What Is Dharmadhatu? Where Do All Buddhas Attain Buddhahood?

Question: What is the Dharma Realm? Where do all Buddhas attain Buddhahood?

Answer: The Dharma Realm is divided into the transcendental Dharma Realm and the mundane Dharma Realm. The mundane Dharma Realm is further divided into the Eighteen Realms, the Ten Dharma Realms, and the Three Realms of Existence. The Eighteen Realms refer to the realms of the six sense faculties, six sense objects, and six sense consciousnesses of sentient beings. The Ten Dharma Realms refer to the realms of the Four Holy Realms and the Six Ordinary Realms. "Realm" signifies function, boundary, and distinction of seeds; it is a demarcation line. Different realms possess different functions and roles. The functions of the six sense faculties differ from those of the six sense objects, which in turn differ from those of the six sense consciousnesses. Beings in the Six Realms each have their own boundaries; the Four Holy Ones each have their own boundaries; the Ten Dharma Realms each have their own boundaries. The Three Realms—the Realm of Desire, the Realm of Form, and the Formless Realm—also have boundaries and can be considered Dharma Realms, each possessing its own distinctions and boundaries.

The transcendental Dharma Realm is called the One True Dharma Realm, which is the True Suchness Tathagatagarbha. It does not belong to the Three Realms of Existence, is not within the Three Realms, and lacks the characteristics of the Three Realms of Existence, yet it is not absent from them. All phenomena of the Three Realms of Existence, as well as the Buddha-lands in the ten directions, the Flower Treasury World, and the World Ocean, are all within the One True Dharma Realm and do not lie outside the True Suchness Mind. When sentient beings cultivate to the stage of Wonderful Enlightenment and are about to attain Buddhahood, they must await in the Tusita Inner Court as successors, waiting for conditions to ripen so they may descend to the human world and manifest the eight phases of attaining Buddhahood. When the faculties of sentient beings in the human world mature, and the time for the Wonderful Enlightenment Bodhisattva to attain the Way arrives, they must descend to the human world and manifest the eight phases of attaining Buddhahood. Therefore, all Buddhas attain Buddhahood by coming to the human world.