illustrating these complicated ideas include represen-
tations of famous scenic sites, with or without the
Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples they house. Such
paintings also include representations of both Shinto
and Buddhist manifestations of the deities associated
with these sites, as well as representations of the sacred
animals or other emblems affiliated with the practices
and beliefs of individual locations.
See also:Stupa
Bibliography
Brauen, Martin. The Mandala: A Sacred Circle in Tibetan Bud-
dhism,tr. Martin Willson. Boston: Shambhala, 1998.
Leidy, Denise Patry, and Thurman, Robert A. F. Mandala: The
Architecture of Enlightenment.New York: Asia Society and
Tibet House, 1997.
ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations
of Sacred Geography.Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1999.
DENISEPATRYLEIDYMANTRA
Mantras, or incantations, magic formulas, or spells,
were originally used in Vedic religion to invoke the
gods during sacrificial rituals. They were used as spells
and magic charms in mainstream Indian and East
Asian Mahayana Buddhism, in which the word mantra
was more less interchangeable with the word DHARANI.
Mantrawas translated into Chinese as zhenyan(“true
word”). Mantra became so fundamental an aspect of
tantric Buddhism, or VAJRAYANA, which rose in the
seventh and eighth centuries, that it was initially called
the “Mantrayana.”
Chanted in tantric ritual and practice, mantras are
generally short combinations of syllables that have no
direct or easily translatable meaning. The chanted
sound of the formula, not the meaning, is the impor-
tant factor. Mantras are powerful language understood
to be the literal words or sounds of the Buddha. The
word “mantra” is often combined or interchanged
with the word hrdaya(“heart”), so that it means some-
thing like “quintessence.” A hrdaya-mantraoften be-
gins with om and ends with svaha,hum,or phat.This
use of mantra is essentially the same as, and is often
translated as “seed syllable,” though that term is prop-
erly a translation of blja. The best-known mantra
among Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists is OM MANI
PADME HUM, an invocation of the Bodhisattva Ava-
lokites ́vara, who is depicted holding a jewel and a lotus—
the exact meaning of which has long been a matter of
popular and scholarly debate.See also:Dharanl; Language, Buddhist Philosophy of;
TantraBibliography
Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et Mandarins: le bouddhisme
tantrique en Chine.Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1996.RICHARDD. MCBRIDEIIMAPPO. SeeDecline of the DharmaMARAMara, whose name literally means “death” or “maker
of death,” is the embodiment of lust, greed, false views,
delusion, and illusion. He is a virtually ubiquitous pres-
ence in Buddhist texts from the earliest accounts of the
Buddha’s enlightenment on. Mara stands as an active
antagonist of the Buddha and his followers, as well as
a powerful metaphor. Paradigmatically, Mara attempts
to stop the Buddha in his quest for enlightenment.
In one of the earliest accounts of Mara’s treachery,
in the Sutta Nipata(425–449), Mara approaches the
about-to-be enlightened Buddha and attempts to con-
vince him to abandon his efforts and to adopt the more
conventional Brahmanical religious life, the life of sac-
rifice and good karma. The Buddha rejects this sug-
gestion, and rebukes Mara and his minions. In later
accounts of this episode found in the MAHAVASTU
(Great Story), LALITAVISTARA, Nidana-katha (Story of
Causation), and the BUDDHACARITA(Acts of the Bud-
dha), Mara sends his various armies, including his own
daughters, to frighten and tempt the Buddha as he sits
in meditation; all such efforts of course fail. Finally,
Mara himself comes to the Buddha and calls into ques-
tion his right to sit on the bodhimanda,the place of
enlightenment, claiming that it is he, and not the Bud-
dha, who is the rightful occupant of that position (due
to his own past good karmic deeds). The Buddha then
reaches out his hand and calls the earth goddess,
Bhudev, to bear witness to his past good deeds; the
earth quakes, the goddess appears, and Mara and hisMANTRA