(lit: accumulation): 'group', 'body', may either refer to the physical body (rūpa-kāya) or to the mental body (nāma-kāya).

In the latter case it is either a collective name for the mental groups (feeling, perception, mental formations, consciousness; s. khandha), or merely for feeling, perception and a few of the mental formations (s. nāma), e.g. in kāya-lahutā, etc. (cf. Tab. II).

Kāya has this same meaning in the standard description of the 3rd absorption (jhāna, q.v.) "and he feels joy in his mind or his mental constitution (kāya)", and (e.g. Pug. 1-8) of the attainment of the 8 deliverances (vimokkha, q.v.); "having attained the 8 deliverances in his mind, or his person (kāya)." -

Kāya is also the 5th sense-organ, the body-organ; s. āyatana, dhātu, indriya.