Dharmakaya

“ Historically, the early codifiers of the Buddhadharma responded to Shakyamuni Buddhas sutras on 'selflessness' (anatman) which in early Enlgish discourse was often unfortunately rendered no-soul or no-self which conveys nihilism which the Buddhadharma vehemently challenges as an extreme position. Similarly, the first and second turnings of the wheel of Buddhadharma challenge 'eternalism'. But the Buddhanature of the third turning is often described with such a semantic field as is the Dharmakaya. ”

“ If any one attacks our Buddhist friends for atheism, they have only to refer (if they can admit a synthesis of northern and southern doctrines) to the conception of Dharmakâya, of Him who is 'for ever Divine and Eternal,' who is 'the One, devoid of all determinations.' 'This Body of Dharma,' we are told, 'has no boundary, no quarters, but is embodied in all bodies.... All forms of corporeality are involved therein; it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete material form, as required by the nature and condition of karma, it illuminates all creations.... ”

“ There is no place in the universe where this Body does not prevail. The universe becomes dust; this Body for ever remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it is working in all things to lead them to Nirvana.' [Footnote: Suzuki, Outlines, pp. 223-24.]
In fact, this Dharmakâya is the ultimate principle of cosmic energy. We may call it principle, but it is not, like Brahman, absolutely impersonal. Often it assumes personality, when it receives the name of Tathagata. It has neither passions nor prejudices, but works for the salvation of all sentient beings universally. ”

“ Dharmakâya.
The first is that ethereal form which one would assume when leaving his physical he would appear in his astral body — having in addition all the knowledge of an Adept. The Bodhisattva develops it in himself as he proceeds on the Path. Having reached the goal and refused its fruition, he remains on Earth, as an Adept; and when he dies, instead of going into Nirvâna, he remains in that glorious body he has woven for himself, invisible to uninitiated mankind, to watch over and protect it. ”

“ In this, however, it is seen that quite in accordance with the cosmic conception of dharmakâya, the Mahâyâna philosophers emphasize the universal or supra-individual significance of karma more than its solitary, individual character. In the Hînayâna system, the conception of karma is individualistic, pure and simple; there is no escape whatever from the consequence of ones own evil or good deeds, for it follows one even after death which is merely another form of birth. The Mahâyâna Buddhists believe in this as far as the law of causation is concerned ”

“ When the conception of suchness is established, the raison d'être of the Mahâyâna becomes manifest. Buddhism is not an agnostic system of philosophy, nor is it an atheistic ethics. For in suchness, or dharmakāya, it finds the reason of existence, the real reality, the norm of morality, the source of love and goodness, the fountainhead of righteousness, the absolute intelligence, and the starting point of karma, the law of deeds. For suchness, according to Mahāyāna thinkers, is not merely a state of being, but it is energy, intelligence, and love. ”

“ Faith in the universality of inspiration and a hearty admission that spiritual pre-eminence is open to women. As to the former, Suzuki has well pointed out that Christ is conceived of by Buddhists quite as the Buddha himself. [Footnote: Suzuki, Outlines of the Mahâyâna Buddhism.] 'The Dharmakâya revealed itself as Sakya Muni to the Indian mind, because that was in harmony with its needs. The Dharmakâya appeared in the person of Christ on the Semitic stage, because it suited their taste best in this way.' As to the latter, there were women in the ranks of the Arahats in early times ”

“ They are most earnestly religious; they know that the deepest religious truth cannot be presented in a stereotyped philosophical formula. Only those who are short-sighted timidly stop at the negation and refuse to go beyond. If they thus misjudge the significance of Mahâyâna Buddhism, the fault is on their own side.
What, then, is that positive something offered by the Mahâyâna scholars as the logical conclusion of the theory of non-atman? It is generally designated as tatvâ or suchness. This is a philosophical term, and when its religious importance is emphasized it is called dharmakâya. ”

