(Shinran chapter 4)
All the adornments enter into the One Dharma Principle
[Vasubandhu] says, “Presented in brief, they enter into the One Dharma Principle.”
The seventeen aspects of the adornments of the Land, the eight aspects of the adornments of the Tathagata and the four aspects of the adornments of bodhisattvas are the extensive manifestation. ‘Entering into the One Dharma Principle’ is the all-inclusive principle.
Two kinds of Dharma-body
Why is it shown that the extensive manifestation and the all-inclusive principle enter into each other? The reason is that Buddhas and bodhisattvas have two Dharma-bodies: (1) Dharma-body of Dharma-nature and (2) Dharma-body of Expediency. From the Dharma-body of Dharma-nature originates the Dharma-body of Expediency; through the Dharma-bodies of Expediency the Dharma-body of Dharma-nature is revealed. These two Dharma-bodies are different but inseparable; they are one but not the same.[they are not the same due to their being multiple manifestations each different for the minds of men] For this reason, the extensive manifestation and the all-inclusive principle enter into each other. Those two are comprised in the Dharma[-body]. If bodhisattvas did not realize interpenetration of the two ways of presentation, they would not be able to benefit both themselves and others.
The One Dharma Principle = Purity Principle = Unconditioned Dharma-body
[Vasubandhu] says, “The One Dharma Principle is the Purity Principle; the Purity Principle is Unconditioned Dharma-body that is to be realized through True Wisdom.”
These three phrases enter into each other, the previous one leading to the next. [618c] For what reason is [the ultimate principle] called ‘the [One] Dharma [Principle]’? Because it is the Purity [Principle]. For What reason is it called ‘the Purity [Principle]’? Because it is Unconditioned Dharma-body realized by True Wisdom. ‘True Wisdom’ is the wisdom of realizing True Reality. Because True Reality is without forms, true wisdom is unknowing. ‘Unconditioned Dharma-body’ is the body of Dharma-nature. Because Dharma-nature is Nirvanic, Dharma-body is formless. Because it is formless, there is no form which it cannot manifest. Therefore, [the body] adorned with the marks of excellence is itself the Dharma-body. Because it is unknowing, there is nothing that it does not know. For this reason, the wisdom of knowing all forms of existence is the true wisdom. The reason why ‘Wisdom’ is described as ‘True’ is in order to show that it is neither free of mental effort nor non-effort. The reason why ‘Dharma-body’ is described as ‘Unconditioned’ is in order to show that the Dharma-body is neither possessed of form nor without form. When a negation is negated, how can a double negation be a [simple] affirmation? Indeed, absence of negation is called affirmation. If an affirmation exists by itself without opposition, it is no longer an affirmation. [The ultimate principle] is neither an affirmation nor a negation; it is beyond description even by a hundred negations. Hence, ‘Purity.’ Purity refers to Unconditioned Dharma-body that is to be realized with True Wisdom.
[Vasubandhu] says, “Purity is distinguished into two kinds. One should realize this.”
Concerning these [three] principles, each leading up to the next, by penetrating the [One] Dharma [Principle], one enters into the Purity [Principle]; by penetrating the Purity [Principle], one enters into the Dharma-body. Now, two kinds of purity are to be distinguished. And so, it is said, “One should realize this.”
Shinran Shonin
[Ocean of the One Vehicle]
84 In the term “ocean of the One Vehicle,” One Vehicle refers to the great vehicle (Mahayana). The great vehicle is the Buddha vehicle. To realize the One Vehicle is to realize the highest perfect enlightenment. The highest perfect enlightenment is non other than the realm of nirvana. The realm of nirvana is the ultimate dharma-body. To realize the ultimate dharma-body is to reach the ultimate end of the One Vehicle. There is no other tathagata, there is no other dharma-body. Tathagata is itself dharma-body. Reaching the ultimate end of the One Vehicle is without bound and without cessation. In the great vehicle there are no “two vehicles” or “three vehicles.” The two vehicles and three vehicles lead one to enter the One Vehicle. The One Vehicle is the vehicle of highest truth. There is no One Vehicle other than the One Buddha-Vehicle, the Vow.
(Shinran posting for evidence of his views)19 Further, it states:
(Nirvana Sutra)
Good sons, I have stated in this sutra, in teaching the body of Tathagata, that there are two kinds. The first is the physical body, and the second is the dharma-body.
