The word 'buddha' refers to all realized beings. It is not that only one
particular enlightened being is known as Buddha. Those who realized their true
nature in the past are known as Buddhas, those who realize it now may be called
Buddhas and those who come to this realization in the future will be known as
Buddhas. 'Buddha' is a general term which does not merely refer to a single
individual but to every realized being.
The whole purpose of enlightened beings is to benefit sentient beings. In order
to do this, they appear in many different forms or bodies. The principle
emanations are known as the three kayas; Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and
Nirmanakaya. There are even four and five kayas, divided further to qualify
other manifestations of enlightened being, but it is all one Buddha. 'Kaya' is a
Sanskrit word which means body in the sense of many qualities gathered together,
joined and united as one. Kaya here refers to the embodiments of
loving-kindness, compassion, wisdom and skillful means which appear in the world
to help sentient beings.
DHARMAKAYA
The Sanskrit word 'dharma' means phenomena, both external and internal,
subjective and objective. Dharmakaya refers to the primordial or true nature of
phenomena which is beyond conception or dualistic thought. It is not partial.
It does not discriminate. It is Great Equanimity. This embodiment of wisdom is
known as Dharmakaya.
We are all aware of a great variety of phenomena. There are many things which
we know and feel. However, they all can be summarized into two categories;
subjective phenomena and objective phenomena. Both develop through the
interaction of the elements. If we look carefully at the elements, each of them
are aggregations of many sub-units. Every element is composed of individual
atoms and these consist of many subatomic particles bound together as the atomic
structure of that element. None of these particles are independent things.
Each is dependent upon others for its existence. If we look deeply and
carefully into any single element, we will find our investigation in terms of
subject and object ultimately dissolves in the intuition of Great Emptiness.
This is the ultimate examination we can make. To go further is beyond our
dualistic conceptions. Understand the real nature of the external world to be
no other than Great Emptiness.
If we look at subjective phenomena, we find that it is similar to the elements.
Mind can be conceptually divided into eight categories or many more but it
functions as a single aggregate. If we search for where our present thought
comes from, we will not find an exact source. If we look to where it goes, we
cannot know it's destination. We cannot even find the spot where it exists. In
this way, we can see that mind, the subject, is arising in Great Emptiness,
inexpressible by mundane conceptions or speech.
Both the internal and external are based in one primordial nature. Outer or
inner, there is no distinction, all are one Emptiness beyond dualistic thought,
beyond existence and non-existence, both and neither. It goes far beyond the
conventional notion of emptiness or vacuity. It is not some 'thing' to which we
can cling. It is always here, never increasing or decreasing, but remaining as
it is, as it was and how it will be all the time. Circumstances cannot change
the primordial nature. Perfect realization of this nature is realization of
Dharmakaya.
SAMBHOGAKAYA
Great Emptiness is our primordial nature. This Emptiness is not like a black
hole or a state of nothingness. Emptiness is more like a state of fullness. By
means of the primordial nature, everything is arising without effort, without
thought, spontaneously appearing with clarity. That is the sign of Emptiness.
If there were no Emptiness or primordial truth, everything would be blocked,
nothing could move, nothing could develop and nothing could manifest. This
spontaneous radiance of unceasing clarity is the meaning of the Sanskrit term,
'Sambhogakaya' .
'Sam' means perfect, 'bhoga' means enjoyment and kaya is roughly translated as
body. Thus, 'the body of perfect enjoyment' is the radiant wisdom aspect of our
original nature. The Sambhogakaya is displayed as the Five Wisdoms. The first
of these is Dharmadhatu Wisdom. The second is known as Mirror-like Wisdom. The
third is the Wisdom of Equality. The fourth is Discriminating Awareness Wisdom.
The fifth is known as All-Accomplishing Wisdom. These Five Wisdoms are the
clarity aspect of our true nature.
While we are in the world of samsara or as long as we are not realized, these
wisdoms are known as the eight consciousnesses. When you purify the
obscurations, these eight are transformed into the Five Wisdoms. Therefore, the
nature of our present consciousness is based upon these Five Wisdoms.
THE EIGHT CONSCIOUSNESSES
I will name the eight consciousnesses for people who don't know them. The first
five are the eye consciousness, ear consciousness, tongue, nose and body
consciousness. These five consciousnesses function through the organs to
perceive the five external objects of sense. In themselves, these five are very
partial and limited. The eye consciousness is only for form. It cannot taste
or hear sounds or smell. Similarly, the ear is only for sound, not for seeing,
tasting and so forth. Now how can these scattered consciousnesses be brought
together into one united state? That is the function of the sixth consciousness
which is like the driver or a judge who makes decisions. It receives and
organizes the input of the five external consciousnesses and gives meaning to
our experience. The sixth combines and integrates the sense consciousnesses
into one. It is known as mind consciousness.
