The Trikaya doctrine (Sanksrit, lit Three bodies or personalities) 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 nirmana-kaya or created body in which they manifest in time and space; the sambhoga-kaya or body of mutual enjoyment which is an archetypal manifestation; and the Dharma-kaya or 'Reality body' which 'embodies' the very principle of enlightenment.
| Table of contents |
|
2 Trikaya 3 Mandala of the five Buddhas 4 Neoplatonism? 5 External Links |
Buddhism has always recognised more than one Buddha. In the Pali Canon twenty-eight previous Buddhas are mentioned, and Gautama Buddha, the historical Buddha, is simply the Buddha who has appeared in our world age. Even before the Buddha's parinirvana the term Dharmakaya was current. Dharmakaya literally means Truth body, or Reality body. However all of these Buddha are unified in two ways: firstly they share similar special characteristics. 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 'ushinisha' or a bump on the top 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 souls of their feet etc. Clearly if these were physical marks the Buddha would have been a strange looking individual. But since not everyone was able to discern these marks on him, we can assume that they were either metaphorical, or a psychic phenomenon.
The other thing that all Buddha's have in common, is the Dharma that they teach, which is identical in each case.
In the Pali Canon The Buddha tells Vasettha that the Tathagata (the Buddha) was Dharma-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.'
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 'Turth' 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.
Later Mahayana Buddhists were concerned with the transcendent aspect of the Dharma. So therefore is 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. Another was the introduction of the Sambhogakaya which conceptually fits between the rupakaya, now renamed nirmanakaya or created body, and the Dharmakaya.
The Sambhogakaya is that aspect of the Buddha, or the Dharma, that one meets in visions and in deep meditation. It couls be considered an interface with the Dharmakaya. What it does, and what the Tathagatagarbha doctrine also does, is bring the transcendental within reach, it makes it immanent.
The Sambhogakaya becomes the body which manifests the marks of the superior person. With the development of the Mahayana and the Vajrayana the number of sambhohakaya Buddhas and Bodhisattvas multiplied enormously. While some had historical antecedents (such as Gautama, or Padmasambhava) many new figures began to appear who had none: among the Boshisattvas there is Tara, Manjusri, Vajrapani, Avalokiteshvara.
Another development was placing Buddha's and Bodhisattvas in special environments called "Buddha fields" where everything has a perfected form, and where beings are not required to eat, do not reproduce sexually, and spend all their time sitting at the feet of the Buddha listening to them preach the Dharma.
An important development in the sambhogakaya involved a division of the Buddha to represent his various qualities. Initially two Buddha's appeared which represented wisdom and compassion - they were, respectively, Akshibhya, and Amitabha. A further distinction embodied the aspects of power, or activity, and the aspect of beauty or spiritual riches. In the Sutra of Golden Light (an early Mahayana Sutra) the figures are named Dundubishvara, and Ratnaketu, but over time their names changed to become Amoghasiddhi, and Ratnasambhava. The central figure came to be called Vairocana
So the mandala looks like this:
Some of the associations:
Origins
Trikaya
Mandala of the five Buddhas
Amoghasiddhi
|
|
Akshobhya --- Vairocana --- Amitabha
|
|
Ratnasmabhava
There are a huge number of associations with each figure, so that the mandala becomes a cipher for remembering, and understanding the whole of the Dharma
| Akshobhya | Amoghasiddhi | Amitabha | Ratnasambhava | Vairocana | |
| Direction: | east | north | west | south | center |
| Colour | blue | green | red | yellow | white |
| Wisdom | mirror-like | accomplishing | sameness | discriminating | dharmakaya |
| Mudra | earth-touching | Fearlessness | meditation | giving | teaching the Dharma |
It has been suggested that there is a parallel here between the Trikaya doctrine and the Three Hypostases of Plotinus. Although the Dharmakaya and the Sambhogakaya certainly do bear some resemblance to The One and the Nous, the Nirmanakaya is hardly comprable to the World Soul, except for the fact that both exist within time rather than beyond it.Neoplatonism?
