The Relationship Between the Form Body and the Dharmakāya

Regarding the relationship between the material body and the Dharmakāya: the material body is generated and sustained by the Dharmakāya; the material body cannot exist apart from the Dharmakāya. When the Dharmakāya is present, the material body has a lifespan, has vital warmth, and has a conscious mind; when the Dharmakāya is absent, one is a dead person, a piece of wood. For the Dharmakāya to manifest and function, it must rely on the material body and the five aggregates in order to operate; apart from the material body and the five aggregates, the Dharmakāya cannot manifest, and apart from the material body and the five aggregates, the Dharmakāya cannot be found. However, the Dharmakāya can still exist on its own; that is to say, the existence of the Dharmakāya does not depend on external conditions and can exist independently.

When the Dharmakāya exists alone—that is, when an arhat enters nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa)—the five aggregates have all been extinguished, the manas has also ceased, and only the Dharmakāya, the tathāgatagarbha, remains, existing by Himself alone. At this time, even the Buddha cannot find that arhat, because the arhat's five aggregates no longer exist; there is simply no such person as that arhat. Nor can the Buddha find the arhat's Dharmakāya, the tathāgatagarbha, because the Dharmakāya is formless and without marks, and there is no way to find it. Therefore, to seek the tathāgatagarbha, one must seek it within the activity and operation of the five aggregates; one must seek that unarising and unceasing Dharmakāya—the tathāgatagarbha—amid conditioned and perishable dharmas, and seek the tathāgatagarbha within bodily, verbal, and mental actions. This is the direction of Chan investigation.

The Dharmakāya is permanent. Within the realms of the six sense objects, He is without knowledge or awareness; but among dharmas outside the six sense objects, He does have knowledge and awareness. He knows the karmic seeds and karmic conditions of sentient beings, and when the conditions are complete, in accordance with their karmic seeds, He transforms and generates the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings. If one has created the karma of a human being, He manifests a human form within the embryo; if one has created the karma of a male, He manifests a male form; if one has created the karma of a female, He manifests a female form; if one has created the karma of an incomplete material body, He manifests a form with incomplete faculties among the six sense bases; if one has created the karma of an animal, He manifests an animal form; if one has created the karma of a deva, there is no antarā-bhava (neutral-body), no need for entering the womb, and He directly manifests a deva form. He does not arbitrarily create the five-aggregate bodies of sentient beings and their living environments; everything follows the karmic seeds of sentient beings.

The Dharmakāya has awareness: He is aware of what the seven consciousnesses are about to do, and afterward He will transmit the seeds of consciousness of the seven consciousnesses, enabling the seven consciousnesses to operate, while at the same time He cooperates with their operation, accomplishing the functions of the five aggregates. The scope of what He knows is extremely vast. For example, when two people meet and do not know each other, He can transmit karmic seeds, causing one or both of them to perceive the karmic connection between them—feeling either affinity or aversion. When the material body of a sentient being has matured in the mother's womb, He is aware of it, and then He will blow the wind of karma to bring the fetus out of the womb. When a sentient being's lifespan is about to end, He also knows it, and He also knows when He should depart from a person who is on the verge of death.

The Dharmakāya possesses all these and many other kinds of knowledge; therefore, the substance of the Dharmakāya truly exists, yet sentient beings cannot see Him with the eye or hear Him with the ear; they can only become aware of Him through the eye of wisdom. Without wisdom, there is no way to seek Him out and no way to realize Him. The Dharmakāya is not a thing of the mundane world; He does not possess the six sense-object marks of form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas. Yet He is a transcendental dharma; and since He is a dharma, He has the functions of a dharma—and having functions, He is not nothing at all. He has His own mode of existence; He does not exist in the manner of dharmas of the three realms. Although this is hard to comprehend, we can only say this much, and it is difficult to explain any further. That "thing" which is not a thing is truly hard to understand and to cognize!