Mandala of the Five Dhyani Buddhas
To the initiate, the mandala of the Five
Dhyani Buddhas is at once a cosmic diagram of the world and of himself. It is
a tool for spiritual growth and mystical experience--a map to enlightenment
alive with divine possibilities.
The Five Dhyani Buddhas: Guides to Spiritual Transformation
The Five Dhyani Buddhas are Vairochana, Akshobhya,
Ratnasambhava, Amitabha and Amoghasiddhi. Tibetan Buddhists believe that the
Adi-Buddha, the primordial and highest being, created the Dhyani Buddhas by
his meditative powers.
The Five Dhyani Buddhas are celestial Buddhas visualized
during meditation. The word Dhyani is derived fi-om the Sanskrit dhyana, meaning
"meditation." The Dhyani Buddhas are also called Jinas ("Victors" or "Conquerors")
and are considered to be great healers of the mind and soul. They are not historical
figures, like Gautama Buddha, but transcendent beings who symbolize universal
divine principles or forces. They represent various aspects of the enlightened
consciousness and are guides to spiritual transformation.
Each Dhyani Buddha is associated with certain attributes
and symbols. Each one embodies one of the five wisdoms, which antidote the five
deadly poisons that are of ultimate danger to man's spiritual progress and keep
him tied to worldly existence. Buddhists teach that the Dhyani Buddhas are able
transmute the five poisons into their transcendent wisdoms. The Tibetan Book
of the Dead recommends that the devote meditate on the Dhyani Buddhas so that
their wisdoms will replace the negative forces he has allowed to take hold within.
Each Buddha rules over one of the directions of
space al one of the cosmic realms of ether, water, earth, fire and air. The
Dhyani Buddhas also personify the five skandhas, components that make up cosmic
existence as well as human personality. These components are consciousness,
form, feeling, perception and volition.
In addition, each Dhyani Buddha is associated with
a specific color, mudra (hand gesture), symbolic animal that suppe his throne,
sacred symbol and bija (seed syllable). The bija represents the essence of the
Dhyani Buddha. It can be used along with the sacred syllable Om and the Buddha's
name to create mantra, a series of mystic syllables that have an esoteric meaning.
In Hinduism and Buddhism, disciples recite mantras to evoke the power and presence
of a divine being. In some traditions, devotees use mantras in meditation to
help them be one with the deity they are invoking.
"By repeating the mantra and assuming the mudra
of any Buddha," writes Buddhist monk and teacher Sangharakshita, "one can not
only place oneself in correspondence or alignment with the particular order
of reality which he personifies but also be infused with its transcendental
power."1
Mandalas: Maps to Mystic Union
Buddhists often depict the Dhyani Buddhas in a mandala.
Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning "circle," translated in Tibetan texts as
"center" or "what surrounds." Some say the word derives from manda, meaning
"essence." The mandala a circle denotes wholeness, completeness and the perfection
of Buddhahood. The mandala is also a "circle of friends"-a gathering of Buddhas.
Traditionally mandalas are painted on thangkas (scroll paintings framed in silk),
drawn with colored sand, represented by heaps of rice, or constructed three
dimensionally, often in cast metal.
A Dhyani Buddha is positioned in the center as well
as on each of the cardinal points of the mandala. Mandalas were originally composed
on the ground in front of the meditator and are therefore oriented toward the
person who is contemplating them. The point nearest the contemplator, at the
bottom of the mandala, is the east. The mandala continues clockwise, following
the course of the sun, with south to the left of the contemplator, west at the
top and north to the right. Lama Anagarika Govinda, one of the foremost interpreters
of Tibetan Buddhism to the West, explains: "In the same way as the sun rises
in the east and thus begins the day, the practitioner enters the mandala through
the eastern gate, the door in front of which he sits."2
A mandala is a sacred, consecrated space where no
obstacles, impurities or distracting influences exist. Buddhists use mandalas
to aid them in meditation and visualization. "All mandalas," writes Tibetologist
Detlef Lauf, "originate from the seed-syllables, or bija-mantras, of the deities.
During meditation upon these mantras, an elemental radiance of light develops,
from which comes the image of the Buddhas."3 Mandalas
are rich in symbolism. The series of circles on the periphery of a mandala symbolizes
protection from external influences. The outermost circle of flames signifies
knowledge that destroys ignorance or symbolizes the phenomenal world the devotee
abandons as he enters the mandala. The flames can also represent the Mountain
of Fire that prohibits the uninitiated from receiving the mysteries. The ring
of lotus petals inside the circle of fire signifies the spiritual world, spiritual
rebirth, the unfolding of spiritual vision, or the purity of heart that is necessary
for effective meditation.
The central part of a mandala (signified by the
square inside the circle) represents a palace or temple with four gates at the
four cardinal points. Outside the palace walls are propitious and victorious
symbols. In this mandala each gate is flanked by a banner of victory and a precious
parasol (or umbrella). They are two of the Eight Auspicious Symbols, which commemorate
the gifts Gautama Buddha received after he attained enlightenment. Buddhists
believe these eight symbols bring good fortune. The banner of victory symbolizes
the victory of spirituality or the victory of body, mind and speech over all
obstacles. The parasol symbolizes royal dignity and protection from obstacles,
harm and evil.
The four gates of the palace lead to the innermost
circle, the focus of the mandala. "Mandalas appear as circles around a holy
center," write authors Blanche Olschak and Geshe Thupten Wangyal. "These depictions
are the ground plan of the visionary heavenly abodes, at whose center is manifested
the holy power that is to be invoked. The entire mandala is a fortress built
around this Buddha-force."4 In his meditation
the disciple circles the focus at the center of the mandala until he can finally
integrate with that powerful nucleus.
