Chapter 9
The Three Bodies
of the Buddha (佛) (1)
The Buddha Body is made of the Immeasurable Light.
If one does not gain the Buddha Body, one is not a Buddha.
In order to produce a Buddha in the saha world,
there must be a decision made by Sakyamuni Buddha
who is the King of the Three Realms (三界王).
A practicing monk, whose merit and virtues of good roots
are great enough to become a Buddha
will be chosen.
In the Guhayakavajrapani Sutra (密迹金剛經, Miljeok Geumgang –gyong, when pronounced in Korean), it describes that the Buddha has the three kinds of mysteries. Those are the mystery of the body (身密), the mystery of speech or voice (語密), and the mystery of mind (意密).
Among the above, the body of a Buddha who has attained Buddhahood possesses the three kinds of body forms in their characteristics, namely the Three Bodies of the Dharma, Reward and Transformation Bodies. Even a saint who has risen to Bodhisattvahood neither understands the Three Bodies of the Buddha, nor realizes them. Up to now from the time of the assembly of the Vulture Peak Mountain, there has been no saint who has concretely understood the Three Bodies of the Buddha well. It is because this is the state of the Buddha.
When you look at the Body of the Buddha (the Reward Body Buddha abiding in true suchness in the Absolute Realm), his body looks like it sometimes has the golden colour, sometimes silver white colour, and sometimes lucid colours mingled together with a lot of jewels.
The body size of the Buddha may look as big as 1-jang 6-cheok (一丈六尺, 1-jang is equal to 303cm; 6-cheok to 181cm, so it is 484cm altogether), and he may sometimes look as large as 1 ri, 10 ri or hundreds, thousands, millions and billions of ri (Korean measuring unit, 10 ri is equal to some 4km).
Also, it is stated that one can see that his body is spread out widely over the empty space. This is called the mystery of the Body of the Buddha (身密).
The voice of the Buddha is also mysterious. A person can hear the voice of the Buddha from 1 ri away, another his voice from 10 ri away, and sometimes his voice can travel widely. A person hears One Voice (一音) of the Buddha as if the Buddha speaks of almsgiving; another as if precept-keeping; a third as if patience; and others as if he speaks of endeavour, complete concentration, or wisdom. This is called the mystery of the speech (語密) of the Buddha.
Not one of the heaven kings (there are respective heaven kings at the 54 levels of the heaven) can ever tell you about the mystery of his Body, especially about the Three Bodies of the Buddha among these three mysteries of the Buddha. As such, the Buddha is the rare and mysterious king in the heavens above and beneath.
Now, I will tell you about the three kinds of forms of the Buddha Body, namely the mysterious Three Bodies of the Buddha.
According to the words of the Buddha, the only way for us not to fall into Hell and not to be born as an animal is to awaken to one’s original nature and reach the level of a saint. If one acts like a wild animal, obviously one will be born as an animal. Committed karma can never be avoided (定業不免). Committed karma cannot be cleaned by one’s own strength. So other power of the Buddha (Other power here denotes the power of the Buddha.) is required to become an arhat, a Bodhisattva and a Buddha.
A saint who has reached the stage of a great Bodhisattva practices the vows of Samantabhadra to attain Buddhahood. By doing so, in the end, one sees the light of the Buddha with a thousand, million, billion kinds of colours called the Immeasurable Light (無量光), namely the gateway to becoming a Buddha.
This Light is dazzlingly bright in its intensity so one cannot see it. It is far brighter than the light that thousands of lights in the center of the sun are put together.
As long as our karma, which has been committed over billions of kalpas, remains even a little bit, we cannot see this light.
Although it is right in front of our eyes, sentient beings cannot see it. If the habitual energy of many lives has not completely melted away, one cannot see this inconceivable (不思義) light forming the Body of the Buddha. It is such light that can create a Pure Land of Utmost Bliss within the realm of tranquility.
If any karmic hindrance that has been committed over tens of thousands of kalpas; three poisonous afflictions; evil bonds (惡緣); or debts (債務) remain, one cannot pass through the gateway of being able to see the mass of light called ‘the Immeasurable Light.’ Therefore, the Buddha said, “A person who attains Buddhahood can or cannot be produced in a kalpa.”
One who has attained Buddhahood will have a Buddha Body of his own in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’, in addition to the physical body and the four spiritual bodies. The Buddha Body is the characteristic of extinction, which is made of a hundred kinds of light with five colours and is majestic (端嚴) in colour. He is ‘the Body of Blessings’(至福) that the school that advocates scriptural study (敎家) calls ‘the Complete Body of Bliss.’
