The name Dharmakaya [Footnote: Johnston, _Buddhist China_,
p. 77.] (Body of Dharma, or system of rightness) may strike strangely
upon our ears, but northern Buddhism makes much of it, and even though
it may not go back to Sakya Muni himself, it is a development of germs
latent in his teaching; and to my own mind there is no more wonderful
conception in the great religions than that of Dharmakaya. If any one
attacks our Buddhist friends for atheism, they have only to refer (if
they can admit a synthesis of northern and southern doctrines) to the
conception of Dharmakaya, of Him who is 'for ever Divine and
Eternal,' who is 'the One, devoid of all determinations.' 'This Body
of Dharma,' we are told, 'has no boundary, no quarters, but is
embodied in all bodies.... All forms of corporeality are involved
therein; it is able to create all things. Assuming any concrete
material form, as required by the nature and condition of karma, it
illuminates all creations.... There is no place in the universe where
this Body does not prevail. The universe becomes dust; this Body for
ever remains. It is free from all opposites and contraries, yet it is
working in all things to lead them to Nirvana.' [Footnote: Suzuki,
_Outlines_, pp. 223-24.]

In fact, this Dharmakaya is the ultimate principle of cosmic energy.
We may call it principle, but it is not, like Brahman, absolutely
impersonal. Often it assumes personality, when it receives the name
of Tathagata. It has neither passions nor prejudices, but works for
the salvation of all sentient beings universally. Love (_karuna_) and
intelligence (_bodhi_) are equally its characteristics. It is only
the veil of illusion (_maya_) which prevents us from seeing
Dharmakaya in its magnificence. When this veil is lifted, individual
existences as such will lose their significance; they will become
sublimated and ennobled in the oneness of Dharmakaya. [Footnote: