Dharmakāya
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Dharmakāya (Sanskrit: धर्म काय; Pali: धम्म कय, lit. "truth body" or "reality body") 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. Critical Buddhism 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.
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.