In the Agama Sutra, various ways of contemplation (meditation methods of Vipashyana) of being able to become an arhat are introduced. When Buddhism comes over to Mahayana Buddhism, the practice of the Six Paramitas23 and the recitation of a Buddha’s sacred name become important. These are the ways of becoming a Bodhisattva.
However, the reason why the Mahayana and Hinayana Sutras do not contain the descriptions of the Buddhas’ Realm is that they would be the descriptions of such high dimensions, thus creating unnecessary misunderstanding and controversy. Hence there is no description of how the Buddha Body is created, nor how and through what process the one who has attained Buddhahood unites with his own Buddha Body. The Reward Body (報身) among the Three Bodies of the Dharma, Reward and Transformation is the central idea as a transcendental real being with human character, and yet there has rarely been any description that introduces this.
We need only deep Samadhi to liberate ourselves from the transmigration of birth and death, become an arhat, and further to become a Bodhisattva of the Pure Land who escapes from the Three Realms.
23A Bodhisattva must make firm vows to become a Buddha, or to teach and save sentient beings and lead them to become a Buddha. The six paramitas denote the 6 kinds of practice virtues needed to actually achieve the vows, namely almsgiving, precept-keeping, patience, endeavour, complete concentration, and wisdom paramitas. The Avatamsaka Sutra gives the 10 paramitas, adding the expedient method, vow, power and omniscience to the six other paramitas.
Meanwhile, Great Master Monk Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch of the Seon Sect, emphasized prajna (wisdom 智慧). However, we can never escape from the Three Realms only with prajna.
Milarepa who was respected as the light (光明) of the Tibetan Buddhism in the eleventh century was a great person who emphasized that one must possess the Three Bodies, mentioning not only the Dharma Body, but also the Reward Body and Transformation Body for completion of the Path, namely to become a Buddha.
Let me explain to you with examples to help you to understand the Reward Body.
If I sit on the dharma seat (法床) of Hyonjisa and speak as follows, “At the Buddha’s Birthday event held at our temple on the 8thof April by lunar calendar, many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (報身), namely Sakyamuni Buddha, his left and right hand attendants Manjushiri and Samantabhadra Bodhisattvas, Avalokiteshvara, Ksitigarbha and Cundi Bodhisattvas and Medicine Tathagata Buddha, etc. came in the form of light (光臨) and stayed with us all morning. Additionally, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas including Sakyamuni Buddha receive the morning meal offerings at this temple 365 days a year,” then the four groups of followers would not understand this Dharma talk because they have only heard of the abstract Dharma Body of the Buddha up to now.
If it is so, when I go to a temple in Busan at their invitation from Hyonjisa here in Chuncheon, there can be two instances, one is that my body and mind both go there by train or airplane, arrive at the temple, and receive their kind hospitality; and the other is that my body does not go. Only my mind goes to the temple. Which method will be more practical and important? You will have to understand that when the body and mind both go there in person, it is the concept of the Reward Body, and when only the mind goes there, it is the concept of the Dharma Body.
Up until now, you will have probably understood the Buddha only as the Dharma Body Buddha who has returned to the mind before thinking, namely emptiness (空) that is omnipresent extensively in the ten directions (十方) and in the past and present (古今). I make it clear that, as Milarepa of Tibet said, the one who has attained Buddhahood possesses the Dharma, Reward, and Transformation Bodies, and teaches and converts sentient beings, freely crossing the Absolute Realm and the discriminating realm of sentient beings. I am speaking about the Reward Body Buddha, not the Dharma Body Buddha.
One must have great power of Samadhi to become a Bodhisattva or a Buddha. When a person can freely enter hundreds and thousands of Samadhi and Samadhi of Great Quiescence, he can become a Buddha, possessing the Three Bodies of the Reward Body Buddha (報身佛, Skt. Sambhogakaya), the Dharma Body Buddha (法身佛, Skt. Dharmakaya), etc.
The Reward Body of the Buddha
the Buddha Body with a billion kinds of light,
the Body of Blessings (至福).
I will speak about the Buddha now.
We live in the world where everyone says that ‘the mind is the Buddha.’ This saying has a problem with it. I want to establish the true Dharma properly by telling to the world the earth-shattering news that the holy and rare Buddha abides in the Absolute Realm. So I will correctly speak about the theory of the Three Bodies (三身說, the Trikaya Doctrine) of the Buddha.
