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Dharmadhatu (Sanskrit:धर्मधातु,romanized: Dharmadhātu,lit. 'Realm of Ultimate Reality';Tibetan:ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས,Wylie:Chos kyi dbying,THL:Chökyi Ying;Chinese:法界) is the 'dimension', 'realm' or 'sphere' (dhātu) of theDharma orAbsolute Reality.Entire Dharmadhatu was filled with an infinite number ofbuddha-lands (Sanskrit: buddhakṣetra) with ineffable number of Buddhas. This realm is beyond of everything, and it is visible only toBuddhas and all otherBodhisattvas in existence.
InMahayana Buddhism, dharmadhatu means "realm of all phenomena", "realm of all things" (the entire universe with all visible and invisible things) or "realm of eternal truth". It is referred to by several analogous terms from Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, such astathātā (reality "as-it-is"),śūnyatā (emptiness),pratitya-samutpada (dependent co-arising) andeternal Buddha. It is the "deepest nature, or essence".[1]
Dharmadhatu is the purified mind in its natural state, free of obscurations. It is the essence-quality or primal nature of mind, the fundamental ground of consciousness of thetrikaya, which is accessed via themindstream.[citation needed]
When thebuddha-nature has been realised, dharmadhatu is also referred to as theDharmakāya, theBody of Dharma Truth.
It is associated with supreme cosmic buddhaVairocana.
Kang-nam Oh traces the origin of dharmadhatu to theAvatamsaka Sutra. It has been further developed by theHua-yen school:[2]
This idea of dharmadhatu-pratītyasamutpāda which was originally found in the Avataṁsaka-sūtra or Hua-yen ching,[note 1] was fully developed by the Hua-yen school into a systematic doctrine palatable to the Chinese intellectual taste. The dharmadhatu doctrine[note 2] can be said to have been, by and large, set forth byTu-shun (557~640 C.E.), formulated by Chih-yen (602~668), systematized byFa-tsang (643~712), and elucidated by Ch’eng-kuan (ca. 737~838) andTsung-mi (780~841).
TheŚrīmālādevī Sūtra (3rd century CE[3]), also namedThe Lion's Roar of Queen Srimala, centers on the teaching of thetathagatagarbha as "ultimate soteriological principle".[4] It states that the tathagata-garbha is the "embryo" of the Dharmadhatu and theDharmakaya:[5]
Lord, the Tathagatagarbha is neither self nor sentient being, nor soul, nor personality. The Tathagatagarbha is not the domain of beings who fall into the belief in a real personality, who adhere to wayward views, whose thoughts are distracted by voidness. Lord, this Tathagatagarbha is the embryo of the Illustrious Dharmadhatu, the embryo of the Dharmakaya, the embryo of the supramundanedharma, the embryo of the intrinsically puredharma.
In the Śrīmālādevī Sūtra, there are two possible states for the Tathagatagarbha:[6]
[E]ither covered bydefilements, when it is called only "embryo of the Tathagata"; or free from defilements, when the "embryo of the Tathagata" is no more the "embryo" (potentiality) but theTathāgata (=theDharmakaya)(actuality).
The sutra itself states it this way:[7]
This Dharmakaya of the Tathagata when not free from the store of defilement is referred to as the Tathagatagarbha.
TheDharmadhātustava ("In praise of the Dharmadhatu"), attributed toNāgārjuna[8] though questioned, is a treatise on the dharmadhatu. According to theDharmadhātustava, the dharmadhatu is the ground which makes liberation possible:[9][note 3]
The dharmadhatu is the ground
Forbuddhahood,nirvana, purity, and permanence.
According to theDharmadhātustava, the dharmadhatu is seen when theafflictions are purified:[10]
As butter, though inherent in the milk,
Is mixed with it and hence does not appear,
Just so the dharmadhatu is not seen
As long as it is mixed together with afflictions.
And just as the inherent butter essence
When the milk is purified is no more disguised,
When afflictions have been completely purified,
The dharmadhatu will be without any stain at all.
In theMahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, the Buddha states of himself that he is the "boundless Dharmadhatu" - the totality itself.
The Dharmadhatu is comprehended[clarification needed] by one of theFive Wisdoms:[citation needed]
In theDzogchen textGold refined from ore, the term Dharmadhatu is translated as "total field of events and meanings" or "field of all events and meanings".[11]
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