The first five consciousnesses are very immediate. They have no continuity.
They only refer to the present. They cannot sense the past or the future. They
only communicate directly with the present. They are very exclusive and
one-sided. The sixth consciousness not only unites these five, it can also
refer to the events and activities of the past and future. It is actually
structuring our sense of time.
A closer look reveals that the mind has two sides. One, which we have called
the sixth consciousness, is dealing with the business of the past, present and
future; making decisions based on the information received from the first five
consciousnesses. It is very neutral and rational. There is another side to
this mind, the seventh consciousness, which is basically very emotional and
gives rise to ego-clinging. On the basis of ego-clinging, ignorance, anger,
attachment, jealousy, pride and doubt develop. All this arises in that singular
aggregate we call the mind.
All seven of these minds are based upon an eighth consciousness which is known a
'kun-gzhi' in Tibetan, the ground of mind. It is sometimes translated as
'subconscious storehouse'. In Sanskrit, it is called 'alaya'. The nature of
the eighth consciousness is neither positive nor negative; it is neutral. Alaya
retains every basic habit-pattern of individuals. Everything is stored there;
our good karma, bad karma, and neutral karma. All kinds of habits and whatever
actions we perform during our lifetimes are registered there. This is why it is
known as a 'storehouse'. Alaya is a consciousness, but it is very subtle.
When these eight consciousnesses are transmuted or transformed, they become the
Five Wisdoms. The Five Wisdoms are symbolized by the five Dhyani Buddhas. They
are the radiant spectrum of clarity qualifying the Dharmakaya. The central
Buddha of Dharmadhatu Wisdom is Vairocana. The eastern Buddha of Mirrorlike
Wisdom is Akshobya. The Wisdom of Equality is embodied in the Buddha of the
southern direction, Ratnasambhava or Rinchen Jungnay in Tibetan. The western
Buddha of Discriminating Awareness Wisdom is Amitabha or Opagme in Tibetan and
the northern Buddha of All Accomplishing Wisdom is known as Amogha Siddhi.
These are the principle Buddhas of the Sambhogakaya.
NIRMANAKAYA
All Buddhas are emanations of one Buddha. The different levels, aspects or
kayas of Buddha exist only for the purpose of benefiting sentient beings. Each
Buddha can appear in any of these three kayas. Dharmakaya Buddhas such as
Samantabhadra appear only to highly realized beings, such as tenth bhumi
Bodhisattvas who can also receive teachings from the five Dhyani Buddhas.
Beginning practitioners, or those with dualistic thoughts and conceptions, would
have difficulty perceiving and receiving teachings from Sambhogakaya and
Dharmakaya Buddhas.
The third Buddha, is known as the Nirmanakaya Buddha. Nirmana is a Sanskrit
term which means manifest in form. Not just in one style or form but in all
kinds of ways, in order to benefit all sentient beings whether they are highly
realized, beginners or even heavily obscured. The Nirmanakaya Buddha is for
everyone. The Nirmanakaya can be divided into four groups:
1. Supreme emanations
2. Birth emanations
3. Artisan emanations
4. Emanations of various things
The Supreme emanation takes birth in the world as a unique person. Buddha
Shakyamuni and Guru Padmasambhava are examples of this kind. They have special
forms of body, speech and mind. The special qualities of the body are known as
the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor marks. For instance, their
bodies have a radiant glow and are free from old age and sickness. They also
have a subtle blue light called akanistha going up from the crown chakra and
merging into the sky as well as special patterns of the wheel of Dharma on their
palms.
They have sixty qualities of speech which most people do not have. For example,
when Buddha gave teachings, as soon as his voice was heard, it would give a
soothing, relaxed, peaceful feeling. At the same time, whatever words he spoke
could be heard at once in many different languages. Students from other lands
would hear the Buddha's voice in their native tongues. Also, his speech was not
affected by distance. An audience of hundreds or thousands had no problem
hearing even though they were very far away. Buddha's voice could reach to ten
thousand students as clearly as to those sitting right in front of him.
The mind of realization has the three qualities of love, compassion and wisdom,
as well as the ten powers and eight kinds of fearlessness. Altogether there are
thirty-two qualities of mind. A Buddha has no obstruction to seeing the past,
present or future. Everything is clear to the eye of wisdom. A Buddha's speech
and body qualities are somewhat more obvious, but many people doubt such wisdom.
