Among all the Buddhas, Vairocana is a very special existence. He is both the Dharmakaya Buddha among the "Three Body Buddhas", the central Buddha among the "Five Directions Buddhas", and the highest leader respected by the Tantric Buddhism. Having written this, people who are not

Among all the Buddhas, Vairocana Buddha is a very special existence.

He is not only the Dharmakaya Buddha among the "Three Body Buddhas", but also the central Buddha in the " Five-Term Buddhas ", and the highest leader respected by the Tantric Buddhism.

Having written this way, people who are not familiar with Buddhism may become dizzy. Don't worry, I'll explain it now.

First look at the first title of Vairocana Buddha, the Dharmakaya Buddha in " Three Body Buddha ".

"Three Bodies Buddha" does not mean that Vairocana Buddha has three bodies. The "body" here is a special term in Buddhism and has two meanings. One is "physical appearance", that is, the physiological body; the other is "aggregation", that is, the Buddha body achieved through enlightenment and accumulation of merits.

In Buddhism, there are three bodies, thirty-two response bodies, and hundreds of billions of incarnations, which have the greatest influence. The so-called principle and law gather to form the Dharma body, wisdom and law gather to form the reward body, and merit and law gather to form the response body. Because one Buddha has the merits and properties of three bodies, the three bodies are one Buddha.

In Buddhism, Vairocana Buddha is called the Dharmakaya Buddha, and Shakyamuni Buddha is called the Responsive Buddha . Since , the three Buddhas, is one Buddha, many people regard Vairocana Buddha and Sakyamuni Buddha as the same Buddha.

However, Japanese Buddhist Shinyan Sect has different opinions. They believe that Vairocana Buddha and Sakyamuni Buddha are two different Buddhas. Vairocana Buddha is the leader of the Tantric Buddhism, while Shakyamuni Buddha is the sect of the exoteric teachings .

Two concepts are involved here, esoteric Buddhism and exoteric Buddhism.

Secretology, full name of Secretology, is a major sect of Buddhism. Tantric Buddhism is a mixture of Indian Mahayana Buddhism, Hindu and Indian folk beliefs around the seventh century AD. It is characterized by highly organized mantras, rituals, and customs, and pays attention to the "three secrets": "Text" refers to the oral reciting mantras; "Text" refers to the hand seal combination (specific gestures); "Text" refers to the visualization of the Buddha in the mind. Tantra believes that the three secrets can obtain supernatural powers at the same time, and become a Buddha in this body.

Buddhist schools before and outside the Tantric Buddhism, including Mahayana, sect Buddhism, and Theravada Buddhism, are called exoteric Buddhism.

Let’s talk about the other two titles of Vairocana Buddha, which are closely related.

The concept of "five-party" is not unfamiliar to us. In ancient my country, there was a long concept of the five directions, namely, the east, west, south and north plus the center as the five directions. With the five directions, there are naturally the Emperor and God who manage the five directions. For example, Huangdi is the Heavenly Emperor in charge of the center, Houtu is the central god who assists Huangdi, and for example, Zhuanxu is the Heavenly Emperor in the north, and Xuanming is the Northern god who assists him.

In Buddhism, there is also a saying about the five worlds. There is a Buddha in each of the five directions, and these Buddhas are called the five directions.

Why can Vairocana Buddha gain the status of the Central Buddha? This is related to the praise of Tantric Buddhism.

According to the legend of the Tantric Buddhism, the Tantric Buddhism was taught to Vaganda Sarvata by Vairocana Buddha, and then passed to Nagarjuna, which was passed to Longzhi, and Longzhi was passed to Vaganda Wisdom . And Vajra Wisdom is one of the famous "Three Masters of Kaiyuan" who came to China to teach esoteric Buddhism during the Kaiyuan period. Since the Vajra Wisdom, the Secretology has been officially introduced to the Han area of ​​our country.

Because the teachings come from Vairocana Buddha, the Tantric Buddhism highly praised this Buddha. Not only did it respect him as the leader, but it also kept telling him myths. They believe that Vairocana Buddha is like the sun, not only bringing light to the world, but also bringing life to all living beings. Therefore, Tantra calls its noble leader " Great Sun Tathagata ", which means a Buddha greater than the sun.

Such an important Buddha naturally has to be in charge of the central Buddha land, so Vairocana Buddha became the central Buddha.