Trikaya
A Sanskrit compound word formed of tri, “three,” and k€ya, “body,” “trunk (of a tree),” “assemblage,” “habitation,” etc. It is used in MAHšYšNA BUDDHISM to refer to three bodies of Buddha: Dharmak€ya, Sambhogak€ya, and Nirm€Šak€ya. The first refers to the body of the Law (dharma), but has a metaphysical significance of ultimate Reality, the highest state consciousness can attain. It is this body, according to Mah€y€na Buddhism, that manifests the real Buddha, making him almost godlike. The second refers to the body of enjoyment (sambhoga), presumably both a vehicle in which the historical Buddha experienced the world as well as its more transcendent analogue which experienced the bliss of nirv€Ša. A Bodhisattva is also said to have such transcendental pleasure. The third refers to the transcient, “transformation” (nirm€Ša) body of the historical Buddha. The significance of the trik€ya idea was to impart the idea of some sort of permanence, even if transcendental, into the Buddha’s teaching of impermanence (P€li aniccya; Sk. anitya) while retaining the idea of impermanence at the empirical level — that of enjoyment and body change. It also had the effect of identifying the Buddha’s teaching (called dharma in Sanskrit; dhamma in P€li) as coming from the highest level of Reality. In The Voice of the Silence by Helena P. BLAVATSKY, these bodies are termed “vestures.”
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