Dharmakāya

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Key Term	dharmakāya
In Tibetan Script	ཆོས་སྐུ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	chos sku
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	धर्मकाय
Romanized Sanskrit	dharmakāya
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	chö ku
Chinese Script	法身
Chinese Pinyin	fǎ shēn
Japanese Transliteration	hosshin
English Standard	True being
Karl Brunnhölzl's English Term	Dharma Body
Richard Barron's English Term	dharmakaya; dimension/ stratum of authentic/ true being
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	Truth Body; Actual Body
Ives Waldo's English Term	body of enlightened qualities; Dharma-body
Alternate Spellings	chos kyi sku
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	"Truth body" or "true being" - One of the three bodies of a Buddha, in Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself.
Has the Sense of	Although this term is sometimes rendered into English as “truth body,” dharmakāya seems to have originally been meant to refer to the entire corpus (kāya) of the Buddha’s transcendent qualities (dharma). (Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, p 242)
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 246: In Sanskrit, often translated as “truth body,” one of the two (along with the rūpakāya) or three (along with the saṃbhogakāya and nirmāṇakāya) bodies of a buddha. In early discussions of the true nature of the Buddha, especially regarding the person of the Buddha to whom one goes for refuge (saraņa), the term dharmakāya seems to have been coined to refer to the corpus or collection (kāya) of the auspicious qualities (dharma) of the Buddha, including his wisdom, his compassion, his various powers, etc.; it also referred to the entire corpus (kāya) of the Buddha’s teachings (dharma). In the Mahāyāna, the term evolved into a kind of cosmic principle that was regarded as the true nature of the Buddha and the source from which his various other forms derived....
Rangjung Yeshe's English Term	dharmakaya. Definition by Jamgön Kongtrül: sgrib gnyis bag chags dang bcas pa ma lus par spangs pa'i dbyings nam mkha' lta bu zhig la chos kyi sku zhes bya ste Dharma-body, dharmakaya, (body of enlightened qualities)
Muller's Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB)	Basic Meaning: Dharma-body Senses: Translated as reality body, truth body, law body, etc. In general Mahāyāna teaching, the Dharma-body is a name for absolute existence, the manifestation of all existences—the true body of reality, or Buddha as eternal principle; the body of essence that is pure, possesses no marks of distinction, and is the same as emptiness (Skt. dharmakāya). The Dharma-body is one of the three bodies 三身 of the Buddha. The Buddhaʼs body of the universe—the body of truth that lacks form. The basis of all things. In texts such as the Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith the Dharma-body is seen as being equivalent to the tathāgatagarbha; it is also identified with the one mind. Syn. with 實相身. [Charles Muller]

"Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself.

"Truth body" or "true being" — One of the three bodies of a buddha. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it often refers to a kind of fundamental principle or the true nature of reality itself.

The qualities or attributes of an enlightened being.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

The physical form of a buddha which resides in a pure buddha realm, possesses the marks and tokens of an enlightened being, teaches Mahāyāna teachings to a retinue of Bodhisattvas for eternity. This embodied form of a buddha is the source from which all the forms of emanation originate.

An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms.

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."