What are the Dharmakāya (Dharma Body), Sambhogakāya (Reward Body), and Nirmāṇakāya (Manifestation Body)? Master Linji said: “The pure light of mind in a single thought is the Dharmakāya Buddha; the non-discriminating light of mind in a single thought is the Sambhogakāya Buddha; the non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha. These three bodies are fully inherent in one's own nature – there is no need to seek them outside.”

The pure light of mind in a single thought refers to the state in which not a single thought arises: there are no thoughts whatsoever, yet clear, luminous knowing unlike insentient wood or stone. If even one thought is present, the mind is not pure. Likewise, the thought of a Buddha or a mind reciting a mantra is not pure. Only when the reciting mind and the recited mantra fall away together – when subject and object both fall away – is there the pure light of mind in a single thought. This is Dharmakāya. What our practice calls “awakening to the mind and seeing one's true nature” is precisely seeing this true nature.

“The non-discriminating light of mind in a single thought” is the Sambhogakāya Buddha. “The non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought” is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha. But what is the distinction between “discrimination” and “differentiation”? Do they not mean the same thing? Why, then, is the non-discriminating light of mind the Sambhogakāya Buddha, while the non-differentiating light of mind is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha?

The Sambhogakāya is a body of light, a single expanse of luminosity with no other colors or forms. How, then, could it have differentiated features? Therefore, the non-discriminating light of mind in a single thought is the Sambhogakāya Buddha.

To realize the Sambhogakāya at the fruition stage, one must unite compassion and wisdom, liberate sentient beings extensively, and accumulate merit and virtue. Once we realize our true nature, great compassion arises spontaneously. Having awakened, we understand that all the phenomena of the world are false, unreal, and illusory – unattainable, like the moon's reflection in water. We therefore cease creating karma and transcend the cycle of suffering. Sentient beings, however, do not understand this. Adrift in karmic consciousness, they continually create karma and undergo its consequences, with no way out of suffering.

Great compassion cannot help but arise, inspiring vast vows to liberate sentient beings everywhere. This great compassion arises from great wisdom: without wisdom, great compassion cannot arise, and without great wisdom one cannot liberate sentient beings. To guide beings, one must discern their capacities and teach the Dharma accordingly. Liberating beings therefore requires compassion and wisdom in joint operation; mere theoretical knowledge is not enough. When merit and virtue are perfected, the resulting body is the Sambhogakāya of great luminosity, the fruition of perfected merit and virtue.

For example, when Sudhana met Maitreya Buddha (Maitreya Bodhisattva resides in the Inner Court of Tuṣita, where we aspire to go), Maitreya told him: “You have attained fundamental wisdom – that is, you have realized your true nature – but you have not yet attained differentiated wisdom. Differentiated wisdom is subsequently attained wisdom, or post-attainment wisdom. It is the great wisdom developed while liberating sentient beings, as delusions as numerous as motes of dust and subtle ignorance are completely exhausted. With it, you can teach a suitable Dharma according to the differing capacities and habitual tendencies of sentient beings and guide them out of the sea of suffering.

You do not yet have this differentiated wisdom. You must continue to train in the world and liberate sentient beings extensively before it can be perfected. When the merit and virtue of liberating beings are complete, you will attain a Sambhogakāya like mine. This purple-gold body of mine arose from extensively liberating sentient beings – it appeared all at once!”

Anyone who realizes the Sambhogakāya realizes a body of light; it is therefore non-discriminating. The Nirmāṇakāya is different. It has form, and wherever there is form, there is differentiation: male and female, young and old, plants and animals, sun and moon, heaven and earth – all are different. Since there is differentiation, why is it said that the non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha?

Although appearances differ, the underlying reality from which all appearances arise – the Dharmakāya – is without differentiation. All sentient beings are Buddhas because they all possess Buddha-nature; all the phenomena of the world are formed and manifested by our Buddha-nature. Whether an experience is good or bad, since all are formed and manifested by Buddha-nature, they are equal and nondual. Thus, this evil world of the five turbidities and the Western Pure Land are equal and without distinction.

All conditioned existences in the world are transformations of our non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought; thus, everything is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha. Appearances differ, but the nature that gives rise to them is equal. Therefore, the non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought is the Nirmāṇakāya Buddha.

Once this principle is understood, there is no reason to doubt how the similarly worded non-discriminating and non-differentiating lights of mind correspond respectively to the Sambhogakāya and Nirmāṇakāya.

