trikāya

trikāya (Skt.). A doctrine that came to prominence in Mahāyāna Buddhism according to which the Buddha manifests himself in three bodies (trikāya), modes, or dimensions. Even in early Buddhism the precise nature of the Buddha had been ambiguous: on the one hand he was born and lived as a human being and on the other hand he transcended human nature through his enlightenment (bodhi), by virtue of which he participated in the supermundane condition attained by all Buddhas past and future. Having realized the Dharma meant that he had become transformed in accordance with it and to a large extent identified with it. The Buddha himself had stated ‘He who sees the Buddha sees the Dharma, and he who sees the Dharma sees the Buddha.’ In addition to the transcendent aspect of his nature, on the one hand, and his earthly physical form and activity on the other, the Buddha as a great yogin possessed supernatural powers by means of which he could travel at will through the heavens and manifest himself in the form of a magical body to preach the doctrine to the gods.

Several centuries after his death these three facets of the Buddha's nature became hypostasized in the form of a doctrine developed initially by the Sarvāstivāda school of the Hīnayāna but taken up and elaborated on by the Mahāyāna. According to this development in Buddhology, the Buddha (and all Buddhas) are in their essential nature identical with the ultimate truth or absolute reality known as the Truth Body (dharma-kāya). This is their first ‘body’. At the same time, Buddhas have the power to manifest themselves in a sublime celestial form in splendid paradises where they teach the doctrine surrounded by hosts of Bodhisattvas and supernatural beings. This is their second body, known as the Enjoyment Body (saṃbhoga-kāya). Furthermore, motivated by boundless compassion (mahā-karuṇā), they project themselves into the world of suffering beings (e.g. the human world) disguised in an appropriate manner through the use of ‘skilful means’ (upāya-kauśalya) so as not to frighten and alarm but instead to provide that which is most necessary and useful. This is their third body, known as the Emanation Body (nirmāṇa-kāya). The doctrine of the three bodies appears to be unknown as such in early Mahāyāna, where reference is usually to the ‘physical body’ (rūpakāya), not conceived docetically, or to the second body, known as the ‘mind-made body’ (manomayakāya). Such ideas were generally accepted by all schools, not just the Mahāyāna. The developed doctrine has played a central role in Mahāyāna Buddhist thought but has not had much influence in Theravāda Buddhist countries, where the Buddha continues to be regarded for the most part as simply a remarkable human being who, through his attainment of nirvāṇa, has forever gone beyond the possibilty of involvement in human affairs.