Sutra of the Three Bodies
Sutra of the Three Bodies (Skt. Trikāyasūtra; Tib. སྐུ་གསུམ་པའི་མདོ།, ku sumpé do, Wyl. sku gsum pa'i mdo)[1] — as the title suggests, this sutra describes the three kayas of the Buddha. While the Buddha was dwelling on Vulture's Peak in Rajagriha, the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha asked whether the Tathagata has a body, to which the Buddha replies that the Tathagata has three bodies: a dharmakaya, a sambhogakaya and a nirmanakaya. The Buddha goes on to describe what constitutes these three bodies and their associated meaning. The Buddha explains that the dharmakaya is like space, the sambhogakaya is like clouds, and the nirmanakaya is like rain. At the end of the Buddha’s elucidation, Ksitigarbha expresses jubilation, and the Buddha declares that whoever upholds this Dharma teaching will obtain immeasurable merit.[2]
Text
There is currently no known extant version in Sanskrit.
The Tibetan text can be found in the Dergé Kangyur, General Sutra section, Toh. 283.
- English translations:
- W. Woodville Rockhill in The Life of the Buddha and the Early History of His Order (1884)
The Sutra of the Three Bodies