They think it cannot be exactly as it says in the sutras. Even in Shakyamuni
Buddha's time they investigated this. They closely examined whether Buddha was
totally enlightened and perfectly clear in relation to objects or not.
Buddha renounced his father's kingdom and went to the jungle where he did six
years of ascetic practice. Upon becoming enlightened, he turned the wheel of the
Dharma many times for many students and so became very famous in India. After
awhile, his family invited him to come back to his homeland to teach. Buddha
said he would not come to the palace, but that he would stay outside the main
city. So the Buddha's father and a local ruler named Zangdon who was under his
dominion, had a special retreat built for the Buddha and his students. Buddha
came and stayed there and began giving regular teachings.
Buddha was already known as 'The Omniscient One', being knowledgeable about
every aspect of the past, present and future. But King Zangdon had his doubts
about that. In order to test him, Zangdon collected one grain of rice from each
of two thousand five hundred families. Each grain was wrapped individually,
numbered and put into a common basket which was brought before the Buddha. King
Zangdon wanted to see if the Buddha could tell him which grain came from which
family So one by one, the Buddha examined the grains and told him which
households they had come from. The king observed his list of numbers and names
and saw that the Buddha's answers were all correct. There were no mistakes. He
bowed respectfully to the Buddha and declared, "Now, I know you are omniscient.
You are obviously enlightened." Finally, Zangdon became very devoted. This is
just an example of the qualities of the mind of a supreme emanation.
The second Nirmanakaya or birth emanation incarnates even in the animal and
non-visible realms, using different names and forms, male or female as they are
needed. There are many Jataka stories of Buddha taking birth in animal worlds
as a fish, a turtle, a bird, a monkey, a bear and a lion, as well as among
humans and even in the god realms. These are all birth emanations or tulkus.
They may or may not appear in the traditional way, wearing robes and all.
Tulkus may not even necessarily be recognized as Buddhas but in every case, they
are born to remove obstacles and dualistic conceptions, to free sentient beings
from ignorance and bring about the perfect understanding of primordial wisdom.
The third Nirmanakaya is called the artisan emanation. These appear as objects
of art and the artists who make them for the benefit of sentient beings.
Thangkas, statues and even music are some of the forms these emanations take.
Beautiful, inspired works of art which bring clarity, peace, joy and something
special which seems to touch the heart center, are all known as artisan
emanations.
There was a famous musician called Rlanga who felt that he was the supreme
guitarist. And he was a very special musician, but he was also proud and
arrogant. He thought he was incomparable to anybody in the world. He was
always playing his music and never had any opportunity to see Buddha or receive
teachings. He appreciated the Dharma but he was attached to playing music and
felt he should spend his time practicing. He really thought he was the
greatest.
Rlanga heard the Buddha was going to enter Mahaparinirvana and thought that he
should visit him soon to receive teachings and have some contact. But he was
still very involved in music and maintaining his pride. So right before he
entered Mahaparinirvana, the Buddha thought, "Now what is it I still have to
give sentient beings with this body? Who may I serve? Who is left?" Through
his wisdom he saw Rlanga in his present condition. So Buddha emanated one very
special musician and went to the door of Rlanga with a thousand-stringed
mandolin. When Buddha started to play and the famous musician heard that music,
he began to listen closely and thought, "Who could that be?" He had to come
outside and bring his mandolin. Soon, he noticed Buddha hardly even moved his
fingers. Plucking one string resonated all the others. Rlanga was unable to do
this. The vibration of the music seemed to separate out the whole of space into
many different voices of the Dharma which were of real benefit to this famous
musician. He thought, "So there is someone more accomplished than myself! I am
not the best..." At that moment his arrogance and pride dissolved. He felt
very grateful to hear the Dharma through that mandolin.
Any kind of art which provides temporary or ultimate help for sentient beings by
awakening love and compassion is known as an artisan emanation.
The emanations of various things manifest in a variety of ways. These can
appear as rain, fire or wind. During times when sentient beings are troubled
with diseases, they may come in the form of special herbs and medicines for
healing or perhaps when beings are in danger of losing their lives, suddenly
something miraculous occurs and saves them. All of these things are various
forms of the Nirmanakaya.
There is really just one Buddha. Every person who becomes enlightened has the
ability to transform or emanate in these three kaya states. So basically again,
Buddha means one who has fully developed love, compassion, wisdom and skillful
means, one whose obscurations and habit patterns have been purified, one who has
realized a totally free, devotional state. That sentient being, that person,
that individual is known as an enlightened being or a Buddha.
This is the teaching of the Three Kayas.