Four kayas

From Encyclopedia of Buddhism
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The four kayas (Skt. catuḥkāya; T. sku bzhi སྐུ་བཞི་) are four dimensions (kayas) of a buddha identified within Tibetan Buddhism. These are:[1][2]

  1. dharmakaya (chos kyi sku, ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་) - the body of reality
  2. sambhogakaya (longs spyod rdzogs pa’i sku, ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ་) - the body of perfect rapture
  3. nirmanakaya (sprul pa’i sku, སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ ) - the emanational body
  4. svabhavikakaya (ngo bo nyid kyi sku ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ ) - the body of their essentiality

In Atisha's Seven Points of Mind Training, slogon number 14 states:[3]

Seeing confusion as the four kayas
Is unsurpassable shunyata protection.

According to Haribhadra, chapter 8 of the Abhisamayalankara describes Buddhahood through four kayas.[4]

Svabhavakakaya

The Svabhavikakaya is the unity or non-separateness of the three kayas.[5]

References


Further reading