The Trikāya (Sanskrit: त्रिकाय, lit. "three bodies"; Chinese: 三身; pinyin: sānshēn; Japanese pronunciation: sanjin, sanshin; Korean pronunciation: samsin; Vietnamese: tam thân, Jyutping: saam1 san1, Tibetan: སྐུ་གསུམ, Wylie: sku gsum) is a fundamental Buddhist doctrine that explains the multidimensional nature of Buddhahood. As such, the Trikāya is the basic theory that grounds the Mahayana buddhology, that is, the theology of Buddhahood.
This concept posits that a Buddha has three types of kayas or "bodies", aspects, or ways of being, each representing a different facet or embodiment of Buddhahood and ultimate reality. The three are the Dharmakāya (Sanskrit; Dharma body, the ultimate reality, the Buddha nature of all things), the Sambhogakāya (the body of self-enjoyment, a blissful divine body with infinite forms and powers) and the Nirmāṇakāya (manifestation body, the body which appears in the everyday world and presents the semblance of a human body). It is widely accepted in Buddhism that these three bodies are not separate realities, but functions, modes or "fluctuations" (Sanskrit: vṛṭṭis) of a single state of Buddhahood.
