Sutra of the Three Bodies

The Sūtra of the Three Bodies (Skt. Trikāyasūtra, Tib. སྐུ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ།, Wyl. sku gsum pa'i mdo) or the title in full is The Noble ‌Mahāyāna Sūtra the Three Bodies (Skt. Āryatrikāyanāmamahāyānasūtra, Tib. འཕགས་པ་སྐུ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།, Wyl. ’phags pa sku gsum zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo) — as the title suggests, this sūtra describes the three bodies of the Buddha. While the Buddha is dwelling on Vulture Peak in Rājgŗha, the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha asks whether the Tathāgata has a body, to which the Buddha replies that the Tathāgata has three bodies: a dharmakāya, a saṃbhogakāya, and a nirmāṇakāya. The Buddha goes on to describe what constitutes these three bodies and their associated meaning. The Buddha explains that the dharmakāya is like space, the saṃbhogakāya is like clouds, and the nirmāṇakāya is like rain. At the end of the Buddha’s elucidation, Kṣitigarbha expresses jubilation, and the Buddha declares that whoever upholds this Dharma teaching will obtain immeasurable merit.

Tibetan Text

• Toh 283, Degé Kangyur, vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 56a–57a

External Links

• The Sutra of the Three Bodies, སྐུ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ། Trikāyasūtra