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Dharmakāya

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The dharmakāya (, "truth body" or "reality body", , ) is one of the three bodies (trikāya) of a Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The dharmakāya constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (acintya) aspect of a Buddha out of which Buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution. When a Buddha manifests out of the dharmakāya in a physical body of flesh and blood, which is perceptible to ordinary sentient beings, this is called a nirmāṇakāya, "transformation body".

Wikidata facts

Part of
Trikaya
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facet of
Buddhism
native label
pháp thân
Commons category
Dharmakaya
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via Wikidata · CC0

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

26 sections
Contents
  • Origins and development
  • Pāli Canon
  • Trikaya doctrine
  • Qualities
  • Interpretation in Buddhist traditions
  • Mahāsāṃghika
  • Sarvāstiv��da
  • Theravāda
  • Dhammakaya tradition
  • Mahāyāna
  • Prajnaparamita
  • ''Lotus Sutra''
  • Tathāgatagarbha
  • Tibetan Buddhism
  • Rime movement
  • Iconography
  • Emptiness
  • Sky blue
  • Mirror
  • See also
  • References
  • Notes
  • Citations
  • Works cited
  • Further reading
  • External links

The dharmakāya (, "truth body" or "reality body", , ) is one of the three bodies (trikāya) of a Buddha in Mahāyāna Buddhism. The dharmakāya constitutes the unmanifested, "inconceivable" (acintya) aspect of a Buddha out of which Buddhas arise and to which they return after their dissolution. When a Buddha manifests out of the dharmakāya in a physical body of flesh and blood, which is perceptible to ordinary sentient beings, this is called a nirmāṇakāya, "transformation body".

The Dhammakāya tradition of Thailand and the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras of the ancient Indian tradition view the dharmakāya as the ātman (true self) of the Buddha present within all beings.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Dharmakāya” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.