[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Buddhist Sanskrit literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit) › [Mahāyāna sūtras](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra) › [Śālistambasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba) › [འཕགས་པ་སཱ་ལུའི་ལྗང་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo) › [The Rice Seedling](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000) › notes.8 # འཕགས་པ་ས་ལའ་ལྗང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད notes.8 The Rice Seedling notes.8 - **Language:** English ### [notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes.8) 8. “Body of Dharma” here renders chos kyi sku. This section of the sūtra is not attested in the available Sanskrit material, so the available Sanskrit editions have actually been reconstructed from the Tibetan translation. Louis de La Vallée Poussin (1913, p. 72) and Sastri (1950, p. 3) reconstruct chos kyi sku here with dharmakāya, but we prefer—with Reat (p. 30)—the term dharmaśarīra because it is attested as a possible underlying Sanskrit term for the Tibetan chos kyi sku in the next paragraph (cf. Reat, p. 32 n5). Kamalaśīla interprets the term as the pristine wisdom, or suchness, that serves as a basis for the dharmas (i.e., awakened qualities) of a buddha. He states: “ ‘body of Dharma’ demonstrates the cause: that which serves as the cause of the dharmas (i.e., awakened qualities) of a buddha is pristine wisdom or pristine suchness—the body which is the body of Dharma” (Schoening, vol. 2, p. 473). Reat (ibid.) translates this term as “Dharma-body,” whereas Schoening (vol. 1, p. 237) renders it as “the body consisting of dharma(s).” As indicated by these different interpretations, the semantic range of the term dharmaśarīra (chos kyi sku) can include the interlinked notions of the “corpus” of the Buddha’s “teachings” or “doctrine” (Dharma), the “collection” of undefiled “qualities” (dharmas) that make a buddha a buddha, the physical body of the Buddha as an “embodiment” of “ultimate reality” (Dharma) and attendant “awakened qualities,” and, by extension, as Kamalaśīla’s interpretation suggests, the ethereal “body” of pristine wisdom that characterizes the Buddha’s awakening experience. The mutual implications of dharma as “doctrine,” “qualities,” and “reality” (and “phenomena” in general) is an important facet of the term’s multivalence in Buddhist literary sources. For more on the shifting semantic range of the terms dharma, dharmaśarīra, and dharmakāya, see Paul Harrison (1992). We have partially followed Reat in rendering this term with the slightly ambiguous “body of Dharma,” with the hope of not overly constraining the broad semantic range of the term and its possible commentarial interpretations. - [Previous: notes.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes.7) - [Next: notes.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes.9) - [Up: notes](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.salistamba*bo~en-84000.notes.8) · Pramāṇa