The Dharma-kāya or total and absolute freedom of manifestation

pp. 147-163

in: Alfonso Verdu, The philosophy of Buddhism, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

Up to the advent of the integrationist and totalistic schools, the dharma-kāya was understood to be the all-pervading undifferentiated and universal nature of Tathatā as "explicitly" possessed in the state of Buddhahood. On this basis the dharma-kāya has been often equated with a state of indetermination, non-form and non-individuality. Interpreted in this way, the dharma-kāya - although representing a universal and all-pervasive aspect of reality - would oppose the states of form and individuation proper to the parikalpita and to the paratantra levels of entitative manifestation. A pure state of undifferentiated samādhi would make it cognitively manifest to the individual. But for the individual, an ontological integration into the dharma-kāya would mean a traceless reabsorption into a primordial state of total indetermination to the point of non-return, so to speak. This state could be considered to be a mere negative state of freedom from objective form and from subjective individuality. This imperfect conception of the dharma-kāya would be as such the basis for the subtle and latent duality which still lurks within the state of bodhisattvahood, as explained above. Needless to say, this is not the notion of totalistic dharma-kāya-hood as propounded by the "Awakening of Faith" and by the Hua-yen doctrine.