The physical body is the transformed body of skillful means. This body is subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death, and the distinctions of long and short, black and white, this and that, learning and nonlearning. My disciples, having heard this teaching, will say, if they have not grasped my intent, “The Tathagata has definitely taught that the Buddha-body is a created dharma.”[they erroneously think that their is no uncreated Dharmakaya because they only see the desolution of the manifested expedient body]
The dharma-body is eternity, bliss, self, and purity. It is forever free of all birth, aging, sickness, and death, of not-white and not-black, not-long and not-short, not-this and not-that, not learning and not nonlearning; hence, whether the Buddha appears in the world or does not appear in the world, he is constantly unmoving and without change. Good sons, my disciples, having heard this teaching, will say, if they have not grasped my intent, “The Tathagata has definitely taught that the Buddha-body is an uncreated dharma.”[they erroneously believe that the Dharmakaya does not manifest the created expedient bodies]
(Shinran quotes)The Garland Sutra states:
The Dharma realized by Manjusri is eternally unchangeable; To the Dharma King belongs only this one Dharma. All the Buddha’s(humans who have became enlightened) who have realized the principle of unhinderedness . Have liberated themselves from birth and death by the single way.
The bodies of all Buddha’s are only one Dharmakaya, They possess one and the same mind and wisdom, Their powers and fearlessness are equally the same.
Flower garland Sutra
The Enlightened One, Truly Awake, Is peaceful, never moving, They can manifest his body Throughout all worlds in the ten directions. Just as space itself Is unborn and unperishing, So is the truth of the Buddha’s Ultimately birthless and deathless.
Then Banner of Light, empowered by the Buddha, looked over the ten directions and said in verse,
In the human and celestial realms In all the worlds there are They see everywhere the Enlightened One’s Body of pure wonderous form. Just as the power of one mind can produce various minds, So can one buddha body manifest all Buddha’s everywhere. Enlightenment is nondual and also has no marks Yet in the realm of duality he manifests a glorified body.
Pure is the reality body of all Buddha’s of all times.p522
The One Life
Let’s further explain the nature of the ultimate dimension first presented in the previous web page, by exploring the reality of the One Life. As already mentioned, the holographic dimension of panenbuddhism affirms that at the deepest foundation of reality, the lives of every being, barring none, including the non-sentient realities of the galaxies, stars and worlds are not separate and solitary entities, but rather, the undercurrent life force and awareness that we call our individual lives is really the same Life and the same awarenness that is manifested in all beings and things, animate and inanimate throughout the endless universe in the space and time continuum.
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In other words, your true and real self is the One Life shared by all beings and the universe. This One Life is primordial in nature, that is to say, it is ancient, unborn and deathless. In Mahayana Buddhism, this true and real self is also referred to as the dharmakaya, which is symbolized in concrete terms as Amida Buddha. In addition, it is carries other synonymous names like Oneness, One Life, Great Compassion, Buddha-nature, rigpa or Immeasurable Life and Light. Please, read further for an explanation. The galaxies, worlds and you are the one Life. The galaxies, worlds and you are the one Life
Waves on the Ocean
To understand further the panenbuddhistic nature of Amida, the image of a boundless spiritual ocean of life and light is often used to explain its nature. Like being in a vast and endlessly living ocean of light and light, all things within this vibrant realm may be akin to the unstable waves on the surface of that boundless ocean of space and time. All of the waves are made of the same water or spiritual substance. Every wave is different and unique. Some are bigger than others and some are calmer than others, yet all are finite and limited in the amount of water they carry. More than this, every wave is destined to rise to a crescendo only then to fall back and disappear into the stillness of the deep waters.
Kanmo Imamura wrote, “Nothing endures in this world. Everything changes according to karma. But, like the ocean, underneath the restless existence of countless waves there is one boundless stillness that embraces and gives life to all the moving waves.”
In all of this flux, the stillness of the ocean remains the same, undifferentiated and in oneness. Nourished by the ocean-like Life, we are one with Amida Buddha (the spiritual ocean) and Amida Buddha is one with us (the waves), yet paradoxically, like the waves are to the ocean, we are different from one another.
