Nirmanakaya

[Guest guest]

Part Five

[Chapter] 3

THE NIRMANAKAYA AS THE HIGHEST

FORM OF REALIZATION

 

The body of an ordinary human being is maya and also the body of an

Enlightened One is maya. But that does not mean that the body of an

ordinary man can be called a Nirmanakaya. The difference is, that the body

of an Enlightened One is his conscious creation, that of an unenlightened

one, the creation of his subconscious drives and desires. Both are maya but

the one is conscious the other unconscious. The one is the master of maya,

the other its slave. The difference consists in the knowledge (prajna).

The same holds good for the Dharmakaya. It is all-embracing, and

therefore omnipresent, whether we are conscious of it or not. But only when

we raise the Dharmakaya from its subconscious, potential state into that of

full consciousness, by opening our spiritual eye to its light, as revealed

by the radiance of the Sambhogakaya - then only can its nature become an

active force in us and free us from our death-bringing isolation.

This, however, is synonymous with the transformation of the

mind-and-body combination, i.e., of our whole personality, into the

Nirmanakaya. Only in the Nirmanakaya can we realize the Dharmakaya

effectively, by converting it into an ever-present conscious force, into an

incandescent, all-consuming focus of experience, in which all elements of

our personality are purified and integrated. This is the transfiguration of

body and mind, which has been achieved only by the greatest of saints. The

Nirmanakaya, therefore, is the highest form of realization, the only one in

fact, that can open the eyes even of the spiritually blind worldling. It is

the highest fruit of perfection, for the sakes of which the Buddhas have

exerted themselves in innumerable previous existences over vast periods of

time (even kalpas, or whole 'world-cycles', according to Buddhist

tradition). The Buddha's significant remark in the MahaParinibbana-Sutta

(Digha-Nikaya), that he could continue his bodily existence until the end

of this kalpa, if he wished, can only be understood in context with the

Nirmanakaya.

Seen from the outside, i.e., from the point of view of conceptual

thought, the Sambhogakaya and the Nirmanakaya are manifestations of the

Dharmakaya and are contained in the latter, which in this sense presents

itself as the higher or more universal principle.

Seen from within, i.e., from the point of view of experience, the

Sambhogakaya and the Dharmakaya are contained in the Nirmanakaya (as this

may be seen from the iconographical descriptions of certain Nirmanakaya

forms, like that of the thousand-armed Avalokitesvara, which we shall

discuss in one of the later chapters). Only in the Nirmanakaya can the

other two 'bodies' be experienced and realized.

The first point of view is that of the philosophy of the Mahayana, the

second that of the practice of the Yogacara, and especially that of the

Vajrayana. The latter, therefore, places the Nirmanakaya into the centre of

interest, be it in the form of Vajrasattva or that of Avalokitesvara.

The Nirmanakaya in its aspect of actual experience (and not merely

looked upon as an external form of appearance) in which all three bodies

co-exist and are experienced simultaneously, is therefore also called

'Vajrakaya' or the 'fourth body',1 or - as we may say with a certain

justification: 'the body of the fourth dimension'. This 'dimension',

however, should not be understood in a mathemetical but in a psychological

sense, namely, as the fourth dimension of consciousness on the Buddhist

path of realization: integrating the dimension of individual corporeal

experience with the experience of the infinity of the Dharmakaya and the

spiritual creativeness and rapture of the Sambhogakaya.

 

[1 Therefore: 'With the maturing of the Four Bodies and the Five Wisdoms,

may the Vajra of the Heart be realized in this very life.' (See page 209.)]

 

The experience of this fourth dimension as the integration of the

universal, the spiritual and the individual, has been convincingly

described in the Gandavyuha (belonging to the Avatamsaka Sutras, Tib.:

phal-po-che), in the simile of the tower of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, which

is visited by the pious pilgrim Sudhana. This description confirms our

definition, that each higher dimension contains the characteristics of all

preceding dimensions and combines them in a higher unity, i.e., in a new

kind or direction of movement.

Maitreya's tower is the symbol of the Dharmadhatu, the realm of Dharma

in its universal aspect, in which all things are contained and in which at

the same time there is perfect order and harmony. This is described in the

following words:'The objects are arrayed in such a way that their mutual

separateness no more exists, as they are all fused, but each object thereby

never losing its individuality, for the image of the Maitreya-devotee

([sudhana], i.e., the individuality of the sadhaka experiencing this state

of dhyana) is reflected in each one of the objects, and this not only in

specific quarters but everywhere all over the tower, so that there is a

thorough-going mutual inter-reflection of images.'

