Samdhinirmocana-sutra

The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning708cThe Bodhisattva Manjusri addressed the Buddha and said:"World-honored One, how should we understand the characteristicsof the birth of a Tathagata?"The Buddha answered the Bodhisattva Manjusri and said:"Good son, the action of the Transformation body of a Tathagataarises in many fashions, just as do world realms. It is characterizedas being adorned and supported by a host of the good qualitiesof a Tathagata. Know that this Transformation body ischaracterized as having birth, whereas the Dharma body is characterizedas not having birth. " 36The Bodhisattva Manjusri addressed the Buddha and said:"World-honored One, how should we understand the skillfulmethod whereby the Transformation body is manifested [by aTathagata]?"The Buddha answered the Bodhisattva Manjusri and said:"Good son, in all the three thousand vast Buddha lands, in manyhonorable and high royal households, in many honorable and richlanded households, [those Transformation bodies] enter into thewomb, are born, and mature at the same time. They experiencedesire, leave home, and engage in the practice of asceticism. Afterabandoning that practice of asceticism, they realize full, supremeawakening. [Such] is the sequence they manifest. This is what istermed the skillful method whereby the Transformation bodiesare manifested." 37The Bodhisattva Manjusri addressed the Buddha and said:"World-honored One, how many varieties of teaching are supportedby those bodies of all the Tathagatas, by means of which sentientbeings already converted, but not yet matured, are led to maturity,and by focusing upon which those already matured are ledspeedily to attain liberation?"The Buddha answered the Bodhisattva Manjusri and said:"Good son, in sum, the Tathagata's teachings number three: scriptures,discipline, and theory." 38"World-honored One, what is scripture? What is discipline?What is the matrix [of theory]?"100