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श्रम विद्या
On the sambhogakāya, Bhikshu Sangharakshita in The Three Jewels, makes this observation :
२१०
"According to one explantion the sambhogakaya, or 'Body of Mutual Enjoyment', is so called because the vision of it is enjoyed by the Bodhisattvas, those highly advanced beings who in both this world and other higher realms of existence practice the Six or Ten Perfections, including dhyanapäramitā, the Perfection of Concentration. According to another it is the body enjoyed' by the Buddha Himself as the result of all the good deeds He had performed and the knowledge He had accumulated during His countless lives as a Bodhisattva."14
Sangharakshita thinks that the rendering of sambhogakāya as 'Glorious Body' is better than 'Body of Bliss'. He further says that the yogin, in his meditation sees the Buddha "in a glorious form which though human, is infinitely more majestic, brilliant and beautiful than any mortal frame. This form is adorned with the thirty-two major and eighty minor 'marks', two standard sets embodying an ancient Indian conception of ideal beauty which the Buddhists, at an early date, took over from traditions concerning the mahāpuruşa or superman and applied to their own more spiritual purposes."15
It is interesting to study how Buddhists conceived the past good deeds and associated them with the major and minor marks on the body of the Buddha. The subject is of special importance in view of its ethical undertone. The explanation of these lakṣaṇas in the Buddhist texts sometim's vary and so also the respective past meritorious deeds. How the Buddhists have been adding the different items of kusala karmas to each lakṣaṇa and anuvyañ jana is itself a field of independent study which may require a writing of a separate monograph on the subject. For the present, I am publishing the relevant text from the Lokottaradharmadāna. Those who are interested in further studies may also read the relevant portions in other texts. 16
14.
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16.
Bhikkhu Sangharakshita, The Three Jewels, (London, Rider & Co., 1967), pp. 37-38.
Ibid., p. 38.
Jain Education International
For reference to the texts, see above fn. no. 3. However, among the Mahayana texts, I find the Aloka (Commentary on Aṣtasahasrikā Prajñāpāramitā) has closer resemblance to the explanation of these categories in the present text than that we find in the other texts.
संकाय पत्रिका - १
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