The Nirmāna-Kāya or Natural, Historical Manifestations

Abstract

As already suggested, nirmāṇa-kāya translates as the “body of transformation”:⁶ this meaning connotes primarily the “this-worldly” body of any sentient being who has achieved final enlightenment. Buddhahood had its first historical, natural manifestation in the body of Gautama, later called also Śākyamuni after his enlightenment at Bodhigayā in 528 b.c. As the historical founder of Buddhism, Śākyamuni represents the nirmāṇa-kāya manifestation par excellence. In his unique vocation as founder of Buddhism and its saṃgha (the first community of Buddhist followers), Śākyamuni constitutes the nirmāṇa-kāya in its “singular” historical manifestation. As for the innumerable sentient beings that followed his path and attained individual Buddhahood - which include all the historical figures involved in the progression and formulation of the religious and philosophical doctrines of Buddhism - they can be designated as the nirmāṇa-kāya in its “plural” manifestation. Thus, this “plurality” sets itself forth historically as the antithetic overcoming of the original “singularity”. As a result of the historical reliance of the plural manifestations on the original dharma (law and doctrine) of Śākyamuni, the “collective” historical manifestations develop in the form of Buddhist religious and philosophical schools. This last aspect, which overrides the opposition between the “singular” and the “plural,” establishes such “collective” manifestations as they deploy themselves within a historical process of dialectics.