This paradoxical and panentheistic reality of oneness/separateness is illustrated in the Shin religious experience through the Nembutsu-Namu-Amida-Butsu, in which the finite and relative self (namu) and the one Life (Amida Butsu) are experienced as one but at the same time each maintain their independence and remain just as they are. Waves are just waves and the ocean is just the ocean but the ocean totally embraces the waves from within and without.
How does this relate to our daily spiritual life? Simply, by just changing our attention or perspective from viewing ourselves as finite and limited waves on the ocean of Life, destined to suffer and eventually die, to experiencing ourselves as the infinite and deathless Ocean of Life and Light, then and only then, will we be able to see ourselves as we really are and be liberated from the spiritual ignorance that holds us in the bondage of separation and fear. When we learn and truly awaken to our true ocean-like nature, then and only then will we realize that we are Buddha and intuitively know that we are truly eternal and everlasting. This is the nature of enlightenment available to all regardless of class, race, gender, age, moral status, sexual orientation or even religious belief.
Josho Adrian Cirlea(Jodo Shinshu Priest)
This ultimate aspect of Amida, or Amida as a Dharmakaya Buddha, is the essence and true nature of His transcendental manifestations, or Amida as Sambhogakaya Buddha. Thus, Amida as Dharmakaya is preceding Amida as a result of Bodhisattva Dharmakara’s practices and vows (Amida as described in the Larger Sutra). Why do I say this? The reason is very simple – Amida as Dharmakaya is the same with Suchness[4], Nirvana or Buddha nature, which is always present (without beginning and without end) and not produced by anything, while Amida as Sambhogakaya, or Amida as Dharmakaya of Expediency, has a beginning in the moment Dharmakara fulfilled His practices and attained Enlightenment.
This is why the Buddhas are called Tathagatas. The term,” Tathagata” is composed of “tathā” and “āgata, which means “thus come”, or “tathā” and “gata”, which means “thus gone”. The term refers to a Buddha who has “thus gone” from Samsara into Nirvana/Suchness, but also who has “thus come” from Nirvana/Suchness to work for the salvation of all sentient beings. In our case, Amida as Dharmakaya of Dharma-nature is Nirvana/Suchness itself, as Shinran said:
“Supreme Nirvana is the uncreated dharma-body. Uncreated dharma-body is true reality. True reality is dharma-nature. Dharma nature is Suchness. Suchness is Oneness. Amida Tathagata comes forth from Suchness and manifests various bodies – fulfilled (Sambhogakaya/Dharmakaya of Expediency), accommodated and transformed”.[5]
So, when Dharmakara attained perfect Enlightenment/Nirvana/Suchness, He automatically became Amida Tathagata in two aspects: 1) Amida as Dharmakaya or ultimate reality beyond forms, with no beginning and no end (“Thus Gone”), and 2) Amida as Dharmakaya of Expediency or Sambhogakaya, that is Amida in Form and Name, dwelling in His Pure Land (“Thus Come”). Both are different aspects of the one and the same Amida Buddha, but again, if we ask ourselves, who was first, Amida as Dharmakaya or Amida as Sambhogakaya, we should answer – Amida as Dharmakaya. This is because, as I said above, the ultimate Dharmakaya is always present; it was present before Bodhisattva Dharmakara formulated the 48 vows and started the practices, before He attained Enlightenment and became Amida, and will always be present in the never ending future. This is the logic of Shinran’s words, “He seems a Buddha more ancient than kalpas countless as particles” and of the Two Buddha Bodies Doctrine according to which Amida as Dharmakaya of Dharma-nature (Amida beyond form) is the origin and essence (the true nature) of Amida as Dharmakaya of Expediency (Amida in Form and Name/Amida in His Pure Land).
