Trikaya

Trikaya is a Mahayana Buddhist doctrine describing a Buddha through three bodies or modes of being: dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya.

Buddhahood: The awakened state of a Buddha, characterized by liberation and perfect insight. Trikaya describes the dimensions of a Buddha’s awakened existence.
Dharmakaya: The truth body of a Buddha, associated with ultimate reality and awakened wisdom. It is the ultimate dimension in the doctrine’s threefold account.
Mahāsāṃghika: An early Buddhist school associated with expansive accounts of the Buddha’s transcendence. Its views helped shape later Mahayana understandings of the Buddha’s nature.
Two-body doctrine: A Buddhist model distinguishing a Buddha’s ultimate body from an apparent or form body. It is a simpler formulation that the three-body account elaborates.
Buddha-nature: The capacity or potential for awakening attributed to sentient beings in several Mahayana traditions. Its accounts of latent awakening help explain how Buddhahood is understood beyond an individual life.
Sambhogakaya: The enjoyment body of a Buddha, appearing in a perfected form to advanced bodhisattvas. It describes the Buddha’s visionary presence within the three-body scheme.
Prajnaparamita: A Mahayana literature and teaching tradition centered on the perfection of wisdom. Its emphasis on emptiness informs interpretations of the dharmakaya.
Five wisdoms: A tantric Buddhist classification of awakened wisdom into five aspects. Some tantric systems map these wisdoms onto dimensions of enlightened presence differently from standard Trikaya accounts.
Mahayana: A major Buddhist tradition emphasizing the bodhisattva path and universal liberation. Trikaya developed within the Mahayana framework of Buddhahood and compassionate activity.
Nirmanakaya: The manifestation body through which a Buddha appears in the world to teach beings. It accounts for historical and other accessible manifestations of Buddhahood.

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