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Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s2.t11: Nirmāṇakāya

Aspects of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its Relation to Hīnayāna c7.s2.t11

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Nirmāṇakāya

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The Mahāyānic texts tried to show, on the one hand, that the Hinayānists were wrong in their belief that Śākyamuni was really a man of flesh and blood and that relics of his body existed, while on the other hand, they introduced the two conceptions of Nirmāṇakāya and Buddhakāya. Whatever is said to have been done by Śākyamuni is accounted for by these texts as the apparent doings of a phantom of the Buddhakāya, a shadowy image created to follow the ways of the world (lokānuvartana),² in order to bring conviction to the hearts of the people that the attainment of Buddhahood was not an impossibility. As the Buddhas possess the knowledge of all that is to be done (kṛtyānuṣṭhāna jñāna),¹ they can take any form they desire for the illumination of the various classes of beings. The Mahāyānic conception of the Nirmāṇakāya is essentially the same as that of the Mahāsānghikas.

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² Cf. Miu., I, pp. 168, 170.

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¹ One of the four jñānas peculiar to Buddha, see Mvyut., p. 2.

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The Prajñāpāramitās in their quaint way refer to the Nirmāṇakāya or Rūpakāya. The Pañcavimśati says that a bodhisattva, after acquiring all the necessary dharmas and practising prajñāpāramitā, becomes Sambuddha. He then renders service to beings of all lokadhātus (worlds) of the ten corners at all times by Nirmāṇamegha (Nirmāṇa clouds). This is called the Nairmāṇika-kāya.²

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² Pañca. (Cambr. ms.), leaf 343b.

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From the Chinese sources³ we are informed that Nāgārjuna in his commentary on the Prajñāpāramitā, called the Mahāprajñāpāramitā śāstra, speaks of two kāyas, rūpakāya and dharmakāya. The former is the body born of parents, possessing the qualities of sentient beings, and is subject to human frailties. It was born in Kośala while his dharmakāya was born at Rājagṛha. The material body was necessary for "earthly truth". It was for the deliverance of beings that Buddha assumed different bodies, different names, birth-places and ways of emancipation. This interpretation of rūpa- and dharma-kāyas is also followed in the Chinese Parinirvāṇasūtra and Sandhinirmocanasūtra.⁴

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³ C. Akanuma, E.B., II, pp. 17ff.; Masuda, Die Individualistische etc., p. 60.

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⁴ E.B., II, pp. 21f.

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Some of the Yogācāra texts furnish us with the following information regarding the conception of Nirmāṇakāya as prevailing among the Yogācārins:

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(i) The Sūtrālaṅkāra⁵ explains the Nirmāṇakāya to be those forms which are assumed by Buddhas to render service to beings of the various worlds. It generally refers to the human form that Buddha takes in order to make a show of his acquiring the ordinary arts and crafts required by an average man, living a family life and then retiring from it, and ultimately attaining Nirvāṇa by a recourse to ascetic practices.

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⁵ Sūtrā., p. 45.

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(ii) The *Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi* tells us that the Nirmāṇakāya is meant for Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, Pṛthagjanas (common men) and Bodhisattvas who are not yet in one of the ten bhūmis. It may appear in all lands whether pure or impure.¹ The Chinese commentaries on the *Siddhi* mention the various ways in which Buddha can transform his body or another's body or voice, and his or others' mind, to suit his purpose. Not only could he transform himself into Śākyamuni, or Śāriputra into a young girl, but also could create an altogether new apparitional body, not, of course, a living, thinking being.² Often he assumed the voice of Brahmā or expressed himself through the mouth of Śāriputra or Subhūti, and it was for this reason that we find Śāriputra or Subhūti explaining some of the abstruse Mahāyāna teachings, which they themselves were not expected to understand.³ The third way in which he could transform his voice was to produce sounds from the sky. His thoughts were supramundane (lokottara) and pure (anāsrava). He could produce in his mind any thought he liked; in fact, he appeared in his Nirmitakāya as Śākyamuni with a mind (citta) suited to the ways of the world. He could also impose his thoughts on the minds of others.

