dharmakaya

Buddhist concept

Also known as: dharmakaya

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June 25, 2026

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In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the dharmakaya is one of the three bodies, or modes of being, of a Buddha. It represents the unmanifested essence, the supreme state of absolute knowledge, and the Buddha's transcendent qualities. The dharmakaya is also described as an eternal principle of enlightenment and ultimate truth. This concept is closely related to sunyata, or emptiness, which signifies the ultimate reality and the absence of inherent self-existence in all phenomena. The dharmakaya, as the ultimate truth, is beyond verbal expression and can only be grasped through intuition.1234

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Christianity
Evidentialist approach
…the ultimacy of the nonpersonal dharma-kaya. The idea of the immortal soul is challenged by the anatta (“no soul”) doctrine, with its claim that the personal mind or soul is not an enduring substance but a succession of fleeting moments of consciousness. And yet Buddhism, teaching as it does doctrines…
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…the ultimacy of the nonpersonal dharma-kaya. The idea of the immortal soul is challenged by the anatta (“no soul”) doctrine, with its claim that the personal mind or soul is not an enduring substance but a succession of fleeting moments of consciousness. And yet Buddhism, teaching as it does doctrines…
Read More

Buddhism
The three Buddha bodies
…body of the law (dharmakaya) already appears in the Saddharmapundarika, or Lotus Sutra, a transitional text of great importance to Mahayana devotional schools. In many Mahayana texts buddhas are infinite and share an identical nature—the dharmakaya.
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…body of the law (dharmakaya) already appears in the Saddharmapundarika, or Lotus Sutra, a transitional text of great importance to Mahayana devotional schools. In many Mahayana texts buddhas are infinite and share an identical nature—the dharmakaya.
Read More