- Myth and Symbolism
- Dr. Peter Della Santina
In Chapter 24 we talked about how the special characteristic of the
Vajrayana is its use of the totality of experience to achieve direct or immediate
knowledge of nonduality. In turning the totality of experience to the use of this
spiritual or religious endeavor, it is important that we select elements of experience
that are specially powerful and meaningful. This does not exclude using the totality of
our experience for our spiritual progress. Rather, it means that we focus first on types
of experience that are particularly powerful and meaningful, using them as the building
blocks of our transformed vision.
We then extend that transformed experience so that it eventually
encompasses all experiences, even those that were originally less significant. Initially,
then, we select elements of experience that are specially potent and powerful. In the
process, certain archetypal elements are isolated. Archetypal elements of experience are
those that have a very deep-seated mode of being within both an individual consciousness
and our collective consciousness (that is, the sum total of all individual consciousness).
Let us look at some specific examples of archetypal experience. The
first belongs to the realm of myth. The most dominant feature of myth is the struggle
between good and evil. This is perhaps the primordial, fundamental mythological theme, and
has been worked out in myths from the beginning of time up to the present day. For
example, the crux of the contest between Rama and Ravana in the Ramayana is the struggle
between the forces of good and the forces of evil, and this continues to be a dominant
theme in most popular myths. Not so long ago, we even saw the theme of the struggle
between good and evil mythologized in the popular science-fiction movie Star Wars.
We see this theme also in the attitudes and rhetoric of politicians and
national leaders. For example, when U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the USSR 'the Evil
Empire,' he was borrowing a phrase from Star Wars to indicate his conviction that the
struggle between the democratic world and the communist world was one of good against
evil. This is a very important theme in human culture. When we call this theme a
mythological one, it does not devalue it. If anything, this increases its value because it
gives that theme a superhuman dimension, a universal significance. To call a theme
mythological does not make it unreal--in fact, it makes it more so.
Good and evil are, of course, a duality (like subject and object, self
and other, samsara and nirvana, and the rest).The transcendence of the duality of good and
evil, the mastery of and assimilation of evil by good, is represented symbolically in the
appearance of the deities of the Vajrayana pantheon. In Chapter 24, we talked about how we
could transform elements of experience and put make use of them for our spiritual
progress. What we have here is the mastery of what we would normally think of as evil by
good--namely, the assimilation and transformation of the mythical totality of evil in the
form of specific elements of the Vajrayana pantheon.
This explains the general appearance of the deities of the Vajrayana
pantheon. Those of you who have seen tantric paintings and sculptures may have wondered
why the deities wear necklaces of severed heads, ornaments of bone, and so forth, and also
at the prevalence of animal skins, skeletons, weapons, and the like. Why, in Vajrayana
iconography, is there so much of the macabre?
The answer is that the ornaments of bone, human and animal parts,
weapons, and so on are all paraphernalia of the forces of evil as they are conceived of in
our collective consciousness. The fact that they are now worn and wielded by Vajrayana
deities symbolizes several things: (1) it symbolizes the victory of good over evil; (2) it
indicates the use of the power of evil for the purpose of good; and most importantly, (3)
it represents the union and transcendence of the duality of good and evil, nirvana and
samsara.
On a mythical scale, this is how we are to understand the particular
nature of the appearance of the Vajrayana deities--as an expression of the mastery and
transformation of evil, and as an expression of the transcendence of the duality of good
and evil. The Vajrayana also promotes the equality of objects of desire and aversion. This
equality implies transcendence of the opposites of desire and aversion, good and evil. In
the symbolism of the Vajrayana, we find objects of desire and aversion in close proximity.
For example, we find jewels and severed heads, a desirable female form and a corpse,
lotuses, the sun and the moon and blood, meat and bones side by side in the same portrait.
