94 CHAPTER FOURalready introduced the uteral metaphor when they declared Prajiia-paramita
to be the mother of all the Buddhas (Strong EB, sec. 4.2.1). The new term
Tathagata-garbha makes the concept more explicit. In the second sense, the
womb ofTathagatahood is the embryonic Buddha consisting of the pure dhar-
mas in a person's store-consciousness.
The Yogacarin Sutras specified that the womb of Tathagatahood is innate
to all living beings, because all beings are irradiated by the pervading power of
the Buddha and because they have grown-throughout infinity-a stock of
good dharmas under the influence of this radiating grace. This teaching seems
to be an outgrowth of the Mahasanghika doctrine concerning the ability of
the Buddha to place inspiration in the mind of others. If this womb did not
exist, the Yogacarins maintained, a person could not take religious initiative
and could not turn from saip.sara and aspire to nirvatfa. This womb is always
intrinsically pure and is synonymous with tathata (suchness), which is identical
in everyone. In ordinary beings, it is covered with adventitious defilements; in
the bodhisattvas, it is partly pure and partly impure; and in the Buddhas, per-
fectly pure.
The Sutras describe the womb of Tathagatahood in a series of similes: It is
analogous to the Buddha in a faded lotus; honey covered by bees; a kernel of
grain in the husk; gold in the ore; a treasure hidden in the earth; the fruit in a
small seed; a Buddha-image wrapped in rags; a great king in the womb of a
low-caste woman; and a precious statue covered with dirt. These similes fall
roughly into two classes, organic and mineral. Of the former, two imply
growth. The small seed grows into a fruit tree; the fetus grows into a great
king. The rest connote an immutable thing that will emerge unstained when
it is unwrapped or washed. It is no wonder that the authors of the Lankavatifra
Sutra had to protest that the womb of Tathagatahood is not the same as the
Brahmanical iftman (eternal Self). To the ordinary person, gems, gold, and stat-
ues are enduring things, as close to eternal immutables as a sensory image can
come. The later Nirvar:za Sutra claimed that the Buddha's "secret" teaching de-
scribed the innate Buddhahood of all beings as a "great atman;' but this view
did not win favor with the Yogacarins.
Because they also equated the womb of Tathagatahood with the Dhar-
makaya, (Dharma-body of the Buddha), the Yogacarins had to adapt their
Buddhology (or theory ofBuddhahood) to account not only for the historical
Buddha and the transcendent personal Buddha of the Mahasanghikans, but
also for the Awakening potential that is innate in all beings. This they did by
advancing the doctrine of the three bodies of the Buddha (Strong EB, sec.
4.3.4). The first is nirmar:za-kaya (the apparition-body), which corresponds to
rupa-kaya (the form-body) of Siddhartha of the earlier teachings and to the
apparitions of him that may appear to human beings in visions or dreams. The
third is the Dharma-body, or nirvatfa as a perfectly pure reality innate in all.
The second is the Yogacarin innovation in this scheme: sal]'lbhoga-kaya (the
recompense or enjoyment-body). This is the glorified body that the Buddha
attains as a reward for his bodhisattva practices; the transfigured body that the
great bodhisattvas apprehend when they see the Buddha. For example, the