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XXXI. Studies in Buddhist Dogma1. The Three Bodies of a Buddha (Trikāya)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

Louis de la Vallée Poussin

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One of the more interesting features of the Great Vehicle, or Mahāyāna School of Buddhism, is the system of the 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’ (pratītyasamutpāda). 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.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , October 1906 , pp. 943 - 977

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X0003522X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1906

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References

^{page 944 note 1} See H. Kern, “Over den aanhef eener Buddhistische Inscriptie uit Battambang” (Versl. en Med. der k. Akad., Letterkunde, 4^e r., 3 deel, Amsterdam, 1899), French translation by L. de la Vallée Poussin, Muséon, 1906, 46; Wassilieff, Buddhism, p. 127; Schlagintweit, Waddell, passim.—Csoma, Jäschke, Eitel, see below, pp. 946, 958, 968. — A small treatise, Kāyatraya , Kandjur, Mdo, xxii, 16 (Csoma-Feer, p. 274), has been translated by Rockhill, “Life of the Buddha,” pp. 200–202.

^{page 946 note 1} See Csoma, Dict., p. 305, “The Supreme Moral Being“; Jäschke, Dict., p. 22a, “Absolute Body, Buddha in the Nirvāṇa, the so-called first world of abstract existence, i.e. non-existence ”; Eitel, Handbook, p. 179; sources quoted by St. Julien, “ Voyages,” ii, 224; Wassilieff, pp. 127, 286.

^{page 946 note 2} Sarvaprapañcavyatirikto bhagavatāṁ svābhāviko dharmakāyaḥ sa eva cādhigamasvabhāvo dharmaḥ. (Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā, 3. 16.)

According to Csoma, Dict., p. 305 [ [ = catvāraḥ kāyāḥ], the svabhāvakāya should be a fourth and yet more sublime body: “the body, substance, or essence of nature itself, the First Being, God.”—Jäschke, Dict., p. 22a, supports the same view: “More recent speculators have even added a ṅo-bo-ñid-sku superior to the three, viz., that which is eternal in the essence of a Buddha, even chos-sku, the absolute body, being described by these philosophers as transient.” [That would very well suit the conclusions at which Professor Kern arrives (op. cit., p. 72 = Muséon, 1906, 55): “For the Realists (and amongst Buddhists Realism had supporters) is the Dharma something really existing; not so for the Idealists of the Mahāyāna : according to them Dharma is a production of the mind, of the Saṁvṛti, and therefore an appearance, a kāya, a body: therefore the Mahāyānist 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 ‘ svābhāvika kāya ’ as a fourth body is a Tantric conception (see below, p. 977). We are said in the Amṛtakaṇikā, a commentary to the Nāmasaṁgīti (v. 156), that the Law-body (styled ‘yuganaddhakāya’), to be known by the ascetic in himself, is different from the ‘ sāṁbhogikakāya ’ (Enjoyment-body) and from the ‘ svābhāvika’ (the very Body, etc.).

^{page 947 note 1} Kālacakra, quoted ad Nāmasaṁgīti, Amṛtakaṇikā, v. 92.

^{page 947 note 2} See Minayeff, Recherches, p. 218, n. 2.—Mahāparinibbānas. 60 ; Itivuttaka, 91. 12; Saṁ. N. III, 120; Saddhammasaṅgaha, 62. 3 (J.P.T.S. 1890); Śālistambasūtra, quoted Madhyamakavṛtti, p. 6, note 2.

^{page 947 note 3} Majjh, N. I, 191. 1 ; Śālistambasūtra.

^{page 947 note 4} “ You yourself must make an effort: the Tathāgatas are [only] preachers.”

^{page 948 note 1} See Div. 19. 11, 20. 23.

^{page 948 note 2} See the story of Upagupta, ibid. 356 (Windisch, Māra und Buddha, 161). Cf. the Pāli text edited Bulletin de l'École Française, 1904, 420 (where occurs bhūtikāya). [Also, as synonyms: tāthāgataṁ vapus, bauddhaṁ rūpam.]

^{page 948 note 3} See Bodhicaryāvat. p. 3. 18 : samūhārtho vā kāyaśabdaḥ….[dharmakāyaśabdena] pravacanasya grahaṇam.

^{page 948 note 4} Handbook, p. 178.

^{page 948 note 5} See below, p. 962, n. 2; p. 971, n. 2.

^{page 948 note 6} dharmakāya = anāsravadharmasaṁtāna (Abhidharmakośav. MS. Burn. 443b).

