Sanskrit Noun
nirmāṇakāya
emanation body
निर्माणकाय
སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་
化身
Basic Meaning
An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms.
| Term Variations | |
|---|---|
| Key Term | nirmāṇakāya |
| Topic Variation | nirmāṇakāya |
| Tibetan | སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ ( trulku) |
| Wylie Tibetan Transliteration | sprul sku ( trulku) |
| Devanagari Sanskrit | निर्माणकाय ( nirmāṇakāya) |
| Romanized Sanskrit | nirmāṇakāya ( nirmāṇakāya) |
| Chinese | 化身 |
| Chinese Pinyin | haushen |
| Japanese Transliteration | keshin |
| Korean Transliteration | hwasin |
| Buddha-nature Site Standard English | emanation body |
| Richard Barron's English Term | nirmanakaya |
| Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term | emanation body |
| Term Information | |
| Source Language | Sanskrit |
| Basic Meaning | An fully enlightened Buddha is said to have the power to manifest in many forms in order to help the sentient beings. The emanation body of a buddha, as the third of the three bodies of a buddha, refers to the many forms in which a buddha can manifest and which are accessible to ordinary sentient beings. Buddhist scholars present four types of emanation bodies: emanation as supreme being, emanation as rebirth, emanation as artisan and emanation in diverse forms. |
| Term Type | Noun |
| Definitions | |
| Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism | In Sanskrit, "emanation body," or "transformation body"; according to the Mahāyāna descriptions, one of the three bodies (trikāya) of a buddha, together with the dharmakāya and the saṃbhogakāya. In accounts where a buddha is said to have two bodies, the dharmakāya constitutes one body and the rūpakāya constitutes the other, with the rūpakāya subsuming both the saṃbhogakāya and the nirmāṇakāya. The term nirmāṇakāya may have been employed originally to describe the doubles of himself that the Buddha is sometimes said to display in order to teach multiple audiences simultaneously. (Cf. mahāprātihārya.) In the Mahāyāna, however, the emanation body became the only body of a buddha to appear to ordinary beings, implying that the "historical Buddha" was in fact a display intended to inspire the world; in the debates about whether the Buddha felt hunger or suffered physical pain, the Mahāyāna schools as well as several of the mainstream Buddhist schools asserted that he did not, but rather appeared to do so in order to conform to worldly conventions. The nirmāṇakāya of a buddha is said to be able to appear in any form, including divinities, humans, animals, and inanimate objects; some texts even suggest that a buddha may appear as a bridge or a cooling breeze. The form of the nirmāṇakāya that appeared in India as Śākyamuni is called a "supreme emanation body"(uttamanirmāṇakāya). All such nirmāṇakāyas are said to perform twelve deeds, from waiting in Tuṣita heaven for their last rebirth to entering parinirvāṇa. Another type of nirmāṇakāya is the janmanirmāṇakāya, the "birth" or "created" emanation body, which is the form of a buddha when he appears as a divinity, human, or animal to benefit sentient beings, or as a beneficial inanimate object, such as a bridge. A third type is the śilpanirmāṇakāya, an "artisan emanation body," in which a buddha appears in the world as an artisan or as a work of art. The Sanskrit term nirmāṇakāya is translated into Tibetan as sprul sku, spelled in English as tulku. |
| Dung dkar Tshig mdzod Chen mo | འདི་ནི་སྐུ་གསུམ་གྱི་ནང་གི་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་སྟེ། སངས་རྒྱས་རྣམས་རང་ཉིད་སངས་རྒྱས་ཟིན་པའི་རྗེས་སུ་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་དོན་དུ་གང་ལ་གང་འཚམས་པའི་སྤྲུལ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་བསྟན་ནས་དོན་མཛད་པ། |
| RigpaWiki | rigpa:Nirmanakaya |
