Anieles VAJRAYÄNA ART AND ICONOGRAPHY by Jensine Andresen Abstract. Iconographie imagery in the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Tantric (i.e., Vajrayäna) tradition is replete with polymorphic symbolic forms. Tantric texts themselves are multivalent, addressing astronomy, astrology, cosmology, history, embryology, physiology, pharmacology, alchemy, botany, philosophy, and sexuality. The Sri Kähcakra^ a medieval Indo-Tibetan manuscript of great import, describes ritual visualization sequences in which practitioners visualize elaborate mandala designs and deified yab-yum (father-mother) consort couples. The Kälacakra system is the preeminent conduit for the globalization of Tibetan Buddhism, and contemporary enactments of its initiation ceremony incorporate a variety of aesthetic genres, including sand mandah construction and ritual dance. Keywords: homology; Madhyamika; mandah\ Tan tra; Vajrayäna; yab-yum-, melothesia. Painted with broad strokes, the Indo-Tibetan religious terrain may be divided into three primary sections—early Nikäya (a.k.a. Hinayand),1 "Individual" or "Lesser Vehicle" Buddhism; later Mahäyana, or "Greater Vehicle" Buddhism; and cultic Vajrayäna (a.k.a. "Tantric"), or " D i a m o n d Vehicle" Buddhism. Whereas early Nikäya B u d d h i s m focuses on the enlightenment goals of individual practitioners, later Mahäyana Buddhism introduces the ideal of the bodhisattva, one w h o seeks enlightenment over the course of lifetimes in order to benefit all sentient beings. Lastly, the Vajrayäna practitioner, a tantric yogi or yogirit, similarly takes the bodhisattva Jensine Andresen is Assistant Professor at Boston University, School of Theology, 745 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, where she teaches in the graduate program in Science, Philosophy, and Religion. Her e-mail address is jensine@bu.edu. This paper was presented at the 1998 Star Island Conference hosted by the Institute for Religion in an Age of Science (IRAS). [Zygon, vol. 35, no. 2 (June 2000).] © 2000 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon. ISSN 0591-2385 357 358 Zygon vow yet hopes to achieve enlightenment in a single lifetime by following a greatly accelerated, highly esoteric, and reportedly dangerous path. The emotive force of Vajrayäna Buddhist iconography belies the philosophical connection of this aesthetic genre to the tenets of earlier Mahäyana Buddhism, especially strands of Madhyamika ("Middle Way") Buddhist philosophy. Indeed, many tantric cults existed in both India and Tibet, one of the most popular being the system referred to as Kälacakra, traditionally translated as the "Wheel of Time." Concerned as it is with the homology between macrocosm and microcosm, the experiential realization of melothesia in the Kälacakra system is said to bring fulfillment to tantric practitioners. In Buddhist tantra, "fulfillment" is said to follow from the realization of a nondual perception in which conventional distinctions between phenomena are perceived concurrently with their dependence upon one another. The Indian philosopher Nägärjuna succinctly captures the union of conventional and ultimate in his statement, "There is no distinction at all oí samsara from nirvana. There is no distinction at all of nirvana from samsara' (Thurman 1984, 159). In the Kälacakra system, not merely are macrocosm and microcosm analogous to one another, they are one another. The Wheel of Time, then, captures the cyclic, temporal portrayal of this experiential and philosophical realization. Again, speaking generally, the full realization of melothesia is coterminous with enlightenment in Buddhist tantra, which is also sought through conventional practice techniques conjoining "method" (Sanskrit upa~ya\ Tibetan thabs) and "wisdom" (Skt. prajnä; Tib. shes rab). Method is often translated as "skillful means," the manner by which one attempts to assist sentient beings. In Buddhism, method is demonstrated primarily via "compassion" (Skt. karunä\ Tib. snyig rjelthugs rje). During tantric empowerment and practice, the union of method and wisdom is symbolized by the union of the central deity of the tantra with his or her consort partner; practitioners are instructed to utilize subtle levels of consciousness arising from this union in order to realize the "emptiness" (Skt. sünyatä\ Tib. stong pa nyid) of any phenomenon's inherent existence. This concept of "emptiness" is, more or less, the flip side of another