All these objects occurring side by side are symbolic of the
transcendence of the dualities of good and evil, desirable and undesirable, pure and
impure, and the like. Let us examine, in slightly more concrete terms, the particular
forms of some of the archetypal symbols we find in the Vajrayana, many of which have still
to do with the transcendence of duality. First let us consider the symbol of the union of
male and female, which is so dominant in the Vajrayana tradition. This is a symbol that is
archetypal in the sense that it has always been a fundamental part of the experience of
living beings. It is a deep-seated element in the individual and collective consciousness
of living beings. The union of male and female has served as a symbol of the union of
opposites--very often as a symbol of the union of heaven and earth--in the arts, poetry,
and literature of most cultures at one time or another.
In the Vajrayana, we find the prevalent use of this very powerful and
meaningful element of experience to depict or symbolize the union of emptiness and form,
nirvana and samsara, wisdom and compassion. The female aspect stands for emptiness,
nirvana, and wisdom, as we saw in Chapter 22, where insubstantiality was represented in
the form of the goddesses Nairatmya and Vajravarahi. The male aspect stands for form
(phenomenal appearance), samsara, and compassion (skillful means). The female can also
stand for emptiness and the male for luminosity, and so on.
Another prevalent symbol used in Vajrayana iconography is the tree,
which is a symbol of life, growth, and development. When taking refuge at the beginning of
a session of Vajrayana meditation, the meditator often pictures the objects of refuge
placed in a tree. Like the union of male and female, the tree is an archetypal symbol that
has cross-cultural significance.
I have been surprised to find the tree appearing in the symbolism of
almost all the major religious and cultural traditions throughout the world. In the
Christian tradition, we find the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. In the Buddhist
tradition, too, the tree is an important archetypal symbol. Specifically, the refuge tree
may be identified with the pipal or bodhi tree. But the tree of enlightenment goes back to
a period in Indian cultural history before the time of the Buddha Shakyamuni. It seems
also to have been important to the people of the Indus Valley civilization, which
flourished in the third millennium B.C.E.
If we look further at Vajrayana iconography, we often find a deity
placed upon a throne in a tree. The throne is an archetypal symbol of royalty, of
sovereignty and mastery, as are the crown and scepter. You may recall that in Chapter 22
we said that the Vajrayana takes its name from the vajra, the scepter of Indra, which is a
symbol of mastery. There is no doubt that these symbols are important in our individual
and collective consciousness.
Even in republican societies, there is a great fascination with
royalty. Americans probably read more about the English royal family than do Englishmen.
There are probably more television documentaries and dramatizations about the English
royal family produced in America than in England. Even the institution of the presidency
has come to be associated with all kinds of symbols of sovereignty.
Like the symbol of the tree, royal symbolism is found in most of the
major religious traditions. Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God and was called the king
of the Jews. The Buddha has been called the king of the Dharma and the king of physicians.
The first discourse the Buddha delivered, popularly known as The Discourse of the Turning
of the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhammachakkappavattana Sutta), is actually entitled The
Discourse of the Founding of the Kingdom of the Dharma.
Like the tree, light and water occupy prominent places in Vajrayana
symbolism. Fire often surrounds the deities. Light is an important medium for
identification between the meditator and the visualized forms of the deities. Fire and
light are very important and meaningful elements of our human experience. It is probably
through the discovery of fire that people became civilized. All of this is still very
clearly evident today, for don't we all like to kindle, watch, and manipulate fire? In the
Vajrayana tradition, fire stands for the flames that consume and destroy ignorance.
Water is more crucial to our existence than food and is, of course,
necessary for the fertility of the earth. Not surprisingly, water also plays an important
role in the Vajrayana, where it is the symbol of initiation--the tantric ritual which
stimulates the seed of spiritual potential. Just as by watering the soil, a seed of grain
comes to life, so by being sprinkled in the ritual of initiation, the seed of one's
spiritual potential puts forth its sprout, which can then grow into the fully realized and
transformed mode of being, the reality of Buddhahood.
