Dhamma-kāya in the Pali Canon : หน้า 32/141

Dhamma-kāya in the Pali Canon¹ Chanida Jantrasrisalai I. Why ‘Dhamma-kāya’ in the ‘Pali Canon’? The term dhamma-kāya/dharmakāya appears in Buddhist literature of different schools. Previous scholars have done excellent work on interesting aspects of studies regarding the term,² mostly in relation to its notions in Mahāyāna Buddhism. But its usages have not been studied in detail, and what the present study offers is a close examination of the term in the Pali canon. Admittedly, many previous studies mention the appearance of the term dhamma-kāya in the Pali canon³, but only brief references have been made, most occurrences missed out altogether and some significant aspects not yet touched upon. ¹ The topic was originally presented in the Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies (AABS) in December 2007 at the University of Western Sydney and once again in the International Seminar on Early Buddhism (ISEB) in August 2010 at the University of Sydney. The present paper is a revision of such presentations and a slightly revised edition of an earlier paper: Chanida Jantrasrisalai, “Early Buddhist Dhamma-kāya and Its Relation to Enlightenment,” in The Pathway to the Centre - Purity and the Mind: Proceedings of the Inaugural International Samādhi Forum, ed. Edward F. Crangle (Sydney: Dhammachai International Research Institute Inc., 2010). ² To name but a few: A.J. Prince, “The Conception of Buddhahood in Earlier and Later Buddhism,” The Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 7, no. 1-2 (1970); Barbara E. Reed, “The Problem of the Dharmakāya as Seen by Hui-Yúan and Kumārajīva” (Ph.D., The University of Iowa, 1982); Ruben L. F. Habito, “The Notion of Dharmakāya: A Study in the Buddhist Absolute,” Journal of Dharma. 1986. 11: 348-378. (1986); Peter Harvey, The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1995); John Makransky, Buddhahood Embodied Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet, ed. Matthew Kapstein, Suny Series in Buddhist Studies (NY: SUNY Press, 1997); Paul Mus, Barabudur: Sketch of a History of Buddhism Based on Archaeological Criticism of the Texts (New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts: Sterling Publishers, 1998); Guang Xing, The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory, Routledgecurzon Critical Studies in Buddhism (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005). ³ Paul Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations, Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices. (London ; New York: Routledge, 1989), p. 352 n.10; Paul Harrison, “Is the Dharma-Kāya the Real “Phantom Body” of the Buddha?,” The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 15, no. 1 (1992), pp. 50; Reed, op. cit.; Xing, op. cit.; Harvey, The Selfless Mind, op. cit.