Once we recognize the pure light of mind in a single thought without the slightest doubt, we see our true nature then and there. There is no need to look for it anywhere else – it is shining right through your own face! The pure light of mind in a single thought is precisely the falling away of the sense faculties and their objects: in practice, the reciting mind and the mantra being recited suddenly fall away together, and body, mind, and world all dissolve. Yet in the midst of this complete cessation, there is no annihilation; clear, luminous knowing manifests unmistakably. This clear, luminous knowing is our true nature – the Dharmakāya, Sambhogakāya, and Nirmāṇakāya.

To truly realize countless Nirmāṇakāya manifestations, emanate bodies throughout the worlds of the ten directions, and liberate innumerable sentient beings – with transformative manifestations like those described in the Investiture of the Gods – one must realize the great wisdom of Perfect Enlightenment. That means exhausting even the very subtlest delusive thoughts. Our deluded mind and thoughts have coarse, subtle, very subtle, and extremely subtle levels. The extremely subtle level is called the “Subtle continuous stream.” Like an exceedingly fine current of water, it appears still, but is actually moving! Its movement beneath the surface is so rapid and intense that it seems motionless.

Only when even this flow is severed and brought to stillness can one realize countless Nirmāṇakāya manifestations, liberate innumerable sentient beings, and bring forth great wondrous functioning. In our practice, we must first eliminate the personal-self view and then the dharma-self view. The personal-self view is the belief in a personal “I” set apart from other persons. The dharma-self view is the belief that some dharma still exists. What is this dharma-self?

Arhats, for example, know that the physical and material body cannot be grasped and that the world is illusory. They believe that to leave suffering and find happiness they must leave this world. Yet within this understanding they give rise to a dharma-self view. They believe there is a Dharma to cultivate, birth and death to end, and nirvāṇa to attain. At the same time, they take the four great elemental natures within Buddha-nature – earth, water, fire, and wind – to be the self.

Our Buddha-nature inherently contains seven great “elemental natures”, understood here as generative seed-potentials: earth, water, fire, wind, space, the sense faculties, and consciousness. Of these seven, earth, water, fire, and wind are primary. The world is composed of earth, water, fire, and wind, and our bodies are likewise composed of them.

Having awakened through cultivation, they no longer cling to the physical body but instead cling to the elements within Buddha-nature – earth, water, fire, and wind – as the self, believing these to be real while the physical body is false. They do not realize that these four great elemental natures are only some of Buddha-nature's elements, not its entirety, just as a person's eyes, ears, nose, and tongue are not the whole body. Taking there to be some real entity that constitutes the self is Dharma attachment and prevents ultimate realization.

The term “elemental nature” (zhǒngxìng) is used here in the sense of a generative seed-potential. Just as a rice seed can produce rice and a wheat seed can produce wheat, our physical body arises from the four great elemental natures, and nothing in the world is apart from them. Tempered by the Buddhadharma, Arhats and Pratyekabuddhas understand that forms produced by the four great elements are false and should not be grasped. Yet they mistakenly take the four great elemental natures to be a real self. They do not realize that the moment one abides or grasps, one has already departed from truth – not to mention that the four great elemental natures are only some of Buddha-nature's elements, not its entirety. Because they have not truly seen their nature, the Buddha rebuked them as “scorched sprouts and rotten seeds.”

In our practice, we must neither mistakenly take the four great elements to be the self nor abide in Buddha-nature. The moment there is abiding, one falls into a fixed rut. Thus, one who truly becomes a Buddha leaves not even a trace of “Buddha.” If you say, “I have become a Buddha,” then you have not become a Buddha – you have fallen into the demonic instead. You still have a foothold and still hold something in your breast that has not been completely emptied.

Our Dharmakāya is like empty space: utterly bare, unstained by even a speck of dust, with neither the mark of time nor the mark of space. Therefore, in practice, we must cut off every form of grasping and not abide in anything at all. Yet to truly eliminate the personal-self view, one must attain the seventh bodhisattva ground. As it is said, “Only upon reaching the Immovable Ground (the eighth bhūmi) is the storehouse consciousness relinquished; only after the Vajra Path (the tenth bhūmi) is karmic ripening emptied.” Only after the tenth bodhisattva ground can the dharma-self view be eliminated; otherwise, one still abides in a dharma-self. Hence the saying, “One who rests atop a hundred-foot pole has gained entry, but has not yet realized the truth.” Even at the top of the pole there is still a foothold. Therefore, “Take one further step from the top of the hundred-foot pole, and your whole body appears throughout the worlds of the ten directions.”

