Dharmakāya

Dharmakāya, or “truth body,” is one of the three bodies of a Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism. It denotes a Buddha’s ultimate reality, awakened wisdom, or the truth that Buddhahood embodies.

Trikāya: The Mahayana doctrine that a Buddha has three bodies: Dharmakāya, Sambhogakāya, and Nirmāṇakāya. Dharmakāya is the truth-body within this threefold account of Buddhahood.
Sambhogakāya: The enjoyment body of a Buddha, manifest in exalted forms for advanced bodhisattvas. It is the visionary, communicative body contrasted with Dharmakāya’s ultimate nature.
Mahāyāna sūtras: Buddhist scriptures associated with Mahayana teachings and ideals. Their accounts of Buddhahood supplied foundations for later Dharmakāya doctrines.
Dzogchen: A Tibetan Buddhist tradition presenting the nature of mind as primordially pure and spontaneously present. Dzogchen describes realization in terms closely associated with the Dharmakāya.
Buddhist philosophy: Philosophical inquiry grounded in Buddhist teachings on suffering, causation, mind, and liberation. Dharmakāya concentrates disputes about how Buddhist thought describes ultimate reality.
Buddhahood: The state of complete awakening and liberation attained by a Buddha. Dharmakāya names an ultimate dimension of the Buddhahood it characterizes.
Nirmāṇakāya: The manifested body through which a Buddha appears in the world to teach beings. It is the worldly appearance contrasted with Dharmakāya’s unmanifest truth-body.
Prajñāpāramitā: A family of Mahayana texts teaching the perfection of wisdom and the emptiness of phenomena. Its emphasis on emptiness shaped understandings of the Buddha’s ultimate truth-body.
Mahāmudrā: A meditation system in Tibetan Buddhism focused on directly recognizing the nature of mind. Its realization of mind’s nature is linked with the truth-body of awakening.
Ultimate reality: The deepest account of what exists, beyond ordinary appearances or conventional descriptions. Dharmakāya is often presented as the ultimate truth realized by a Buddha.

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Shingon BuddhismRelated: Shingon identifies Mahavairocana with the Dharmakaya that actively teaches.