Source of all Truth, the All-Good Father of the Lāmaistic Faith. In this same highest Buddha realm Lāmaism places Vajra-Dhāra (Tib. Rdorje-Chang—pron. Dorje-Chang), ‘The Holder of the Dorje (or Thunderbolt)’, ‘the Divine Expounder of the Mystic Doctrine called Vajra Yāna (Tib. Rdorje Theg-pa—pron. Dorje Theg-pa) or Mantra Yāna’; and also the Buddha Amitābha (Tib. Hod-dpag-med—pron. Wod-pag-med; or, as in the text, page 1131), the Buddha of Boundless Light, Who is the Source of Life Eternal. In the Sambhoga-Kāya are placed the Five Dhyānī Buddhas (or Buddhas of Meditation), the Lotus Herukas, and the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities, all of whom will appear in the Bardo visions. With the Nirmāṇa-Kāya is associated Padma Sambhava, who, being the first teacher in Tibet to expound the Bardo Thödol, is the Great Guru for all devotees who follow the Bardo teachings.
The opinion commonly held by men not initiated into the higher lāmaic teachings, that Northern Buddhism recognizes in the Primordial or Ādi-Buddha a Supreme Deity, is apparently erroneous. The translator held that the Ādi-Buddha, and all deities associated with the Dharma-Kāya, are not to be regarded as personal deities, but as Personifications of primordial and universal forces, laws, or spiritual influences, which sustain—as the sun sustains the earth’s physical life—the divine nature of all sentient creatures in all worlds, and make man’s emancipation from all sangsāric existences possible:
‘In the boundless panorama of the existing and visible universe, whatever shapes appear, whatever sounds vibrate, whatever radiances illuminate, or whatever consciousnesses cognize, all are the play or manifestation of the Tri-Kāya, the Three-fold Principle of the Cause of All Causes, the Primordial Trinity. Impenetrating all, is the All-Pervading Essence of Spirit, which is Mind. It is uncreated, impersonal, self-existing, immaterial, and indestructible.’
(Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup.)
Thus, the Tri-Kāya symbolizes the Esoteric Trinity of
