TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Circuits of Borobudur's Bodhisattva Machine

The Abrupt Transition at the Summit

The Womb of the Tathagata

Seed and Embryo of Buddhahood

The Gandharva's Castle

The Essence of the Tathagata

The Buddha of the Lankavatara Sutra

The Mandala at the Summit

The Radiating Pores of the Buddha

The Akanishtha Heaven

The Setting of the Lankavatara Sutra

An Interpretation of Borobudur's Summit based on the Lankavatara Sutra.
by Mark Long

"Plan out an adequate plan and establish yourself
at a stage of discipline by planning out such a plan
as would include all kinds of skillful means,
so that you may come to realize that realm which is beyond imagination.
And then you will attain the stage of Tathagatahood
in which one is able to manifest oneself in various forms,
and which is something never seen before...." (1)

In 1951 J. L. Moens published a Dutch-language article (see the English-language translation "Barabudur, Mendut and Pawon and their mutual relationship") in which he sought to link the design of Borobudur's summit with elements from the Great Miracle of Śrāvasti as it is described in the Divyavadana as well as references to Buddhist cosmology's highest level in the World of Form or Rupadhatu according to early Mahayana texts such as the Lankavatara-sutra. Called the Akanishtha Heaven, the uppermost tier in the Rupadhatu is the place where all the Buddhas receive their final training and attain the Perfect Wisdom of Enlightenment, even as their physical bodies remain seated underneath the bodhi tree in the "World of Men."

Art historian Marijke Klokke and Buddhist scholar David Snellgrove see little if any evidence at Borobudur of the later tantric Buddhist traditions that eventually came to dominate Buddhist practice in countries such as Nepal, Japan and Tibet. Despite Borobudur's lack of vajra emblems, goddesses occupying prominent places or any other of the more obvious signs of an esoteric character, other investigators such as Lokesh Chandra have long sought to identify Borobudur's design with an esoteric family of Buddhist texts, well known in Japan and Tibet, that not only elevate Vairocana to the position of Adi-Buddha but also delineate the the Jinas of the cardinal directions as displaying the same hand gestures that are found at Borobudur.

These Diamond Vehicle or Vajrayana traditions, which are still followed in Japan today, feature mandalas in which Vairocana and the Jinas of the cardinal directions play instrumental roles. During his sojourn to China in the early ninth century CE, Kukai--the founder of Japan's Shingon ("True Speech") sect--studied with the Javanese monk Pan-Hong who the Chinese patriarch Hui-kuo eventually acknowledged as a master profiecient in the esoteric traditions of the Womb World or Garbhadhatu mandala.

No researcher has succeeded so far in presenting the requisite evidence for establishing conclusive proof of a link between Borobudur's design and the Vajrayana texts and drawings preserved in Japan. It is therefore reasonable for us to examine other Mahayana Buddhist texts in the hope that they might provide some further illumination concerning Borobudur's symbolism.

The Circuits of the Bodhisattva Machine

Although the Lankavatara Sutra may not have actually served as a sort of blueprint for Borobudur as J. L. Moens had originally proposed, it nevertheless expounds upon a number of points that may help to further explain various elements to be found within the monument's design.  

Borobudur presents a revelation of the Ultimate Reality in the form of stepped terraces that not only represent the aspiring Bodhisattva's ascent to heaven but also a return to an original state of non-differentiation or suchness (tathata). Along the circumambulation paths that are located from the second gallery outwards, the celebrant encounters and integrates the basic Mahayana Buddhist doctrines that are illustrated in the bas-reliefs that present episodes from the Jatakamala, various Jataka stories and the Lalitavistara Sutra, which all pertain to the Buddha Sakyamuni's spiritual career as a Bodhisattva. In addition, these five circuits around the monument's interior core integrate additional bas-reliefs based on Avadana texts pertaining to the lives of various Buddhist saints. The over-riding purpose of all the stories presented in this part of the monument is to illustrate the "perfections" (paramitas) that aspiring Bodhisattvas must accumulate during the course of pursuing their spiritual careers.