important Buddhist concept referred to as "interdependence" (Skt. prafîtyasamutpâda\ Tib. rten 'brel), the fact that "all phenomena, both subjective experiences and external objects, come into existence in dependence upon causes and conditions; nothing comes into existence uncaused" (Gyatso 1991, 15). KÄLACAKRA AND TEXTUAL HISTORY Textually, the SfîKälacakra, otherwise known as the Kälacakra Tantra, is a tenth- or eleventh-century Sanskrit Buddhist text that was considered so important to medieval Indian and Tibetan Buddhists that it was translated into Tibetan more than a dozen times between the eleventh and fourteenth Jensine Andresen 359 centuries. The Sñ Kälacakra and its corresponding twelve thousand verse commentary, the Vimahprabhäfikä, both likely were composed during the sixty-year cycle from 967 to 1026. Members of aristocratic, political families are known to have commissioned block carvings of these texts, which facilitated the overall propagation of the Kälacakra tradition throughout Tibet and Central Asia. The Sñ Kälacakra and VimaUprabhaftka commentary are divided into five main sections in both Sanskrit and Tibetan redactions: (1) cosmology; (2) physiology; (3) initiation, or "empowerment"; (4) generation stage practices; and (5) completion stage practices. Focusing on astrology, geomancy, geography, history and eschatology (Jackson 1985, 31), the first section of the Sñ Kälacakra, which is sometimes referred to as "Outer Kälacakra" (Tib. phyii dus 'khor), presents a cosmological alternative to traditional Buddhist cosmology as it is presented in Vasubandhu s Abhidharmakosabhïïsya (Newman 1987). The second section of the tantra is sometimes referred to as "Inner Kälacakra" (Tib. nanggi dus ykhor), and it outlines the physiology of the "subtle body" (Skt. suksmadeha), including its structure and function. This section of the tantra also addresses the time-cycle of breaths taken by a person during a day, and in this system, the temporal divisions of the universe are said to be situated in the body via vital-wind processes, which tantric practitioners seek to control (Wallace 1995). The third, fourth, and fifth sections of the Sñ Kälacakra sometimes are referred to as "Alternative Kälacakra" (Tib. gzhangyidus 'khor). Beginning with an explanation of the qualifications necessary for both guru and disciple, the third section of the tantra addresses "empowerment" in the practice of Kälacakra. It then describes the activities that precede the empowerment, which include examining the site for the empowerment, accumulating ritual materials, taking control of the site, creating a protective circle, and constructing the Kälacakra mandala. It continues to describe disciples' progress through the mandala, the gurus conferral of the empowerment, and the concluding rituals that follow the empowerment ceremony. The fourth and fifth sections of the Sñ Kälacakra focus on the practice of Kalacakras six-limbed yoga, specifically its generation and completion stages. This section of the tantra is both complicated and technical, outlining a range of yogic techniques designed to assist practitioners realize the nonduality of conventional and ultimate levels of reality. In 1994, the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Varanasi printed a Sanskrit redaction of the Sñ Kälacakra as part of the Bibliotheca Indo-Tibetica Series and the Rare Buddhist Texts Research Project. Referred to in Buddhist Studies circles as the "Sarnath edition," this redaction was compiled from six manuscripts, the oldest of which is written in eleventh-century Bengali script and apparently dates to the late eleventh or early twelfth century. Sanskrit Buddhist tantras became nonexistent in India within the first few centuries after they were written, and none of 360 Zygon these texts has been found in India for many centuries. Beginning around 1950, however, scholars began to recover various Sanskrit Buddhist tantric manuscripts from Nepal and Tibet. Despite this collection effort, the Sñ Kälacakra has not been found in its entirety in any collection (Upadhyaya 1994, xx). The Peking edition of the Tibetan redaction of the Sñ Kälacakra is edited by Raghu Vira and Lokesh Candra, while a later commentary was written by the Tibetan scholar Bo dong Panchen Phyogs las rnam gyal, who lived from 1375 to 1471. 