Tag Archives: Docetic Buddhology

A Docetic Mirror

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Vajragoni

As was stated in the introductory blog to this series, Chapter Five on The Adamantine Body will directly mirror what was covered in a Dharma-series last year entitled A Docetic Assessment. So once again, at this junction in the sutra, we will be engaging Michael Radich and his examination of the docetic factor in light of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra. Recall that Docetic Buddhology is the belief that the Buddha only has “an apparent” material body. Radich argues that, in light of the first part of this chapter, that the Tathāgata’s true body is the dharmakāya-cum-vajrakāya. All this is broken down as follows (fully extracted from the aforementioned series): read more

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Prior to Parinirvāṇa

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Vajragoni

It is said that Buddhas never actually enter into parinirvāṇa, because they are completely identical to and interfused with the dharmadhātu (of all dharmas; 如來皆入一切法界)(Radich, Immortal Buddha’s and their indestruction). Once interfused with the Dharmadhātu—the Realm of Suchness Itself, what need to enter into something further after death? “Even the apparent parinirvāṇa of Buddhas like Dīpaṃkara was merely a docetistic show, an expedient means manifested by Śākyamuni himself.” (Radich, ibid) Moreover, anyone who fervently upholds the Buddhadharma is already equipped with the Dharma-realm and, as such, is eternally in the presence of the Living Buddha. Suzuki writes in his Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra: read more

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No Foul-Stench Here

Posted on December 4, 2016 by Vajragoni

Within Michael Radich’s, The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine, he makes the case that the Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine can be considered under the lens of a Docetic Buddhology in that the apparent physical appearances of a Tathāgata are inherently deceptive. A Buddha has no ordinary human embodiment, but rather a most salient transcendent-emBODHIment, or the awakening of an Enlightened-Spirit within the Tathātic-Womb: read more

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