The worlds of the ten directions are all your body; when even the foothold is removed, the dharma-self view is eliminated. At that point you have the great wisdom of Perfect Enlightenment and can manifest countless Nirmāṇakāya forms. This is how we practice.

You are always asking, “How far are we from home?” Looking ahead, the road seems very long. You think, “Good heavens, we are still so very far away!” and inevitably lose confidence. But when you look back, compare yourself with the past, and see your progress, your mind becomes much steadier. Out of compassion, the Buddha said, “You sentient beings lack boldness and courage; your resolve is too small. I therefore manifest a provisional city where you can stay and rest awhile. Before reaching buddhahood, first settle down and rest in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, or in Tuṣita Heaven.”

But bodhisattvas of great resolve say, “I will go to neither! Until the hells are empty, I vow not to take the seat of buddhahood. I will liberate every sentient being in hell.” Hell is not frightening; once you realize, you will no longer fear it. As stated above, in the non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought, hell and heavenly palaces are just the same. What difference is there between beauty and ugliness, pleasure and pain?

At that time, our Master was teaching the Dharma in Beijing. He had two disciples who were not human – one was a fox and the other was a python. The fox arrived first, and later introduced the python; when they came, they manifested in human form.

They said, “We do only good deeds, gathering medicinal herbs and treating people's illnesses. We never do evil. We wish to study the Buddhadharma and bring our cultivation to true fruition.” They told their fellow disciples, “You have obtained human bodies, yet you do not practice diligently – what a pity! We must cultivate for a very long time merely to obtain a human form and become able to practice the Buddhadharma.”

One day, while our Master was teaching the Dharma, he asked them to sit at the front, where two seats remained. They replied, “We cannot go up there! There is a celestial fox in front!” The fox disciple was an earth fox. Later, when our Master returned south, they escorted him as far as the bank of the Yellow River and said, “We cannot cross the Yellow River. We can see you off only this far and no farther. Please take good care of yourself, Master!”

This may sound mysterious, like a tale from The Arabian Nights, but it is indeed true. All sentient beings have Buddha-nature, and they too can realize the Way. You should not doubt that such things exist merely because you have not seen them.

Take our Dharmakāya as an example. People who do not practice always say it does not exist because they have never seen it; yet it truly does exist. Through proper and diligent practice, once one directly realizes it, all doubt naturally disappears. The Dharmakāya – Buddha-nature – is indeed true emptiness and wondrous presence, a great treasury endowed with every capacity. It is present in every sentient being, truly existent rather than vague or illusory.

Speaking of true emptiness and wondrous presence, this principle applies not only to Buddha-nature but to all things without exception. Take a simple cup as an example: its true nature is empty, for it has no inherent, independent existence. A glass cup is made from glass, yet glass itself has no intrinsic essence – it comes from minerals formed over countless centuries through geological shifts and changes in temperature and pressure. Thus, nothing possesses a fixed self-nature, just as Buddha-nature has no form that can be grasped – hence it is called “true emptiness.”

Yet although things lack inherent substance, their provisional appearances are not nonexistent – they function and serve their purposes fully. This is like the boundless functioning of Buddha-nature, and is therefore called “wondrous presence.” As explained earlier, all things arise from and are manifestations of Buddha-nature. Since Buddha-nature is both true emptiness and wondrous presence, all phenomena share this same nature.

Some may ask: if both living beings and inanimate objects are composed of the four elements – earth, water, fire, and wind – why do humans have feelings while objects do not? The answer is this: if a single breath does not return, does the body still have feelings? Clearly, feeling does not reside in the physical body but in the animating awareness.

The distinction between sentient beings and insentient objects arises because ordinary people have limited mind-capacity. They identify with only a small portion of the four elements, confine themselves within a physical shell, and take this to be the self. Unable to pervade all things, they create the distinction between sentient and insentient.

In truth, when a person stops breathing, the body is no different from wood or stone – where then are awareness and feeling? Is it not also an insentient thing? In practice, when body, mind, and world dissolve into emptiness and one realizes the boundless true nature that fills all space and pervades the Dharma realm, one can pervade all things, and there is no longer any distinction between sentient and insentient. The story of “Master Daosheng expounding the Dharma, whereupon even the stones nodded” is clear proof.