2 Perhaps as a means of validating the Sñ Kälacakra, its anonymous authors linked this text to the legendary kingdom of Sambhala made popular in the earlier Visnuite tradition of the Mahäbhärata and various Puränas. The precise geographical descriptions of Sambhala present in Kälacakra literature suggest that this kingdom existed historically. The medieval kingdom of Khotan probably is the most likely locale for the "Sambhala" that inspired the authors of the Sñ Kälacakra. Khotan was the most influential Buddhist kingdom that existed around the time that the Sñ Kälacakra was written, and it was besieged by Muslim invaders around the year 1000, which accords with the description of political events found in the Sñ Kä lacakra. Additionally, Khotanese regnal records indicate that a monarch by the name of Visa Sambhava, reminiscent of the name "Sambhala," reigned from 912 to 966 (Zhang and Rong 1982, 202), the eve of Kälacakras first sexagenary cycle, which began in 967 (Andresen 1997, 82-93). Although Khotan likely served as the prototype for the "Sambhala" mentioned in the Sñ Kälacakra, a combination of textual, archaeological, and epigraphic evidence suggests that this text was probably written in Bengal. The first historically identifiable people associated with the Käla-cakra tradition lived and worked in Orissa, in Bengal, in Bihar, and, shortly afterward, in the Himalayan regions of Kashmir and Nepal—places where the development of medieval Indian Buddhism generally occurred (Orofino 1994). Additionally, textual passages from the Sñ Kälacakra itself show that the authors of this work were familiar with the thirty-six occupational castes common in Bengal during the period when the text likely was written. Furthermore, the authors mention specific geographical units that were also used by the kings of Bengal to describe their administrative units during this period (Andresen 1997, 96-99). Soon after its appearance in India, Kälacakra was introduced into Tibet, both as a text and commentary, and also as a series of oral instructions on the practical performance of its six-limbed yoga. RITUAL KÄLACAKRA Following the popularity of the medieval Sñ Kälacakra, a rich ritual tradition developed around this textual cult, culminating today in pageants referred to as "Kälacakra Empowerments." These spectacles are conferred Jensine Andresen 361 by the fourteenth Dalai Lama and other high-ranking Tibetan religious leaders worldwide such as Kalu Rin pò che of the Bka brgyud lineage and Penor Rin pò che, a Rnying ma lama. In contemporary settings, when the Kälacakra Empowerment is conferred to a large group, only those empowerments that enable practitioners to engage in "generation stage" practices are conferred. The "higher empowerments" (Tib. dbang gong ma) necessary for "completion stage" yogas are considered too esoteric to be granted during large public gatherings (Sopa 1985, 94-95, 116). Certain common patterns characterize the last millennium's Tibetanization of Indian Buddhism and the contemporary globalization of Tibetan Buddhism. As in the past, monasteries are being founded and disciples congregate around roving tantric Buddhist teachers. Somewhat new, however, is the pattern of conferring large-scale empowerments to mass gatherings of people. Indeed, the current Dalai Lama quite intentionally uses the Kälacakra Empowerment as a vehicle for the globalization of Tibetan Buddhism and as a catalyst for world peace. Also new is the exhibition of tantric Buddhist art for the aesthetic enjoyment of the general population. Major exhibits of Tibetan Buddhist art now grace the Newark Museum in New Jersey, the Jacques Marchais Museum on Long Island, and the San Francisco Art Museum. Without doubt, the Kälacakra Empowerment serves as a preeminent ritual vehicle for the dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism throughout the world. In Asia, this empowerment has been performed in both India and Mongolia, while conferrals of the Kälacakra Empowerment have become regular occurrences in major cities in the United States, Europe, and even the former Soviet Union. The first Kälacakra Empowerment in the United States occurred in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1981. In 1989, the current Dalai Lama granted another Kälacakra Empowerment at the Santa Monica Civic Center; and at Richard Geres request, the ceremony was conducted at Madison Square Garden in 1991. In fact, these contemporary enactments of the empowerment ceremony bear little resemblance to medieval textual descriptions of the ritual found in the Sñ Kälacakra, with the