The Theory and Practice of the Mandala

of scroll-work. This is the Mountain of Fire (me ri), a flaming barrier which, it would seem, forbids access, but which, in fact, according to the symbology of Tantric gnosis, represents consciousness that must burn ignorance, dispelling the darkness of error and leading us to that cognition which we are seeking.
Immediately after this circle a girdle of diamond (rdorje ra ba) is drawn. The diamond symbolizes Supreme Cognition, bodhi, Illumination, Absolute Essence, Cosmic Consciousness, which, once it has been attained is never again lost.

A maala, then, is surrounded and circumscribed by a circle on which is displayed an uninterrupted line

a general way, it may be said that a maala contains an outer enclosure and one or more concentric circles which, in their turn, enclose the figure of a square cut by transversal lines. These start from the centre and reach to the four corners so that the surface is divided up into four triangles. In the centre and in the middle of each triangle five circles contain emblems or figures of divinities.

All this explains why the Buddhist Masters have discussed, with great minuteness, the rules to be followed in making a maala. These begin with, for instance, the testing of the quality of the thread or fine cord to be used for tracing out the various parts; then we are told of how many twisted strands the thread should be composed. There should be five of them, each of a different colour. Such a thread, dipped in coloured powder, is indispensable for marking out the different parts of the maala. When the thread has been laid out on the surface where the maala is to be, the ends are held so that it is taut, then by raising it up and letting it fall suddenly, the powder in which it has been immersed makes a straight line. By repeating this several times, according to the diagram, there are obtained the schematic outlines within which the successive designs are marked. The treatises also lay down the measurements of this cord and what purificatory rites must be performed for the various implements which are used in the whole ritual act.

‘As all the spokes are connected both with the hub and with the rim, so all creatures, all Gods, all worlds, all organs are bound together in that soul.’

But it is not a force that emerges miraculously from nothing. It is born of the Cosmic Consciousness, in unity of the Primordial Consciousness which contains it within itself.

premise of all thought, was very often imagined as light.

Indian thought has, therefore, established two positions: a metaphysical conception which postulates an immutable and eternal reality to which is opposed the unreal flux of appearances which are always becoming; on the other hand, what we may call a psychological construction of the world which reduces everything to thoughts, their relations, but these, nevertheless, although ephemeral, are possible inasmuch as there exists a universal and collective force which provokes and preserves them. This Absolute Consciousness, matrix of all that becomes, this Conscious Being,

layavijñna or ‘store-consciousness’, that is to say they understood it as psychological reality, collective psyche in which individual experiences are deposited to reappear in a single flux

Buddhists gave various names to this Cosmic Consciousness: Matrix of all the Buddhas (Tathgatagarbha), Absolute Identity (Tathat), Basis of All Things (Dharma-dhtu ), Thing-ness (Dharmat). But some Schools, that of the Vijñnavdins, for instance, called it