Appearing as Body
2.1 Appearing as Body
This freedom, full to where even its names are complete—once it shows itself forth, in what manner of body?
Scripture's answer: three bodies—dharma-body, enjoyment-body, transformation-body. But the moment those words are spoken, the readiest misreading is this: are they three separate Buddhas? One dharma-body Buddha, one enjoyment-body Buddha, one transformation-body Buddha—three, standing side by side? This chapter says: no. The three bodies are one and the same buddha-fruit freedom, divided by "to whom it appears" into three faces, not three Buddhas.
Enter by a dialogue.
Mañjuśrī Asks the Buddha: What Is the Mark of the Dharma-Body
In the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha, to His face, one thing: this "Tathāgata's dharma-body" of which You speak—what, in the end, is its mark? The Buddha answers thus:
Son of good family, if, in the perfections across the grounds, one has well cultivated the going-forth, and the transformation of the basis is brought to fullness—this is named the mark of the Tathāgata's dharma-body.
The eye of this saying is the phrase "the transformation of the basis brought to fullness." "Transformation of the basis" is to turn over the very ground one rests on—to turn the defiled into the pure. Cultivating the grounds of the bodhisattva, practicing the six perfections, turning the defiled into the pure all the way along, turned to fullness with no remainder—this mark, of "the transformation turned to its full," is named the Tathāgata's dharma-body. In other words: the dharma-body is not some further thing produced apart; it is the very mark that shows of itself when "turning the defiled into the pure" reaches fullness.
Mañjuśrī then presses a most weighty question: the "transformation of the basis" that the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas attain—may that be called a dharma-body? The Buddha answers:
It is not called the dharma-body… it is called the liberation-body. By the liberation-body, all śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are said to be equal, equal, with the Tathāgatas; by the dharma-body, a difference is said to be.
Hear the exactness here. The two vehicles too cultivate, sever, have their own "transformation of the basis," attain liberation—and as to the "liberation-body," the two vehicles and the Buddha are "equal, equal," alike gone free of birth-and-death; this the Buddha in no way effaces. But the "dharma-body" the two vehicles have not; only a Buddha has it. There the difference lies. And this squares exactly with the break Part One set up: the dharma-body—the mark in which this freedom's very substance shows itself full—belongs only to the Buddha who has walked the cause-stage exhausted; the two vehicles, and the bodhisattva still in the cause-stage, are not yet there. In the same passage the Buddha touches the transformation-body in passing: "the transformation-body's mark has arising; the dharma-body's mark has no arising"—the transformation-body is shown forth, has arising and origination; the dharma-body is not produced, but is so of itself. In one dialogue, two of the three bodies have shown their ground: the dharma-body (disclosed by the transformation brought to fullness, unarisen, the Buddha's alone) and the transformation-body (with arising, shown forth for the sake of beings).
Three Bodies, Divided by "To Whom It Appears"
That dialogue of Mañjuśrī's is a matter in the sūtra; the full ordering of the three bodies, though, the later treatise-masters—the Consciousness-Only school—set out one by one. The Treatise on the Establishment of Consciousness-Only divides the dharma-body into three marks, and states it most evenly. What follows is the treatise's framing, not the sūtra's narrative:
Thus the dharma-body has three distinct marks. First, the self-nature body: the pure dharma-realm of the Tathāgatas, the equal support of enjoyment and transformation… Second, the enjoyment-body, of two kinds: first, self-enjoyment… ever savoring of itself the vast bliss of dharma; second, other-enjoyment, wherein the Tathāgatas, by the wisdom of equality, manifest a subtle body of pure virtue… for the host of bodhisattvas abiding on the ten grounds… Third, the transformation-body: the Tathāgatas, by the duty-fulfilling wisdom, conjuring forth measureless transformation-bodies after each kind, dwelling in pure lands and defiled, for the bodhisattvas not yet on the grounds, the two vehicles, and ordinary beings…
Lay these three bodies out by "to whom they appear," and the order shows itself. The self-nature body—that is, the dharma-body—is "the equal support of enjoyment and transformation": it is the substance on which the other two rest; it does not itself appear toward anyone; it is substance. The enjoyment-body is of two kinds: self-enjoyment, where the Buddha enjoys for Himself, "ever savoring of itself the vast bliss of dharma"—the Buddha's own self-realization; other-enjoyment, shown forth "for the host of bodhisattvas abiding on the ten grounds"—appearing toward the great bodhisattvas who have mounted the grounds. The transformation-body is shown forth "for the bodhisattvas not yet on the grounds, the two vehicles, and ordinary beings"—toward beings not yet on the grounds, of the two vehicles, ordinary: conjuring forth, after their capacities, bodies of every kind.
See it: the division of the three bodies is a division by "to whom it appears." Toward the Buddha's own self-realization, self-enjoyment; toward the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds, other-enjoyment; toward beings of the lower stations, the transformation-body; and the substance on which all appearing rests, the dharma-body. One freedom, by whom it faces, shows a different body.
And these three are no three Buddhas standing in a row. The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha states it plainly: the self-nature body is the dharma-body, "the support of the mastery-turning over all dharmas"—the ground on which "mastery turns, freely, over all dharmas"; while "the enjoyment-body rests on the dharma-body… the transformation-body, too, rests on the dharma-body." Since both the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies rest on the dharma-body, they are not two further Buddhas set beside it, but two manifestations risen from the one dharma-body (the substance of the freedom).
