The Three Kayas (or Bodies, or Dimensions, or Hypostases), Part 1

Mahayana Buddhism, around 300 CE, developed a three-dimensional approach to understanding Ultimate Reality and its relation to phenomenal reality. This three-dimensional approach was termed the Trikaya (Triple Body), and to the cognoscenti it’s clear that the Trikaya mirrors the Christian Holy Trinity, which (more than coincidentally, I’m sure) also emerged circa the same time.

I’ve read numerous explanations of the Trikaya, but none as clear and demystifying as mine – because, unlike any other living writers or teachers I’ve encountered in my deep and wide studies, I truly grok the Trikaya.

The Trikaya consists of the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya, and the Nirmanakaya. Each of these Kayas (or Bodies, or Dimensions, or Hypostases) pertains to the unborn/uncreated/unmanifest Reality in a particular “phase,” or vehicle, of expression. The Trikaya is always outside of time and space; otherwise it would be not be a “Holy Trinity,” but rather an un-Holy one. But for clarification’s sake, it should be pointed out that “outside of time and space” also means “in the world, but not of the world.”

The Dharmakaya (akin to the Father in Christianity) is the “Truth Body,” or more precisely, the “Reality Body.” The Dharmakaya is the Sustance (or Essence) Body of Truth, or Reality, or Being. The Dharmakaya is Consciousness Itself, universal, timeless Awareness. It is the One Mind. The Sambhogakaya (akin to the Holy Spirit) is the Blissing/Blessing Clear-Light-Energy of the Dharmakaya. In other words, it is of the same Substance as the Dharmakaya, but expresses this Substance in the Dimension of Energy, or Power. The Nirmanakaya or “Form Body” (akin to the Son), is the Dharmakaya (which is akin to Shiva) and the Sambhogakaya (which is akin to Shakti) in conjunction and immanent within a human incarnational vehicle, and thus expresses the Dharmakaya in the Dimension of Form, or Matter.

In reality, because the irreducible Substance of Being is Consciousness Itself, it could be (and sometimes is) said that there is only the Dharmakaya. In other words, the Trikaya, like the Christian Holy Trinity, is simply a provisional doctrine that provides a framework for understanding the relationship between Ultimate Reality (the Dharmakaya) and a human incarnational vehicle in phenomenal reality. It provides a model that explains how a human soul or being) becomes an incarnational divine Being (or Nirmanakaya) by uniting the Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya within himself. This union of the Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya “produces,” or unveils, the Trikaya within a yogi/disciple/bodhisattva, awakening him as a Buddha (one who is En-Light-ened Awareness Itself).

In part 2 of this article, I will consider the Trikaya in relation to the Causal, Astral, Etheric, Pranic, Higher Mental, Lower Mental, and Physical Bodies.