The symbol of the lotus is not peculiar only to the Vajrayana but
exists in all Buddhist iconography. It is more culturally specific than the other symbols
we have considered thus far. The lotus is perhaps most closely linked with the Indian
cultural consciousness, where it is a powerful symbol of spiritual growth and
transformation. For this reason, it appears in the Vajrayana as a symbol of spiritual
growth, transcendence, and transformation.
In the Vajrayana, there is also the very particular use of letters,
words, and mantras. This is, again, archetypal, in the sense that it is a deep-seated and
powerful element in the individual and collective consciousness. For 'primitive' and
'modern' people alike, the name of a thing is a source of power over it. Ancient peoples
achieved mastery over the forces of nature by giving those forces names. For instance, by
calling the thunderstorm 'Indra,' the old Brahmins established a mechanism and degree of
control over it.
This is also clearly reflected in our own experience. If someone
side-swipes your car in the parking lot, you do not have any power over him or her if you
do not know their name, but if you know the name of the person responsible, you can claim
damages.
Names are, therefore, power. In a sense, a name creates the reality of
the object for which it stands. For example, when I say the word 'diamond,' in a sense the
reality of that object is created for all of us. Recognizing this power of letters, names,
and words, the Vajrayana employs them in the form of mantras in order to bring about a
certain kind of reality.
In the Vajrayana, the naive assumption of the power inherent in names
that was characteristic of early human existence is replaced by a critical understanding
of the way names and words work to create a particular reality. The way they work is
through the power of the mind. It is the power of the mind that enables letters, words,
names, and mantras to possess a particular kind of creative reality.
Thus we find, in Vajrayana symbolism, a liberal and intentional use of
these verbal symbols as vehicles for concentrating the mind's power to create and
transform. For example, we symbolize the mind with the Sanskrit syllable Hum, and use that
symbol as a vehicle for representing the mind visually as the seed of the various deities
of the Vajrayana pantheon. A deep-seated archetypal role is played by letters, words, and
names in our individual and collective consciousness. The Vajrayana uses this archetypal
power in its symbolism, in order to describe the mind and facilitate its use in mastering
and transforming experience.
Vajrayana iconography also recognizes the importance and significance
of colors as symbols of certain tendencies and attitudes. This is something that has also
been acknowledged by modern psychologists. In the mid-1930s, a famous American
psychologist persuaded a popular cigarette company to change the logo on its packaging
from green to red; overnight, sales shot up by 50 to 60 percent. When that limited run of
packages with the red logo was sold, the manufacturer went back to the green logo and
sales dropped by the same amount. When the logo was changed to red again, sales shot up
again. Ever since, advertisers and designers have paid very close attention to the effects
of color on prospective buyers.
This is also recognized in the Vajrayana tradition. There are
particular roles and uses for particular colors. White, for example, is a symbol of
purity--a significance which is common, universal, and apparent. But white is also a
symbol of opaqueness, ignorance, and, alternatively, a symbol of the knowledge of the
Dharmadhatu. This last explains why, in the mandala of the five celestial Buddhas,
Vairochana is portrayed as white in color, and why, in the Vajrayana pantheon, Vajrasattva
is portrayed as white to indicate his importance for the purification of sins.
Blue or black is a symbol of immutability. Black, unlike any other
color, cannot be changed. Blue is a color that symbolizes hatred, on the one hand, and the
knowledge that reflects all phenomena without distorting them, on the other (like the blue
of water that reflects innumerable objects impartially). Therefore, blue is the color of
what is called the mirror-like knowledge. Red, which is the color of fire, is a symbol of
desire and also stands for the knowledge of discrimination.
These colors are used to carry symbolic messages in connection not only
with the five celestial Buddhas, but also with other tantric deities. These messages often
operate at an unconscious or subconscious level, but their particular significance
nonetheless triggers certain emotions or reactions (again, often on a subconscious level).
