The Mandala of the Two Realms (Traditional Chinese: 両界曼荼羅; Pinyin: Liǎngjiè màntúluó; Rōmaji: Ryōkai mandara), also known as the Mandala of the Two Divisions (Traditional Chinese: 両部曼荼羅; Pinyin: Liǎngbù màntúluó; Rōmaji: Ryōbu mandara), is a set of two mandalas in East Asian Esoteric Buddhism, particularly prominent within Chinese Esoteric Buddhism as well as the Shingon and Tendai traditions of Japanese Buddhism. The Dual Mandala comprises two complementary mandalas: the Womb Realm Mandala (, Traditional Chinese: 胎蔵界曼荼羅; Pinyin: Tāizāngjiè màntúluó; Rōmaji: Taizōkai mandara) associated with compassion and the Vajra Realm Mandala (Sanskrit: vajradhātu, Traditional Chinese: 金剛界曼荼羅; pinyin: Jīngāngjiè màntúluó; rōmaji: Kongōkai mandara) associated with wisdom. The Dual Mandalas represent distinct yet non-dual dimensions of the enlightened cosmos centered on the universal Buddha Mahāvairocana (Chinese: 大日如來; pinyin: Dàrì Rúlái; rōmaji: Dainichi Nyorai).
The Mandala of the Two Worlds encapsulates the cosmology, metaphysics, and soteriology of East Asian Esoteric Buddhism. It provides both a visual and ritual method for realizing the practitioner's inherent identity with the Buddha, through the integration of compassion and wisdom. It is thus a symbolic teaching device, a meditative tool, and a ritual instrument. The Dual Mandalas portray two complementary dimensions of Buddhahood. The Womb Realm represents the great compassion (maha karuṇā) of the original Buddha Mahāvairocana who is always nurturing all beings toward enlightenment. The Vajra Realm signifies the indestructible omniscient wisdom (sārvajñana) of Mahāvairocana Buddha which pervades all phenomena. Thus, the Two Worlds Mandala provides a complete map of the cosmos as a unified field of compassion and wisdom which is used by an esoteric practitioner, through ritual and meditative identification with the deities of the mandalas, to progressively actualizes their own original enlightenment.
Both mandalas present highly systematized arrays of buddhas, bodhisattvas, wisdom kings, and celestial beings. The number of deities arranged around the cores varies, but may range as high as 414. Each figure holds specific mudrās (hand gestures) and attributes, and is associated with specific seed syllables (bīja). Both mandalas are oriented according to the cardinal directions, with symbolic meaning attached to each direction. Specific colors are also employed symbolically, representing particular virtues, or elements.
Japanese Shingon and Tendai temples often prominently display the Mandalas of the Two Realms mounted at right angles to the image platform on the central altar. The two mandalas are believed to have evolved separately in India, and were joined for the first time in China, perhaps by Kūkai's teacher Huiguo (746–805).
Indian background
The conceptual and textual foundations of the Two Worlds Mandala derive from Indian Esoteric Buddhism (Mantrayāna), specifically from two seminal scriptures: the Mahāvairocana Sūtra and the Vajraśekhara Sūtra. Both texts represent advanced stages of Buddhist tantric development in India, reflecting sophisticated ritual systems, mantra theory, and visualization practices intended to rapidly actualize the practitioner's identity with the cosmic Buddha.
The Great Compassion Womb Realm Mandala is primarily based on the Mahāvairocana Sūtra (Chinese: 大日經; pinyin: Dàrì jīng; rōmaji: Dainichi kyō), while the Vajra-realm Mandala is based on the Vajraśekhara Sūtra (Chinese: 金剛頂經; pinyin: Jīngāngdǐng jīng; rōmaji: Kongōchō kyō).Kiyota, M. (1987). Shingon Mikkyō's twofold maṇḍala: Paradoxes and integration. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 10(1), 91-116. The Mahāvairocana Sūtra is said to have been compiled around the mid-7th century in India. Its first chapter provides a Madhyamaka like teaching on emptiness. On the other hand, the Vajraśekhara Sūtra is a compilation of several works, compiled in India beginning at the end of the 7th century. Its orientation is closer to Yogacara Mind-only Buddhism and buddha-nature thought. These sutras draw on previous Mahayana iconography and deities to develop a much more complex esoteric ritual complex. While the Mahāvairocana Sūtra and the Vajraśekhara Sūtra both take Mahāvairocana Buddha as their central theme, they are scriptures of different lineages, composed independently at different times and in different regions of India, and transmitted separately to China.
