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An oak tree is an oak tree, and that is all it has to do.
When someone says something challenging, if we can smile and return to our breathing, our Dharma will be a living Dharma, and others will be able to touch it. Sometimes, through non-action, we can help more than if we do a lot. Like a calm person on a small boat during a storm, just by being there, we can change the situation.
The Dharma body is the Buddha that is everlasting.
When you touch the Dharmakaya, you touch the Buddha. The Buddha said very clearly that his Dharma body is even more important than his physical body. For his Dharmakaya to continue, the Buddha relies on us, on our practice.
Sambhogakaya is the Buddha’s body of bliss,
Sambhogakaya is the fruit of his practice.
When we practice mindfulness,
we can feel happy just being alive. This is our body of enjoyment, Sambhogakaya.
But then he wrote in his diary, “I called upon God, but only a Negro appeared.” In fact, the man who saved him was God himself, but because he was ignorant, he failed to see that. We can say that the man who saved him was the Sambhogakaya Buddha. Buddha and God appear in many forms. The Buddha is not only in the cloud. He is in our hearts, and in the hearts of many others.
Each of us has the capacity to bring joy to others and to help relieve them of their suffering, if we know how to cultivate the seeds of awakening within ourselves. Like the Dharmakaya, the Sambhogakaya body of the Buddha is available, if we know how to touch it.
Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, is the Nirmanakaya, a beam of light sent into the world by the sun of the Dharmakaya to help relieve the suffering of living beings. Shakyamuni Buddha was a real human being, and the Dharmakaya was embodied by his presence.
Shakyamuni is just one of these transformation bodies. You can be in touch with the Nirmanakaya through him or through any of these others.
Each of us has three bodies — a Dharma body, an enjoyment body, and a physical body.
These bodies are deep within you; it is only a matter of discovery.
When you touch these three bodies of yourself and of the Buddha, you will suffer less. The Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya are available.
The Buddha depends on us to live mindfully, to enjoy the practice, and to transform ourselves, so we can share the body of the Dharma with many other living beings.
The path to peace and liberation is to depart from the path of cursing and anger and hate. Embrace the light and the darkness will not prevail. Be mindful of both at all times, without denying the existence of either.
Compare with the teaching of Jesus washing the disciples feet at the Last Supper.
