Body of Buddha |
Yesterday we explored the Trikaya, the three bodies or aspects of Buddha, and the evolution of how we define Buddha’s body in our tradition. To briefly review, dharmakaya represents the truth body, the indescribable body, or the absolute aspect of truth. Nirmanakaya is the manifestation body that appears in the world and acts for the benefit of beings. So Shakyamuni’s physical body is the nirmanakaya. Sambhogakaya is defined as the bliss body or enjoyment body of Buddha. It is also called the reward body. We ended yesterday remembering that the purpose of any teaching is to guide our actual practice and to help us consider how to live our life. If one looks up buddha body in the glossary of Moon in a Dewdrop it says, “The buddha body which has these three aspects is also known as the true human body.” So the teachings about the buddha body have everything to do with our life and practice as humans. We can only live and practice because we have a body to do it with. Relatively speaking we are each a human body. What would it mean to practice seeing the buddha body as the true human body? In his fascicle Yuibutsu Yobutsu (Only a Buddha and Buddha), Dogen wrote, An ancient buddha said: The entire universe is the true human body.The entire universe is the gate of liberation.The entire universe is the eye of Vairochana.The entire universe is the dharma body of the self. Remember Vairochana is the name of the dharmakaya. He continues: ‘The true human body’ means your own true body. Know that the entire universe is your own true body, which is not a temporary body. If someone asks you why we do not usually notice this, say, ‘Just reflect within yourself that the entire universe is the true human body.’ Or say, ‘The entire universe is the true human body-already you know this.’ Also, ‘The entire universe is the gate of liberation’ means that you are not at all entangled or captivated. What is called ‘the entire universe’ is undivided from the moment, the ages, mind, and words. This limitless and boundless experience is the ‘entire universe.’ Even if you seek to enter or go through this gate of liberation, it cannot be done. How is this so? Reflect on the question raised. If you intend to see outside what it is, nothing will be attained. Considering “this limitless and boundless experience is the entire universe” in relative terms we can ask, “Who’s experience?” and answer, “Yours and mine.” What arises for me is that even though the idea that the true human body is the entire universe sounds wild and far-fetched, if we ponder this, it means there is nowhere to go, and nowhere to search for truth or liberation outside of our own experience, so it has a surprisingly practical application. Siddhartha Gautama, the human being we call the historical Buddha, didn’t claim he was anything other than a human being. Humans however seem to have a tendency to deify beings we want to celebrate, remember, and honor. We seem to maybe not appreciate the messiness of humanness, or perhaps we just want to aspire to something beyond our current capabilities. The bodhisattva vows are certainly beyond our reach. This keeps us humble and gives us direction. After the Buddha Sidhartha Gautama’s human life was over the story of his birth quickly became a miraculous one. In this birth story, the baby Buddha takes seven steps in every direction and says, “Within the world, I am the most excellent. Within the world, I am the most venerable. From today on, my share of births have been exhausted; this is my final body, and I will become a buddha.” In our tradition we often hear the explanation that the “I” does not refer to the human person making the statement. The “I” refers to something much more vast. “I alone” means alone. There is no other, nothing else, no subject or object. Some Zen teachers throughout history made outright fun of this story. In Shōbōgenzo Juppō (Ten Directions) written in 1243, Dogen describes the popular miraculous birth story of the baby Buddha in this way:“The entire ten-direction world is the entire-body of the Sramana. One hand points to the heaven as heaven, one hand points to the earth as earth. Although it is thus, [the Buddha said,] above the heaven and underneath the heaven, I alone am the Honored-One. This is the entire ten-direction world as the entire body of the Sramana.” A Sramana is a religious mendicant dependent on alms. The “Sramana” in the passage above refers to Shakyamuni. According to Okumura Roshi, Dōgen interprets this story as showing that the baby Buddha was one with the entire network of interconnectedness with all beings in the ten-directions. The Buddha and the ten-direction world are born together. In Zen tradition, when he attained awakening, Shakyamuni Buddha said, “When the bright star appeared, I, together with the great earth and sentient beings, simultaneously completed the Way.” This saying (in Juppō) expresses the same principle, that the Buddha attained awakening and lived together with all beings within Indra’s Net. In The Light that Shines Through Infinity, Katagiri Roshi explains the three bodies of Buddha by saying that the dharmakaya “is the original source of being, which is nothing but energy. That is the seed of buddha-nature.” “Nirmanakaya is the phenomenal world: your human body, your mind, your circumstances, and everything around