What Is the Form Aggregate?

Form is the aggregate of form, one of the five aggregates. It possesses features, shape, and color, encompassing apparent form, form as shape, representative form, and non-representative form, with the latter three being the form included in the dharma-ayatana. Apparent form refers to blue, yellow, red, and white. Form as shape refers to large, small, square, round, long, short, broad, and narrow. Representative form refers to the shape and posture of form, the movement and actions of the body, such as walking, coming, going, stopping, and so forth. Non-representative form refers to the beauty, ugliness, charm, grace, temperament, knowledge, cultivation, calmness, anger, cheerfulness, warmth, etc., manifested upon the form. The form included in the dharma-ayatana is the dharma-dust manifested upon form, sound, smell, taste, and touch; it corresponds to the mental faculty and is discerned by mental consciousness. Form also includes sentient beings' form, male and female appearances, the universe, mountains, rivers, and the great earth, plants, minerals, houses, palaces, and other inanimate objects.

The Diamond Sutra states: "If one perceives me by form, or seeks me by sound, such a person is practicing erroneous paths and cannot perceive the Tathagata." This means that to perceive the Tathagata, to perceive the Dharma-body Buddha, to perceive the true Buddha, one cannot seek perception through form or sound. That which has form, sound, or the characteristics of the six dusts is not the true Buddha; it is the Reward-body Buddha, Response-body Buddha, or Manifestation-body Buddha, possessing the thirty-two marks and eighty excellent characteristics. This is the manifested Buddha, subject to birth and cessation. Due to his meritorious power, the demon king Papiyan can also manifest the appearance of a Buddha. After the Buddha's parinirvana, the Fourth Patriarch Upagupta had Papiyan manifest the physical form of Shakyamuni Buddha so he could behold and venerate it. Papiyan then truly manifested the Buddha's form and walked out from the woods, followed by a group of disciples. At first sight, Upagupta thought it was the real Shakyamuni Buddha and unconsciously began to prostrate. Unable to endure the veneration, Papiyan resumed his original form. Therefore, to perceive the Tathagata, one must not cling to form; the Tathagata cannot be perceived through form.