^{page 948 note 7} See Vajracchedikā, Max Müller's edition, p. 43 (Anecd. Oxon. i, 1). [Read : dharmato buddhā draṣṭavyā dharmakāyā hi nāyakāḥ, dharmatā cāpy avijeyā na sā śakyā vijānitum], Madhyamakavṛtti, xxii, ad finem ; Bodhicaryāv. ix, 38.

^{page 949 note 1} See above, p. 946, n. 2, and Madhyamakavṛtti, xxiv, 4, where a fourfold meaning is given of the word dharma: phaladharma (= nirodha), phalāvatāradharma (= mārgasatyam), āgamadharma (= deśanā), and adhigamadharma.

^{page 949 note 2} See Madhyamakāvatāra, quoted below, p. 962.

^{page 949 note 3} Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, 94. 11. A single manuscript of the Prajñā is worth the whole Jambudvīpa full of relics, because the Prajñā is the real body (bhūtārthika śarīra) of the Tathāgata. Bhagavat has said : “Do not believe that this [material] body is [my] true body (satkāya) …. “

^{page 949 note 4} Ibid., 462. 1.

^{page 949 note 5} Bodhicaryāv. ix, 38 (Bibl. Indica, p. 421. 5; Poussin's Etudes et Matériaux, p. 277): bodhir buddhatvam ekānekasvabhāvaviviktam anutpannāniruddham anucchedam aśāśvataṁ sarvaprapañcavinirmuktam ākāśapratisamaṁ dharmakāyākhyaṁ paramārthatattvam ucyate, etad eva ca prajñāpāramitāśūnyatātathatābhūtakoṭidharmadhātvādiśabdena saṁvṛtim upādāyābhidhīyate.— Our translation of bhūtakoṭi, ‘ the actual or real apex ’ = ‘ the true end, aim, opinion,’ rests on the Tibetan — Aṣṭ.s. 94. 14, ‘dharmakāya’ is styled ‘ bhūtakoṭiprabhāvita.’

^{page 950 note 1} Amṛtakaṇikā ad Nāmasaṁgīti, v. 146.—See J. de Groot, Code du Mahāyāna, p. 16.—Perfect samādhi, however, is said to be the characteristic of the saṁbhogakāya (Trikāya, translated by Rockhill, p. 200).

^{page 950 note 2} See the sources quoted in Bodhicaryāvatāra, ix, 36, and also J.R.A.S. 1902, p. 374, n. 1.

^{page 951 note 1} See Journal Asiatique, 1903, ii, 358.

^{page 951 note 2} The attitude of the Mādhyamikas can be appreciated from their authoritative treatises (Madhyamakasūtras and commentaries) and from the criticisms of the Yogācāras = Vijñānavādins, who style them sarvavaināśikas and nāstikas. However, it is difficult to state exactly the contributions of the two great Mahāyāna schools to the theories which will he summarized below. Our observations, so far as the historical relations of the schools are concerned, are possibly wanting in accuracy: Śāntideva is sometimes named amongst the Mādhyamika, sometimes amongst the Yogācāras. In short, by Mādhyamika we mean the purely critical and negative system of the Madhyamakasūtras, by Yogācāra the system of Aśvaghoṣa.

^{page 952 note 1} One can refer to the Sūtras that the school of the Yogācāras style “Sūtras of exact meaning,” see Wassilieff, p. 302. The Mahābherī goes so far as to say that Tathāgata is possessed of a permanent bliss, of a pure self, not of Nirvāṇa, etc. (ibid., 162).

^{page 953 note 1} Bodhisattvabhūmi, 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 Muséon (1905, 2).

^{page 953 note 2} On ālayavijñāna see Aśvaghoṣa, Mahāyānaśraddhotpādaśāstra, translated by T. Suzuki, “Awakening of Faith” (Chicago, Open Court, 1900), Suzuki's article, “Philosophy of the Yogācāra” (Muséon, 1904, 370), Madhyamakāvatāra, vi, 46.

^{page 953 note 3} Cf. Kern, “ Inscriptie uit Battambang”; Beal, “Catena,” p. 12.—On ‘ suchness,’ Aśvaghoṣa, Suzuki, 96.

^{page 954 note 1} Buddhist Text Society, p. 80. 3 : sa ca kila [tathāgatagarbhas] tvayā prakṛtiprabhāsvaraviśuddhyādiviśuddha eva vaṃyate dvātriṁśallakṣaṇadharaḥ sarvasattvadehāntargataḥ, mahārghamūlyaratnam malinavastupariveṣṭitam iva skandhadhātvāyatanavastupariveṣṭito rāgadveṣamohābhūtaparikalpamalamalino nityo dhruvaḥ śivaḥśāśvataś ca bhagavatā varṇitaḥ.