The reliefs on the walls of the second gallery--as well as those that are located on either side of the third and fourth gallery walkways--are all based on the story of one young man's quest to acquire wisdom. As the main hero of the Gandavyuha, Sudhana serves as the model pilgrim for anyone who aspires to make contact with the Ultimate Reality.

The entire Gandavyuha bas-relief series, which culminates at the gateway that leads up to Borobudur's summit, presents the Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Serving as a mirror for each celebrant who follows this path, Sudhana realizes that the Vows of Samantabhadra can be undertaken by anyone who aspires to follow his example.

After completing the second and final circuit around the fourth gallery walkway, the celebrant passes through the gateway and ascends the eastern staircase that leads up the monument's hidden core. The archway over this portal features the images of two holy men or "Rishis" who are engaged in the act of showering flowers down upon the heads of the celebrants as they pass over the threshold.

This gateway to the summit is also significant because it marks the pivotal transition point at which we must leave behind the familiar forms of life in the material world. By contrast, the summit presents a world in which the patterns of phenomenal existence have been all but totally extinguished. What remains is a stark, austere mountain of stone that is punctuated by a limited number of very consequential symbols that have been repeated over and over again. This is how the architect has elected to express the Reality Limit where the Mind of the Tathagata eternally abides in a quiescent, undifferentiated state of bliss that is impervious to all causes and conditions, obstructions or impediments. 

Some scholars have characterized the stark contrast between the womb-like rectangular galleries in the lower half of the monument and the stark, open landscape that one experiences at the summit as the architect's expression of two mutually-opposed worlds. This particular notion, however, perpetuates a dualistic view of existence that has been explicitly rejected by the composers of Buddhist scriptures such as the Lankavatara Sutra. At Borobudur, both the core and container are inextricably bound together, with each playing its respective part in enabling the other to express its true nature.

"All sentient beings are endowed
with the Essence of the Buddha....
The Absolute is one undifferentiated whole.
And the Germ of Buddhahood exists in every living being.
Therefore, for ever and anon, all that lives is
endowed with the Essence of the Buddha.
Just as, being essentially free from (dialectical)
thought-construction, the element of space is ubiquitous,
In the same way the Immaculate Essence which is
of Spiritual nature, pervades all that exists." (2)

The lower and upper halves of the monument are at all times mutually related and inseparable, each radiating into the other. The downward radiation of the Buddha located at the monument's core is not limited to the multiple tiers of images that occupy all four sides of the monument. It is also to be found in the myriad forms of buds, creepers, flowers, stems and vines that flow gracefully into the monument's lower terraced levels, which all descend from a singular source. Moreover, as worshippers ascend Borobudur's many levels, those aspects of Reality that radiate outward from the monument's core are gradually assimilated and carried back to their point of origin. 

"Not only is there seen a fire-flame
spreading out in one continuity
and yet showing a variety of flames,
but from one seed, O Lord of Lanka,
are produced, also in one continuity,
stems, shoots, knots, leaves, petals,
flowers, fruit, branches, all individualized.
As it is with every external object
from which grow a variety of objects,
so also with internal objects." (3)

The Abrupt Transition at the Summit

Using the Lankavatara Sutra as the basis of making an interpretation, the core area at the monument's summit is the architect's expression of the thusness (tathata) that abides eternally in all things. It is here that we find the mirror images of a single Buddha displaying his wheel-turning mudra in all directions simultaneously. Regardless of whether the Buddhas within any of the 72 perforated stupas are seen or remain unseen, the monument's core continues to express absolute reality in the same way that gold exists even though concealed within the ore. 

"For it is this that makes things abide, makes them arrange themselves in order and establish a realm among themselves, and constitutes their essence. It is eternally there. It is the suchness of things. Like an ancient city it has been there since beginningless time...." (4)

The absence of narrative reliefs at the summit of the monument is no accident, for their collective role as visual analogs for Buddhist texts are no longer required when one approaches the Reality Limit.

"Mahamati, words are not the highest Reality,
nor is it what is expressed by words that highest Truth.
Why? For this reason:
The highest Reality is an exalted state of bliss
which cannot be entered into through verbal statements,
for words are not the highest Reality....

