Someone asked the renowned Vietnamese Zen master Tue Trung, "What is the purified Dharmakaya?" He said, "Buffalo dung and cow urine."
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In Buddhism, Dharmakaya (lit., Dharma + kaya; so, Dharma Body) is one of the three buddha bodies: the lesser two being, in order, "Sambhogakaya" ("Bliss Body") and "Nirmanakaya" ("Manifestation Body"). Formless Buddha is Dharmakaya.
Dharmakaya has been referred to as the absolute Buddha teaching (Thich Nhat Hanh, The Mindfulness Survival Kit). We can render it as comparable to Absolute Reality, the Supreme, Truth, the Ultimate, the Higher Power, Godhead, God, or Creator.
While Buddhists do not personalize Dharmakaya, theists do. Either way points to something else, for more than either.
Tru Trung invites us to surpass the division between "pure" and "impure." The idea of purity, encompassing related concepts (i.e., holy, right, righteous, enlightened, awakened, good, saintly), has been a condition of much suffering throughout history. The so-called pure have often persecuted or killed the impure. And the pure thinks the other the impure, while the latter considers the other the impure. This so-called pure are the chosen, the insiders; this so-called impure the not-chosen, the outsiders. We see this in colonialism, nationalism, racism, liberalism, conservatism, religion, politics, etc. How can love flourish in atmospheres like this?
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Chogyam Trungpa, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher, taught "basic goodness." Inborn is this goodness. Buddhists refer to this as "Buddha nature," while Christians speak of the "image of God" in everyone.
We are this goodness, and it is the same goodness in everyone. No one has ten percent, while another has 45 or 100 percent. One race does not have more of this goodness than another. The inmate on death row does not have less of this goodness than the guard on death row.
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This goodness is not good for not being bad. One who lives in a way we could call evil sometimes awakens to live differently. Why? The basic goodness was present. Otherwise, how could the change occur?
With this insight, we can better have compassion for persons whom we might see as acting in ways impure, unloving, and harmful to others. Yet, we need not be permissive toward these persons or ourselves. Compassion does not mean permissiveness.
The key is our mind-and-heart. Do we attach to thoughts and feelings unkind? Can we see the suffering in the other leading to their behaviors? Can we do the same for ourselves, when we act in denial of our true nature?
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Persons called "nature lovers" enjoy speaking of good-smelling and lovely beings, like flowers and sunsets. People like to post these pictures for others to admire. No one posts dung or rotting flesh. Nature lovers do not call attention to the sticky and disagreeable. Regardless, there is nothing bad about dung. Humans treat dung as impure; other beings treat it as pure. To us, a sewer is a loathsome place, to other beings a feast. A sewer is not unclean in contrast to a garden. That it has elements not conducive to our health, does not smell pleasing, and we find offensive to look at, does not make it impure. Yet, neither is it pure. A garden is a garden, a sewer is a sewer.
If we cling to pure versus impure, we will treat some persons as the garden and others as the sewer. The people who arouse our anger and spite are lessons challenging us to return to basic goodness; then, we see from our heart-of-hearts.
In growing spiritually, we come to a point when we no longer think of ourselves as pure, saintly, holy, righteous, etc. We have no interest in being pure as opposed to impure. We do not desire to act impurely, yet we do not aspire to present ourselves as pure. We have learned that to cling to purity means to cling to impurity. That is exhausting!
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When Jesus says, "Let your light so shine...," this light is not pure in contrast to impure. This light has no contrast, including darkness. This light is pure, for the light is free of pure or impure.