First, I have something to tell you before I go onto the main subject. Arhats (holy multitudes 聖衆) are born in Jambudvipa through the power of their vows and wishes to attain the fruit of a Bodhisattva, and Bodhisattvas of the Western Pure Land receive human bodies for themselves to build up merit of good roots to become a Buddha.
Even a Bodhisattva of the high stage does not possess the Three Bodies. There is ‘The Sutra of Golden Light’ (Suvarnabhasa Sutra) and so on among the sutras that have mentioned the Three Bodies. In the Chapter on Distinguishing the Buddha in the Three Bodies, it says, “All the Buddhas have the Three Bodies. They are the Transformation Body (化身), the Response Body (應身), and the Dharma Body (法身).” “The Dharma Body is the basis of the Transformation and Response Body.” The theory of the Three Bodies was earlier established by the Great Monks Asanga and Vasubandhu (世親) of India.
Next, I can take the Three Bodies of ‘the Jewel-Nature Treatise 寶性論’ (the Dharma, Reward and Transformation Bodies; Skt. Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya) for example. The theory of the Three Bodies is the central core (the core of the cores) of Buddhism. I quote the concept of the Three Bodies in ‘the Jewel-Nature Treaties.’
Here, I will speak about the Buddha Body, which is the Reward Body. The Immeasurable Light is recorded in some Mahayana Sutras as one billion kinds of light (億種光), one hundred kinds of the five-coloured light (百種五色光), nirvana light (涅槃光), light with hundreds, thousands and billions of subtle colours, light with measureless and numerous colours, and the light of the Buddha shining brighter than mani beads. That is correct. The Buddha Body is made of the Immeasurable Light.
If one does not gain a Buddha Body, one is not a Buddha. Buddhas are produced only from the family of the true Dharma of the Buddha. The Buddha possesses the Buddha Body (the Reward Body) made of the mysterious light with a hundred, a thousand and a billion kinds of colours in the Absolute Realm of the Constant Quiescence Light, plus possesses the Three Bodies (the Dharma, Reward and Transformation Bodies). In this point, he is different from the leaders of all other religions who do not possess the Three Bodies, living in the inner realms as the kings of the 6th heaven, 5th heaven, 4th heaven or 3rd heaven of non-Buddhists. In the heavens above and beneath, there is no one who can outdo the Buddha. He is the saint of the saints (聖).
In order to produce a Buddha in the saha world, there must be a decision by Sakyamuni Buddha, who is the King of the Three Realms (三界王). A practicing monk whose merit of good roots is great enough to become a Buddha will be chosen. The one who is chosen is a Bodhisattva of the best of the best.
A practicing monk sees the light of the Buddha with hundreds, thousands and billions of subtle colours during his practice. Then he passes through another big gateway, meets Buddhas who came to see him, and hears the Dharma talks directly from them. He listens to the Dharma talks of the holy Buddhas and receives their guidance on practice. Entering deep Samadhi more often, he completes his practice as a Buddha.
When one reaches this level, one’s four spiritual bodies exceed the state of being as clear as crystal and become a light mass itself. They are a light mass as bright as the light that cannot be compared with hundreds or thousands of times that of the sun. This is the ultimate state of purity. Hence, the mind of the Buddha who has attained Buddhahood is purer and cleaner than crystal.
Like the expression “ If the mind is clean (心淨), the Land of the Buddha is clean (佛土淨).” appearing in the Vimalakirti Sutra, thinking (精神, mind) becomes so clean and pure that one cannot see it because it is dazzling. Even when one sees something dirty, it is still clean, and even when one sees feces, they are also clean. The whole world is clean. The mind always does not come from anywhere nor does it go anywhere.
As stated in the Diamond Sutra, a Buddha produces his mind without abiding in anything (應無所住而生其心). There is no clinging, attachment, nor abiding in one’s mind.
The four spiritual bodies of the one who has attained Buddhahood act independently and separately. They do so after they get out of the false body like wind. When a Buddha dies, the four spiritual bodies become one with his own Buddha Body in the Buddha Realm. He combines with ‘the Body of Blessings’(至福).
The Buddha Body (圓滿報身, the Complete Body of Bliss) also has the Pure Dharma Body in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness’, namely the Realm of Constant Quiescence Light (常寂光土). The Buddha Body has his own Dharma Body24, namely, the ‘Universal Body.’ Now he is the universe itself (Time and space are himself).
