The Buddha and the Cosmos
As we have seen, pre-Mahayana Buddhism makes a distinction between the realm where the Buddha dwells and the realm of delusion. Although Mahayana Buddhism also posits the existence of buddha-realms and our own defiled world, another key element of Mahayana cosmology is the premise that the Buddha is omnipresent in our own realm. As this idea developed, the Buddha came to be equated with the world. The origin of this view is an attempt to interpret the nature of a buddha by positing the existence of various buddha bodies.
For followers of pre-Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha was a historical figure; he had already entered nirvana (eternal peace), so he did not now inhabit this world. The stupa was none other than a grave, a construction symbolizing the Buddha’s death.1 As time and distance between the Buddha and his followers increased during the centuries following his death, believers tended to deify the Buddha. The Lotus Sutra (1st century C.E.), which speaks of an eternal Buddha of whom the historical Buddha is no more than a single manifestation, and above all the Flower Garland Sutra (Avatamsaka-sutra, ca. 3d 4th century C.E.), express the idea that numerous buddhas exist simultaneously in the universe. This is a fundamental principle of Mahayana Buddhism.
In a relief called “Miracle at Sravasti” (photo 5), Sakyamuni manifests himself as a multitude of buddhas in order to gain acceptance among followers of non-Buddhist sects. The miracle at Sravasti is a pre-Mahayana theme, but the relief can also certainly be interpreted in terms of the Flower Garland Sutra. It may even have been created to express that sutra’s teachings that the Buddha is present everywhere in the universe (note the lotus throne on which the Buddha sits, a Mahayana element). The Heavenly Stories (Divyavadana, 3d-4th century C.E.) describes the miracle at Sravasti as buddhavatamsaka (“adornment, or glorious manifestation, of the Buddha”). This expression is identical to that used in the full title of the Flower Garland Sutra, Mahavaipulya-buddhavatamsaka-sutra. It means that coundess buddhas manifest themselves in this realm, thereby adorning it. To understand this idea more fully, we must first explore the cosmology of the Lotus Repository World, which graphically pictures the Buddha’s multiplicity and all-pervading presence.
It is important to keep in mind that the concepts of the Lotus Repository World and the pure lands have different origins. Furthermore, the pure lands are located outside Saha (our world), while the Lotus Repository World embraces all worlds, including the truhiliocosm, the largest conception of space in pre-Mahayana Buddhism.
It is interesting that the Chinese translated avatamsaka in the Flower Garland Sutra’s title as hua-yen, literally, “flower adornment.” Though the word fiower (or lotus) does not appear in the Sanskrit tide, it was incorporated into the Chinese because the sutra describes the universe as a lotus flower. The chapter of the sutra tided “Lotus Repository World” describes the universe in the following way.2
The universe contains layers upon layers of wind circles, as portrayed in figure 25, equivalent in number to the particles of sand there would be if Mount Sumeru were ground into dust. The lowest wind circle is called Abode of Equality. The surface of this wind circle is filled with jeweled ornamentation, shining as brightly as a flame. The wind circle above that is called Adornment of Jewels Springing Forth; here banners adorned with that supreme jewel, the mani, are radiant with light. The sutra describes the first ten lower layers in detail; the uppermost wind circle is called Repository of Unexcelled Radiance. Above that is a fragrant ocean, in which blooms a great lotus flower, called Banner of Fragrance Whose Stamens Emit Various Kinds of Illumination. Because it is easily understood, the actual lotus flower is used as an object of meditation, and the Flower Garland Sutra enlarges and embellishes this flower in its description of the universe (see figure 26).
The fragrance comes from the closely packed stamens or, more accurately, from the anthers of the stamens, and lights shine within. This great lotus, standing like a banner in the center of the fragrant ocean, contains the Lotus Repository World. The petals of the lotus, standing in peaks, are its Great Encircling Mountains. The nectar in the center of the flower is the fragrant water, and the stamens are the jeweled trees and sweetsmelling grass.
The receptacle in the center of the great lotus is the land of the Lotus Repository World. Made of diamond, the land is hard, pure, and flat. Just as a lotus flower contains seeds, a number of holes in the receptacle contain the fruit. These are the “fragrant oceans” of the Lotus Repository World, as numerous as “the number of atoms in indescribably many buddha-fields.” The floors of these oceans and their shores are made of jewels, and their translucent waters reflect the colors of the various jewels. Jeweled flowers surround them, and sandalwood powder settles on their floors. The Buddha’s voice is heard, and bodhisattvas hold parasols. There are stairways and balustrades made of the ten jewels, and countless palaces, forests, and white lotuses. Into the fragrant oceans flow many fragrant rivers with jeweled banks circling the oceans to the right. The rivers emit jeweled clouds of the buddhas and the sounds of the speech of living beings. The actions and forms of the buddhas emerge from the swirling of the waters. The land between the rivers is also variously adorned.
