The Mandala Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu
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Whenever a Dharma is expounded in Tantric Buddhism, one is required to first establish a mandala. This stage thus involves the establishment of a mandala, the recitation of mantra and the cultivation of a sadhana. Before the start of the exposition on The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra (Nagakrim Chenmo), a mandala (shrine) is first established.
Someone once told me, `The mandala is false. It is merely an external appearance!`
I replied, `The mandala is built for the purposes of making offerings, cultivation, recitation, adornment, and providing a sense of direction. All Tantric empowerment must be carried out within a mandala.`
`Upon the construction of the square and round symmetries of the mandala, the respective deities are positioned within for our worship. The assembly of the deities form the essence of the mandala. Hence, the mandala is the gathering place of the deities. Besides, it functions as a basis for recitation and, being so, transcends into a focal point where all merits converge.` I said.
It is stated in the Mahavairocana Sutra that the great compassionate perfections numbering as many as the specks of dust from the worlds of the ten directions are like the Flower Treasury. And the infinite emanation bodies spanning the Three Vehicles and the six realms are the leaves, the stem and the roots. All of them are illuminating lights together displaying a perfect and complete matrix of merits which is called the mandala.
I honestly told the questioner the following truth:
The reality of buddhas abiding in space is itself a secret. However, the presence of a mandala is a concrete expedience. The practitioner, through expedient cultivation practices, enters the mandala through the Dharma current of the buddhas, and receives the empowerment from within. Hence, the space, the mandala and the practitioner form the three stages of reality-realms. Such is the true doctrine of Tantric Buddhism.
Through the application of the three secret expedient means, we give empowerment to sentient beings, nurturing their Buddha Nature. You say the mandala is false! That it is merely an external appearance! But I say it is not, that it only functions as an expedience. Today, I hold the true merits of the Tathagatas within me, and with the lights and Dharma currents of all deities numbering as many as specks of dust in the worlds of the ten directions converging upon me, I shall empower all sentient beings and help them attain the Supreme Mind of Vairocana.
Contemplate on it! Contemplate on it! The very essence of Perfect Enlightenment is simply pure and wonderful.