Understanding Dhamma and Nibbāna in Buddhism : หน้า 53/141

With regard to dhamma as the 'essence' of the Buddha and Arhat disciples, however, it may be more appropriate to refer to 'Nibbāna,' for once they have attained Buddhahood and Arhatship their spiritual qualities are transformed and they have passed beyond the earlier paths and fruits by means of the permanent destruction of certain defilements. Besides, the Buddha's designation dhammabhuta, '(he) who has become dhamma,' indicates that previously he was not a dhamma-being, but that he becomes dhamma later. Such a 'later' time in this case must refer to the time of his enlightenment, when he could declare himself 'Buddha.' This, again, implies dhamma at the level of enlightenment, and seems to support the earlier interpretation as 'transcendent dhammas' especially 'Nibbāna.' In this case, it does not mean that all the noble ones possess all transcendental paths and fruits. The noble disciples of lower levels have not possessed the higher paths and fruits. Nevertheless, as the word 'heir' indicates, while the properties shared by the father and the son are of the same kind, those belonging to the son may be less or of lower quality than those belonging to the father. In a similar way, the qualities/properties possessed by the noble disciples could be of a lower level than that possessed by the Buddha. But they must be of the same sort, which in this case means 'lokuttara,' that differs from those belonging to the worldlings. As discussed above, the Tathāgata's designation being related as the reason for the true son's titles renders it necessary in both cases that the term dhamma carries the same connotation in all compounds. Thus, it may be concluded heuristically that the term dhamma as the first constituent of the compound dhammakāya and dhammabhuta may be identified in a general term such as 'transcendent dhamma.' We shall now turn to examine another possibility by which the term brahma- is translated in the compounds as brahman.