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The Sūtra on the Three Bodies

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1. For more on the philosophical considerations of the three bodies, see Harrison (1992), pp. 44–94.
2. See Makransky (1997), p. 274.
3. Some Mahā­yāna works such as the Abhi­samayālaṃkāra of Maitreya also mention a fourth body, a svā­bhāvika­kāya, or “innate body.” There are conflicting interpretations by Indian and Tibetan commentators as to the relationship between the svā­bhāvika­kāya and the dharma­kāya. For more on the four bodies, see Makransky (1997).
4. For information on the relationship between the three bodies and four wisdoms in Buddhist literature, see Brunnhölzl (2009), pp. 71–76.
5. The colophon makes no mention of who the Tibetan translators were, and the Degé catalog (dkar chag, vol. 103, lak+Sh+mI, F.133.a.3) states that this is not known.
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Source edition · 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha ↗84000.co
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84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha

First published 2013

Current version v 2.21.13

84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha is a global non-profit initiative to translate all the Buddha’s words into modern languages, and to make them available to everyone.

This work is provided under the protection of a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution - Non-commercial - No-derivatives) 4.0 copyright. It may be copied or printed for fair use, but only with full attribution, and not for commercial advantage or personal compensation. For full details, see the Creative Commons license.

འཕགས་པ་སྐུ་གསུམ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།

’phags pa sku gsum zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo

The Noble ‌Mahāyāna Sūtra “The Three Bodies”

Ārya­trikāya­nāma­mahā­yāna­sūtra

· Toh 283 ·

Degé Kangyur, vol. 68 (mdo sde, ya), folios 56.a–57.a
For referencing Tibetan sources, please see our Scholar’s Edition

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Source link checked October 21, 2026. The linked publisher provides the text and its usage terms.

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The Sūtra on the Three Bodies

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