Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c23.s3: 3. The Nirmāṇakāya, Magic Body

Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c23.s3

Language: English

3. The Nirmāṇakāya, Magic Body

c23.s3.1

Even in the Hīnayāna we have from the lips of the Buddha himself an assertion of his power of leaving the assembly in which he preaches dubious as to his identity, and the Kathāvatthu records the docetic heresy of the Vetulyakas who held that the Buddha remained in the Tuṣita heaven, and merely a phantom appeared on earth. The idea is not known to the Mahāvastu, but it occurs repeatedly in the Mahāyāna Sūtras, with the substitution of some other abode of the real Buddha in lieu of the Tuṣita heaven, the Vulture peak in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, the Sukhāvatī paradise in the Vyūhas and Amitāyuḥ-sūtras. From time immemorial Ṣākyamuni or Amitābha or Vajrasattva has been emancipated, not first at Gayā, but he repeatedly appears in a magic form in the world, to lead an apparent life, teach the law, and be extinct.¹ A development of this conception is the five Mānuṣi-Buddhas corresponding to five Jinas or so-called Dhyāni-Buddhas in the mythology; the former are essentially artificial, the latter true Buddhas. Both Buddhas and Bodhisattvas may transform themselves thus, but the Bodhisattva Avalokiteçvara is *par excellence* the transformer of himself into the most varied shapes in his eagerness to succour men, and to fulfil his vow to secure the release of all beings. The shapes which may be assumed are not limited to Buddha appearances, though these are usual in the case of Buddhas, but any form may be chosen which serves the end aimed at.

c23.s3.2

¹ Saddharmapuṇḍarīka; SBE. XXI. xxv.

c23.s3.3

Beside this conception, which is frequent and orthodox, there appears an analogous idea; on attaining enlightenment a Buddha is endowed with a body of bliss, and his old body disappears; but out of pity for the world he causes a magic body to survive so that men may see it and enclose its bones in a relic shrine, ignorant of the fact that the bones have no reality.²

c23.s3.4

² Wassilieff, Bouddhisme, p. 127.

c23.s3.5

Ontologically, the conception is fully employed in the Mahāyānaçraddhotpāda, where suchness as the absolute is conceived as the void and radiant intellect, which under the influence of ignorance loses its clearness in some degree, and originates action intellect (*karma-vijñāna*), which evolves by thinking the bliss and enjoyment bodies. Further, by virtue of previous impressions (*vāsanā*), intellect develops into the state of discriminating particulars (*vastuprativikalpa*), in which it creates for itself the whole material world and the world of desire. Ordinary men, Śrāvakas, and solitary Buddhas thus generate innumerable magic bodies. The same power of creation is seen in the imagination which creates a real self, pleasant and unpleasant things, the great gods. Such people have no true idea of a Buddha; they have not mastered the truth of existence and non-existence; they believe in a human Buddha and his Nirvāṇa, which they desire for themselves. The Bodhisattvas on the contrary appreciate reality; they are aware of their substantial identity with the body of the law, but they have not realized it as they are still conscious of their identity. Though they are undefiled by the world, owing to their equipment of knowledge, they practise an equipment of merit which results in an unreal but purifying activity.