An image (this is an image, not a line of scripture): a man, before a friend bound to him through life and death, shows an unguarded true face; before a guest at his table, a face of courtesy; before a child still finding its words, a face bent down to its level. The true face, the courteous face, the face bent down—these are not three men; they are one man, by whom he faces, showing three faces. The three bodies, of one freedom, are just so: dharma-body, enjoyment-body, transformation-body are not three Buddhas, but the three faces one freedom shows according to whom it meets. Carrying Part One's line: the freedom's readable aspect is the ten epithets (the name), its visible aspect the three bodies (the body)—name and body alike are this one freedom's showing; beyond the freedom there is no further thing.
The Three Bodies Are Disclosed Out of "Turning the Defiled into the Pure"
Are these three bodies, then, there of themselves, from nowhere? No. They are disclosed by the "transformation of the basis"—the turning of the defiled into the pure. Again the Treatise on the Establishment of Consciousness-Only:
The treatise says: turning away the store-consciousness, one gains the self-nature body… the middle two wisdoms comprise the enjoyment-body… the last one wisdom comprises the transformation-body.
Turn away the store-consciousness hidden at the root of birth-and-death (this is the pivotal turn of turning the defiled into the pure), and the self-nature body—the dharma-body—is disclosed; and the four wisdoms turned out—the great-mirror wisdom, the wisdom of equality, the wisdom of fine discernment, the duty-fulfilling wisdom—severally bear these three bodies. This makes one thing transparent: the freedom's "manifestation-structure" (the three bodies) is its "transformation-of-the-basis structure" (turning the eight consciousnesses into the four wisdoms). The freedom is not an absolute set there of itself, from nowhere; it is turned out, disclosed, by turning the defiled into the pure—the three bodies disclosed are borne by the very four wisdoms turned out. This too dovetails with Mañjuśrī's dialogue: the Buddha said "the transformation of the basis brought to fullness is the mark of the Tathāgata's dharma-body"—the dharma-body is precisely the mark disclosed when the transformation of the basis reaches fullness; and the two vehicles' transformation reaches only a liberation-body, never a dharma-body, so the dharma-body is the Buddha's alone. As for how, within this "turning the eight consciousnesses into the four wisdoms," the turning actually goes—which consciousness turns into which wisdom—that is the next part's matter; here we hand on the baton.
The Three Bodies Are Permanent
The three bodies being the freedom's manifestation, is this manifestation permanent, or impermanent? The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha itself first sets the question: the enjoyment-body and transformation-body plainly have arising and ceasing, are impermanent—how then does scripture say "the Tathāgata's body is permanent"? Its answer: because the dharma-body on which these two rest is permanent; and further, the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies, "in their enjoying without cease, in their manifesting again and again unbroken," though thought by thought they arise and cease, are yet unbroken in continuity. The Buddhabhūmi-śāstra, citing the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, parts this sense into three permanences:
First, permanent by nature: the self-nature body, this body being by its own nature ever-abiding. Second, permanent without break: the enjoyment-body, ever savoring the bliss of dharma without interruption. Third, permanent in continuity: the transformation-body, vanished, it re-appears, its conjuring inexhaustible.
The dharma-body is "permanent by nature"—ever-abiding of itself, without arising or ceasing; the enjoyment-body is "permanent without break"—ever savoring the bliss of dharma, never interrupted; the transformation-body is "permanent in continuity"—this transformation-body gone, that one appears, its conjuring without end. Three permanences, each told its own way, all saying one thing: this freedom's manifestation is a permanent structure, not a thing that appears for a moment and ceases.
Here a plain word must be set down for the reader: this verdict, "the three bodies are permanent," is the framing of the Consciousness-Only and Sūtrālaṃkāra line. Whether the three bodies—the enjoyment- and transformation-bodies above all—are permanent or impermanent, whether the dharma-body counts as form: among the treatises of the various schools there has long been a lengthy debate. What this book takes here is the Consciousness-Only school's verdict, and it marks it as that school's verdict; the rank of the various schools it does not adjudicate. The reader need only hold this: by the Consciousness-Only line, this freedom's manifestation-structure is permanent.
Onward
Drawn together: the three bodies are the permanent manifestation-structure of one and the same buddha-fruit freedom, appearing according to whom it meets—not three separate Buddhas. Part One read the name, Part Two reads the body—the name read off, the body seen, both this one freedom's showing; beyond the freedom there is no further thing.
For one who walks the road, this rights two thoughts. First, do not picture the buddha-fruit freedom as a hidden, markless absolute—as though, being full, it dissolved into a light, nothing to see, nothing to say. The buddha-fruit freedom has a visible body. Second, do not take the three bodies for three separate Buddhas to be sought after one by one—seeking to behold the enjoyment-body Buddha, to meet the transformation-body Buddha, as though to find three different persons. The three bodies are the three faces one freedom shows according to whom it meets: the transformation-body that beings meet, the other-enjoyment body the bodhisattvas of the ten grounds receive, the Buddha's own self-enjoyment and its substance the dharma-body, are one and the same freedom shown toward different capacities. Know this, and one will not fix the transformation-body as ultimate (the transformation-body has arising), nor doubt the dharma-body to be absent (the dharma-body is permanent in substance, gained only by realization). And further, the three bodies being disclosed by the transformation of the basis, what practice should head for is not "to seek some further enjoyment-body, some transformation-body," but "to turn the defiled into the pure"—the transformation of the basis brought to fullness, and the three bodies are of themselves complete, as turning consciousness into wisdom, the four wisdoms of themselves appear, with no need to seek a wisdom apart from consciousness.
Only—this "turning consciousness into wisdom," the turning of the eight consciousnesses into the four wisdoms, being the root from which the three bodies are disclosed, cannot be left unseen. The next part looks to the four wisdoms.