^{page 954 note 2} Ibid., p. 80. 20.

^{page 954 note 3} The Svamatoddeśa bv Nāgārjuna, quoted in the Nāmasaṁgīti's ṭīkā, Cambr. 1708 (v. 156), gives the following definitions : rūparāśir ananto me nirmāṇakāya uttamaḥ, rutarāśir ananto me saṁbhogakāya uttamaḥ, dharmarāśir ananto me dharmakayaḥ prakīrtitaḥ, sukharāśir ananto me sukhakāyo kṣayaḥ paraḥ.

^{page 955 note 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 (karuṇā). One must, moreover, remark that the knowledge of the ‘ void’ is a necessary condition; people who believe in a future ‘nirvāṇa,’ as the Arhats of the old schools, cannot reach it by any means.

^{page 955 note 2} Published and read by Sylvain Lévi as a part of Ed. Chavannes's first article on the “ Inscriptions chinoises de Bodh-Gayā” (Revue de l'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 Nāmasaṁgīti quotes in full the stanzas 2 and 3 (saṁbhogakāya, nirmāṇakāya); it gives us the first words of the stanza 1 (dharma) and of a fourth stanza (mahāsukhakāya ; = Piṇḍīkrama, 1 = Pañcakrama, i, 1) unknown to the Chinese Pilgrim. [Nāmasaṁgῑtiṭīkā: yo naiko nāpy aneka ityādinā dharmakāyalakṣaṇam, lokātītām acintyām ityādinā saṁbhogakāyasya, sattvānāṁ pākahetor ityādinā nirmāṇakāyasya, trailokyācāramuktam ityādinā mahāsukhakāyasya.]

^{page 956 note 1} yo naiko nāpy anekaḥ svaparahitamahāsaṁpadādhārabhūto | naivābhāvo na bhāvaḥ kham iva samaraso nirvibhāvasvabhāvaḥ | nirlepaṁ nirvikāraṁ śivam asamasamaṁ vyāpinaṁ niḥprapañcaṁ | vande pratyātmavedyaṁ tam aham anupamaṁ dharmakāyaṁ jinānām ‖ The reading ^osamaraso nirvibhāva ^o is somewhat doubtful. The Chinese gives no-li + wei = nirvi^o [], whereas in the following line we have ni-li + wei = nirvi^o [].

^{page 956 note 2} Aśvaghoṣa, Suzuki (p. 96), has anekārtha, anānārtha. (Cf. Madhyamakasūtras, introductory stanza.)

^{page 956 note 3} Nāmasaṁgīti, Comm. ad v. 79.—Or, when manifested, it is pure light.

^{page 956 note 4} pratyātmavedya, svasaṁvedya. Cf. Vedāntic theories on the knowledge of Brahman.

^{page 956 note 5} The definition offered by the sūtra, whose summary apud Wassilieff, p. 161, is purely Vedantic. The little Trikāya sūtra has: “perfectly pure svabhāva, exempt from svabhāva like space” (Rockhill, 200). Another source, hitherto untouched, is Saṁdhi-nirmocanasūtra, chapter x.

^{page 957 note 1} See Eitel s. voc. and the “ Lotjana Buddha ” apud J. de Groot, Code du Mahāyāna, p. 16.

^{page 957 note 2} A better system apud Eitel, p. 180, the Dharmakāya resides in the Arūpadhātu, and the Akaniṣṭha abode is occupied by the second body. See also Waddell, “ Lamaism,” p. 349 (Dharmakāya = Samantabhadra = Vajradhara = Yajrasattva), and contrast p. 351.

^{page 958 note 1} Kern: “ Het lichaam waarvan de genietingen volkomen zijn ” (op. cit., p. 71).—St. Julien : “ Le corps de la jouissance, l'état de celui qui a pu unir son intelligence avec la nature subtile de la loi.”—Csoma : “The most perfect Being.”—Jäschke : “The body of happiness or glory, Buddha in the perfection of a conscious and active life of bliss in the second world (heaven or Elysium).”—Śarad Candra (p. 91) has : = ‘ celestial existence.’

^{page 958 note 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 rūpadhātu, and being, as such, in the intermediate degree of a Dhyāni Bodhisattva in the Saṁbhogakāya state of reflected Bodhi.” This view is not supported by any text I know ; but see below, p. 963.

^{page 958 note 3} See p. 286 (German, 313).

^{page 958 note 4} Mahāparinibbāna, iii, 1–4, etc.: also Cullavagga, xi, 1, 10.