contemporary ritual festivals betraying serious aesthetic and iconographie accretion over the years. KALACAKRA'S AESTHETIC DIMENSIONS Iconography in Buddhist tantra is used to buttress underlying philosophical and practical agendas relating to yogic practice. Tantric practice, often denoted by the Sanskrit term sadhana and the Tibetan term sgrub thab, seeks to unify male and female energies within the human body and to facilitate a nondual state of awareness in practitioners. A number of iconographie representations of the basic macroscopic/microscopic homology, or melothesia, exist in the Kälacakra system, the primary ones being the 362 Zygon sand mandah and the yab-yum (father-mother) consort couple. In this particular system, Buddha is believed to manifest as the deity Kälacakra, whereas elsewhere in tantric cults he is believed to manifest as deities such as Guhyasamäja, Hevajra, and Vajrayogiriî. In order to cultivate nondual perception of conventional and ultimate, tantric practitioners attempt to generate within themselves the qualities of enlightened Buddhahood by identifying with the Buddha's qualities of "body" (Skt. kaya\ Tib. sku), "speech" (Skt. väc, Tib. gsung), and "mind" (Skt. citta; Tib. thugs). This they accomplish throughout the empowerment and during tantric practice in general by engaging "the three M's"— mudfä, mantra, and mandala. Students use mudfä, a term that derives from the Sanskrit root mud, meaning "to be merry or glad or happy, to rejoice," to identify with the body of Kälacakra. The term designates particular gestures of the hands and fingers, some of which involve interlocking the fingers. In more specialized ritual texts that refer to yogic practices of a sexual nature, the term mudfä also often refers to a female consort of a male yogic practitioner. The ritual manipulation of women for the benefit of male practitioners' yogic realizations, though not universally condoned, is a real yet problematic element of both medieval and contemporary tantric practice. Nevertheless, an elaborate assortment of gesticular mudfä are described in the third chapter of the SnKähcakra. These mudfä require a precise positioning and interlocking of fingers together with the placement of the hands at various points on the body. For example, in Verse 170, the five fingers are listed—the thumb, the forefinger, the middle finger, the "nameless one" (i.e., the fourth finger), and the pinky. These digits are correlated with both elements and senses: thumb/earth/smell; forefinger/water/form; middle finger/fire/ taste; fourth finger/wind/touch; pinky/space/sound. Verses 171 and 172 describe the mudräs of the six Buddhas. In Verse 171, the mudräs of Vajrasattva, Fig. 1. Kälacakra and Vi'svamätä Aksobhya, Padmapani, and AmiConsort Couple. Courtesy David Patt/ täbha are described. In Vajrasattva's Deer Park. mudfä, for example, one clenches Jensine Andresen 363 both hands into fists and places them on top of the right and left thighs. In Aksobhya's mudfä, one assumes the cross-legged posture (Skt. paryanka; Tib. dkyildkrung), puts the upward palm of the left hand on the lap, and places the right hand on the side of the right knee until the fingers touch the ground. In Padmapani's mudfä, one assumes the cross-legged posture, puts the fingers of the right hand on top of the left hand, and turns the right hand upward and level. Finally, Amitäbha's mudfä is described as one of "concentration" (Skt. samädhi). Later, verses 176 to 186 describe the mudräs of the implements held by Kälacakra. In the five-tipped vajra mudfä, one joins the palms of the hands, the thumbs, and both pinkies. These then are fashioned into the shape of a lotus petal. Having joined the tips of both middle fingers, they are extended in the center, and both forefingers are joined to resemble a half moon that is half bent toward the back of the middle finger. The two fourth fingers are contracted underneath and come onto the palm of one's hand. Next, the five fingers are made to resemble prongs—both hands are located in the middle of the middle finger, and all the other fingers stand straight. Continuing with a description of the symbolic significance of Kälacakra's other ritual implements, Verse 180 describes the skull mudfä. Here, the fingers of the hand are placed together and the hand is placed on the auspicious skull, a lotus petal sits above, and the hand is extended to the back. In the bow mudfä, the fist and left forearm are extended