There was this PBS special I saw many years ago which the title of it wonderfully captured just this. It was called "From Jesus to Christ". From Jesus To Christ - The First Christians | FRONTLINE | PBS It starts with a historic person, who over generations become deified. I'm inspired to watch all four parts of it again now.What we have here is not a mythical character being historicized but a historical person subsequently being deified, which also occurred in the case of Gautama Buddha and other personalities from history, including the Roman Emperor Augustus.
And this is what led to the creation of the doctrine of the Trikaya, or three-bodies doctrine of the Buddha:For Buddhism, we have evidence that the early Mahāsāṃghika school (which split from the Sthaviras - from whom the Therevadins trace their lineage - at the Second Buddhost Council) believed the historical Buddha possessed a transcendental, supramundane nature, although even the Sthavira vinaya attributed miracles to him.
Trikaya | Buddhism
Trikaya, (Sanskrit: “three bodies”), in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha: the dharmakaya (body of essence), the unmanifested mode, and the supreme state of absolute knowledge; the sambhogakaya (body of enjoyment), the heavenly mode; and the nirmanakaya (body of transformation), the earthly mode, the Buddha as he appeared on earth or manifested himself in an earthly bodhisattva, an earthly king, a painting, or a natural object, such as a lotus.
The concept of trikaya applies not only to the historical Buddha, Gautama, but to all other buddhas as well.
I see this as very much similar to the Trinity doctrine, of Father (dharmakaya), Holy Spirit (sambhogakaya), and Son (nirmanakaya) or incarnation, created in an effort to try to understand how you can have a human person with a Divine nature. What's your opinion of this?Trikaya, (Sanskrit: “three bodies”), in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the concept of the three bodies, or modes of being, of the Buddha: the dharmakaya (body of essence), the unmanifested mode, and the supreme state of absolute knowledge; the sambhogakaya (body of enjoyment), the heavenly mode; and the nirmanakaya (body of transformation), the earthly mode, the Buddha as he appeared on earth or manifested himself in an earthly bodhisattva, an earthly king, a painting, or a natural object, such as a lotus.
The concept of trikaya applies not only to the historical Buddha, Gautama, but to all other buddhas as well.
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