The Bodies of the Buddha

The historical Buddha, Sākyamuni, is but one of those adaptive manifestations; he is a Buddha in the Nirmanakāya (Jap. Wō-jin), the “Condescension-body,” the concrete object of our faith. Yet he is the Buddha par excellence for us living in this world and in this world-period, because of the moral and metaphysical bond connecting a being and the world he lives in. Besides this condescending manifestation, Buddha reveals his wisdom and power, exhibiting them in the blissful glories of celestial existence. This supernal revelation is, again, adapted to the respective heights of enlightenment on the part of those who have made a certain advance in moral purity and spiritual vision. Hence the infinite varieties of Buddha’s Sambhogakāya (Jap, Hō-jin), the “Bliss-body,” and hence the varieties of celestial abodes for different blissful lives. Among those abodes of bliss, however, Tendai Buddhism gives a special preference to the “Paradise of Vulture Peak” (Jap. Ryōzen-Jōdo), an idealization of the Vulture Peak where Buddha Sākyamuni is said to have revealed the truth of the Lotus based on the metaphysical conception of the connection between the world and the individual.

History of Japanese Religion