“ Dharmapala, in expounding the teachings of the Buddha, at the World's Parliament of Religions, in Chicago, clearly showed that the aim of the Buddhist is "the entire obliteration of all that is evil," and "the complete purification of the mind." That this is the purpose of the asceticism of India is seen by the following quotation from Dharmapala's address: "The advanced student of the religion of Buddha when he has faith in him thinks: 'Full of hindrances is household life, a path defiled by passions; free as the air is the life of him who has renounced all worldly things. ”

“ The Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhātu, blue in colour, shining, transparent, glorious, dazzling, from the heart of Vairochana as the Father-Mother, [78] will shoot forth and strike against thee with a light so radiant that thou wilt scarcely be able to look at it.
Along with it, there will also shine a dull white light from the devas, which will strike against thee in thy front.
Thereupon, because of the power of bad karma, the glorious blue light of the Wisdom of the Dharma-Dhātu will produce in thee fear and terror, and thou wilt [wish to] flee from it. ”

“ We were soon landed at the Dorje-tag ghat, where we paid a tanka for each of our ponies, and five karma (or two [220] annas) for each man as ferry charges. The ferry belongs to the Dorje-tag lamasery near by, one of the oldest and holiest of the Nyingma sect. The incarnate lama who rules this lamasery died about a year and a half ago, but he has reappeared recently in the flesh at Darchendo.14 This convent is at the foot of a range of hills which stretches along the river to beyond Samye, and a large grove extends from near it to the high road. ”

“ In the smallest particle of time or kshaṇa the whole universe undergoes a change. Each moment or the smallest particle of time is only the manifestation of that particular change. Time therefore has not a separate existence in this philosophy as in the Vaiśeshika, but it is only identical with the smallest amount of change—viz. that of an atom of its own amount of space. Now here the appearance is called the dharma, and that particular arrangement of atoms or guṇas which is the basis of the particular appearance is called the dharmin. ”

“ He recognized the smell of that strange storeroom, which, as Mr. Hampden, he had recently visited.
For one moment he thought he could detect the distant note of a bell. But, listening, he heard nothing, and was reassured.
He rested the trapdoor back against the frame, and shone the ray of an electric torch down into the darkness beneath him. The light fell upon the top of a low carven table, dragon-legged and gilded. Upon it rested the model pagoda constructed of human teeth, and there was something in this discovery which made Durham feel inclined to shudder. ”

“ So what is the use of our penetrating the mind of the kíng of beasts?" When the grave Damanaka heard Karataka say this, he answered— " Certainly wise ministers must penetrate and observe the peculiarities of their master's character. For who would confine his attention to filling his belly?" When Damanaka said this, the good Karataka said— "Prying for one's own gratification is not the duty of a servant." Damanaka, being thus addressed, replied— " Do not speak thus, every one desires a recompense suited to his character; the dog is satisfied with a bone only, the lion attacks an elephant." ”

“ Underlying this universe of phenomena and change there is a unity. It is the basis of all being. It is within all being and all being rests in it. It is because of this common background that men are able to apprehend it. This universal basis we call dharma, or law. Its characteristics are that everything born grows old, is subject to disease and death; that the teachings of Buddha purify the mind and enable it to obtain supreme enlightenment ”

“ True it is, true it is. Dharma alone conquers, and you that hold that motto have conquered everything. The vile wretch whom, notwithstanding the series of rogueries that he practised upon you, you protected, has at last found out that his Adharmam never conquers. But he never found it out. It was his Adharmam that cut him off on the very night of his supposed complete conquest by it.”
Letters were sent at once to Têvai, inviting Suguṇa and Dharmaśîla to the happy rejoicings at the prince and princess’s delivery, and a re-marriage was celebrated with all pomp, in honour of their lucky escape. ”

“ But my father is rich, and it is dreadful to think that we live here when there are so many more beautiful places to live in.”
“Then why does he stay?” asked Durham with curiosity.
“For money, always for money,” answered Lalá, shrugging her shoulders. “Yet if it is not to bring happiness, what good is it?”
“What good indeed?” murmured Durham.
“There is no fun for me,” said the girl pathetically. “Sometimes some one nice comes to do business, but mostly they are dirty and ill-bred; many of them foreigners.” ”