First let us establish that the Buddha Nature and the Dharmakaya are synonymous
Queen Srimala Sutra Chapter 8: The Dharmakaya V96. O’ Bhagavan, the extinction of suffering is not the destruction of the Dharma. Why so? Because the ‘extinction of suffering’ is known as the Dharmakaya of the World Honored One, which is beginningless, uncreated, unborn, undying, free from destruction, permanent unchanging, eternal, inherently pure, and separate from all the stores of defilement. The Dharmakaya is also not different from the inconceivable Buddha Natures which are more numerous than the sands of the river Ganges. The Dharmakaya of the World Honored One is called the Buddha Nature when it is obscured by the stores of defilement.” The pratyekabuddha knows the words, but is not blessed with unhinderedness in words. Why not? Because he does not know the two words, “eternal” and “abiding”. That is why the pratyekabuddha cannot gain unhinderedness in Dharma. He knows of the meaning, but he is not blessed with unhinderedness [of understanding] in the meaning. If he truly understood the meaning, he would have to know that all beings possess the Buddha-Nature. The meaning of Buddha-Nature is none other than unsurpassed Enlightenment. Thus, the pratyekabuddha does not possess unhindered knowledge of meaning. The Buddha does not say, either, that the characteristics of the Buddha, the Buddha-Nature, and Nirvana are not different. What he says is that all are Eternal and Unchanging, with no difference. The Buddha does not say, either, that the characteristics of Nirvana and the Real State are not different. What he says is that the Eternal, the “is”, the Real, and the Changeless are not different.
And
Nirvana Sutra V307 The view of the Self is termed the ‘Buddha-dhatu’ [Buddha-Nature]. The Buddha-dhatu is true emancipation, and true emancipation is the Tathagata.
Nirvana Sutra V550. Why so? The reason is that all “asravas” [defilements, taints, “influxes” of unwholesome thoughts and emotions] are done away with. And yet, there are differences between the Buddha, sravaka, pratyekabuddha, and Bodhisattva. Yet all sravakas and common mortals doubt and say: “How could it be that there can be no difference between the three vehicles?” All these beings, after a long time, come to understand that all three vehicles equally have the Buddha-Nature. The case is similar to that of the milk, which appears as it does because of past karma. Also, next, O good man! For example, when gold is treated [smelted] in a furnace, the dregs [scum] are discarded. Smelted again, gold appears and its price becomes inestimable. O good man! It is the same with sravakas, pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas. All can arrive at the same Buddha-Nature. Why? Because the defilements have been done away with. It is like doing away with the scum from gold ingots. Hence, all beings have the same Buddha-Nature. And when one first hears of the hidden store of the Tathagata and when one later attains Buddhahood, one, in the course of time, comes to know this fact. This is as in the case of the milk of the rich man, in which the oneness of the quality of the milk becomes apparent. Why [this dawning of awareness]? Because innumerable billions of defilements have been done away with.” “Again, Mañjuśrī, any of these performers who desire to be united with their own dhātu will secure for themselves a small degree of happiness, for they will become as they say. If they are born as a hermaphrodite, a heap of suffering will arise with that happiness. The tathāgata-garbha is present in women and likwise also in men. How could they secure that and become as they say by themselves ? Therefore, the dhātu of all beings is a single dhātu. [The Tathāgata] applied himself to the holy life all the while that he had not established himself therein and [eventually] arrived at tathāgatahood.”
V1164 Lion’s Roar said: “All beings are not of one kind of body. There are devas [gods] and there are humans. And there are such others as those of the realms of the animals, the hungry pretas [ghosts], and hell. They are many, not one. How can we say that the Buddha-Nature can be one?”
The Buddha said: “O good man! For example, there is a man who adds poison to milk. Because of this, all [the milk products] up to sarpirmanda will contain poison. We do not call milk butter, and butter milk. The same applies to sarpirmanda. The name may change, but the nature of the poison is not lost. It will run across the five tastes of the milk all-equally. Even sarpirmanda, if taken, will kill a man. Just as poison is not placed in the sarpirmanda, so is it the case with the Buddha-Nature of beings. “One finds the Buddha-Nature(Dharmakaya) of beings in the different bodies of the beings of the five realms. But the Buddha-Nature(Dharmakaya) is always One, and there is No Change.”
V426. “Also, O good man! As an example, there is a medicine in the Himalayas called “pleasing taste”. It tastes very sweet. It grows hidden under a deep growth of plants, and we cannot easily see it. But from its scent, one can come to know the whereabouts of this medicine. In days gone by, there was a chakravartin who, placing wooden tubes here and there in the Himalayas, collected this medicine. When it had ripened, it flowed out and entered the tubes. It tasted truly right. When the king died, this medicine became sour, salty, sweet, bitter, or hot, or light. Thus, what is one, tastes differently according to the different places. The true taste of the medicine remains in the mountains; it is like the full moon. Any common mortal, sterile in virtue, may work hard, dig, and try, but cannot get it. Only a chakravartin, high in virtue, appearing in the world can arrive at the true value of this medicine because of happy circumstantial concatenations. The same is the case [here]. O good man! The taste of the hidden store of the Tathagata is also like this. Overspread by all the growths of defilement, the beings clad in ignorance cannot hope to see it. We speak of the “one taste”. This applies, for instance, to the Buddha-Nature. On account of the presence of defilement, several tastes appear, such as the realms of hell, animals, hungry pretas, devas, human beings, men, women, non-men, non-women, Kshatriya, Brahmin, Vaishya and Sudra.
