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THE DIAMOND SUTRA
83

"Honoured of the Worlds! it is improbable that the Lord Buddha can be perceived by means of his perfect material body. And why? Because, what the Lord Buddha referred to as a perfect material body,' is not in reality a perfect material body,' it is merely termed a 'perfect material body.'"

The Lord Buddha addressed Subhuti, say-


This essence was believed to be eternal, and after the Buddha's death, was represented by the Law or doctrine (Dharma) he taught.

"The second body is the Sambhoga-Kaya, 'body of conscious bliss,' which is of a less ethereal and more material nature than the last. Its Brahmanical analogue appears to be the intermediate body (belonging to departed spirits) called Bhoga - Deha, which is of an ethereal character, character, though composed of sufficiently gross (Sthula) material particles to be capable of experiencing happiness or misery.

"The third body is the Nirmana - Kaya, 'body of visible shapes and transformations,' that is to say, those various concrete material forms in which every Buddha who exists as an invisible and eternal essence, is manifested on the earth or elsewhere for the propagation of the true doctrine."—Buddhism. Sir Monier Williams.

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