A Wisdom Archive on trikaya

The Trikaya doctrine (Sanskrit, literally "Three bodies or personalities"; 三身 Chinese: Sānshén, Japanese: sanjin) is an important Buddhist teaching both on the nature of reality, and what a Buddha is. By the 4th century CE the Trikaya Doctrine had assumed the form that we now know. Briefly the doctrine says that a Buddha has three 'bodies': the nirmana-kaya or created body which manifests in time and space; the sambhoga-kaya or body of mutual enjoyment which is an archetypal manifestatio ... Including:

• Trikaya - Origins
• Trikaya - Trikaya
• Trikaya - Neoplatonism?

Read more here: » Trikaya: Encyclopedia - Trikaya

Later Mahayana Buddhists were concerned with the transcendent aspect of the Dharma. So therefore if the Dharma is transcendental, totally beyond space and time, then so is the Dharmakaya. One response to this was the development of the Tathagatagarbha Doctrine. Another was the introduction of the Sambhogakaya which conceptually fits between the rupakaya, now renamed nirmanakaya or created body, and the Dharmakaya. The Sambhogakaya is that aspect of the Buddha, or the Dharma, that one meets in visions and in deep meditati ...

Read more here: » Trikaya: Encyclopedia II - Trikaya - Trikaya

Buddha (Sanskrit, Pali, others: literally Awakened One, from the root: √budh, "to awaken") is a title used in Buddhism for anyone who has discovered their enlightenment (bodhi), although it is commonly used to refer to Siddhartha Gautama, the historical founder of Buddhism, who was born in Lumbini--a place situated in modern Nepal. Generally, Buddhists do not consider Siddhartha Gautama—who lived in ancient India from about 623 BC to 543 BC, and attained bodhi around 588 BC—to have been ... Including: Buddha - Eternal Buddha Buddha - Names of the Buddhas Buddha - Sources

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There are a great variety of Buddhist texts. Buddhists place varying value on them: attitudes range from worship of the text itself, to dismissal of some texts as falsification of the ineffable truth. They therefore cannot be called "scripture" in the sense of other religions. The texts can be categorized in a number of ways, but the most fundamental division is that between canonical and non-canonical texts. The former, also called the Sutras (Sanskrit) or Suttas (Pali), are held to be, literally or metaphoricall ... Including: Buddhist texts - Canonical texts Buddhist texts - Non-canonical texts Buddhist texts - Texts of the Nikaya Schools Buddhist texts - Sutta Buddhist texts - Abhidharma Buddhist texts - Non-canonical texts Buddhist texts - Mahayana texts Buddhist texts - Perfection of Wisdom Texts Buddhist texts - Saddharma-pundarika Buddhist texts - Pure Land Sutras Buddhist texts - The Vimalakirti Nirdesha Sutra Buddhist texts - Samadhi Sutras Buddhist texts - Confession Sutras Buddhist texts - The Avatamsaka Sutra Buddhist texts - Third Turning Sutras Buddhist texts - Tathagatagarbha class sutras Buddhist texts - Collected Sutras Buddhist texts - Transmigration Sutras Buddhist texts - Discipline Sutras Buddhist texts - Sutras Devoted to Individual Figures Buddhist texts - Proto-Mahayana Sutras Buddhist texts - Non-canonical texts Buddhist texts - References Buddhist texts - Vajrayana Texts Buddhist texts - Buddhist tantras Buddhist texts - Other products of the Vajrayana literature

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Buddhism is generally regarded as a non-theistic religion. Although it does teach the existence of “gods” (devas), these are merely heavenly beings who temporarily dwell in celestial worlds of great happiness. Such beings, however, are not eternal in that incarnational form and are subject to death and eventual rebirth into lower realms of existence. However, a distinction needs to be drawn between the seemingly non-deistic and non-theistic teachings of the Buddha in the Pāli Canon and the “agamas”, and the mystically-hued id ... Including:

• God in Buddhism - The God Idea in Early Buddhism
• God in Buddhism - Mahayana and Tantric Mystical Doctrines
• God in Buddhism - Literature

Read more here: » God in Buddhism: Encyclopedia - God in Buddhism

The situation takes on a different complexion in Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism. Here one encounters the notion of the Buddhas as kinds of cosmic wizards or magicians, as the creators of, and rulers over, “Buddha fields” (Buddha Paradises – whole world systems of spiritual exaltation and instruction). Although there are countless Buddhas, their essence is one - that of "Tathata" ("suchness" or "that-ness") - , and it is in this sense that the Buddha proclaims himself as "Tathagata" and ...

Read more here: » God in Buddhism: Encyclopedia II - God in Buddhism - Mahayana and Tantric Mystical Doctrines