you.” This is the place where the “seed of buddha-nature can grow.” “But in order for your seed to grow you have to put it in an appropriate place.” That appropriate place is sambhogakaya, Buddha’s joy body. “Sambhogakaya is the place where there is harmony between truth and the phenomenal world, and the seed of your buddha-nature becomes the mature fruit of your life.” He then explains how the fruit of each being is unique and indescribable. So Katgiri Roshi takes the dharmakaya or indescribable truth body, the sambhogakaya, or bliss body, and nirmanakaya also known as the emanation or manifestation body, and applies these concepts directly to us, our bodies, and our practice. If we call all being the body of Buddha then you and I are part of the body of Buddha. We can only experience it with our body. In the dharma realm in which each and every thing in existence is in multivalent interaction with all other things, where would you designate a boundary? In this way, this entire network of interconnectedness is the true human body. In another place, Katagiri Roshi says, “When you open yourself and invite Buddha using your human body, dharma comes into you, and you become one with it. At that time you are sambhogakaya. Sambhogakaya is dharmakaya manifested in your everyday life. Sambhogakaya is not necessarily a manifestation of the real truth of your original nature, and not necessarily a manifestation of the worldly truth of your human body. It is both, coming together and working together within your human body. You cannot explain what it is but something sublime is alive in your everyday life.” So it sounds to me like it is our responsibility to bring to life the sambhogakaya and manifest the dharmakaya with our own body/mind. In another essay on the Dogen Institute website Okumura Roshi explains, “The way things are, the network of interdependent origination, the reality of all beings is itself Buddha. In that sense, each and every thing within that network is part of Buddha. When we understand Buddha in this way, making prostrations to the Buddha means we venerate and make prostrations to this entire network of interdependent origination, of which we are part.” This is the main message in the Makka Hannya Haramitsu that we chanted yesterday morning. When we see the entire network of interdependent origination as Buddha, we meet life with appreciation and respect. Sometimes this entire network is called Buddha, and sometimes it is called the true human body. Sometimes it is called the universe, sometimes it is called the suffering world of samsara. No matter what words we use, if all things are interconnected, it is ultimately functioning as one — one body. As John Daido Loori said, “When you realize the whole universe as nothing but yourself, you have to take care of it.” When Buddhism entered Japan the idea that the entire world was Buddha’s true body co-mingled with the religion of the people that was already there. Those spiritual practices are to revere kami, — spirits, gods, or energies that inhabit the natural world, and to follow a path of conduct that is in harmony with these spirits which reside in specific places and natural features. We generally refer to these practices as Shintoism although I have read this term is not commonly used in Japan. We find that our Zen ancestors use nature to artistically and poetically express both analogies, and also direct examples of Buddhist teachings in our tradition. As far as I have seen, this reverence for nature pervades all Buddhist schools in Japan. This nature focus is what drew me to Zen. I have mentioned often, one of the first things I read by Eihei Dogen was the San Sui Kyo, (The Mountains and Waters Sutra), and it had a profound impact on me. The sutra begins: “Mountains and waters right now are the actualization of the ancient buddha way. Each, abiding in its phenomenal expression realizes completeness. Because mountains and waters have been active since before the Empty Eon, they are alive at this moment. Because they have been the self since before form arose they are emancipation-realization.” This idea that whatever we engage with and see is an expression of the Truth, and therefore Buddhist teachings and the body of Buddha feels so true for me. Remember from yesterday when he was about to die, Shakyamuni said, “My physical body (rupakaya) will not be here tomorrow, but my teaching body (Dharma kaya) will always be with you. Consider it to be the teacher who never leaves you.” Hearing all this, one might argue that since we are already within Indra’s net, and we are already part of the body of Buddha and it is all the true human body then why do we need to practice? In fact this is similar to Dogen’s great question: If we are inherently awake why do we need to practice? Dogen presents a version of this question at the beginning of the Fukanzazengi: The Way is basically perfect and all-pervading. How could it be contingent upon practice and realization? The Dharma-vehicle is free and untrammeled. What need is there for concentrated effort? Indeed, the whole body is far beyond the world's dust. Who could believe in a means to brush it clean? It is never apart from one, right where one is. What is the use of going off here and there to practice? In searching for an answer to this koan, Dogen came to see the nonduality of practice