For example, in the Womb World Mandala, Vairocana
is seated in the center of an eightfold lotus containing
four buddhas and four bodhisattvas. The mandala un-
folds from the center in twelve sections, each contain-
ing a central deity and attendant figures, symbolic of
aspects of the cosmos or the process of spiritual de-
velopment. The three courts to the east, reading from
the center, include six deities surrounding a central
triangle containing the burning fire of wisdom; the
historical Buddha, S ́akyamuni, thought to be a man-MANDALA
Mandala of the Diamond World. (Japanese hanging scroll, Kamakura period, thirteenth–fourteenth century.) The Brooklyn Museum of
Art. Reproduced by permission.