Published Thurman and Leidy "Mandala the Architecture of Enlightenment" Asia Society '97

Plate 18

"Dharmadatu Vagishvara Manjuvajra Mandala"

Mandala paintings are two dimensional representations of the multidimensional universes Buddhas inhabit. Mandalas are not to be understood as representing someplace different from where we are right now . Rather mandalas display an Enlightened ever present world that is revealed when the dualities of anger, attachment and ignorance are stripped away. Actually these enlightened worlds are constructed of these very same energies that in our dualistic view we perceive as anger, attachment and ignorance but in the unencumbered enlightened state these same defiled emotions manifest as strength, compassion and wisdom. In this sense mandalas are much like architectural blueprints or aerial views of celestial palaces constructed of enlightened concepts. For example, mandalas are usually laid out on a compass like grid; the western quadrant appears red representing the transmutation of desire into discriminating wisdom.

Basically the painting is a virtual reality of the meditational world of the practioner.

Moke Mokotoff 4-98