Nirmāṇakāya

The monk by whom the foregoing legend was recorded comments upon it thus, The condition of Ayujo is low and miserable, since she is condemned to serve the lusts of men.

Who, therefore, could imagine that such a woman might be the Nirmanakaya, or incarnation, of a Bodhisattva? End of section 2

CHAPTER III.

THE SCREEN MAIDEN Says the old Japanese author Hakubai Enrosi, in chinese and in japanese books there are related many stories both of ancient and of modern times about pictures that were so beautiful as to exercise a magical influence upon the beholder and concerning such beautiful pictures whether pictures of flowers or of birds or of people painted by famous artists it is further told that the shapes of the creatures or the persons therein depicted would separate themselves from the paper or silk upon which they had been painted and would perform various acts so that they became by their own will really alive we shall not now repeat any of the stories of this class which have been known to everybody from ancient times but even in modern times the fame of the pictures painted by hishigawa kichibai hishigawa's portraits has become widespread in the land he then proceeds to relate the following story about one of the so-called portraits There was a young scholar of Kyoto whose name was Tokai.

This enlightenment in nirvana, actual or potential, together with the void which is its object and therefore is identical with it, is the dharmakaya, the body of the law.

But the needs of history and myth must also be satisfied, and the Mahayana achieved this by inventing two more conceptions, the Sambhogakaya, or body of enjoyment, and the Nirmanakaya, or body of magical form.

Every Buddha has a domain of his own, or Buddha-Kshetra, a universe under the rule of the law preached by him.

the magnificence of such a domain is proportionate to the nobility of the deeds performed by its ruling buddha during his probation as a bodhisattva in these domains the reigning buddhas are revealed to their attendant bodhisattvas in gigantic radiant forms surrounded by halos composed of magical figures of buddhas these forms though manifest to the sanctified senses of the divine company are essentially spiritual and the buddhas wearing them are constantly teaching their holy law to the bodhisattvas of highest rank who appear in similarly transfigured bodies this beatific form is the sambhogakaya or body of enjoyment It is the fruit of the merit acquired by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas through countless deeds of liberality, long-suffering and virtue.

But if it goes deeper than that, you know, it feels like it's not so much the answer that affects us as it is the question.

And it's the cry of the Nirmanakaya, the cry of the, of the, of endarkenment, the cry of the daily interactions, of relationships breaking, which is happening all over the place right now.

So many relationships breaking, right? The sadness and the, and the beauty and the love that we find You know, that we so much wish to help relieve some of this suffering.

So that why can't we humans severed the red thread why can't we you know it so it feels to me like the question is just the the expression of our heartache it's in us it's it's part of us it's necessary to us and darn does it make trouble so so i so i think that that is one of the sort of undercurrents that runs for me just below the level of awareness a lot of the time that has to do with, that also affects how my welcome doesn't always make it to response, to natural response.

You have that.

That is you.

And a moment of non-discriminating light is the essence body of the Nirmanakaya, or the transformation body, another name for the body of stuff.

Well, transformation, it becomes something real.

is the basis of the

Nirmanakaya.

If I

see the withness, then this is the illusory manifestation.

If the teaching is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are in the 10 directions, it's everywhere, that's what it means.

And yet we must know it as Nirmanakaya.

Hmm.

The Dharmakaya is the absolute, the Nirmanakaya is the relative, and in between is the activity with the possibility of bliss and joy.

This is why the Buddhas have appeared in the world one after another, and why the Zen masters have taught generations after generation.

It should be clear from this story of Shanavasa that you should not waste your life.

The monk by whom the foregoing legend was recorded comments upon it thus, The condition of Ayujo is low and miserable, since she is condemned to serve the lusts of men.

Who, therefore, could imagine that such a woman might be the Nirmanakaya, or incarnation, of a Bodhisattva? End of section 2

CHAPTER III.

THE SCREEN MAIDEN Says the old Japanese author Hakubai Enrosi, in chinese and in japanese books there are related many stories both of ancient and of modern times about pictures that were so beautiful as to exercise a magical influence upon the beholder and concerning such beautiful pictures whether pictures of flowers or of birds or of people painted by famous artists it is further told that the shapes of the creatures or the persons therein depicted would separate themselves from the paper or silk upon which they had been painted and would perform various acts so that they became by their own will really alive we shall not now repeat any of the stories of this class which have been known to everybody from ancient times but even in modern times the fame of the pictures painted by hishigawa kichibai hishigawa's portraits has become widespread in the land he then proceeds to relate the following story about one of the so-called portraits there was a young scholar of kyoto whose name was tokai he used to live in the street called muromachi one evening while on his way home after a visit his attention was attracted by an old single-leaf screen exposed for sale before the shop of a dealer in second-hand goods it was only a paper-covered screen but there was painted upon it the full-length figure of a girl which caught the young man's fancy the price asked was very small till kye bought the screen and took it home with him when he looked again at the screen in the solitude of his own room the picture seemed to him much more beautiful than before apparently it was a real likeness the portrait of a girl fifteen or sixteen years old and every little detail in the painting of the hair eyes eyelashes mouth had been executed with a delicacy and a truth beyond praise The manajiri, the exterior canthus of the eye, seemed like a lotus-blossom courting favour.

And being real also means being open, being resilient, being flexible, being kind, not getting angry over injury, etc., etc., that's what getting real that's what getting real really is you know i think you know so anyway but also also another thing is when you're driven to be reborn by that mind that is in control of you instead of the one that you're in control of then that we call that rebirth reincarnation is when you are not driven by such an unconscious mind, but you choose to be reborn to, to still help and be, be there with your loved ones and, or, and, or with new loved ones or whatever, you know, in other words, you, you choose to come back.

So we save reincarnation for that, like an avatar, you know, Hinduism or a Nirmanakaya, you know, in Buddhism, Choku in Tibet, you know, we save it like that.

And, and, you know, it's, you said one thing you said, you said it was difficult for us to, Well, that's only because we're not used to it.

We're used to a narrative that imports absolutes into everything.