Thus, the sun, moon, stars, plants and forests, and all phenomena are none other than manifestations of our own nature. I urge you all to practice diligently – do not become careless, indulging in sensory pleasures and worldly gain while neglecting this great treasure within. Otherwise, one passes through life in vain, like entering a mountain of jewels and returning empty-handed. How regrettable, how unworthy, how deeply lamentable! Please take this to heart.

(Delivered in Hangzhou, November 12, 1990)

（August 2026 Translation）

Glossary佛学名相词汇

Terms are arranged alphabetically by English headword. Definitions are written for the context of this text; Chinese equivalents appear at the right side of each entry.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · K · L · M · N · O · P · R · S · T · V · W

A

Ālaya consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) 阿赖耶识；藏识

The storehouse consciousness in Yogācāra thought, where karmic seeds and latent tendencies are retained until transformed.

Annihilationism 断灭见；断灭

The mistaken view that spiritual realization is mere blankness or total extinction. The text distinguishes stillness from the clear awareness of true nature.

Appearances and underlying nature 相与性体

Forms differ at the level of appearance, while the nature from which they arise is described as equal and without differentiation.

Arhat 阿罗汉；罗汉

One who has attained liberation from cyclic existence in the early Buddhist path. The discourse uses the term while discussing subtle attachment to dharmas.

B

Bodhisattva 菩萨

One who aspires to buddhahood and cultivates wisdom and compassion for the liberation of all sentient beings.

Buddha-Dharma 佛法

The Buddha's teachings and the methods of study, contemplation, and practice based upon them.

Buddha-nature 佛性

The intrinsic capacity and nature of awakening said to be fully present in all sentient beings and to manifest as knowing and functioning.

Buddhahood 佛果；成佛

Complete awakening in which wisdom, compassion, merit, and liberative functioning are fully perfected.

C

Clear luminous knowing 了了分明的灵知

The unmistakably clear, luminous knowing that remains when discursive thought subsides; the discourse identifies it with true nature, not with insentient blankness.

Coarse, subtle, and extremely subtle delusive thoughts 粗妄、细妄、微细妄、极微细妄

Four increasingly fine levels of delusive mental movement to be exhausted as cultivation deepens.

Compassion and wisdom in joint operation 悲智双运；智悲双运

The inseparable use of great compassion and discerning wisdom when guiding beings according to their differing capacities and needs.

Cyclic existence 轮回；生死

The continuing round of birth and suffering propelled by ignorance, attachment, and karma.

D

Dharma attachment 法执

Grasping at a dharma, teaching, practice, attainment, element, or doctrinal category as independently real; distinct here from the dharma-self view.

Dharma Body 法身

The document's English rendering of Dharmakāya: the formless, all-pervading reality of awakening and the basis of the other two bodies.

Dharma realm 法界

The total field of reality and phenomena; in the text, true nature is described as pervading the whole Dharma realm.

Dharma-self view 法我见

The view that some dharma, element, attainment, or object of realization constitutes a fixed reality or self; distinct here from Dharma attachment, which is the act of clinging.

Dharmakāya 法身

The Dharma Body: formless, unconditioned reality, compared in the text to space and described as free from time, location, and defilement.

Differentiated wisdom (post-attainment wisdom) 差别智；后得智

Wisdom developed after realizing true nature; it discerns the varied capacities and tendencies of beings and applies suitable teachings while liberating them.

Dust-like delusions 尘沙惑

Delusions described as being as numerous as motes of dust; in the text, they are exhausted together with subtle ignorance through the cultivation of post-attainment wisdom.

E

Eighth bhūmi 第八地；不动地

The eighth bodhisattva stage, called the Immovable Ground, associated with profound non-retrogression and the relinquishment of the storehouse basis.

Elemental nature 种性 in this discourse, where the term is explained through a seed's generative capacity; here it means a generative seed-potential attributed to the elements. 种性

A contextual rendering of

Emanation 化现；应化

A form manifested through awakened activity in response to the needs and capacities of sentient beings.

F

Five turbidities 五浊

Five conditions marking a troubled age: the turbidity of the age, views, afflictions, sentient beings, and lifespan.

Four great elements 地、水、火、风四大

Earth, water, fire, and wind, understood as the primary material qualities composing bodies and the physical world.

Fundamental wisdom 根本智

Direct, non-conceptual wisdom that realizes true nature; contrasted in the text with differentiated or post-attainment wisdom.

G

Great compassion 大悲；大悲心

The spontaneous wish to relieve the suffering of beings, said here to arise from genuine wisdom rather than sentiment alone.

