Dainichi, and the Cosmic Buddha of the Esoteric Schools

It is in the esoteric traditions that Vairochana attains his greatest height. In the Shingon school of Japan, where he is called Dainichi Nyorai, the Great Sun Buddha, he is nothing less than the cosmic body of reality itself, the dharmakaya, the ultimate buddha from whom the whole of existence proceeds and of whom every other buddha, including the historical Shakyamuni, and every being is a manifestation.

The great scriptures of this tradition, the Mahavairocana Sutra and the Diamond Peak Sutra, present the entire cosmos as the teaching and the body of Dainichi, and the two great mandalas of Shingon map reality as his self-expression. The colossal seated bronze buddha of the Todaiji temple in Nara, one of the largest bronze statues in the world, is an image of Vairochana in this cosmic aspect. Vairochana thus stands at the point where the buddha ceases to be understood only as a teacher who lived and died and becomes the very structure and radiance of reality, the illumination in which all things appear.