“ In a certain temple two dancing-girls were dedicated by the Dharmakarta to the services of the temple without the consent of the existing body of dancing-girls, and the suit was instituted against the Dharmakarta and these two Dēva-dāsis, asking that the Court should ascertain and declare the rights of the Dēva-dāsis of the pagoda in regard (1) to the dedication of Dēva-dāsis, (2) to the Dharmakarta's power to bind and suspend them ”

“ Homyak, the dwarf, betrayed the czarina’s brother to his death; Komar, the dwarf, saved the son of the Chancellor Matveief and Feodor Naryshkin; and Maluta, the dwarf, was my true friend and ally. Yet they were the veriest waifs of fortune, the most miserable toys of tyrants, the outcasts of society—and its spies. Misery and secret power, degradation and triumph, merriment and despair, these things made up the sum of their short lives, but love and happiness and honour passed them by and left them to perish by the wayside. ”

“ A good many of the upper class judged it necessary to go and pay their court to the Rajah. The Rajah’s youths jostled them rudely. Old Tunku Allang, almost out of his mind with fear and indecision, either kept a sullen silence or abused them violently for daring to come with empty hands: they departed very much frightened; only old Doramin kept his countrymen together and pursued his tactics inflexibly. Enthroned in a big chair behind the improvised stockade, he issued his orders in a deep veiled rumble, unmoved, like a deaf man, in the flying rumours. ”

“ He was a clever man within his limitations, and cultured up to a point; but he was not philosopher enough to know that he viewed the purlieus of Limehouse through a haze of Oriental mystery conjured up by the conversation of his companion. Temple bells there were in the clangour of the road cars. The smoke-stacks had a semblance of pagodas. Burma she had conjured up before him, and China, and the soft islands where she had first seen the light. For as well as a streak of European, there was Kanaka blood in Lalá, which lent her an appeal quite new to Durham, insidious and therefore dangerous. ”

“ Durham, at any rate, always alive in practical issues to the view of the other side, had enough sympathy left over to spend it sometimes, whimsically, on such perceptions of difference. Today, especially, the assurance of success—the sense of entering like a victorious beleaguerer receiving the keys of the stronghold—disposed him to a sentimental perception of what the other side might have to say for itself, in the language of old portraits, old relics, old usages dumbly outraged by his mere presence. ”

“ I dreamt last night that there would many piastres pass between us this visit.’
‘What is the use of friends unless they help you in the hour of adversity?’ exclaimed Darkush.
‘You speak ever the words of truth. I am myself in a valley of dark shadows. I am travelling with a young English capitani, a prince of many tails, and he has declared that he will entirely extinguish my existence unless he pays a visit to the Queen of the Ansarey.’
‘Let him first pay a visit to King Soliman in the cities of the Gin,’ said Darkush, doggedly. ”

“ GENTLY Durham raised the trap in the roof of Huang Chow's treasure house. He was prepared for snares and pitfalls. No sane man, on the evidence which he, Durham, had been compelled to leave behind, would have neglected to fasten the skylight which so obviously afforded a means of entrance into his premises. ”

“ V. “Charity Alone Conquers.”
Dharmamê jayam.
In the town of Têvai1 there lived a king called Suguṇa. He had an excellent minister named Dharmaśîla. They ruled for a long time in prosperity over the kingdom. Both of them had sons. The prince’s name was Subuddhi. He was a noble prince, and quite in keeping with his name, was always bent upon doing good to the world. The minister’s son was named Durbuddhi, a most wicked boy, whose only delight was teasing beasts and birds from his infancy, and which ripened into all sorts of wickedness as he grew to boyhood. ”

“ The Rajah observed him coming, and gave permission that he should draw near; of which Damanaka availing himself, made reverential prostration of the eight members and sat down upon his haunches.
'You have come at last, then, Sir Jackal!' growled his Majesty.
'Great Monarch!' humbly replied Damanaka, 'my service is not worthy of laying at your imperial feet, but a servant should attend when he can perform a service, and therefore I am come—
'When Kings' ears itch, they use a straw to scratch 'em;
When Kings' foes plot, they get wise men to match 'em.'
'H'm!' growled the Lion. ”