Buddhist Deity: Buddha Religious Context

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In Mahayana Buddhist religious belief there are Four Bodies of a Buddha: 1. nirmanakaya, 2. sambhogakaya, 3. dharmakaya and 4. svabhavikakaya. The four can also be understood as aspects or dimensions of a fully enlightened buddha. The last two of the four are abstract concepts and are not typically represented in art. The first two of the bodies are commonly represented in art. Nirmanakaya, the first of the buddha bodies is depicted by the usual form of a buddha such as Shakyamuni, Amitabha and Medicine Buddha and constitutes the first of the Eleven Figurative Forms in Himalayan and Tibetan art. In their standard appearance and in a religious context they are referred to as 'nirmanakaya' meaning they are depicted as monks with the ushnisha on the crown of the head, dot (urna) on the forehead and three lines marking the neck, etc. As sambhogakaya buddha representations they typically appear in Peaceful Deity (bodhisattva/god/deva) appearance with a youthful form, sixteen years of age, adorned with jewel ornaments crowns, and silk-like clothing - typical of Indian heavenly gods. Peaceful Deity appearance does not depict an ushnisha, urna, line under the next or monastic attire.

Database Search: All Images | Painting | Sculpture

Jeff Watt 12-2019

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84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha:

Toh 503. The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones. དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པ་བདུན་གྱི་སྔོན་གྱི་སྨོན་ལམ་གྱི་ཁྱད་པར་རྒྱས་པ། · de bzhin gshegs pa bdun gyi sngon gyi smon lam gyi khyad par rgyas pa. Saptatathāgatapūrvapraṇidhānaviśeṣavistāra. [51 pages].

Toh 511/273/853. The Twelve Buddhas. སངས་རྒྱས་བཅུ་གཉིས་པ། · sangs rgyas bcu gnyis pa. Dvādaśa­buddhaka. [8 pages].

Toh 512/270/852. The Seven Buddhas. སངས་རྒྱས་བདུན་པ། · sangs rgyas bdun pa. Saptabuddhaka. [8 pages].

Toh 513/856. The Dhāraṇī Endowed with the Attributes of All the Buddhas. སངས་རྒྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་ཡན་ལག་དང་ལྡན་པའི་གཟུངས། · sangs rgyas thams cad kyi yan lag dang ldan pa’i gzungs. Sarva­buddhāṅgavatī­dhāraṇī. [4 pages].

Toh 514/854. The Discourse of the Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence. སངས་རྒྱས་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས། · sangs rgyas snying po’i gzungs kyi chos kyi rnam grangs. Buddha­hṛdaya­dhāraṇī­dharma­paryāya.
[5 pages].

Toh 515/855. The Dhāraṇī of the Buddha’s Essence. སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོའི་གཟུངས། · sangs rgyas kyi snying po’i gzungs. Buddha­hṛdaya­dhāraṇī. [4 pages].

Toh 522/848. The Dhāraṇī of the Tathāgata Jñānolka. ཡེ་ཤེས་ཏ་ལ་ལའི་གཟུངས། · ye shes ta la la’i gzungs.
Jñānolka­dhāraṇī. [4 pages].

Toh 555. The Sūtra of the Sublime Golden Light. གསེར་འོད་དམ་པའི་མདོ། · gser ’od dam pa’i mdo. Suvarṇa­prabhāsottamasūtra. [264 pages].

(The images below are only a selection of examples from the links above).