Four kayas

The four kayas (Skt. catuḥkāya [alt. catvāri kāya]; T. sku bzhi སྐུ་བཞི་) are four aspects (kaya) of buddhahood according to the Sanskrit Mahayana tradition. There are different systems for presenting the four kayas, according to different traditions.

A common presentation of the four kayas is:

1. dharmakaya (ཆོས་ཀྱི་སྐུ་) - the body of reality
2. sambhogakaya (ལོངས་སྤྱོད་རྫོགས་པའི་སྐུ་) - the body of perfect rapture
3. nirmanakaya (སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ་ ) - the emanation body
4. svabhavikakaya (ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་ ) - the body of their essentiality

Another tradition describes the four kayas as:

1. svabhavakaya (ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་སྐུ་) - nature truth body
2. jñānakāya (ཡེ་ཤེས་ཆོས་སྐུ་) - wisdom truth body
3. sambhogakaya (ལོངས་སྐུ་) - complete enjoyment body
4. nirmanakaya ( སྤུལ་སྐུ་) - emanation body

Explanation

Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang describes the four kayas according to the Nyingma school as follows:

The svabhavikakaya of the Buddha is considered differently by the New Traditions and the Ancient Tradition. The New Traditions consider that it is the emptiness devoid of the five skandhas. They claim that such emptiness is mere nothingness and there cannot therefore be such a thing as the Buddha’s wisdom of omniscience. The Ancient Tradition considers that the svabhavikakaya is the wisdom [of omniscience]. The dharmakaya is the wisdom of the radiant natural expression. The original meaning of the word kaya is “gathered together,” so the dharmakaya is said to be that in which the twenty-one sets of immaculate dharmas are gathered together.

These two kayas represent the mind aspect of the Buddha, the wisdom of omniscience, and are therefore posited from the Buddha’s own point of view. The sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya are posited from the point of view of others, that is, of the beings destined to be benefited, and these are of two kinds, pure and impure.

(i) Pure Beings

The sambhogakaya appears to pure beings through the power of the Buddha’s natural compassion and prayers and the merit of those beings to be benefited, namely Bodhisattvas on the tenth level. It is endowed with five certainties.

The certain place is the unexcelled buddhafield of the Dense Array.

The certain teacher comprises the buddhas of the five families, the five Hemasagara Buddhas. Each of these is surrounded by an entourage of five subfamilies: wherever there is space, it is pervaded by the dharmakaya, and whatever is pervaded by the dharmakaya is pervaded by the sambhogakaya for the purpose of benefiting the pure beings.

The certain teaching is that of the Great Vehicle, which cannot be expressed with sounds or words.

The certain assembly consists of bodhisattvas on the tenth level.

The certain time is the ever-revolving wheel of eternity. Here it is not that time is permanent by nature but that the passing of time never ceases.

(ii) Impure Beings

The Buddhas appear to impure beings in their supreme nirmanakaya form through the power of the sambhogakaya Buddhas’ prayers and the merit of the beings they are to benefit.

There are four kinds of nirmanakaya: supreme nirmanakaya manifestations, nirmanakayas who manifest through birth, nirmanakayas who manifest in art, and diversified nirmanakaya manifestations.

Within the Seven Points of Mind Training

Atisha's Seven Points of Mind Training states:

Meditating on deceptive appearances as the four kāyas

Is the unsurpassable śūnyatā protection.

According to B. Alan Wallace, this verse refers to training in ultimate bodhicitta. Wallace states:

Sechibuwa begins by focusing on the idea that the entire cycle of existence, all causes and effects, every being who is harmed and each one that inflicts harm, all phenomena both inner and environmental, are nothing more than appearances of our own mind.

[...] Sechibuwa assumes that we already have some background in the teachings on emptiness and understanding what is meant, and also what is not meant, by "deceptive appearances." Without this context, the literal statement could easily be seen as an expression of solipsism. In fact, this view that emptiness and phenomena exist together as dependently related events takes a "middle way" between the extremes of solipsism and nihilism on the one hand and realism and the other.

The point is that these phenomena are really appearances, but have no ultimate existence whatsoever. In this sense they are like pure, unblemished space. We are ourselves, as well as the inflictor of harm, and the person who is harmed, are all empty of intrinsic existence.

According to Haribhadra

According to Haribhadra, chapter 8 of the Abhisamayalankara describes buddhahood through four kayas.

John Makransky states:

Haribhadra, in his Aloka and Sphutartha, interpreted [Abhisamayālaṃkāra chapter 8] as teaching four Buddha kayas (comprising the four topics of the chapter) together with a Buddha's activity. Using a Madhyamaka style of analysis, he analytically separated the ultimate truth of a Buddha (paramartha satya) from the conventional truth (samvrti satya). The former he identified as the svabhavikakaya: the sunyata (emptiness) or dharmata (ultimate reality) of a Buddha's mind. The latter he resolved into three conventional kayas, distinguished according to the type of person to whom each appears. The (jñanatmaka) dharmakaya consists of a Buddha's undefiled dharmas, understood as his pure forms of awareness, his gnoses. They appear directly only to himself as conventional object. The sambhogakāya is the form in which a Buddha appears conventionally to arya bodhisattvas, and the nirmāṇakāya is the form in which he appears conventionally to other beings.

See also

• Kāya
• Trikāya ("three kayas")
• Pañcakāya ("five kayas")

Sources

• Khenpo Ngawang Pelzang (2011), A Guide to the Words of My Perfect Teacher, translated by Padmakara Translation Group, Shambhala 
• Makransky, John (1997), Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet, SUNY Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-3431-4 
• Wallace, B. Alan (2004), The Seven Point Mind Training, Snow Lion Publications 

Further reading

• Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Enlightened Courage—An Explanation of Atisha's Seven Point Mind Training, Padmakara Translation Group (Snow Lion Publications, 2006), pages 51-52.
• Train Your Mind: Seeing Confusion as the Four Kayas, Tricyle
• Four kayas, Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive