འཕགས་པ་ས་ལའ་ལྗང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད notes.13

notes.13

13. The available Sanskrit (Reat, p. 32) for this passage reads: anuttara­dharma­śarīraṃ buddhaṃ paśyati| ārya­dharmābhisamaye samyag-jñānād upanayenaiva|. The corresponding section in the Tibetan Degé and other versions recorded in the Pedurma comparative edition read: ’phags pa’i chos mngon par rtogs te/ yang dag pa’i ye shes dang ldan pas bla na med pa’i chos kyi skur sangs rgyas mthong ngo gsungs so/. The Stok Palace version of the Tibetan differs from the Degé and all other versions recorded in the Pedurma comparative edition; it also more closely reflects the Sanskrit. The Stok Palace (F.284a.4-5) reads: yang dag pa’i ye shes thob pas/ ’phags pa’i chos mngon par rtogs pas bla na med pa’i chos kyi skur sangs rgyas mthong ngo gsungs so/ (“By attaining right knowledge and thereby realizing the Dharma of the noble ones, he sees the Buddha, the body of the unsurpassable Dharma”). The Tibetan thob pa, “to attain,” is a conceivable rendering of the Sanskrit upanaya, which Reat renders as “exertion.” Kamalaśīla (Schoening, vol. 2, pp. 483–484) interprets this phrase to mean, “Whoever sees dependent arising in this manner sees the Dharma of accomplishment and the Dharma of fruition, because ultimately everything is the same taste, and because the Buddha Bhagavān too is the nature of the body of the ultimate Dharma which was thus taught. Therefore, it is taught that whoever sees the Dharma thus taught sees the Buddha… Whoever comprehends dependent arising thus taught realizes the Dharma of the noble ones; this means ‘comprehending the Dharma of the ultimate meaning.’ Whoever comprehends the Dharma of the ultimate meaning is endowed with perfect wisdom. Whoever is endowed with perfect wisdom abides in the wisdom of equanimity and thus does not perceive any difference between dependent arising, the Dharma, and the Buddha.” The Śālistamba[ka]-ṭīkā attributed to Nāgārjuna (Schoening, vol. 2, p. 393) interprets the phrase as: “ ‘Unsurpassable’ means that that there is no special dharma whatsoever that is superior to this, hence it is ‘unsurpassable.’ ‘Body of Dharma’ means the Dharma-body itself. … ‘Buddha’ is so-called because of comprehending dharma(s). Thus, one who sees dependent arising sees the nature of one who awakens to the unexcelled Dharma, beyond further training.” Akin to the reconstruction presented above in note 7, this phrase on its own carries the semantic range of the Buddha as an embodiment of the unsurpassable nature of “reality” (Dharma), the unsurpassable “doctrine” (Dharma) that teaches it, and the unsurpassable “qualities” of awakening (dharmas) incumbent upon becoming an awakened one (Buddha). Reat (p. 32) translates the phrase as “he sees the unsurpassable Dharma-body, the Buddha, by exertion based on right knowledge in clear understanding of the noble Dharma.” Schoening (vol. 1, p. 241) translates the final section as, “sees the Buddha, the body consisting of unsurpassable dharma(s).” In interpreting “unsurpassable” to modify “dharma,” and not the whole phrase “body of dharma,” we attempt to follow the interpretations of the commentaries and Schoening. We also leave “dharma” untranslated here in an attempt to capture something of the multiple entendre of the term. See Harrison (1992) for observations about possibly earlier, non-metaphysical senses of dharmakāya and the associated term dharmaśarīra in Mahāyāna literature.