The Saṃbhoga-kāya or preternatural manifestations

pp. 139-146

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

Abstract

As the historical manifestation of Buddhahood through the nirmāṇa-kāya attains its summit in the collective accomplishments of Buddhist thought (the schools), the first stage of the "ontological" (i.e., entitative and cognitive) self-expression of the state of "knowledge" (shih-chüeh) reaches its highest boundary in its motion of "within-this-world" expansion. At "this side" of the boundary, however, the dynamics of the nirmāṇa-body continues uninterruptedly its further deployment of "natural" (this-worldly) manifestations. Thus this boundary sets up the distinction between the "natural" (this-worldly) and "preternatural" (other-worldly) functions of the state of knowledge. It is at this point that the nirmāṇa-kāya subsumes the complementary positing of its "other," namely the saṃbhoga-kāya. In this sense, "preternatural" or 'supraterrestrial" Buddhahood seems to stand in opposition to the "natural" or "terrestrial."