Yesterday, I visited the Great Stupa of Dharmakaya at the Shambhala Mountain Center near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado - about an hour from my home. I wanted to go when the aspen trees were gold - and on an overcast day - to minimize the contrast that so often occurs between the bright white of the Stupa and the relative darkness of the surrounding landscape. Shortly after I began photographing, a huge thunderstorm moved in! But first, I was able to take these photos!
I was intrigued to find some elk bones - a skull, several jaw bones and some vertebrae - lying in the grass right next to the Stupa on a bed of fallen aspen leaves. I also found a large fallen tree decomposing into beautiful reddish-colored mulch!
To me, these images of elk bones, fallen aspen leaves and decomposing mulch were the perfect embodiment of the Buddhist realization into impermanence. More specifically, they spoke powerfully to me of the fact that all physical phenomena (nirmanakaya) and energetic phenomena (sambhoghakaya) arise - magically, almost, and "unborn" - out of the sky-like expanse of dharmakaya, the fundamental "ground" of reality that we identify with during meditation practice. Together, these realms constitute the Trikaya, the Three Bodies of the Buddha. Liberation occurs when we learn to identify ourselves more with the Dharmakaya than with the realms of impermanence that occur with the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, whose cremated ashes are housed within this Stupa, has this to say:
“Dharmakaya is like the sun, sambhogakaya is like the rays, and nirmanakaya is like the rays hitting the objects on the earth. Nirmanakaya is the physical situation, and sambhogakaya and dharmakaya are the level of mind . . . At the dharmakaya level, we are looking into enormous space. That particular enormous space—that inconceivable, enormous space—is the basis of the original unbornness . . . "
Trungpa describes the sense of humor or play that arises in us when we realize - surprise! - that all of phenomenal reality arises seemingly out of nowhere - out of "dharmakaya." Here, meditation practice contains an element of intrigue and play when we watch, spellbound, as all thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations arise magically out of the sky-like expanse of awareness, and then disappear back into it, only to arise yet again in the very next instant. The whole process is, we might say, like unspoken echoes arising out of nowhere!
In the Christian mystical tradition, this is expressed as the process by which all of reality arises out of the boundless inner abyss of divine LOVE, and then disappears back into it, only to arise yet again during each millisecond of time. The fourteenth-century German mystic Meister Eckhart puts it this way: "It is an amazing thing that something flows forth, and nonetheless remains within . . . All creatures flow outward and nonetheless remain within - that is extremely amazing!"
During interreligious dialogues, many have commented as well on the correspondence between the Trikaya and the Holy Trinity. In the Christian contemplative tradition, we have The Great Silence (the "Father"), the Word (the "Son"), and the joy arising from the other Two (the "Holy Spirit," which Thomas Aquinas calls the "Sigh" of the Godhead.) But because the Word (the Son) appears in the world yet never actually leaves the Great Silence of the Father, Eckhart sometimes implies - intriguingly - that we might more accurately call It an "Echo" of an unspoken word. "The Father speaks the Word unspoken," he exclaims. Accordingly, Eckhart refers to this process as a sort of "sport" or "play."
As others have pointed out, the Trikaya and Holy Trinity also correspond to the satchitananda of the Hindu tradition. Here, sat ("Being") is the Source out of which chit (Being's "Self-consciousness") and ananda (the "Bliss" that arises from this self-awareness) arise. This is again similar to some strands of Christian mysticism (e.g. St. Augustine) where the second Person of the Trinity is a kind of "mirror" in which the Source views [him]self. Here, the Spirit is then the joy (the ananda) arising from this self-reflection.
In any case, interpreting the seeming worlds of birth and death as a cosmic sort of "Play" in all three traditions is really quite amazing!
Photos: Elk bones, a decomposing log, and prayer flags flying in an aspen grove; The Great Stupa of Dharmakaya, Shambhala Mountain Center, Red Feather, CO; September 29, 2014