^{page 958 note 5} J.R.A.S. 1906, p. 450 (‘ Akaniṣṭhaga ’ is given by the Trikāṇḍaśesa as a synonym of Buddha).

^{page 959 note 1} See Grünwedel, Buddhistische Kunst², p. 170.

^{page 959 note 2} The author of the Milinda perfectly agrees with Śāntideva (Bodhicaryāvatāra).

^{page 959 note 3} See Oldenberg's Buddha.

^{page 960 note 1} Sukhāvatīvyūha.

^{page 960 note 2} See Kāraṇḍavyūha apud Burnouf, Intr., p. 224. Cf. the body of Śākyamuni, Karuṇāpuṇḍarika, p. 122.

^{page 960 note 3} See L. D. Barnett's translation, p. 137.

^{page 961 note 1} Sukhāvatīvyūhas (147–186 A.D.), Amitāyurdhyānasūtra (424 A.D.), Kāraṇḍavyūha (?).

^{page 961 note 2} lokātītām acintyāṁ sukṛtaśataphalām ātmano yo vibhūtiṁ | parṣanmadhye vicitrāṁ prathayati mahatīṁ dhīmatāṁ prītihctoḥ | buddhānāṁ sarvalokaprasṛtam aviratodārasaddharmaghoṣaṁ | vande saṁbhogakāyaṁ tam aham iha mahādharmarājyapratiṣṭham ‖

^{page 961 note 3} I add some details from the commentaries of the Nāmasaṁgīti.

^{page 961 note 4} Dhīmān = bodhisattva, see Mahāvyutpatti, 22. 3, and Bodhicaryāvatārapañjikā, p. 23. 2.

^{page 961 note 5} See above, p. 954, n. 3.

^{page 962 note 1} Chapter iii, v. 12, pp. 62–63 of the forthcoming edition in Bibl. Buddhica. Our translation is from the Tibetan ; the original Sanskrit would run as follows : tatra yaḥ puṇyasaṁbhāraḥ sa bhagavatāṁ samyaksaṁbuddhānāṁ śatapuṇyalakṣaṇavato 'dbhutācintyasya nānārūpasya rūpakāyasya hetuḥ ; dharmātmakasya kāyasya anutpādalakṣaṇasya jñānasaṁbhāro hetuḥ.

^{page 962 note 2} A synonym of rūpakāya is vipākakāya, ‘ the body where is enjoyed [the merit of good acts] ’ (Aśvaghoṣa, Suzuki, p. 102).—The fragment of the Prajñāpāramitā quoted Śikṣāsamuccaya, 244, [bodhisattvena … buddhakāyaṁ niṣpādayitukāmena dvātriṁśanmahāpuruṣalakṣaṇāny aśītiṁ cānuvyañjanāni pratilabdhu-kāmena … ], clearly alludes to a rūpakāya; but it seems that the human body of Buddha is meant. Also, in Bodhisattvabhūmi on Buddhapūjā: yad bodhisattvaḥ sākṣāt Tathāgatarūpakāyam eva pūjayatīyam asyocyate śarīrapūjā.—On the contrary, Bodhicaryāv. 323. 12 (Bibl. Indic), the lokottarakāya, contrasted with the decaying body of men, is a beatific body.

^{page 965 note 1} And, in so many words, turned “in order that they could be reborn in purified Buddha's fields,” etc. See Śikṣāsamuccaya, p. 32.

^{page 965 note 2} There is, it may be, another answer bearing on the difference between ‘nirvāṇa with residue’ or ‘nirvāṇa in potentia,’ and ‘nirvāṇa without residue’ or ‘nirvāṇa in actu.’ But. granted that there are material elements (rūpa), it is quite possible to understand what ‘ nirvāṇa with residue’ may be: the survival of the material body after extinction or liberation of thought. But, according to the Mahāyānist tenets, there is no matter in the case of dignified saints.

^{page 966 note 1} See Mātṛceṭa's Varṇanārhavarṇana, v. 11 (edited and translated by F. W. Thomas, Ind. Ant. 1905, 145).

^{page 966 note 2} saṁsāranirvāṇavimukta. See Śikṣāsamuccaya, p. 322. 7 (from Dharmasaṁgītisūtra).

^{page 966 note 3} “Is Buddha compassionate?” The question was put at the so-styled Pāṭaliputra Council (see Kathāvatthu, xviii, 3). As it often happens, the heretics (Uttarāpathakas) are right in denying Buddha's pity.

^{page 967 note 1} Śrīguhyendratilaka, quoted Gūḍhārtha, v. 42.—Journal Buddhist Text Society, i, 45, n. 3.—Waddell, “ Lamaism,” p. 85.