The Flower Garland Sutra goes on to say, “In these oceans of fragrant water, as numerous as the atoms in indescribably many buddha-fields, rest world systems as numerous as the atoms in indescribably many buddha-fields.” I interpret this to mean that in one fragrant ocean there is one world system, so that the number of the oceans and the number of world systems is the same, rather than that there are indescribably large numbers of world systems in each ocean. I base my interpretation on the fact that a lotus flower has a single seed (actually, fruit) in each hole. I also believe that “system” (expressed by the character for “seed” in Chinese) is an expression derived from an actual lotus seed. The various world systems differ according to the ocean on which they rest; they are richly varied in both shape and substance.
The fragrant ocean in the middle of the great lotus is called Boundless Light of Wonderful Flowers, and the world system in this ocean is Blazing Jewel Light Illuminating the Ten Directions.3 Twenty worlds exist along the vertical axis through the center of the world system, and each of these worlds is surrounded by countless worlds (see figure 27). This scheme is expressed on the pedestal of the Great Buddha Vairocana at Todai-ji temple in Nara, Japan. The lowest of these twenty worlds is called Omnipresent Illumination of Supreme Light; it is surrounded by worlds “as numerous as the atoms in one buddha-field.” The buddha of this world is called Undefiled Lamp of the Eye of Purity. The next world above this is called Wonderful Adornment with Lotus Flowers of Various Fragrances, surrounded by worlds “as numerous as the atoms of two buddha-fields.” The buddha of this world is called Supreme Leonine Illuminating Radiance. Eventually we come to the highest world, called Wonderful Jewel Flame, surrounded by worlds “as numerous as the atoms of twenty buddha-fields,” whose buddha is called Radiance with Fortune and Virtue. It is of interest to note that the thirteenth world in the series is called Saha. This is “our” world. The occupants of the other worlds are not specified, but we may assume that beings do inhabit them.
The great number of worlds in just one lotus seed exemplifies the reproductive power of a single seed. One lotus seed will give birth to a great lotus containing uncountable cells, and even while the lotus is still in formation, it probably holds within itself the existence of its own descendants, just as a human female fetus is thought already to possess many ova.
The possibility inherent within the seed had already been discussed in the Hindu Upanisads (ca. 600 B.C.E.) in a conversation between a philosopher and his son Svetaketu Aruneya.
“Bring me a fruit from that banyan tree.”
“Here it is, father.”
“Break it.”
“It is broken, father.”
“What do you see there?”
“I see extremely tiny seeds, father.”
“Break one of them.”
“It is broken, father.”
“What do you see there?”
“I can see nothing at all.”
And then the father said to his son, “My son, it is from the subtle essence within the seed that you cannot see that this great tree exists. My son, believe what I say. That infinitesimal subtle essence, which you cannot see, is the spirit of all the universe. It is this that is true. It is this that is Atman. And you are it.”4 It is said, incidentally, that a lotus seed retains its power of germination for a thousand years.
The Lotus Repository World contains even more world systems than those already discussed. East of the central fragrant ocean lies another ocean (see figure 28), called Repository of Undefiled Flames. Its world system is called Omnipresent Illumination of the Vortex of Fields, and contains twenty layers of worlds. The lowest of these twenty worlds, called Banner of Adornment of the Palace, is surrounded by world systems “as numerous as the atoms of one buddha-field” and has a buddha called Radiance Emitted from between Eyebrows Illuminating All Directions. The other worlds are similar to those of the world system examined earlier. A third ocean, south of the second, is called Ring of Inexhaustible Radiance; it supports a world system called Adorned with the Buddha’s Banners. Though it, too, has twenty layers of worlds, the sutra describes only nineteen, hinting at a possible copying error. To the right of this ocean there is a fourth, and so on to the eleventh. The twelfth is to the east of the second fragrant ocean (Repository of Undefiled Flames), and from the thirteenth to the twenty-first, the oceans are described as being “outward” from the seas numbered three to eleven (see figure 28). The sutra says that there are as many fragrant oceans as the atoms in indescribably many buddha-fields, and that they extend beyond each other to the encircling mountains. It considerably abbreviates the details of the outer world systems, only generally describing the first, tenth, thirteenth, and twentieth.