In Buddhist India, mandalas were often earthen platforms or designs on the ground with cow dung or clay, along with paint or colored powder used for esoteric rituals. They represented the true nature and pattern of all reality as well as the enlightened wisdom of the Buddhas. In China, these designs evolved into permanent paintings or textiles.Yamasaki 1988, pp. 124-125. In some cases, an entire temple complex could be a mandala. Perhaps the most famous example of such a large scale mandala is the Indonesian Buddhist site of Borobudur.Yamasaki 1988, p. 126
The tradition of laying out Buddhist deities in a sacred diagram (i.e. a mandala) corresponding to the main cardinal directions is not unique to esoteric Buddhist texts. These diagrams first appear in Mahayana sutras like the Sutra of Golden Light (c. 5th century) and the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra. The Golden Light Sutra describes a mandala with Shakyamuni in the center, surrounded by Ratnaketu (south), Amitayus (west), Dundubhisvara (north) and Aksobhya (east) Buddhas. According to Orzech and Sørensen "The Buddhist cave-temples of Kanheri and at Ellora in the Deccan contain what may be the earliest extant examples of rudimentary mandalas in the form of geometric matrices containing Buddhist divinities."Orzech, C. D., & Sørensen, H. H. (2011). "6. Mudrā, Mantra and Mandala". In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/ej.9789004184916.i-1200.29
Examples of four Buddhas arranged in the four cardinal directions with the Buddha relics at the center chamber (called a garbha) have also been found in Indian Buddhist stupas like Sanchi stupa, Udayagiri stupa, Jajpur stupa (Pushpagiri) and Dekhinath stupa (Gyaraspur). The Udayagiri stupa for example, houses Vairocana, Amitabha, Aksobhya and Ratnasambhava in the four cardinal directions of the stupa.
According to Kimiaki Tanaka, this basic model of four cardinal directions Buddhas surrounding a central core was combined with Vairocana Buddha from the Avatamsaka sutra, and developed into later diagrams depicting the Buddha families of the Five Tathagatas (which changed the other two Buddhas' names to Amoghasiddhi and Ratnasambhava).
Pamela Winfield describes the original Buddhist context of the mandala as follows:the mandala is a two-dimensional blue-print for a three-dimensional palace or imperial city. It is an architectural construct that provides a visual metaphor for the majesty of the macrocosmic universe, and in some contexts, for the sovereignty of the meditator’s own microcosmic body-speech-mind complex. The colorful buddhas who reside within the mandala-palace are usually depicted in royal garb holding imperial regalia, as they preside over their enlightened realms as befitting any cakravartin (virtuous world-ruler). Retinues of bodhisattvas in princely attire represent powerful regents for realizing specific enlightened virtues (e.g. all-seeing compassion, diamond-like wisdom, the ability to use appropriate and “skillful means” [S. upāya] effectively). For the initiate attuned to Buddhism’s elaborate iconographic code, these enlightened and enlightening figures carry both ontological as well as soteriological significance as they reside in and regally preside over their perfected environments.Winfield, Pamela D. (2016). "The Philosophy of the Mandala". In Gereon Kopf, The Dao Companion to Japanese Buddhist Philosophy. Dordrecht: Springer. pp. 235-253.