and the right hand reaches toward the back. In the vajra-noose mudfä, the joint of the middle finger is placed above the left fist, the forefinger is lifted up and drawn forward, and a cavity is formed in the center of both the middle and forefingers. In the sling mudfä, the left hand becomes a hook. In the jewel mudfä, the five fingers of the left hand are joined, and one places the middle finger in the center of the five fingers, which are then brought together. In the lotus mudfä of the left hand, the thumb and pinky are joined and are placed on a single petal. The forefingers are spread in various directions in the shape of lotus petals. In the mudfä of the small drum, the middle finger and the fourth finger form a fist, the forefinger is joined on top of the tip of the thumb like an iron prod, and the half pinky is raised. Likewise, in the hammer mudfä, the fist is clenched, and all the fingers in the circle are extended like the sections of a spoke. Tantric practitioners report that the ritual binding of successive mudfä assists them in their quest for divine transformation. What mechanics could facilitate such a process? Using terminology popularized by Laughlin Jr., McManus, and d'Aquili (1990), perhaps the ritual habituation of the neuromuscular system and the postural imprinting that occur during mudfä practice involve the willful reentrainment of conscious network.3 It is possible that the conscious, willful intention of tantric practitioners who follow precise instructions governing the assumption of successive mudfä 364 Zygon functions to direct the patterns of entrainment (i.e., creodes) mediating consciousness. A "creode" is a series of equilibrating transformations that forms a type of "canal"—that is, a function is said to become canalized. During development, the process of "neurognosis" (the initial organization of a neural network) causes neural systems to become canalized into functional creodes, which moderate the demands of growth and adaptation. So, concentration during mudfä practice may function to direct the reentrainment of conscious network in specific ways. Willful attention directed toward the precise demonstration of intricate hand gestures and bodily postures is an "orientation function" that participates in a larger cognitive system, one that controls cognitions about the world-pervading conscious network. Concentrated attention enables the practitioner either to call up cognitive and motor networks already developed or to entrain and supervise the development of unprepared networks for future operation. Hence, intentional concentration during tantric practice utilizes the ability of consciousness to reprogram itself in specific ways. As described previously, Kälacakra mudfä practice requires tantric practitioners to identify with divine images. One first "binds" the mudräs of the six Buddha families, and, having assumed the divine mudfä relating to the seed syllables, one later identifies with Kälacakra himself by performing mudfä modeled after each of his ritual implements. In all of these cases, conscious network is willfully reentrained to resemble the ritually prescribed representation of divine conscious network—Kälacakra wields a bow and arrow, so practitioners assume the forms of bow and arrow, and so on. Why? By punctiliously becoming Kälacakra down to the smallest detail of each of his ritual implements, practitioners reentrain their conscious network. Hence, they reprogram the neural aspects of their consciousness in increasingly fine approximations of this particular tantric cult's representation of the divine. Further, when tantric practitioners have practiced sufficiently to perform mudfä without the concentration and control of information provided by conscious network, this practice may be "relegated" to a specific neural network that is then disentrained from conscious network. Relegation often continues until a particular function (a particular hand gesture or bodily posture) is relegated to the lowest functional level of the nervous system capable of performing that function. Therefore, functions once involved with consciousness are shunted to relatively unconscious function. This loss of conscious involvement in the functions of the nervous system is referred to as "automatization." Furthermore, because the role of prefrontal cortex in development includes controlling and monitoring the construction of self-concepts and images, prefrontal cortex is implicated