Dharmakaya Body View

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Caoimhghín
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Re: Dharmakaya Body View

Post by Caoimhghín »

Minobu wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:01 pmbut in total layman's terms...what do you think is the use of the Dharmakaya body...what ever it may be or what ever nature it is.

like does it aid in communication.. is it used to aid in a sentient an individual, teach someone . set up a set of circumstance in order for the person to learn...can it actually do stuff...
Well, "layman's terms" are the only terms I can talk about Buddhism with. Your actual question from the OP seems to be actually directed at Malcolm and is not totally appropriate for me to just "answer." Since I've been asked, I'll give it a go, but asking questions about the dharmakaya to a learner like myself is like asking a first-year university student what is definitely at the edge of the universe. They will have some theories they've read, but ultimately you are better asking an actual astrophysicist.

The one answer that is easy is to say is "No, it does not aid in communication." Why? The Buddhas create transformation bodies etc. because the dharmakaya isn't a "particular body" that goes about and "does things." If you take a picture of a chair that no one is sitting in, you've captured the dharmakaya in perfect meditative equipoise. That's only half-joke. That being said, the dharmakaya is the ground for the other two bodies, implying a hierarchy, but there is also a unity of them supposedly. So is it actually appropriate at all to talk about one of three bodies specifically not doing what the other bodies are up to if they have a unity? Maybe not. Depends on what the unity is. Three bodies one Buddha -- are the activities of Buddhahood shared between the three united bodies? The conventional "easy," possibly wrong, answer is that specifically the dharmakaya doesn't do anything aside from being a foundation.
Then, the monks uttered this gāthā:

These bodies are like foam.
Them being frail, who can rejoice in them?
The Buddha attained the vajra-body.
Still, it becomes inconstant and ruined.
The many Buddhas are vajra-entities.
All are also subject to inconstancy.
Quickly ended, like melting snow --
how could things be different?

The Buddha passed into parinirvāṇa afterward.
(T1.27b10 Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra DĀ 2)
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Minobu
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Re: Dharmakaya Body View

Post by Minobu »

Caoimhghín wrote: Fri Jun 11, 2021 4:42 pm
Minobu wrote: Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:01 pmbut in total layman's terms...what do you think is the use of the Dharmakaya body...what ever it may be or what ever nature it is.

like does it aid in communication.. is it used to aid in a sentient an individual, teach someone . set up a set of circumstance in order for the person to learn...can it actually do stuff...
Well, "layman's terms" are the only terms I can talk about Buddhism with. Your actual question from the OP seems to be actually directed at Malcolm and is not totally appropriate for me to just "answer." Since I've been asked, I'll give it a go, but asking questions about the dharmakaya to a learner like myself is like asking a first-year university student what is definitely at the edge of the universe. They will have some theories they've read, but ultimately you are better asking an actual astrophysicist.

The one answer that is easy is to say is "No, it does not aid in communication." Why? The Buddhas create transformation bodies etc. because the dharmakaya isn't a "particular body" that goes about and "does things." If you take a picture of a chair that no one is sitting in, you've captured the dharmakaya in perfect meditative equipoise. That's only half-joke. That being said, the dharmakaya is the ground for the other two bodies, implying a hierarchy, but there is also a unity of them supposedly. So is it actually appropriate at all to talk about one of three bodies specifically not doing what the other bodies are up to if they have a unity? Maybe not. Depends on what the unity is. Three bodies one Buddha -- are the activities of Buddhahood shared between the three united bodies? The conventional "easy," possibly wrong, answer is that specifically the dharmakaya doesn't do anything aside from being a foundation.
ok thats good i get it...
but this question is actually going to same place i'm concerned about about only in a different " STARTING POINT"

what is the foundation..
dharmakaya doesn't do anything aside from being a foundation.
and whilst you are here i have another nagging question..

If emptiness is a view...and it seems to be an adjective...why do people talk of emptiness like it is a thing ...it might be me just interprating their sentences wrong...but I'm sure if you recall stuff people say they say stuff like dharmakaya is emptiness..this is what you need to meditate on ...

i can see the use of the word meditate in the sense of trying to figure something out rather than meditation being used to describe mindfulness.

I recall His holiness the ninth Khalkha Jetsun Dampa talking about "Thinking about things "
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