Chinese Mantrayana
The Mahāvairocana Sūtra was translated into Chinese by the Indian monk Śubhakarasiṃha (Chinese: 善無畏; pinyin: Shànwúwèi; rōmaji: Zenmui, 637–735) together with his Chinese disciple, Yixing (Chinese: 一行; pinyin: Yīxíng; rōmaji: Ichigyō; 683–727), around 725 CE. Meanwhile, the Vajraśekhara Sūtra was translated into Chinese around the same time by the Indian monk Vajrabodhi (Chinese: 金剛智; pinyin: Jīngāngzhì; rōmaji: Kongōchi; 671–741) and his disciple Amoghavajra (Chinese: 不空; pinyin: Bùkōng; rōmaji: Fukū; 705–774). These figures were the key founders of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism (Chinese: 密宗; pinyin: Mìzōng). Each of the esoteric lineages associated with these two sutras also included teachings and instructions on how to draw and construct maṇḍalas (Chinese: 曼荼羅; pinyin: màntúluó). The earliest Chinese sources (6th century) use the term “tan (壇,” “altar” or “platform”) instead of "mandala", indicating how these mandalas were placed or construction on some raised platform. Some examples of early Chinese mandalas have survived in the Mogao Caves.
According to the Shingon tradition, the person who integrated the teachings of these two scriptural lineages and mandalas and composed them into the form of the Two Worlds Mandala as unified system was the Tang Dynasty monk Master Huiguo (746–805), who was also the teacher of Kūkai. Master Huiguo, believing that the profound mysteries of Esoteric Buddhism could not be conveyed by words, ordered the court painter Li Zhen to create depictions such as the Two Worlds Mandala, and transmitted them to Kūkai. In Tang China, mandalas based on the Mahāvairocana and Vajraśekhara systems were used for esoteric initiations (abhiṣeka) and esoteric yogas.
Due to later suppression of Buddhism, especially during the Huichang Persecution (c. 845 CE), Esoteric Buddhism in China did not maintain institutional prominence and eventually disappeared as an organized tradition. However, esoteric elements survived within other schools, including Tiantai, Huayan and Chan.Solonin, Kirill; Zhang Yongfu. "The Tangut Text of Suiyuan ji and the History of Chan Buddhism in Xixia" In: Journal of Chan Buddhism, 2 (2020) 1–28 Brill. For instance, one popular version of the Shuilu Fahui ceremony was heavily influenced by the Vajradhātu Esoteric tradition and involved building an array of altars that largely resembles the Vajradhātu maṇḍala, as well as visualizations of seed-syllables and the conferment of samaya precepts. This version was widely performed up until the late-Qing dynasty (1644-1912).Shi Tianhong 釋天宏. 'Shuilu fahui zhi qiyuan yu lishi yange wenxian tantao'「水陸法會」之起源與歷史沿革文獻探討. 2022. [College Students Buddhist Studies Theses 2022 大專學生佛學論文集 2022, Huayen College 華嚴專宗學院]. Huayen Buddhist College Institutional Repository 大專學生佛學論文集. https://www.huayencollege.org/files/paper/thesis/pdf/2022/13%20%E9%87%8B%E5%A4%A9%E5%AE%8F_%E3%80%8C%E6%B0%B4%E9%99%B8%E6%B3%95%E6%9C%83%E3%80%8D%E4%B9%8B%E8%B5%B7%E6%BA%90%E8%88%87%E6%AD%B7%E5%8F%B2%E6%B2%BF%E9%9D%A9%E6%96%87%E7%8D%BB%E6%8E%A2%E7%A9%B6.pdf Yángé wénxiàn tàntǎo《普勸僧俗發菩提心 文》的校注 [Annotated Commentary on Essay Exhorting both Clergy and Laity to Generation of the Bodhicitta]. 2017 Guoji qingnian Huayan xuezhe luntan lunwen ji 2017 國際青年華嚴學者論壇論文集 [2017 Conference Proceeding of International Young Huayan Scholars' Forum], 2017, H1-20. Website publication by Huayan College (Huayan zhuanzong xueyuan 華嚴專宗學院). In the modern era, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism was revived by Chinese figures who traveled to Japan to study esoteric Buddhism there and receive the required initiations, training and texts.
Theory