What to see in a Mandala

བེད་གཤེགས་རིགས་ལྔ་དང་དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་གནས།
དཀྱིལ་ལ་སྣང་མཐའ་པདྨ་དཀར། ཆགས་པའི་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ཤར་ལ་མི་སྐྱོད་རྡོ་རྗེ་སྔོན། ཞེ་སྡང་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ལྷོ་རུ་རིན་འབྱུང་ནོར་བུ་གསེར། ང་རྒྱལ་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
ནུབ་ཏུ་རྣམ་སྣང་འཁོར་ལོ་དམར། གཏི་མུག་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།
བྱང་ལ་དོན་གྲུབ་རལ་གྲི་ལྗང་། ཕྲག་དོག་སྒྲིབ་པ་སེལ་བར་བྱེད།

Debarshegpa is usually translated as; the one who has gone or arrived at eternal bliss; the enlightenment. Debarshegpa Nga; the five families of Buddhas representing the victorious ones; Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitabha, and Amoghashiddhi.

In the Mandala of Chenrizig; Avaloketeshvara, we find this Gyalwa-rig-nga, the families of five Buddha in the middle of the Mandala. Above Tibetan verses tells you how these five Buddhas assume their respective place in the Manadala; how they are represented, and power of their blessing.

In the core center is Nangwa-thaye; the Amitabha, represented by a white Lotus, deliverence from the power of attachment. In the East is Mikyopa; the Akshobaya, represented by a blue Vajra, release from the negative power of pride and arrogance. In the South is Rinchen Jungden; the Ratnasambhava represented by a wish-fulfilling jewel in yellow color, eliminating the dark power of hatred and anger. In the west is Nam-nang; the Vairocana, represented by red wheel, deliverence from ignorance. In the north is Dhondup; the Amogasiddhi, represented by green dagger, cutting the root cause of jealousy or envy.

Above is how the Buddhas occupy their respective place in Mandala according to Tibetan Buddhism. In Japan, it is said that the Vairocana occupy the center seating. It may be little different in  other tradition also. The important point is  that the practitioners or devotees need to grasp the essential significance of this seating and the representation, and immerse themselves into deep meditational contemplation to receive the blessing of the Buddhas to cleanse and to eliminate the stain of nyonmong (five mental delusions) from their mind and heart. 

 

©TGARYA