"Moreover, Mahamati, the verbal expression,
which quickly rises and quickly disappears,
is mutually generated from causes and causal factors
[which] cannot express the Ultimate Reality,
(since) a verbal sign, Mahamati, cannot express
the non-existent characteristic mark of Self,
or of something other (than Self).

"Furthermore, Mahamati, the verbal discrimination
cannot conceive the supreme Reality
on account of the non-existence of an external object
having any sort of characteristic marks
and (also) due to the following of the mere perceptions of one's own mind. In that case, therefore, Mahamati, you must become free from discrimination through various words.

"Thus it is said:

'All existence is indeed without self-nature,
and words, too, are without reality;
as the immature does not understand the meaning of Voidness,
it is nevertheless voidness which runs through (the universe). There is no self-nature in all things,
and they are but men's word;
those which are discriminated, they too, do not exist;
even Nirvana is like a dream;
nothing is seen as being in transmigration (Samsara);
nor is anything ever released into Nirvana.'" (5)

If this is indeed the truth concerning the absolute nature of the Ultimate Reality, then why has Borobudur's architect bothered to present the phenomenal world in all its diversity on the gallery walls and balustrades of the monument's lower levels? The composer of the Lankavatara Sutra provides one possible answer:

"'As a king or a wealthy householder
alluring his sons with various clay-made animals
and having had them play with these toys,
then he gives them real wild beast (to deal with),
so I, by making use of various forms of concepts,
teach the Limit of Reality to my sons [the Bodhisattvas],
which is actually the knowledge of the inner Self.'" (6)

Only after the celebrant has had ample opportunity to participate in Borobudur's receptacle world of phenomena, does the summit reveal that all previously encountered forms were merely temporary expedients for bringing him or her to the Limit of Reality without apprehension or otherwise experiencing any disaffection with the awesome truth of the Tathagata's teachings.

The Buddha of the Lankavatara Sutra is careful to distinguish his own message concerning the illusion of phenomenal existence from the beliefs of the philosophers who hold that "...there is a self-substance about which they assert immortality and unchangeability. My position is not that, for it does not fall into the categories of being and non-being. It goes beyond the categories of being and non-being, of birth and disappearance; it is not existence nor is it non-existence.

"How is it not non-existent? Because it is like unto a diversity of forms appearing in a dream....

"How is it not existent?

Because the self-substance of forms
is not to be asserted as existent.
We see them as appearances which are not realities,
we grasp them as before us yet they are not really graspable. For this reason, all existences are to be regarded
neither as existent nor as non-existent.
If we know that what we see before us is no more than
the manifestation of our own mind and abide within ourselves where no dualistic discrimination takes place,
we see that there is nothing astir in the world."

"The nature of things is not truthfully discerned
as it is in itself.
When, however, an untrue view prevails,
there is an attachment to the self-substance of things,
failing to see them in their solitary quietude,
and as long as this quietude fails to be seen,
there will be no disappearance of wrongful discrimination. Therefore, O Mahamati,
a view based on the formlessness of things
is superior to that based on form,
because form is the cause of birth.
When there is formlessness,
it puts a stop to the rise of discrimination,
and there is a state of immortality, which is Nirvana." (7)

As the composer of the Lankavatara Sutra further explains, all the relativistic views that we hold concerning phenomenal existence are entirely due to the discriminating activities of our own minds. But as soon as the intelligent mind discerns the truth of the absolute Existence, the worldly knowledge and the dualistic relativity of discrimination ceases to exist. What remains is that perfect view of existence (parinishpanna) that is beyond all dualistic notions of being and non-being. (8)

It was the opinion of the sutra's translator D. T. Suzuki that the text can be classed together with the Avatamsaka Sutra of which the Gandavyuha is merely the concluding chapter, "...inasmuch as it teaches the absolute idealism of the latter and is the disclosure of the inner mind of the Buddha, but it has a special message to give to the Buddhist world in a manner characteristic of the sutra. It is devoid of all symbolism, quite different in this respect that the Avatamsaka." (9)

