ABSTRACT
The term saNbhogakAya, denoting the body of enjoyment of the Buddha, first appeared in the MahAyAnasEtrAlaNkAra (MSA).1 According to Habito and Makransky, it was in this text that the earliest systematic explanation of the trikAya doctrine was formulated.2 The concept of the saNbhogakAya was most probably introduced to solve the complex problem concerning the physical body (rEpakAya) of the Buddha. It was formulated on the basis of the teachings in the early and middle Mahayana sEtras such as the *AvataNsaka. The rEpakAya became the central point of contention between the Mahasanghikas and the Sarvastivadins when the former idealized the Buddha and gradually came to attribute many supernatural qualities to him. Since the Sarvastivadins did not agree with the Mahasanghikas that the Buddha had these qualities, they debated the purity of the rEpakAya of the Buddha for many centuries. These supernatural qualities were further developed in the Mahayana sEtras when the Mahayanists attributed to the Buddha immeasurable merit as a result of bodhisattva practice. This in turn caused other problems concerning the rEpakAya of the Buddha for the Mahayanists themselves, such as the contradiction between the short lifespan of wakyamuni and his immeasurable merit. The controversial points of debate from the early Indian Buddhist schools up to the Mahayana revolved around the supernatural qualities of the rEpakAya, which were not found in the physical body of the historical Buddha and were not described in the NikAyas and the Fgamas. Such controversies probably led the author of the MSA to formulate the trikAya theory after having summarized the developments concerning the concept of the Buddha in the early and middle Mahayana sEtras and XAstras.