The sutra goes on to characterize oceans of worlds of other lotus worlds. To the east of the Lotus Repository World is the ocean of worlds called Adorned with Pure and Radiant Lotus Flowers, to the south is the ocean of worlds called Repository Adorned with the Radiance of All Jeweled Moons, and there are further oceans to the west, north, northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest, nadir, and zenith. In all of them are worlds, with their buddhas and countless bodhisattvas. The oceans of worlds, although finite in number, are not limited to these eleven but are “as numerous as the atoms of a myriad buddha-fields.”
These coundess oceans of worlds “undergo changes over kalpas as numerous as there are atoms in the oceans of worlds,” as described in chapter 4. Far in the past, more than twice “the kalpas as numerous as the atoms of the worlds,” there were oceans of worlds different from those of today.
Vairocana and the Multiplicity of Buddhas
The splendid Lotus Repository World was made by the buddha Vairocana, who undertook religious practice for kalpas as numerous as “there are atoms in the ocean of worlds.” He associated in each kalpa with buddhas as numerous “as there are atoms in the ocean of worlds,” and practiced in purity, in the presence of those buddhas, great vows as numerous “as there are atoms in the ocean of worlds.” As a result of the power of those actions, the Lotus Repository World came into being.
The word Vairocana means “illuminating all places.” The element roc- has the same derivation as the Latin lux (“light”). When Mahayana Buddhism was developing, cults of a sun deity spread throughout India, the Orient, and Europe. Vairocana was described as a solar deity and, around the seventh century C.E., developed into the esoteric buddha Mahavairocana, who is the abstract, fundamental buddha beyond shape or form. The connection between a lotus flower and the sun is worth noting. Flowers open as the sun rises and close as it sets. Their petals are also reminiscent of the rays of light extending from the sun’s disk. Incidentally, many paintings from ancient Egypt portray a solar deity being born from a lotus or, to be accurate, a water lily.
Various passages in the Flower Garland Sutra describe how Vairocana Buddha penetrates and fills the cosmos:
The vast fields that the Buddha has adorned are equal in number to all atoms. Pure children of the Buddha fill these lands and cause to fall the rain of the finest, mysterious dharma [[[teaching]]]. As we see the Buddha sitting at this assembly, we see the Buddha sitting in the same way in all atoms. The body of the Buddha neither departs nor comes but all the same is manifested clearly in all the realms (ch. 1).
In every grain of dust of the Lotus Repository World can be seen the dharma-essence (ch. 5).
The Tathagata [the Buddha] manifests himself in all the lands of the ten directions, but his actual body is undifferentiated. It is like the full moon appearing in its entirety in dewdrops upon the ground (ch. 24). he Sutra of the Perfect .Net (Brahmajala-sutra, ca. 3d century C.E.), a Mahayana Vinaya (precepts) text, presents a different depiction of a world resting upon a lotus, which nevertheless also shows the Buddha’s multiplicity and omnipresence. Vairocana sits upon a great thousand-petaled lotus, each petal of which supports a world. He incarnates into one thousand Sakyamuni Buddhas, one for each of the worlds (see figure 29). On each petal, in each world, there are ten billion Mount Sumeru worlds. The Sakyamuni Buddhas each incarnate into ten billion Sakyamuni Bodhisattvas, who dwell within each of these Mount Sumeru worlds. We therefore have a total of one Vairocana Buddha, one thousand Sakyamuni Buddhas, and ten trillion Sakyamuni Bodhisattvas.
Each lotus petal is more or less equivalent to one great-thousand-world. I say “more or less” because although the Sutra of the Perfect Net mentions that there are ten billion worlds on each petal, the pre-Mahayana tradition defines a great-thousandworld as consisting of only one billion worlds. I should also point out similarities between Hindu myth and the Sutra of the Perfect Net's Lotus Pedestal World. In the Hindu tradition, Brahma was brought forth by Visnu from a thousand-petaled lotus growing from Visnu’s navel and, sitting on the lotus, he created the world.
The famous Great Buddha of Todai-ji in Nara, Japan (see photo 6), was modeled on the iconography of the Sutra of the Perfect Net. The Great Buddha, who is of course Vairocana, sits on a lotus-shaped base, around which petals are carved. There should theoretically be one thousand petals, but this proved impossible to cast, so there are only a few dozen. On the upper part of each petal is engraved a Sakyamuni surrounded by bodhisattvas, with twenty-six horizontal lines (photos 7 and 8) beneath Sakyamuni that separate the buddha from several abstract Mount Sumeru worlds. Only one Mount Sumeru world appears in photo 8; of course it is impossible to depict ten billion of them on each petal. The twenty-six horizontal lines seem to represent the twenty-five realms above and including the Yama heaven (that is, the four heavens of the realm of desire, the seventeen heavens of the realm of form, and the four abodes of the realm of formlessness, as described in chapters 2 and 3).