in tantric deity yoga practice aimed at remodeling the self into the divine. Because the role of prefrontal cortex depends upon the extent to which the operations of self-reflexivity are conceptually loaded with images, prescribing Jensine Andresen 365 mudfä practice in conjunction with ritual that utilizes elaborate aesthetic images (mándalas, etc.) may enhance a practitioner's ability to reentrain his or her consciousness toward a culturally validated image of the divine (Laughlin Jr., McManus, and d'Aquili 1990, 98-99,117-19). Whereas mudfä practice helps the tantric practitioner identify with the body of the deity in question, mantra recitation is used to facilitate identification with the deity's speech. The term mantra derives from the Sanskrit root man, meaning "to think, believe, imagine, suppose, conjecture." It also carries the meaning of speaking and consecrating with words (Gonda 1963). Mantra is an agent noun, meaning "an instrument of thought." It can designate an element of speech, a sacred text, a prayer, or a song of praise (Padoux 1963). The efficacy of uttered mantra is critical during ritual performance, and mantra was important to the sacrifices of the early Vedic srauta system, in more personal püjä services, and in many forms of tantric ritual and practice (Wheelock 1989, 96-103). Theoretically, the effective dimensions of ritual utterance involve "speech acts" (see Austin 1962 and Searle 1969), in which making an utterance both expresses an idea and accomplishes a purposeful act. Mantra, therefore, is effective in transforming the body/mind of the ritual participant. Last of the three M s is the tantric mandala. The sand mandala is a central element of tantric iconography, and the Kälacakra mandaL· is an particularly spectacular specimen. Students visualize mándalas to identify with the mind of Kälacakra. The term mandala derives from the Sanskrit root mand, which indicates the sense of "encompassing." The term mandaL· designates a circle or disk, especially of the sun (Tib. nyi ma) or the moon (Tib. zia ba). It also can designate a multitude, group, or society. Further, it connotes "extracting the essence" from something (Gyatso 1995, 167). The Tibetan term for mandaL·, dkyil 'khor, connotes wholeness or roundness. Tibetan mándalas are two-dimensional figures that are meant to be visualized in three-dimensional form (Mkhas grub rje 1978, 271—308). Mándalas are symmetrical and multicolored, and they comprise of a circular border together with one or more concentric circles. These circles enclose a square divided into four triangles. Deities and their symbols exist in the center of each triangle and in the center of the mandala. A twodimensional mandala is used for empowerment ceremonies and is constructed with colored sand. It occupies a space approximately five feet in diameter and sits atop a raised block of wood. Before a tantric empowerment, the preparation of the mandala may take as long as eleven days (Sopa 1985, 96). During tantric practice, meditation on a mandala is said to "serve as an antidote" that quickly eradicates obstructions to enlightenment (Gyatso, Tsong kha pa, and Hopkins 1987, 77). The Kälacakra mandala contains five levels and seven hundred twentytwo deities, a number deriving from an astrological formula. The deities that inhabit the mandaL· are sometimes referred to as "gnosis beings" (Skt. 366 Zygon jñanasattva; Tib. ye shespa). The sand mandala is actually a two-dimensional representation of the five-tiered palace of Kälacakra and his consort, Visvamätä. This mandaL· is created using either pulverized quartz stones that are dyed different colors or dyed sand. In the sand mandala, six concentric circles representing the six elements exist around the perimeter. The deities are represented in the mandala either by Sanskrit seed syllables or by dots. To construct the sand mandala, a five-threaded "gnosis line" is set along the perimeter of the mandala, and the mandala is divided into three concentric mándalas with white, red, and black sand. The outermost mandala, the "body mandala" (Tib. skui dkyil ykhor), contains five hundred thirtysix deities of an elemental and calendrical nature. The "speech mandala" (Tib. gsunggi dkyil ykhor), which is enclosed within the "body mandala," contains one hundred sixteen deities; there are many female deities (Skt. yogiñí; Tib. mal ybyor ma) included in this number. The innermost circle, the "mind mandala" (Tib. thugs dkyil