and enlightenment or awakening. Practice is what verifies awakening. Practice expresses awakening. We are sitting down in zazen to experience what we actually already are without our mind getting in the way and breaking it all down into ideas. We don’t usually see it and experience it, because we tend to always be breaking the true reality into pieces with our thoughts. We don’t sit down to become a Buddha, we sit down as Buddha. In the fascicle Bussho or Buddha Nature, Dogen expresses that all things are Buddha nature. We sit zazen so we can see this for ourselves. It’s like going to our true home. Dogen highly criticized the idea that practice is not necessary even if everything is the true body of Buddha and the true human body. Until we sit down and experience this reality for ourselves with our own body/mind the idea that the entire universe is the true human body, or the body of Buddha, is just another thought revolving in our head, and it has about the same value as any other abstract thought we could have. As Dogen says in Yuibutsu Yobutsu, (Only Buddha and Buddha), “What you think one way or another before realization is not a help for realization.” It is not that conversing and studying is not helpful while engaged in it. It is just not helpful once we sit down in zazen to actually experience what we were studying. In the Fukanzazengi, Dogen goes on to say: And yet, if there is the slightest discrepancy, the Way is as distant as heaven from earth. If the least like or dislike arises, the Mind is lost in confusion….how can we today dispense with negotiation of the Way? You should therefore cease from practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self. Body and mind of themselves will drop away, and your Original Face will be manifest. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay. If you want to attain suchness, you should practice suchness without delay. According to Katagiri Roshi “…we have to train or educate our individual body to realize the universal body. This is the practice we do day by day. This is spiritual life.” He also says, When you describe Buddha’s three bodies, it’s kind of a buddhology that makes you confused. But you can actually practice this. How? Whoever you are, you can manifest the true body with your human body. Even Shakyamuni Buddha had a human body. But Buddha’s human body is something more because you can see truth actualized there. So first accept your human body, and then use it to manifest something more than what you understand — something deep. In our tradition we don’t often talk much about these three bodies of Buddha or the idea that the entire universe is the true human body. More often we hear the teachings of non-self or no self. We learn that this means that everything is empty of an independent, autonomous existence. Everything is in complex relationship all the time. Nothing exists independently or statically. This is what Okumura refers to as Indra’s net or the entire network of interdependent origination. In the truth of ultimate reality, dichotomies are mere appearances. “No-self” and “all of existence as the true human body” are both just ways of talking about the same indescribable reality. In the early Buddhist traditions they would practice contemplating the human body as impure, and also contemplate rotting corpses to help eliminate desire. The founder of our tradition, Dogen, understood these practices of observing the body as impure. However, he taught that true purity is beyond any dichotomy of pure and impure. In his fascicle Sanjushichi-bon-bodai-bunpo (Thirty-seven Conditions Contributing to Bodhisattva Practice) Dogen states, “Observing the body as not-pure means that one skin bag of the present observing body is the entire universe of the ten directions.” I think that one skin bag is you or me sitting here in zazen. According to Katagiri Roshi “Real observation is to merge, or become one with,( it is) the dynamic process of observation itself.” If there is no subject or object there is just activity, dynamic energy, observation occurring. Katagiri Roshi says, Dogen Zenji’s ‘not-pure’ takes your human body far beyond any dualistic ideas of purity or impurity to the place where you cannot put any names on the skin bag of your human body. It is absolutely beyond ideas or concepts, so we say it is empty. If you experience your human body as emptiness, at that time your body is the entire universe in the ten directions, the whole world, one total reality, or Buddha.” Observing without an observer or something being observed — just the activity of observation, or just the activity of experiencing without an experiencer and experience is what we call the true human being. We are not human things. We are dynamic. We are being. We can not get outside of this entire 10 direction universe, the true human body. We can not see it from the outside, or really contemplate it intellectually, we can only practice being it. We do this by sitting down and letting go of all the divisions and ideas we create with our minds. Katagiri Roshi wrote, “Just be activity itself. When you cannot separate your skin bag and the universe, there is transcendence — you observe your human body as Buddha. Then your zazen is called shikantaza, and your body is the entire universe in ten directions.” Copyright © 2025 Zenki Kathleen Batson |