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¹ Masuda, *Die Individualistische etc.*, p. 60.

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² I derived this information from Prof. La Vallée Poussin.

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³ See *Aṣṭa.*, pp. 14, 33, 414.

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(iii) The *Abhisamayālaṅkārakārikā* states that there are four kāyas, of which the Svābhāvikakāya is real, and the three others, *viz.*, Dharmakāya (=Svasambhogakāya), Sambhogakāya (=Parasambhogakāya) and Nirmāṇakāya are sāmvṛta (*i.e.* unreal); these are meant for Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas respectively. According to it, the Nirmāṇakāya was intended for Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas who are not yet in one of the ten bhūmis. It describes the Nirmāṇakāya as a body unsevered from the real kāya, and as the actions performed by it are similarly unsevered from the kāya, they should be regarded as asamsāra (transcendental, i.e., not worldly). Then it proceeds to show that the thirty-seven kinds of purificatory actions performed by the Nirmāṇakāya are really the actions of the Dharmakāya. The thirty-seven actions, as explained by it, are the thirty-seven steps through which a Nirmāṇakāya passes after its inception. They are as follows:¹ A Nirmāṇakāya (i) is unmindful of good or bad forms of existence; in other words, takes birth as an animal, human being or god as necessities require—this is called gatipraśama; (ii) practises the four samgrahavastus (elements of popularity); (iii) enlightens himself about matters opposite and similar, good and evil, by the śrutamayi and such other means of knowledge, and then applies himself to the service of others, keeping himself unconcerned (i.e., having no anunaya, like a magician for the things made by him magically); (iv) practises the six pāramitās purified in three ways trimaṇḍalaviśuddha); (v) performs, and persuades others to perform the ten kuśalakarmapathas (moral duties) and thus establish all in the path leading to Buddhahood; (vi) exerts for realising the non-existence in reality of all things; (vii) comprehends the non-duality of things and all-pervasiveness of the dharmadhātu, and so on, until he reaches the Tathāgatabhūmi after realising the absence of difference between things constituted and unconstituted.² In short, the Kārikā wants to say that the whole course of life of a Bodhisattva, extending through incalculable births, is nothing but the Nirmāṇakāya, a thing not separate from the Dharmakāya, as, in fact, according to the Mahāyāna philosophy, all creations are neither the same as, nor different from, the dharmadhātu.

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¹ J.A., 1913, p. 604.

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² Kārikā, ch. viii; also J.A., 1913, pp. 599, 600.

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(iv) The Laṅkāvatāra explains the relation of Nirmāṇakāya to Dharmakāya in the same way as the Kārikā. It states that Nirmitabuddhas are not produced by actions; the Tathāgata is neither in them nor outside them (sarve hi nirmitabuddhā na karmaprabhavā na teṣu tathāgato na cānyatra tebhyas tathāgataḥ.¹ It is only when the sons of the Jina realise the visible world to have no existence apart from the citta that they obtain the Nirmāṇakāya free from kriyā and saṃskāra, and endowed with bala, abhijñā and vaśitā.² Like the Siddhi, it says that the Tathāgatas by creating Nirmāṇakāya perform the various duties of a Tathāgata (Tathāgatakṛtya).³ It gives also the interesting information that Vajrapāṇi serves as an attendant on the Nirmitanirmāṇabuddhas, and not on the real Buddhas,⁴ and that the function of such a Buddha is to preach and explain the characteristics of dāna, śīla, dhyāna, samādhi, citta, prajñā, jñāna, skandha, dhātu, āyatana, vimokṣa, and vijñāna.⁵

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¹ Laṅkā., p. 242.

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² Ibid., p. 73.

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³ Ibid., p. 240.

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⁴ Ibid., p. 242.

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⁵ Ibid., p. 57.

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