TAIMA MANDARA

In my explorations of symbolic walking practices, I have been re-reading Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography by American scholar and friend of Tendai Buddhadharma, Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. (Available for loan from our sangha library). My earlier study of this marvelous text originally emphasized her middle chapters which describe the twin esoteric mandalas called the Taizo-kai (Earth World) and the Kongo-kai (Diamond World). She explains that the term mandala refers to the symbolic images or maps which have been part of the Vajrayana tradition since its emergence in India early on in Buddhist evolution. She distinguishes this from “mandara”, a Japanese term which she relates to uniquely Japanese images. Lately, as I have been exploring numerous Pure Land sutras, and associated practices, I wanted to review her study of what are Pure Land images, especially the Taima mandara.

 
These are not taken as esoteric but as representations of the descriptions of Sukhavati, Amida’s Pure Land, as presented in sutras like the Visualization Sutra or the Sukhavati Sutras. These sutras are not doctrinal or philosophical, but primarily descriptive, providing great detail of what one would see in Amida’s Pure Land.
These images then and now provide the content for numerous visualization practices, part of the devotional practice “kit” of Tendai. Teachers since Chi-ih have structured devotional visualization practices as the four-fold samadhi - continuous sitting, continuous walking, walking and sitting and neither walking nor sitting (this is continuous practice within everyday life).

To view images and detailed descriptions of the three most important mandara:
                                               
http://www.euroshinshu.org/www12.canvas.ne.jp/horai/mandala-index.htm

       
Yours , on the journey,                           
Ray
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet
Thich Nhat Hahn