A wall-painting from Khotan shows a buddha figure with the world depicted on his body (see photos 9 and 10). Joanna Williams has called this the Cosmic Vairocana.5 The design on the buddha’s chest suggests the Hindu legend of the Churning of the Ocean. In this legend, Visnu, in his incarnation as a tortoise, dove to the bottom of the ocean, and allowed his back to serve as the base for Mount Mandara. This mountain became a churning rod, and the great serpent (naga) Vasuki, wrapped around the mountain, became a rope. With this the gods churned up the ocean and were thus able to recover objects lost in the great flood, including the nectar of immortality (amrtd). The Khotan wall-painting shows a two-headed snake (Vasuki is one-headed). The scene depicted may or may not be related to the legend of the Churning of the Ocean, but it has a striking connection with the cosmos of the Flower Garland Sutra. Siksa-nanda, this sutra’s translator, was born in Khotan, and some scholars believe the sutra was composed there.
In the sixteenth-century novel Monkey, by Wu Ch’eng-en, there is a famous episode concerning an altercation between Monkey and the Buddha. “Jump off the palm of my right hand,” challenged the Buddha, and stretched out his right hand, about the size of a lotus leaf. “It’s a snap,” said Monkey, and jumped onto the Buddha’s palm, before whizzing off on his magical cloud. Flying along for a great distance, he at last came to five fleshly pillars. Thinking that they must denote the limits of the world, he made a mark on the middle one and then returned. When Monkey reported the vast distance he had traveled, the Buddha laughed, and held out his hand. On his middle finger was the mark that Monkey had left. Monkey had not gone even a step beyond the limits of the Buddha’s palm. This reflects the world of the Flower Garland Sutra, where every phenomenon is located within the buddha-world.
Although Vairocana is the universe itself, transcending all forms and limits, he was strikingly expressed in symbolic human form within Mahayana Buddhism. The enormous Buddha figures at Bamiyan reflect the idea of the Cosmic Buddha, and the tradition of making huge statues of the Buddha continued at Yun-kang in Shansi, China, and Todai-ji in Japan. The extreme of this symbolism came with the development of esoteric Buddhism, about which I refer readers to other reliable books.6 Here I will discuss only the origin of esoteric mandalas, geometric representations of the world that show the Buddha’s manifold, far-reaching presence.
It is not known when the earliest Buddhist mandala was made, but a depiction of a large number of buddha figures together is found in the “Miracle at Sravasti” relief (photo 5), though it does not follow a geometric pattern. There are, however, geometric depictions among the Buddha paintings at Bamiyan in Afghanistan, as photo 11 illustrates.
I would argue that the origin of the mandala is in cut glass, which features a pattern of round or hexagonal forms set into a goblet’s rounded outer surface. If the glass is placed over a small object, such as a buddha figure, the figure appears within each form in the glass, just as in a mandala. Such cut glass goblets have been discovered among the Kusana remains at Begram in Afghanistan, dated between the first and third centuries (photo 12 shows one example). The decorated, domelike ceilings of the rock-cut caves at Bamiyan have similar features. As shown in photo 13, they give one the sensation of looking at cut glass from within; the decorations form a pattern of hexagons, each containing a buddha figure. It is tempting to think that the idea of the mandala came about in this way.
The idea that the Buddha pervades the universe also appears in wall paintings of the thousand buddhas in Central Asia and at Tun-huang. Borobudur in Java is another mandala-type expression of Flower Garland thought (see photo 14). Six layers of square, graduated terraces are topped by a circular, three-tiered platform. One theory holds that the square section symbolizes the earth, and represents the realms of desire and form, whereas the upper round section represents the realm of formlessness. There are a total of 504 buddha figures, more than half of which represent the five buddhas of the Diamond Realm Mandala (Mahavairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitayus, and Amoghasiddhi). These encircle the stupa in the center, which contains Mahavairocana. This structure expresses the Mahayana dea that the buddhas emanate from Mahavairocana and penetrate the universe, that the “one” is at the same time the “many.” Borobudur was built in the eighth and ninth centuries, at much the same time as the great Buddha of Todai-ji in Nara, which indicates that Flower Garland concepts were prevalent throughout the Buddhist world at that time.
The Flower Garland worldview sees the Buddha in everything around us. Although pre-Mahayana Buddhism divided the world into the realms of delusion and enlightenment, and fostered a pessimistic outlook, Mahayana taught that the realm of delusion and the realm of the Buddha are inseparable, and thereby overcame that pessimism. The lotus flower, growing out of mud but not stained by it, is an apt symbol for this view of the world.
