the original vision of the Buddha-nature as an ungenerated, unconditioned and immortal Buddhic element within all beings. Even though this collection was generally...
, wherein the Tathagatagarbha or Buddha Nature is on occasion equated with the Dharmakaya or Self of the Buddha (see Nirvana Sutra). Another was the introduction of the Sambhogakaya which conceptually fits between the Nirmanakaya (which is what the Rupakaya came to be called according in the Buddhist Canon) and the Dharmakaya.
The Trikaya
Trikaya
The Trikāya doctrine is an important Mahayana Buddhist teaching on both the nature of reality and the nature of a Buddha. By the 4th century CE the Trikāya Doctrine had assumed the form that we now know...
doctrine (Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, literally "three bodies" or "three personalities"; 三身 Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
: Sānshén) is an important Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality, and what a Buddha is. By the 4th century CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
the Trikaya doctrine had assumed the form that we now know. Briefly the doctrine says that a Buddha has three "bodies": the nirmaṇakāya or "created body", which manifests in time and space; the sambhogakāya or "body of mutual enjoyment", which is an archetypal manifestation; and the Dharmakāya or "reality body", which embodies the very principle of enlightenment and is omnipresent and boundless.
The Sambhogakaya is that aspect of the Buddha, or the Dharma, that one meets in visions and in deep meditation. It could be considered an interface with the Dharmakaya. What this doctrine does, as well as that of the Tathagatagarbha, is to bring the transcendental within reach—it places the transcendental within the plane of immanence
Plane of immanence
Plane of immanence is a founding concept in the metaphysics or ontology of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Immanence, meaning "existing or remaining within" generally offers a relative opposition to transcendence, a divine or metaphysical beyond or outside...
.
Tibetan Mahayana teachings
According to Jamgon KongtrulJamgon Kongtrul
Jamgön Kongtrül is a name of a prominent line of Tibetan Buddhist teachers , primarily identified with the first Jamgon Kongtrul, but also the name shared by members of a lineage held by tradition to be his subsequent reincarnations , to date....
's 19th century commentary to the Lojong
Lojong
Lojong is a mind training practice in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition based on a set of aphorisms formulated in Tibet in the 12th century by Geshe Chekhawa...
slogan, "To see confusion as the four kayas, the sunyata protection is unsurpassable" (as translated by Ken McLeod
Ken McLeod
Ken McLeod is a senior Western translator, author and teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. He received traditional training mainly in the Shangpa-Kagyu lineage, through a long association with his principal teacher Kalu Rinpoche, whom he met in 1970. McLeod resides in Los Angeles, CA where he founded...
) when one meditates on ultimate bodhicitta
Bodhicitta
In Buddhism, bodhicitta jang chub sem, Mongolian бодь сэтгэл) is the intention to achieve omniscient Buddhahood as fast as possible, so that one may benefit infinite sentient beings...
and rests in a state where appearances simply appear but there is no clinging to them, the dharmakaya
Dharmakaya
The Dharmakāya is a central idea in Mahayana Buddhism forming part of the Trikaya doctrine that was possibly first expounded in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prajñā-pāramitā , composed in the 1st century BCE...
aspect is that all appearances are empty in nature, the sambhogakaya
Sambhogakaya
The Sambhogakāya is the second mode or aspect of the Trikaya. Sambhogakaya has also been translated as the "deity dimension", "body of bliss" or "astral body". Sambhogakaya refers to the luminous form of clear light the Buddhist practitioner attains upon the reaching the highest dimensions of...
is that they appear with clarity, the nirmanakaya is that this emptiness and clarity occur together, and the svabhavikakaya aspect is that these are inseparable.
Criticism by Japanese Scholars
Critical BuddhismCritical Buddhism
Critical Buddhism is a trend in Japanese Buddhist scholarship, associated primarily with the works of Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shirō. According to Lin Chen-kuo, Hakamaya's view is that "Critical Buddhism sees methodical, rational critique as belonging to the very foundations of Buddhism...
argues that this concept is dhatu-vada (essentialist
Sassatavada
Sassatavada is a kind of thinking rejected by the Buddha in the nikayas . One example of it is the belief that the individual has an unchanging Self. Views of this kind were held at the Buddha's time by a variety of groups....
) and hence not Buddhist, because it posits that all things arise and return to an all encompassing one.
Buddhist Organization
Recently, Dharmakaya has also become the name for an organization founded by H. E. the 4th Trungram Gyaltrul RinpocheTrungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche
Trungram GyaltrulA line of tulkus of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.The 4th Trungram Gyaltrul, also Drungram Gyaltrul, Tenpa Gyaltsen, and Gyalwa Lama , was born into a Nepalese Sherpa family and was recognized by the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of the 3rd Trungram Gyaltrul.He...
, and is affiliated with his global organization the United Trungram Buddhist Fellowship (UTBF). Gyaltrul Rinpoche's Dharmakaya organization was founded for the specific purpose of bringing the teachings and meditation practices from the Trungram Tradition of the Karma Kagyu
Karma Kagyu
Karma Kagyu , or Kamtsang Kagyu, is probably the largest and certainly the most widely practiced lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage has long-standing monasteries in Tibet, China, Russia, Mongolia, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and current...
lineage to North America.