The hallmark of Pure Land Buddhism is reciting the buddha-name, invoking Amitabha Buddha by chanting his name. Through reciting the buddha-name, people focus their attention on Amitabha Buddha. This promotes mindfulness of buddha, otherwise known as buddha-remembrance [buddha recitation].
In what sense is buddha “remembered”? “Buddha” is the name for the one reality that underlies all forms of being, as well as an epithet for those who witness and express this reality. According to the Buddhist Teaching, all people possess an inherently enlightened true nature that is their real identity. By becoming mindful of buddha, therefore, people are just regaining their own real identity. They are remembering their own buddha-nature.
Buddha as such is a concept that transcends any particular embodiment, such as Shakyamuni Buddha (the historical buddha born in India), or Maitreya Buddha (the future buddha), or Vairocana Buddha (the cosmic buddha) or Amitabha Buddha (the buddha of the western paradise). Buddha exists in many forms, but all share the same “body of reality,” the same Dharmakaya, which is formless, omnipresent, all-pervading, indescribable, infinite–the everywhere-equal essence of all things, the one reality within-and-beyond all appearances.
Dharmakaya Buddha is utterly abstract and in fact inconceivable, so buddha takes on particular forms to communicate with living beings by coming within their range of perception. For most people, this is the only way that buddha can become comprehensible and of practical use. The particular embodiments of buddha, known as Nirmanakaya, are supreme examples of compassionate skill-in-means.
Pure Land people focus on buddha in the form of Amitabha, the buddha of infinite life and infinite light. Believers put their faith in Amitabha Buddha and recite his name, confident in the promises he has given to deliver all who invoke his name. All classes of people, whatever their other characteristics or shortcomings, are guaranteed rebirth in the Pure Land and ultimate salvation, if only they invoke Amitabha’s name with singleminded concentration and sincere faith.
Quoted from Pure Land Pure Mind translated by J.C. Cleary
BRAHMA-NET SUTRA
Now, I, Vairocana Buddha Am sitting atop a lotus pedestal; On a thousand flowers surrounding me Are a thousand Sakyamuni Buddhas. Each flower supports a hundred million worlds; In each world a Sakyamuni Buddha appears. All are seated beneath a Bodhi-tree, All simultaneously attain Buddhahood. All these innumerable Buddhas Have Vairocana as their original body. These countless Sakyamuni Buddhas All bring followers along — as numerous as motes of dust. They all proceed to my lotus pedestal To listen to the Buddha’s precepts. I now preach the Dharma, this exquisite nectar. Afterward, the countless Buddhas return to their respective worlds And, under a Bodhi-tree, proclaim these major and minor precepts Of Vairocana, the Original Buddha.
THE SUTRA OF MEDITATION ON THE BODHISATTVA UNIVERSAL VIRTUE.
Thereupon the voice in the sky will speak thus saying, “Shakyamuni Buddha is called Vairocana Who Pervades All Places, and his dwelling place is called Eternally Tranquil Light, the place which is composed of Permanency Paramita, and is stabilized by self paramita, the place where the purity paramita extinguishes the aspect of existence, where the bliss paramita does not abide in the aspect of one’s body and mind, where the aspects of all laws cannot be seen as either existing, nor non existing, the place of tranquil emancipation, or prajna paramita. Because these forms are based on permanent law, thus you must now meditate on the Buddhas in all directions”
LOTUS SUTRA chapter 2(expedient means)
“you should know
that at the start I took a vow,
hoping to make all persons
equal to me, without any distinction between us.”