Great luminous Sambhogakāya 果德大光明报身

The radiant Sambhogakāya described as the fruition of perfected merit and virtue.

Great wisdom of Perfect Enlightenment 圆觉大智

Fully matured wisdom in which even the finest delusive movements are exhausted and awakened functioning becomes unobstructed.

Great-resolve bodhisattva 大心菩萨

A bodhisattva whose vast vow places the liberation of suffering beings before personal rest or attainment.

H

Habitual tendencies 习气

Deeply ingrained patterns of thought, feeling, and action carried by repeated conditioning and karma.

Hundred-foot pole 百尺竿头

A Chan image for a very advanced attainment that still contains a final foothold; one must take a further step and release even that subtle abiding.

I

Immovable Ground 不动地

The eighth bodhisattva ground, where practice is said to become irreversible and deeply stable.

Inner Court of Tuṣita 兜率内院

The inner realm of Tuṣita Heaven where Maitreya Bodhisattva is traditionally said to dwell before appearing as the next Buddha.

K

Karma 业

Intentional activity of body, speech, and mind and the causal consequences that follow from it.

Karmic retribution 业报；受报

Results that ripen from intentional actions.

L

Liberating sentient beings 度众生；度生

Guiding beings away from suffering through teachings and methods suited to their differing capacities.

Light-body 光明身

A radiant body associated in the discourse with realization of the Sambhogakāya.

Linji Yixuan 临济义玄禅师；临济祖师

The influential Chan master whose teaching on the three lights of a single thought is quoted at the opening of the discourse.

M

Maitreya Buddha 弥勒佛；弥勒菩萨

The future Buddha associated with Tuṣita Heaven; in the discourse he instructs Sudhana concerning fundamental and differentiated wisdom.

Manifestation Body 化身

The document's English rendering of Nirmāṇakāya: awakened form and activity manifested in response to the world.

Merit and virtue 功德

Wholesome qualities and beneficial effects accumulated through cultivation, vows, and liberative activity.

Mind and mantra fall away together 能念之心与所念之咒一时脱落

The moment in practice when the reciting mind and the mantra as its object both cease to stand as separate subject and object.

Mind-capacity 心量

The scope or breadth of mind; the discourse contrasts ordinary limited identification with the all-pervading nature realized in awakening.

N

Nirmāṇakāya 化身；应化身

The Manifestation Body, through which awakened activity appears in forms suited to the conditions and needs of beings.

Nirvāṇa 涅槃

Liberation from affliction and cyclic existence; the text cautions against grasping even nirvāṇa as an independently existing attainment.

Non-abiding 无住；不住

Freedom from fixing the mind on a self, object, element, teaching, attainment, or even Buddha-nature.

Non-differentiating light of mind in a single thought 一念无差别心光

The light of mind that makes no differentiation in underlying nature; associated with the Nirmāṇakāya.

Non-discriminating light of mind in a single thought 一念无分别心光

The light of mind free from conceptual discrimination; associated with the Sambhogakāya.

Non-duality 不二；平等无二

The absence of a fixed opposition between self and other, subject and object, purity and defilement, or differentiated appearances.

O

Original nature 本性；自性

One's intrinsic awakened nature prior to conceptual division and grasping; used interchangeably here with Buddha-nature and true nature.

P

Perfect Enlightenment 圆觉

Complete awakening in which ignorance and even the most subtle delusive movement are exhausted.

Personal-self view 人我见

The view of a fixed personal “I,” set apart from other persons; distinct from the dharma-self view and Dharma attachment.

Pratyekabuddha 辟支佛；缘觉

A solitary awakened one who realizes liberation through insight into dependent arising, without teaching a community in the manner of a fully awakened Buddha.

Provisional City 化城

A parable from the Lotus Sūtra for a temporary resting place presented to encourage travelers before they reach the final goal.

Pure Land 净土

A purified buddha-field that serves as a place of practice and liberation; the discourse mentions both the Western Pure Land and Tuṣita as provisional resting places.

Pure light of mind in a single thought 一念清净心光

Clear luminous knowing present when no thought arises and subject and object both fall away; the discourse identifies it with the Dharmakāya.

R

Reward Body 报身

The document's English rendering of Sambhogakāya: the radiant fruition of perfected wisdom, compassion, merit, and vows.

S

Sahā world of the five turbidities 娑婆世界；五浊恶世

The present world-system of endurance, characterized in Buddhist teaching by the five turbidities.