The Buddha 佛, Dharma Body
- namely ‘the Universal Body’
Truly speaking, the Dharma Body of a Buddha (法身佛, Skt. Dharmakaya) is indeed the real Buddha of that Buddha. There is no coming or going (去來) nor abiding. As the light of the great wisdom that shines over the Dharma realm, the light is omnipresent in the universe. The Dharma Body Buddha is the Great Universal I that is the root of the Reward Body that is the transcendental real existence with human character. It is the Lord of the great life of the universe.
There is a case that a Buddha who has already attained Buddhahood in the past life is born in this saha world as a human. His Body is called the Responsive Transformation Body. As a Buddha receives life through the power of one’s vow, he is mostly born into a palace.
At this time, his own Buddha Body remains there in the Absolute Realm as it is. The life of a Buddha Body that he has attained lasts forever. The Reward Body (報身, Skt. Sambhogakaya) has a beginning but has no end.
24The whole universal body of the Buddha is the true nature of the Dharma Body. It is of course different from empty nature (空性) or suchness (眞如). The Reward Body that possesses immeasurable virtue and awesome spiritual powers is produced from this Dharma Body. The teaching of the Buddha becomes no other than the universal religion on the basis of the thought of the Dharma Body.
A Buddha Body living in the realm of the Buddha is the Reward Body25. The Reward Body possesses his Dharma Body in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness.’ Hence the Dharma Body is the original body of the Reward and Transformation Bodies. It may be rather difficult to understand with our structure of consciousness living in the world of three dimensions.
I will elaborate on this a little further.
Amitabha is now the King of Buddhism in the Western Pure Land, and is teaching the Bodhisattvas who have been born in the Western Pure Land so that they can become Buddhas. When one sees the Buddha Body of Amitabha from the concept of the Jewel-Nature Treatise (寶性論), he is the Reward Body, the Complete Body of Bliss. He possesses the majestic thirty-two bodily signs and eighty marks, and the colours of the light look dazzlingly brilliant and gorgeous.
Yet, this Buddha is one of the Five Tathagata Buddhas (五如來) who attained Buddhahood, not ten kalpas ago, but truly countless kalpas ago. He possesses his Dharma Body in ‘the Absolute Realm in Selflessness.’
25A Reward Body (Buddha) enjoys the complete truth, so it is the body of blessings (至福) that is full of bliss. This Reward Body, namely the Body of Blessings, possesses thirty-two bodily signs and eighty marks with an appearance that the Dharma Body, ‘the Whole Universal Body’, is manifested into the relative discrimination world in the form of a physical body. One can see the Reward Body of the Buddha wrapped in the brilliance (光輝) of the Immeasurable Light in deep Samadhi that only a great saint above a Bodhisattva of the Avatamsaka tenth ground (十地) can enter.
Avalokiteshvara attained Buddhahood countless kalpas ago and his Buddha name is called ‘True Dharma Luminous King.’ Possessing his Dharma Body in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness, he manifests the Complete Body of Bliss, and attends on Amitabha Buddha as the left-hand attendant in the Western Pure Land.
Avalokiteshvara has also come and abides here with the appearance of a merciful mother (慈母) to teach and save sentient beings of Jambudvipa. The white-robed Avalokiteshvara has the appearance of wearing a flower crown with the image of Amitabha on the forehead, wrapping a pearl necklace around the neck, and wearing clothes that look like a white silk dress often with a willow branch in the hand.
Sometimes he comes to Jambudvipa, manifesting himself at a great Dharma assembly of a Buddha who has attained Buddhahood and often manifesting in a thousand Transformation Bodies (a thousand eyes and a thousand arms) at which time he blesses those who are present with one hundred kinds of light in five colours. He also manifests thirty-two Response Bodies and teaches and saves lay people who have close ties with the Buddhist Dharma and guides them to the Western Pure Land.
The left and right hand attendants of Avalokiteshvara are not Hae Sang Yong Wang and Priestling Nahm Sun. Since he is a great Buddha, Hae Su Gwan Eum and Yuk Gwan Eum, who are Bodhisattvas of the utmost supreme stage possessing the capacity of a Buddha are his left and right hand attendants. Hae Su Gwan Eum has the appearance of a woman, but Yuk Gwan Eum has the appearance of a man manifesting in six bodies on some occasions.
The mantra “Buljongshim Avalokiteshvara Modharani” is the mantra of Hae Su Gwan Eum, and the mantra of Yuk Gwan Eum is “Om Maha Garoniga Sabaha”, both of which have inconceivable powers.
Therefore, I counter and declare that Avalokiteshvara is not a Bodhisattva who is qualified to attain Buddhahood in his next lifetime (一生補處) as generally understood by Buddhists now, but that he is a Buddha who has already attained Buddhahood.