ykhor), houses seventy deities, including "power beings" (Skt. sakti; Tib. nus ma), Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and protectors. According to Tibetan belief, the deities inhabiting the mind mandala actually confer the empowerment. A four-faced, twenty-fourarmed Kälacakra in union with a four-faced, eight-armed Visvamätä inhabits the center of the mind mandala. Also in the center is a white moon disc, on which rests a red sun disc, a black rïïhu disc (rähu is either a planet or the designation for an eclipse), and a yellow kälägni disc (kälägni may be translated as "fire at the end of an aeon," and it may refer either to the destructivefireat the end of an aeon or to "thefierytail" oí rähu). The mandala also has a four-tiered perimeter that is composed of earth (yellow), water (white), fire (red), and wind (gray-blue) discs that underlie the mandala. When construction of the total mandala is complete, it is blessed by the guru. Demon-pinning knives and ten ritual vases then are placed around the mandala, which is concealed behind a curtain. Namgyal monks then perform the dance of the offering goddesses (see Sopa 1985, 97-99; Gyatso 1985, 79; Cozort 1986, 125; Newman 1987). Since the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, Tibetan Buddhism progressively has been exiled from its homeland and forced to adapt to different cultural contexts. In the past decade or so, and in conjunction with the Dalai Lama's increasingly frequent international appearances, Tibetan sand mándalas have been the most potent tantric symbols used in the conscious effort to educate the world about Buddhism and to amass international political support against human rights abuses in Tibet. The first public display of a sand mandala outside of Tibet actually occurred in Beijing in 1932. In the United States, the first public display of the construction of a Tibetan sand mandala occurred in 1988, when three monks from Namgyal Monastery spent six weeks at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City creating the Kälacakra mandala. Due Jensine Andresen 367 to the perceived power of Kälacakra in promoting world peace, the Kälacakra mandala has been the tantric symbol of choice in public mandala exhibitions, having been constructed more than a dozen times in the United States (for more on sand mandaL·s see Yamamoto 1988). Tibetan mandaL· exhibits are well attended: the American Museum of Natural History estimated that between sixty and seventy thousand people saw the mandaL· created there in 1988. Approximately half a million people saw the Kälacakra sand mandaL· at the IBM Gallery in New York City in 1991, and a whopping fifty thousand people per day passed through the lobby of the World Trade Center when a sand mandala was created there over a one-month period after the bombing in 1993. The current display of traditional Tibetan mandaL· construction involves a radical transposition from private/sacred/secret to public/secular/overt. In the traditional ritual context, mandaL· construction occurs in the most private of settings; no one, not even a prospective initiate, is permitted to watch the process of constructing a mandaL·. Only at the conclusion of the empowerment are initiates permitted to view the mandala. Later, the mandala is swept into containers and the sand is given as an offering to the Nägas of the sea. In contrast to this traditional, private context, museum, gallery, and other displays of tantric mandaL·s emphasize public consumption, and, hopefully, inspire donations to the cause of Buddhist dharma. A second genre of mandala exhibits, one that reflects the blending of Tibetan and American cultures, involves the construction of newer Tibetan-American mandaL·s alongside traditional Tibetan ones. In the "Healing the Causes of Violence" program, Samaya Foundation, a New York based organization dedicated to supporting Tibetan arts, brought the Gyuto monks and their mandala arts to homicide-ridden urban environments Fig. 2. Kälacakra sand mandaL·. Courtesy/Copyright Samaya Foundation/Namgyal Institute. 