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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Atman and Moka
suchness in its evolutionary disposition and, has nothing in it yet to suggest its concrete individuality, When the manas finds out its error and lifts the veil of Ignorance from the body of the Ālaya, it soon becomes convinced of the ultimate nature of the soul', so called. For the soul is not individual, but supra-individual."! The state of suchness or Tathatā is thus the ultimate existence which is free from all kinds of differences and contradictory qualities. It lies at the heart of everything and manifests itself in all the particular phenomena. It possesses consciousness, and is spiritual in nature. The Mahāyanists develop a more elaborate notion of the Dharmakāya from this Ālaya Vijñāna, and regard the Dharmakāya as the end of all life. It is the consummation and perfection of the phenomenal existence. The concept of Dharmakaya is a special and extremely significant contribution of Mahāyānism.
Dharmakāya seems to be a modified form of Tathatá or Suchness. The Tathata gets transmuted into a more elaborate form which is known as the Dharmakāya. Suzuki distinguishes the two thus - “Dharmakāya as understood by the Mahāyānists, not an abstract metaphysical principle like Suchness, but it is living spirit that manifests itself in nature as well as in thought."?
The word Dharmakāya is usually translated by the western scholars by “Body of the Law" meaning by the Law the doctrine set forth by S'akyamuni,
1 Suzuki D. T. : Outlines of Mahāyāna Buddhism, p. 165. 2 Ibid. p. 223.
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