Chapter 7 (the Parable of the Phantom City)
“After I have entered extinction, there will be other disciples who will not hear this sutra and will not understand or be aware of the practices carried out by the Bodhisattvas, but who, through the blessings they have been able to attain, will conceive an idea of extinction and enter into what they believe to be nirvana. At that time I will be a Buddha in another land and will be known by a different name. Those disciples, though they have conceived an idea of extinction and entered into what they take to be nirvana, will in that other land seek the Buddha wisdom and will be able to hear this sutra. For it is only through the Buddha vehicle that one can attain extinction. There is no other vehicle, if one excepts the various doctrines that the Tathagatas preach as an expedient means.”
Chapter 16 (The lifespan of the Thus Come One.)
“Thereupon the Buddha addressed all those bodhisattva-mahasattvas: “Good sons! Now I must clearly announce and declare to you. Suppose you take as atomized all those worlds where an atom has been deposited or where it has not been deposited, and [count] an atom as a kalpa, [the time] since I became Buddha still surpasses these by hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of nayutas of asamkhyeya kalpas. From that time forward I have constantly been preaching and teaching in this saha-world, and also leading and benefiting all living beings in other places in hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of nayutas of asamkhyeya domains. Good sons! During this time I have ever spoken of myself as the Buddha Burning Light and other [buddhas], and also have told of their entering into nirvana. Thus have I tactfully described them all. Good sons! Whenever living beings come to me, I behold with a buddha’s eyes all the faculties, keen or dull, of their faith and so on. And I explain to them, in stage after stage, according to their capacity and degree of salvation, my different names and the length of my lives, and moreover plainly state that I must enter nirvana. I also, in various tactful ways, preach the Wonderful Law which is able to cause all the living to beget a joyful heart. Good sons! Beholding the propensities of all the living toward lower things, so that they have little virtue and much vileness, to these men the Tathagata declares: ‘In my youth I left home and attained Perfect Enlightenment.’ But since I verily became Buddha, thus have I ever been” [speaking from the outlook of the Dharmakaya]
NIRVANA SUTRA chapter 12(On the nature of the Tathagata)
“The Bodhisattva will think: “This “I” now takes refuge in the Buddha. If this I attains Enlightenment and Buddhahood, I shall not pay respect, worship or make offerings to all the Buddhas. Why not? For all Buddhas are all-equal. They are all taken refuge in by all beings. If one desires to pay respect to the Dharma-Body and the sharira [relics], one should also pay respect to the stupas of all Buddhas. Why? To guide in all beings. It also makes beings conceive in me a thought of the stupa, to make them worship and make offerings. Such beings make my Dharma-Body the place wherein they take refuge.”
LANKAVATARA SUTRA Chapter 3
At that time again, Mahamati the Bodhisattva-Mahasattva said this to the Bhagavan: According to what deeper sense did you make this announcement before the congregation, that “I am all the Buddhas of the past,” and that “I have gone through many a birth in varieties of forms, being thus at times the king Mandhatri, Elephant, Parrot, Indra, Vyasa, Sunetra, and other beings in my one hundred thousand births?”
Said the Bhagavan: There are, according to the deeper sense, four kinds of sameness distinguished, Mahamati, and the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make this assertion: I was thus at that time the Buddha Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and KaSyapa. What are the four kinds of sameness which are distinguished according to the deeper sense? They are: (1) sameness of letters, (2) sameness of words, (3) sameness of teachings, and (4) sameness of the body. According to this fourfold sameness in the deeper sense, the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make the announcement before the congregation.
Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of letters? It is that my name is [spelt] B-u-d-d-h-a, and these letters are also used for other Buddhas and Bhagavans; Mahamati, these letters in their nature are not to be distinguished one from another; therefore, Mahamati, there is the sameness of letters.
Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of words with regard to the Tathagatas, Arhats, and Fully-Enlightened Ones? It is that sixty-four sounds of the Brahman language are distinguished by me, and these identical sixty-four sounds of the Brahman language are also uttered by the Tathagatas, Arhats, and Fully-Enlightened Ones, and their Kalavinka-like notes are the same with all of us, as we are indistinguishable in this respect.
Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of the body? It is that I and other Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones are the same as regards our Dharmakaya/, and the [thirty-two] signs and the [eighty] minor excellencies of bodily perfection–no distinction existing among us, except that the Tathagatas manifest varieties of forms according to the different dispositions of beings, who are to be disciplined by varieties of means.