The disciple uses the mandala to find its elements
within himself. "As soon as he has entered the mandala," writes religious historian
Mircea Eliade, "he is in a sacred space, outside of time; the gods have already
'descended' into the...insignia. A series of meditations, for which the disciple
has been prepared in advance, help him to find the gods in his own heart. In
a vision, he sees them all emerge and spring from his heart; they fill cosmic
space, then are reabsorbed in him....By mentally entering the mandala the yogin
approaches his own 'center.',.The yogin, starting from this iconographic 'support,'
can find the mandala in his own body."5
Thus with all its symbolism, a mandala is no mere
external image of heavenly power. Buddhists believe a mandala is the receptacle
of the holy power it portrays. Its purpose, and the goal of every one of its
symbolic images, is to help the meditator realize the divine power within himself
and achieve his own inner perfection.
"The whole external mandala is a model of that spiritual
pattern which the meditating individual sees within himself and which he must
endeavour to experience in his own consciousness," says Lauf. "[The Dhyani]
Buddhas are looked upon as beings whose activity will manifest itself through
man himself. The mandala thus becomes a cosmic plan in which man and the world
are similarly ordered and structured.,.The meditation Buddhas develop their
beneficial activity only in the measure to which the initiate succeeds in recognizing
and realizing these characteristics and symbolized forces within himself."6
As renowned orientalist Giuseppe Tucci explains,
"The five Buddhas do not remain remote divine forms in distant heavens, but
descend into us. I am the cosmos and the Buddhas are in myself. In me is the
cosmic light, a mysterious presence, even if it be obscured by error. But these
five Buddhas are nevertheless in me, they are the five constituents of the human
Personality."7
The Dalai Lama teaches: "Mandala, in general, means
that which extracts the essence..,The main meaning [of a mandala] is for oneself
to enter into the mandala and extract an essence in the sense of receiving blessing.
It is a place of gaining magnificence."8
For the disciple who knows how to use it, a mandala
is therefore a map of the progressive steps to self-transformation and mystic
union. It represents the growth of the seed of Buddhahood within him. "The meditator,"
says Lama Govinda, "must imagine himself in the center of the mandala as an
embodiment of the divine figure of perfect Buddhahood." And that Buddhahood,
he says, "can only be found in the realization of all those qualities which,
taken all together, form the richness of the mandala."9
The Sacred Art of Tibet: Bringing Heaven to Earth
This lithograph is based on traditional Tibetan
Buddhist mandalas. The images of the Five Dhyani Buddhas are photographs of
finely crafted Tibetan and Nepalese statues that were sculpted during the thirteenth
to early fifteenth centuries, when depictions of these Buddhas were popular.
Because they are celestial not historical beings, the Dhyani Buddhas are often
portrayed with jewels and a crown rather than the simple robes of a Buddha.
To the Tibetan, creating a work of art is a religious
act. At each stage, the artist or a monk or lama offers certain prayers and
rituals. He will often place scrolls of religious texts, votive offerings and
grains inside statues. When the work is completed, the monk or lama performs
a ceremony of consecration.
Tibetans use art as a method of bringing heaven
to earth and raising man out of his earthly confines to a realm of peace and
harmony. They believe that a statue of a Buddha, for instance, is the living
presence of that Buddha, who becomes one with his icon.
As in other Tibetan works of art, the figures portrayed
here convey elegance yet power. This is the singular character, charm and mission
of Tibetan sacred art. The real is wed to the transcendent. Grace and purity
are fused with vitality and power. Careful detail and precision are united with
spontaneity. The result is that the otherworldliness and perfection of enlightened
realms comes through with an immediacy that inspires the observer to realize
his own divine potential.
NOTES
(1) Bhikshu Sangharakshita, A Survey of Buddhism, rev. ed.
(Boulder, Cole.: Shambhala with London: Windhorse, 1980), p. 372. (2) Lama
Anagarika Govinda, Insights of a Himalayan Pilgrim (Berkeley: Dharma Publishing,
1991), p. 128. (3) Detlef Ingo Lauf, Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books
of the Dead, trans. Graham Parkes (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), p. 105. (4) Blanche
Christine Olschak and Geshe Thupten Wangyal, Mystic Art of Ancient Tibet (Boston:
Shambhala, 1987), p. 36. (5) Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality and Freedom,
2d ed., trans. Willard R. Trask, Bollingen Series, no. 56 (1969; reprint,
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 225. (6) Detlef Ingo
Lauf, Tibetan Sacred Art: The Heritage of Tantra (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976),
pp. 120, 122, 123. (7) Giuseppe Tucci, The Theory and Practice of the Mandala,
trans. Alan Houghton Brodrick (1961; reprint, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1970),
p. 51. (8) The Fourteenth Dalai Lama His Holiness Tenzin Gyatso, Kindness,
Clarity, andlnsight, ed. Jeffrey Hopkins and Elizabeth Napper (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Snow Lion Publications, 1984), p. 82. (9) Lama Anagarika Govinda, Foundations
of Tibetan Mysticism (1960; reprint, New York: Samuel Weiser, 1969), p. 181;
Insights of a Himalayan Pilgrim, p. 178.
Photographs of the Dhyani Buddhas: John Bigelow Taylor,
New York City
Copyright © 1994, 1997 Summit University Press®. All
Rights Reserved.
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Introduction
| Vairochana | Akshobhya
| Ratnasambhava | Amitabha
| Amoghasiddhi | Qualities
Chart
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