Sambhogakāya 报身；受用身

The Reward or Enjoyment Body: the radiant buddha-body that expresses the fruition of perfected bodhisattva merit and wisdom.

Scorched sprouts and rotten seeds 焦芽败种

A traditional rebuke for practitioners whose attachment to a limited attainment is said to prevent the full growth of the bodhisattva path.

Sense faculties and their objects fall away 根尘脱落

A meditative expression for the collapse of fixation on the sense faculties as subject and their objects as independently grasped things.

Sentient and insentient 有情、无情

The conventional distinction between beings endowed with conscious experience and objects regarded as lacking it; the discourse views both as manifestations of one nature.

Sentient beings 众生

Living beings subject to ignorance, karma, and suffering, yet fully endowed with Buddha-nature and the capacity for awakening.

Seven great elements 七大种性；地、水、火、风、空、根、识

Earth, water, fire, wind, space, the sense faculties, and consciousness as seven pervasive bases used in the discourse to explain experience.

Seventh bhūmi 第七地；七地菩萨

The seventh bodhisattva ground; the discourse associates this stage with the profound elimination of self-view.

Single thought 一念

A single moment or movement of mind; in Linji's statement it is the immediate locus in which the three luminous aspects are disclosed.

Storehouse consciousness 藏识；阿赖耶识

Another English rendering of ālaya-vijñāna; the text's verse on the Immovable Ground alludes to relinquishing this storehouse basis.

Subject and object both fall away 能所双亡

The cessation of the dualistic structure of a reciting subject and a recited object, allowing clear luminous knowing to remain unobscured.

Subtle continuous stream 微细流注

The extremely fine, continuous movement of delusive mental activity that appears motionless because of its subtlety and speed.

Sudhana 善财童子

The pilgrim bodhisattva of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra who visits many spiritual teachers; the discourse cites his encounter with Maitreya.

T

Ten directions 十方

The four cardinal directions, four intermediate directions, zenith, and nadir; a Buddhist expression for the whole cosmos.

Tenth bhūmi 第十地；十地菩萨

The tenth bodhisattva ground, immediately preceding the final stages leading to buddhahood; the discourse connects it with the Vajra Path.

Three Bodies (Trikāya) 法身、报身、化身；法报化三身

The threefold embodiment of buddhahood as Dharmakāya, Sambhogakāya, and Nirmāṇakāya.

True emptiness 真空

The absence of fixed, independent self-nature in Buddha-nature and all phenomena; it does not imply nonexistence or inert blankness.

True emptiness and wondrous presence 真空妙有

The unity of emptiness of inherent existence with the effective, responsive functioning of provisional appearances.

True nature 真性；本性

The formless, lucid, all-pervading nature directly recognized when fixation on body, mind, and world falls away.

Tuṣita Heaven 兜率天

The celestial realm where Maitreya is traditionally said to reside before his future buddhahood.

V

Vajra Path 金刚道

The final adamantine path that directly removes the last obstacles before complete awakening.

Vipāka 异熟；异熟果

The ripened result of karma; in the quoted verse, the emptying of ripening points to the exhaustion of residual karmic consciousness.

W

Western Land of Ultimate Bliss 西方极乐世界；西方净土

Amitābha Buddha's Western Pure Land, presented in the discourse as a place of practice and temporary rest on the way to full buddhahood.

Wisdom and compassion 智慧与慈悲；智悲

The two complementary qualities by which reality is understood and sentient beings are skillfully guided.

Wondrous functioning 妙用

The responsive and unobstructed activity of awakened nature in perception, conduct, teaching, and compassionate action.

Wondrous presence 妙有

The effective appearance and activity of things despite their lack of independent self-nature; paired with true emptiness.

Reference Note 参考说明

This is a contextual glossary, not a set of verbatim dictionary quotations. The definitions were written specifically for the terminology and doctrinal usage of this document and checked against the following reference works and source texts:

Fo Guang Dictionary of Buddhism (《佛光大辞典》), Fo Guang Shan.

Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, edited by Charles Muller and collaborators.

CBETA editions of the Record of Linji, Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Lotus Sūtra, and relevant Yogācāra and bodhisattva-stage materials.

Standard Sanskrit spellings checked against established Buddhist translation glossaries, including 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha.

Terminology note: This glossary preserves contextual English choices used in the document, including Reward Body, Manifestation Body, and elemental nature; it also supplies the standard Sanskrit forms Sambhogakāya and Nirmāṇakāya.