One example of this is the fact that smokers who bought the cigarettes with the red logo
instead of the green one did not know why they were moved to do so.
Let us now look at some of the more particular objects we find in
Vajrayana art and iconography, and at their specific meanings--objects like the support,
or base, of Vajrayana deities, the objects the deities hold in their hands, and the
ornaments that adorn their bodies. The Vajrayana deity Vajrakilaya, for example, tramples
on two deities of the Hindu pantheon, Shiva and Parvati. Initially, one might think that
this is merely a kind of triumphalism on the part of the Buddhists, but the significance
is actually far more important. Shiva and Parvati stand for the extremes of eternalism and
nihilism. The base on which Vajrakilaya stands is therefore a symbol of the transcendence,
or avoidance, of these two extremes. Again, we find the Vajrayana deity Mahakala standing
on a corpse.
The corpse represents self, ego, and substance; Mahakala's trampling it
thus represents his triumph over the idea of self, or substance. Many of the Vajrayana
deities hold knives in their hands. This is anticipated in Mahayana iconography, where we
find Manjushri holding a sword of wisdom with which he cuts through the net of ignorance.
In the hands of the Vajrayana deities, too, knives are instruments symbolizing the wisdom
with which they cut through ignorance and delusion.
In Vajrayana iconography we also find deities drinking from skull cups
filled with blood, which represents the afflictions. By drinking this blood, the deities
symbolically show their ability to assimilate and neutralize the afflictions.
We find Vajrayana deities commonly holding a vajra and bell. The vajra
is a symbol of skillful means, and the bell is a symbol of wisdom. Their holding the vajra
and bell stands for the unity of skillful means and wisdom, appearance and emptiness,
samsara and nirvana.
Many Vajrayana deities, too, have crowns of five skulls on their heads.
These five skulls stand for the five transcendental knowledges, or wisdoms, that belong to
the five celestial Buddhas: (a) the knowledge of the Dharmadhatu, (b) the mirror-like
knowledge, (c) the knowledge of equality, (d) the knowledge of discrimination, and (e) the
knowledge of accomplishment. Many of their bodies are adorned with six ornaments of
bone--bracelets, anklets, girdles, and so forth. These six ornaments stand for the Six
Perfections of generosity, morality, patience, energy, concentration, and wisdom.
The fact that we find such objects prevalent in Vajrayana iconography
does not merely indicate some kind of fascination with the bizarre and macabre. Rather,
these objects are very closely connected with several levels of meaning: (i) a very deep
unconscious (or subconscious) level of meaning, (ii) a level of meaning that has to do
with cultural archetypes, and (iii) a level of meaning that is very specifically and
precisely related to particular elements of the Buddhist path.
On the broadest level, we have been dealing here with great, sweeping
dualities: mythological themes, the theme of good and evil, the archetypes of male and
female, and so forth. More specifically, we have been dealing with archetypes that have
particular power and meaning for living beings--the archetypes of the tree, throne, fire,
and so on; the extremes of eternalism and nihilism; the values of skillful means and
wisdom. On an even more specific level, we have been looking at symbolic objects that
relate to particular items of Buddhist doctrine, like the five transcendental knowledges
and Six Perfections.
What I have tried to do in this chapter is give some indication of the
way Vajrayana myths and symbols work, and of the meaning of the various portrayals and
images we find in Vajrayana iconography. It is a mistake to regard the imagery and
symbolism of the Vajrayana as in any way arbitrary, accidental, or simply sensational. On
the contrary, the Vajrayana tradition makes a conscious and carefully calculated use of
myth and symbol for the particular purpose of accelerating the practitioner's progress
toward Buddhahood.
-oOo-
[Taken from Peter Della Santina., The Tree of Enlightenment. (Taiwan:
The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation, 1997), pp. 224-233].
-oOo-
Sincere thanks to Ti.nh Tue^. for typing
this article.