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To genuinely take refuge in the Three Jewels, with the profound desire to attain highest enlightenment in order to benefit all sentient beings, we need to understand the nature of enlightenment. We must, of course, recognize that the nature of worldly life is that it is filled with suffering. We know the futility of indulging in cyclic existence, as tempting as it may seem. We are concerned for the suffering that others are constantly experiencing, and we desire to help them move beyond their suffering. When our practice is motivated by this aspiration, leading us toward attaining the ultimate enlightenment of Buddhahood, we are on the path of the Mahayana.

The term Mahayana has often been associated with the forms of Buddhism that migrated to Tibet, China, and Japan. This term is also sometimes applied to different Buddhist philosophical schools. However, here I am using the term Mahayana in the sense of an individual practitioner’s inner aspirations. The highest motivation we can have is to provide all sentient beings with happiness, and the greatest endeavor we can engage in is helping all sentient beings attain that happiness.

Mahayana practitioners devote themselves to attaining the state of a Buddha. They work at removing the ignorant, afflictive, selfishly motivated thought patterns that keep them from attaining the fully enlightened, omniscient state that allows them to truly benefit others. Practitioners devote themselves to refining virtuous qualities such as generosity, ethics, and patience to the point where they would give of themselves in any way necessary and would accept all difficulty and injustice in order to serve others.

Most important, they develop their wisdom: their realization of emptiness. They work at making this realization of the emptiness of inherent existence more and more profound. They must refine this insight and must intensify the subtlety of their mind in order to do so. It is, of course, difficult to describe the process of reaching the ultimate attainment of Buddhahood. Suffice it to say that as one’s realization of the emptiness of inherent existence becomes even deeper, all vestiges of selfishness are removed and one approaches the fully enlightened state of Buddhahood. Until we ourselves begin to actually approach such realizations, however, our understanding remains theoretical.

When the last remnants of ignorant misconceptions and their predispositions have been removed from a practitioner’s mind, that purified mind is the mind of a Buddha. The practitioner has attained enlightenment. Enlightenment, however, has a number of other qualities, referred to in Buddhist literature as bodies. Some of these bodies take physical form, others do not. Those that do not take physical form include the truth body. This is what the purified mind is known as. The omniscient quality of the enlightened mind, its ability to constantly perceive all phenomena as well as their nature of being empty of inherent existence, is known as a Buddha’s wisdom body. And the empty nature of this omniscient mind is referred to as a Buddha’s nature body. Neither of these bodies (considered to be aspects of the truth body) has physical form. These particular bodies are all achieved through the “wisdom” aspect of the path.

Then there are the physical manifestations of enlightenment. Here we enter a realm that is very hard for most of us to grasp. These manifestations are called Buddha’s form bodies. The Buddha’s enjoyment body is a manifestation that has physical form but is invisible to nearly all of us. The enjoyment body can be perceived only by very highly realized beings, bodhisattvas whose profound experience of the ultimate truth is motivated by their intense desire to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all.

From this enjoyment body infinite emanation bodies spontaneously issue forth. Unlike the enjoyment body, these manifestations of the fully enlightened attainment of Buddhahood are visible and accessible to common beings, beings like us. It is by means of emanation bodies that a Buddha is able to assist us. In other words, these manifestations are embodiments of the enlightened being. They are assumed exclusively and purely for our benefit. They come into being at the time when a practitioner attains full enlightenment, as a result of his or her compassionate aspiration to help others. It is by means of these physical emanations that a Buddha teaches others the method by which he himself attained his state of freedom from suffering.

How does the Buddha assist us through emanation bodies? The main medium through which a Buddha performs his enlightened activity is this teaching. Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha who attained enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree 2,500 years ago, was an emanation body.

Such an explanation of the different aspects of the enlightened state of Buddhahood may sound a little like science fiction, especially if we explore the possibilities of infinite emanations of infinite Buddhas manifesting within infinite universes in order to help infinite beings. However, unless our understanding of Buddhahood is complex enough to embrace these more cosmic facets of enlightenment, the refuge we take in the Buddha will not have the necessary force. Mahayana practice, in which we commit ourselves to providing all sentient beings with happiness, is a large undertaking. If our understanding of Buddha were limited to the historic figure of Shakyamuni, we would be seeking refuge in someone who died long ago and who no longer has the power to help us. In order for our refuge to be truly forceful, we must recognize the different aspects of the state of Buddhahood.

How do we explain this never-ending continuation of a Buddha’s existence? Let us look at our own mind. It is like a river - a flowing continuum of moments of mere knowing, each leading to another moment of knowing. The stream of such moments of consciousness goes from hour to hour, from day to day, from year to year, and even, according to the Buddhist view, from lifetime to lifetime. Though our body cannot accompany us once our life force is exhausted, the moments of consciousness continue, through death and eventually into the next life, whatever form it may take.

Each one of us possesses such a stream of consciousness. And it is both beginningless and endless. Nothing can stop it. In this sense it is unlike emotions such as anger or attachment, which can be made to cease by applying antidotes. Furthermore, the essential nature of the mind is said to be pure; its pollutants are removable, making the continuation of this purified mind eternal. Such a mind, free of all pollution, is a Buddha’s truth body.

If we contemplate the state of full enlightenment in this way, our appreciation of the Buddha’s magnitude grows, as does our faith. As we recognize the qualities of a Buddha, our aspiration to attain this state intensifies. We come to appreciate the value and necessity of being able to emanate different forms in order to assist infinite beings. This gives us the strength and determination to achieve the enlightened mind.

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