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Five Dhyani Buddhas: Difference between revisions
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=== The mandala of the Five Dhyani Buddhas === | === The mandala of the Five Dhyani Buddhas === | ||
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 as 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. | 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 as 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. | ||
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.... 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.”<ref>Detlef Ingo Lauf, ''Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead'', trans. Graham Parkes (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), p. 105; ''Tibetan Sacred Art: The Heritage of Tantra'' (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976), p. 120.</ref> | 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.... 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.”<ref>Detlef Ingo Lauf, ''Secret Doctrines of the Tibetan Books of the Dead'', trans. Graham Parkes (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), p. 105; ''Tibetan Sacred Art: The Heritage of Tantra'' (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1976), p. 120.</ref> | ||