Suzuki also points out that the Lankavatara Sutra continually expresses religious sentiments that amply reflect the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra's refusal to enter Nirvana because of his vows, which "...are not limited in time and space, and for this reason they are called inexhaustible. Not only are his vows inexhaustible but the skillful means he uses for the emancipation of all beings knows no limits. He knows how to make the best use of his inexhaustible resources (which are both) intellectual and practical for this single purpose. Here we may add that the Bodhisattva Samatrabhadra of the Avatamsaka or the Gandavyuha is reflected." (10)

The abrupt change that takes place when one ascends to take in the austere landscape of the monument's summit likewise implies a corresponding break in the textual sources that had inspired Borobudur's architect. Since this transition is immediately preceded by the relief series that presents the Vows of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, we should examine what the Lankavatara Sutra has to say about the transitional state of the aspiring Bodhisattva. 

In the course of performing deeds of great love, skillful means, and effortlessness, the Bodhisattva comes to realize that all notions of individual existence are merely illusions that resemble shadows. As soon as the Bodhisattva realizes that nothing of this world of shadows exists outside of the mind, then he or she endeavors to lead a life of formlessness.

As pilgrims gradually ascend to the higher stages in their Bodhisattva careers, they become able to realize the meditative state or "samadhi" called Maya-like, which enables them to understand that the triple world is Mind itself. After further freeing themselves from all images, they are able to perfect their knowledge and realize that things are unborn. And upon entering the samadhi called Vajravimbopama, they obtain the Buddha-body. Always abiding in the suchness of things, they manifest themselves in transformed bodies and become endowed "...with the Ten Powers, the Six Psychic Faculties, and the Ten-fold Self-Mastery of the Tathagata." (11)

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Suzuki, D.T., translator. The Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999) [Reprint of 1932 edition].

(2) Sutton, Florin Giripescu. Existence and enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra. Albany: University of New York Press (1991): 74.

(3) Suzuki, D.T. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999):81-83 [reprint of 1930 edition]. 

(4) Ibid. p. 213.

(5) Sutton, Florin Giripescu. Existence and enlightenment in the Lankavatara Sutra. Albany: University of New York Press (1991):127-128.

(6) Ibid.

(7) Suzuki, D.T. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999):294-295 [reprint of 1930 edition].

(8) Ibid. p. 162.

(9) Ibid. p. 96.

(10) Suzuki, D.T., translator. The Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999):xliii [Reprint of 1932 edition].

(11) Suzuki, D.T. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999):96-98 [reprint of 1930 edition].

The Ten Powers (dasabala):

1). Knowing suitable and unsuitable places for the preaching and activity of the Buddha
2). Knowing what is the maturation of different karman
3). Knowing all meditations, liberations, extasis, union with superior spheres
4). Knowing the superior and inferior faculties
5). Knowing the different inclinations of beings
6). Knowing the different spheres of existence
7). Knowing the way leading to any desired place
8). Knowing and remembering the preceding existences
9). Knowing the time of death and rebirth
10). Destroying sinful forces

See Tucci, Giuseppe. Stupa: Art, Architectonics and Symbolism. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan (1988):40-42.

The Six Psychic Facilities:

1). Divine sight
2). Divine hearing
3). The facility of reading others thoughts
4). The facility of remembering one's former abodes or lives
5). The knowledge that transforms one's modes of life at will
6). The knoweldge that destroys the evil outflows

The Ten-fold Self Mastery:

1). Mastery over the duration of life
2). Mastery over the mind which can enter into every possible form of self-concentration
3). Power over an infinite variety of embellishment whereby the Bodhisattva enriches the worlds
4). Submitting oneself to the working of karma as the case requires
5). Mastery over bith so that the Bodhisattva can be reborn in any world
6). The power of seeing the Buddhas filling up the universe
7). The power of attaining enlightenment at any moment and at any place one wills
8). The power of exhibiting all kinds of miraculous works
9). The ability of teaching Buddhism in all possible aspects
10). The power of understanding whereby the Bodhisattva reveals in every thought the Tathagata's wonderful powers and perfect serenity leading to the realization of the Bodhi.

See Suzuki, D.T. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. New Delhi: Motil Banarsidass (1999):383 and 436 [reprint of 1930 edition]. 

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