Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s2.t11.16

c7.s2.t11.16

(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.