Trikāya
| Key Term | trikāya |
|---|---|
| Hover Popup Choices | trikāya |
| In Tibetan Script | སྐུ་གསུམ། |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | sku gsum |
| Devanagari Sanskrit Script | त्रिकाय |
| Romanized Sanskrit | trikāya |
| Tibetan Phonetic Rendering | kusum |
| Chinese Script | 三身 |
| Chinese Pinyin | sānshēn |
| English Standard | three bodies |
| Richard Barron's English Term | three kayas |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | the three exalted bodies |
| Ives Waldo's English Term | three buddha bodies |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | The three enlightened forms of a buddha one attains when one becomes fully enlightened. They include the truth body (dharmakāya), enjoyment body (saṃbhogakāya), and the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya). The three bodies comprise the many qualities and powers associated with buddhahood and thus are the result sought through Mahāyāna Buddhist practice. |
| Has the Sense of | The three aspects of perfect enlightenment of a buddha: the enlightened state of one's mind after full transformation, the pure physical existence one attains as a result of inner perfection, and the myriad forms one can emanate from the enlightened state to help others. |
| Definitions | |
| Rangjung Yeshe's English Term | three Bodies [thd]. *. {chos sku}. dharmakaya, {longs spyod rdzogs pa'i sku}. or sambhogakaya, and {sprul pa'i sku}. nirmanakaya. trikaya, the three bodies of the buddha. Three kayas. Dharmakaya, sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. The * as ground are 'essence, nature, and capacity'; as path they are 'bliss, clarity and nonthought,' and as fruition they are the '* of buddhahood.' The * of buddhahood are the dharmakaya, which is free from elaborate constructs and endowed with the 'twenty-one sets of enlightened qualities;' the sambhogakaya, which is of the nature of light and endowed with the perfect major and minor marks perceptible only to bodhisattvas; and the nirmanakaya, which manifests in forms perceptible to both pure and impure beings |