Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c23.s1.3

c23.s1.3

We find already in the Hinayāna the conception of the distinction between the mere physical body of the Buddha which passes away, and the body of the law, which is the doctrine taught by him, to be realized by each man for himself. Later we find the idea that the material body of the Buddha is his body, while the law is the soul.² The law, however, which is the true nature of the Buddha, is true knowledge or the insight or intuition (prajñā) which is attained by a Buddha. The body of the law, therefore, can be equated with enlightenment (bodhi),³ or with release (nirvāṇa). But for the Madhyamaka release, enlightenment, and the body of the law are ultimately no more or less than the highest and only true reality, the void, which lies underneath every phenomenal thing. For the Vijñānavāda in the same way the body of the law as highest reality is the void intelligence, whose infection (saṃkleça) results in the process of birth and death, while its purification brings about Nirvāṇa or its restoration to its primitive transparence.