Now, Mahamati, what is the sameness of the teaching? It is that I as well as they [other Tathagatas] are all conversant with the teachings belonging to the thirty-seven branches of enlightenment. According to the deeper sense which is concerned with this fourfold sameness, the Tathagatas, Arhats, Fully-Enlightened Ones make their announcement before the congregation. So it is said:
6. “I am KaSyapa, Krakucchanda, and Kanakamuni”; this I preach who come out of the sameness for the sake of the sons of the Buddha
Chapter 3
“The Bhagavan said this to him: Mahamati, the Tathagata is not a non-entity; nor is he to be conceived as all things are, as neither born nor disappearing; nor is he to look around for causation [in order to appear before others]; nor is he without signification; I refer to him as unborn. Nevertheless, Mahamati, there is another name for the Tathagata when his Dharmakaya assumes a will-body. [will body is a term to describe a human seeking enlightenment]This is what goes beyond the comprehension of the philosophers, Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and those Bodhisattvas still abiding in the seventh stage. The unborn, Mahamati, is synonymous with the Tathagata.
For instance, Mahamati, Indra is [sometimes known as] Sakra, [sometimes? as] Purandara; hand is hasta, kara, pani; the body is tanu, deha, Sarira; the earth is p?ithivi, bhumi, vasu?dhara; the sky is kha, akaSa, gagana; all these objects each in its way are designated with many names, synonymously used and discriminated; but on account of these different names different objects are not to be imagined, nor are they without their self-nature. The same, Mahamati, can be said of myself, for I come within the range of hearing of ignorant people, in this world of patience, under many names, amounting to a hundred thousand times three asamkhyeyas, and they address me by these names not knowing that they are all other names of the Tathagata. Of these, Mahamati, some recognize me as the Tathagata, some as the Self-existent One, some as Leader, as Vinayaka (Remover), as Parinayaka (Guide), as Buddha, as Rishi (Ascetic), as Bull-king, as Brahma, as Vishnu, as iSvara, as Original Source (pradhana), as Kapila, as Bhutanta (End of Reality), as Arishta, as Nemina, as Soma (moon), as the Sun, as Rama, as Vyasa, as Suka, as Indra, as Balin, as Varuna, as is known to some; while others recognize me as One who is never born and never passes away, as Emptiness, as Suchness, as Truth, as Reality, as Limit of Reality, as the Dharmadhatu, as Nirvana, as the Eternal, as Sameness, as Non-duality, as the Undying, as the Formless, as Causation, as the Doctrine of Buddha-cause, as Emancipation, as the Truth of the Path, as the All-Knower, as the Victor, as the Will-made Mind. Mahamati, thus in full possession of one hundred thousand times three asamkhyeyas of appellations, neither more nor less, in this world and in other worlds, I am known to the peoples, like the moon in water which is neither in it nor out of it. But this is not understood by the ignorant who have fallen into the dualistic conception of continuity.1 Though they honour, praise, esteem, and revere me, they do not understand well the meaning of words and definitions; they do not distinguish ideas, they do not have their own truth, and, clinging to the words of the canonical books, they imagine that not being subject to birth and destruction means a non-entity, and fail to see that it is one of the many names of the Tathagata as in the case of Indra, Sakra, Purandara. They have no confidence in the texts where the self-standing truth is revealed, since in their study of all things they follow mere words as expressed in the texts trying thereby to gain into the meaning.”
From these passages we see that,Vairocana Buddha is the orginal body of ALL Buddhas,we also see that the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha is called Vairocana,and is also called Buddha Burning Light,and the Eternal Buddha has many names and many Bodies for which he manifests in this world and the universe.
this concept is called the 3 Bodies of the Buddha also known as Trikaya.
(1)DAHRMAKAYA(PURE MIND)
(2)SAMBHOGAKAYA(CELESTIAL BODY)
(3)NIRMANAKAYA(EARTHLY BODY)
The 3 bodies of the Buddha are in truth really one body called the DHARMAKAYA(the pure mind of all Buddhas),the other 2 bodies of the Buddha are how the pure mind is viewed by the unenlightened sentient beings,those in the pureland see the SAMBHOGAKAYA Buddha body,we on earth would see the NIRMANAKAYA body of the Buddha.
While there are many manifested Buddha bodies there is only one pure mind/underlying reality(DHARMAKAYA)
What do Buddhists believe 