Toh 1124Commentary on “Praise of the Three Bodies”
Pāli / Sanskrit:Kāyatrayastotranāmavivaraṇa
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Explanation of the Treatise on the Praise of the Three Bodies
Context
This work is a treatise belonging to the Tengyur, the collection of commentarial literature on the Buddhadharma in the Northern Transmission Tibetan tradition. The praise of the three bodies (Kāyatrayastotra) is explained here in detail in order to illuminate one of the central doctrines of the Mahayana: the teaching on the three bodies of the Buddha (trikāya).
In its historical context, this commentary was composed by Indian Dharma masters to explain the full meaning of the praise, helping practitioners and students in Tibet understand deeply the nature of buddhahood. These three bodies are not three separate persons, but three different dimensions of one absolute perfection: the Buddha-body. The treatise became a precious text in the Buddhist education of traditional Northern Transmission Tibetan monasteries.
Main Content
The three bodies of the Buddha are explained as follows:
The Dharmakāya — the true essence, without visible form, incapable of being severed, lost, or destroyed. It is the totality of all dharmatā, the most profound ultimate principle. This body transcends all concepts, all discriminations, and all thoughts; for this reason it is praised as “inexpressible.”
The Sambhogakāya — the pure, radiant, supremely adorned manifestation of the Buddha. This is the body that bodhisattvas in exalted realms can contemplate. The Sambhogakāya has the thirty-two excellent marks and eighty minor marks of beauty; light radiates from it throughout the ten directions, and it proclaims the Dharma without end.
The Nirmāṇakāya — the form in which the Buddha manifests in order to teach beings in the realms of the six destinies. It is the body of Śākyamuni Buddha, such as we commonly see represented in images. The Nirmāṇakāya can appear countless times, in countless places, according to causes and conditions, and according to the capacities and dispositions of beings.
This praise explains that these three bodies coexist, mutually include one another, and mutually complete one another; they are neither one nor three, and in the Buddha all three bodies are perfectly complete.
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