The poetically beautiful and profound description concludes with the

words: 'Sudhana, the young pilgrim, felt as if both his body and mind

completely melted away; he saw that all thoughts departed away from his

consciousness; in his mind there were no impediments, and all intoxications

vanished.'1

 

[1 D. T. Suzuki: Essays in Zen Buddhism, vol. III, p. 138 f.]

 

The perfect mutual penetration of forms, things, beings, actions,

events, etc., and the presence of the experiencing individual in them all -

in other words, the simultaneous existence of differentiation and unity, of

rupa and sunyata, form and emptiness, is the great discovery of Nagarjuna

in his philosophy of the Middle Way (Madhyamika), which expresses the

nature of reality as being beyond 'being' and 'non-being'.

This way is based on a new orientation of thought freed from the

rigidity of the concept of substance and of a static universe, in which

things and beings were thought of as arising and passing away more or less

independently of each other, so that concepts like 'identity' and

'non-identity' could form the basis of thought. But where everything is in

a state of flux, such concepts cannot be adequate, and therefore the

relationship of rupa and sunyata, of form and emptiness, cannot be

conceived as a state of mutually exclusive opposites, but only as two

aspects of the same reality, which co-exist and are in continual

co-operation.

If this were not the case, one would be compelled to ask, how from a

perfect, homogeneous, undifferentiated state of emptiness, form,

differentiation and movement could arise. But we are not concerned here

with an 'earlier' or 'later', a 'higher' or a 'lower' reality, but with two

aspects of the same reality. Form and space condition each other, and

therefore it cannot be maintained that formlessness is a higher and form a

lower state of reality. This is so only when we conceive form in a static

sense, as something that has become, that is strictly limited and existing

in itself, and not as an expression of a creative process, of a

beginningless and endless motion.

But if we consider the nature of all form and of all that is formed,

without confusing it with 'thingness' or materiality, then we shall be able

to see the inseparability of rupa and sunyata. Only from the experience of

form can we arrive at the experience of formlessness; and without the

experience of 'emptiness' or space the concept of form loses its dynamic,

living significance.

The universe and the very faculty of consciousness extend between the

ever-present poles of emptiness and form, of space and movement, because

living form can only be defined as movement, not as something statically

existing (otherwise we are dealing with mere abstractions, and not with

reality). Only those who can experience the formless (or that which lies

beyond form) in the formed, and who likewise can fathom the form in the

formless - in other words, only those who experience the simultaneousness

of emptiness and form - can become conscious of the highest reality.

In this knowledge lies the supreme value of the Prajna-paramita-Sutra,

the quintessence of which is expressed in the famous words of the Hrdaya

(the 'heart' of the Sutra, which every student is supposed to memorize, and

which we too cannot repeat often enough): 'Form is emptiness, and emptiness

is not different from form, nor is form different from emptiness - in fact:

emptiness is form. - Since all things possess the nature of emptiness, they

have neither beginning nor end - are neither perfect nor imperfect (i.e.,

neither self-sufficient nor yet entirely without individual significance in

themselves).'

The Dharmakaya is therefore not only the experience of

undifferentiated emptiness, but the co-existence of all forms in and on

account of that quality which is present in all forms and which, in absence

of a better word, is indicated by expressions like sunyata, emptiness,

non-substantiality, consciousness-space, dimension, infinity of

possibilities of movement, infinity of mutual relationships of all forms,

mutability and dynamism of all forms, etc.

By emphasizing the negative side of the Dharmakaya, already in the

earlier Mahayana the question had arisen, how the visible forms of

appearance or experience are related to the essential emptiness of the

Dharmakaya. The Mahayana-Sraddhotpada-Sastra formulates and answers this

problem in the following way: 'If the Buddha's Dharmakaya is free from any

perceptions or conceptions of form, how can they manifest themselves as

sights and forms? The reply is, that the Dharmakaya is the very essence of

all sights and forms, therefore can manifest itself in sights and forms.

Both the mind and the sights that it perceives are in one and the same

unity since beginningless time, because the essential nature of sights and

forms is nothing but Mind-only. As the essence of sights possesses no

physical form, it is the same as the Dharmakaya, formless and yet pervading

all parts of the universes.'1

 

[1 Translated by Bhikshu Wai-tao and Dwight Goddard in A Buddhist Bible, p,

385.]

 

- Lama Anagarika Govinda, _Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism_'