^{page 967 note 2} dharmadhātuniṣyanda (Nāmasaṁgīti, ad v. 79).

^{page 967 note 3} sarvasattvānām utpattisthānatvān mahāsukhākārasaṁbhogakāyo yoniḥ (Amṛtakaṇikā ad Nāmasaṁgīti, v. 60), prakṛtisyandanasamartha (Gūḍhārtha, Nāmasaṁgīti, v. 41).

^{page 968 note 1} “World as representing: the mind.”

^{page 968 note 2} Not only Buddhas, but magicians also, can create such phautoms. In the Divyāvadāna, Māra creates an image of Buddha; elsewhere he appears under the appearance of Buddha. (See Hardy, “Māra in the guise of Buddha,” J.R.A.S. 1902, p. 951.)

^{page 968 note 3} See Burnouf, Introduction, 601 : “ Nirmūṇa, et les termes appartenant à la même famille que ce mot, n'ont jamais d'autre sens, dans le style bouddhique, que celui de ‘ transformation résultant de la magie.’”—Śarad Candra, Dict., 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.”—Jäschke, 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 : “ Nirmāṇakāya (litter. le corps doué de la faculté de se transformer), l'état de celui qui, étant déjà doué des deux [corps] précités, peut suivant les circonstances apparaître où il veut, développer la voie, et sauver les créatures.”—Eitel, Handbook, s. voc. trikāya and nirmāṇakāya. — H. Kern, Inscriptie uit Battambang.—J. J. M. de Groot, Code du Mahāyāna, pp. 16, 17. — Bodhisattvabhūmi, I, v, on the nairmāṇikī ṛddhi (nirvastukaṁ nirmāṇaṁ nirmāṇacittena yathākāmam abhisaṁskṛtam).

^{page 969 note 1} Aṅg. N., II, 38; Saṁ. N., III, 140.

^{page 969 note 2} Aṅg. N., II, 38; see Kern, Manual, 65.

^{page 969 note 3} Cf. the ὑπερκόμιος of Basilides. See the able article of J. Kennedy, J.R.A.S., 1902, p. 401.—See above, ‘ lokottarakāya,’ p. 962, n. 2.

^{page 970 note 1} Kathāvatthu, xviii, 1. 2.

^{page 970 note 2} See Suvarṇaprabhāsa, p. 8 : anasthirudhire kāye kuto dhātur bhaviṣyati.—Contrast the views of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā, pp. 94–5, on the worship of the relies.

^{page 971 note 1} See Wassilieff, 127 (137). The statements of Grünwedel (Mythologie, 35, 112) and others depend on Wassilieff.

^{page 971 note 2} The Bodhisattvabhūmi has elaborate theories on the gradual acquisition of the marks by the Bodhisattvas of the different stages.

^{page 971 note 3} See the Mahāvastu and Barth, Journal des Savants, 1899, August.

^{page 972 note 1} See Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, S.B. of the East, xxi, Introduction, p. xxv, and pp. 295 (xiv), 307 (xv, 1).

^{page 973 note 1} nānārūpa, Nāmasaṁgīti's Commentary ad v. 79. Cf. Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, 94. 12.

^{page 973 note 2} Vajrapāṇi is the reflex (pratibimba) of Vajrasattva. 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 Mahāyāna, p. 16).

^{page 973 note 3} See above, p. 954, n. 3.

^{page 974 note 1} sattvānāṁ pākahetoḥ kvacid anala ivābhāti yo dīpyamānaḥ | saṁbodhau dharmacakre kvacid api ca punar dṛśyate yaḥ praśāntaḥ |

naikākārapravṛttaṁ tribhavabhayaharaṁ viśvarūpair upāyair | vande nirmāṇakāyaṁ daśadiganugataṁ taṁ mahārthaṁ munīnām ‖

^{page 975 note 1} See Suzuki's able translation, p. 100.

^{page 976 note 1} See Śikṣāsamuccaya, 159, 7; Suzuki, 64, 94.

^{page 976 note 2} Jaina theories are also of interest; see, for instance, Upamitabhavaprapancā Kathā, pp. 677 foll., on the Sadgiri, the Jainasatpura, which bear strong analogies with the Sukhāvatīs of the Buddhists.

^{page 977 note 1} The Siddhas aim at obtaining a hypercosmic (lokottara) body, on the pattern of the Bodhisattva-body.

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XXXI. Studies in Buddhist Dogma1. The Three Bodies of a Buddha (Trikāya)

Volume 38, Issue 4
Louis de la Vallée Poussin
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X0003522X

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