368 such as Watts in Los Angeles during the summers of 1994 and 1995. What is unique about these projects is that at the same time that the monks create their traditional mandala, they also instruct children and adults in the process of mandala construction. The monks then encourage these new performers to design their own mándalas using culturally and personally relevant heroes and symbols. While display of traditional Tibetan mándalas was originally intended to generate support for Tibet, it is hoped that these more recent programs will bring peace to the inner city. The statistics are amazing: when the monks were present in Watts, a total of nineteen gang-related deaths for a one-month period dropped to only one death for the same month in 1995, reflecting in part the community preparation and town meetings with gang leaders that preceded the actual mandaL· exhibit. Samaya Foundation also brought the Gyuto monks and the Avalokitesvara mandaL· to Camp David Gonzales, a youth detention camp in the Malibu Mountains, in 1995 and 1996. Focused on violent teenagers, this program schooled young inmates in qualities such as patience. Finally, Samaya Foundation also has brought mandaL· exhibits to the former Soviet Union, where Buddhism is enjoying a degree of resurgence after decades of repression. AFTERTHOUGHTS Historically complex, philosophically laden, and psychologically inclined, tantric Buddhist practice includes intricate visualization sequences involving elaborate sand mandala designs and consort couples intent on blissful union. Intended to catalyze within tantric practitioners the deep, experiential realization of nonduality, both practice sequences point to melothesia, the homology of macrocosm and microcosm. All may be said to harken back to one central Buddhist tenet, prafîtyasamutpâda, which challenges us to realize how everything rests in complete interdependence upon everything else. NOTES 1. Theravada Buddhism is one among eighteen known sects that constitute this division. 2. The Tibetan title of this text is Bcom Idan 'das dus kyi 'khor lo'i dkyil 'khorgyi cho ga de nyid rnam nges. It is contained in Bo-don Pan-chen Phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal, The Collected Works of Bo-doñ Pan-chan Phyogs-las-rnam-rgyal, Encyclopedia Tibetica, Vol. 118, Tibet House Library Publications, Series 1 (New Delhi: Tibet House, 1973). 3. Through a process referred to as entrainment, conscious network perpetually transforms its internal organization and engagement with the world. The term conscious network refers to the highest level of functional control in the human nervous system. Conscious network comprises those actively functioning networks that form a subset of all potentially functioning networks in the nervous system. Intentional processes in the prefrontal cortex are the most significant procedures involved in constituting conscious network. In addition, local neural structures often involved in conscious network include nuclear areas of the thalamus (gating input and output functions); the hippocampus (memory and recognition functions); and limbic structures (affective functions) such as the septum (fear) and the amygdala (aggression). Consciousness itself is Jensine Andresen 369 mediated by conscious network—"consciousness refers to function, and conscious network refers to structure: conscious network is the structure of consciousness, and consciousness is the function of conscious network? Conscious network exerts some control over the process of entraining and disentraining networks to itself, and models may be entrained and disentrained from conscious network extremely rapidly. The continual flux in the organization of conscious network underlies the human experience of a "stream of consciousness." Conscious network therefore functions as "a living society of cells and networks of cells" comprising a continuously changing pattern of entrainment among potentially entrainable neural networks (see Laughlin Jr., McManus, and d'Aquili 1990, 44, 56, 94-98). REFERENCES Andresen, Jensine. 1997. Kälacakra: textual and ritual perspectives. Ph.D. diss., Harvard University. Austin, J. L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press. Cozort, Daniel. 1986. Highest Yoga Tantra: An Introduction to the Esoteric Buddhism of Tibet. Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications. Gonda, Jan. 1963. "The Indian Mantra." Oriens 16:244-97. Gyatso, Tenzin (H. H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama). 1985. The KaUchakra Tantra: Rite of Initiation for the Stage of Generation, ed. Jeffrey Hopkins. London: Wisdom Publications. . 1991. "The Buddhist Concept of Mind. " In MindScience: An East- West Dialogue, 11-18. Boston: Wisdom Publications. 1995. The World of Tibetan Buddhism, trans, and ed. 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