The Tibetan Book of the Dead — ed. W. Y. Evans-Wentz

Esoterically explained, Mt. Meru (Tib. R2z-vad), the central mountain of Hindu and Buddhist cosmography, round which our cosmos is disposed in seven concentric circles of oceans separated by seven intervening concentric circles of golden mountains, is the universal hub, the support of all the worlds. We may possibly regard it, like the Central Sun of Western astronomy, as the gravitational centre of the known universe. Outside the seven circles of oceans and the intervening seven circles of golden mountains lies the circle of continents.

In illustration, an onion of fifteen layers may be taken to represent roughly the /amazc conception of our universe. The core, to which the fifteen layers cohere, is Mt. Meru. Below, are the various hells ; above, supported by Mt. Meru, are the heavens of the gods, the more sensuous, like the thirty-three heavens ruled by Indra, and those under the sway of Mara, being ranged in their own regular gradation beneath the less sensuous heavens of Brahma. As apex over all, is the final heaven, called ‘The Supreme’ (Tib. ‘Og-mz). Being the last outpost of our universe, ‘Og-min, as the vestibule to Wirvana, is the transitional state leading from the mundanc to the supramundane; and thus there presides over it the divine influence of ‘The Best of All’ (Tib. Kzntu-zangpo: Skt. Samanta-Bhadra), the lamaic personification of Nirvana.

On a level with Indra’s realm dwell, in their own heavenp. 63worlds, the eight Mother Goddesses (Tib. H/amo), all of whom appear in our text. They are the Mother Goddesses of the early Hindus, called in Sanskrit the AZa¢ris.

Within Mt. Meru itself, upon which the Heavens rest, there are four realms, one above another. Of these, the three lower are inhabited by various orders of genii; and in the fourth, immediately beneath the Heavens, from which, like the fallen angels of Christian belief, they were expelled on account of their pride, dwell the ‘Ungodly Spirits’, the Asuras (Tib. Lha-ma-yin), or Titans, who, as rebels, live and die waging unending war with the gods above.

The innermost layer of the onion is the Ocean surrounding Mt. Meru. The next layer, outwardly expanding, is that of the Golden Mountains; the next beyond is another Ocean; and so on, a circle of Golden Mountains always coming after a circle of Ocean until the fifteenth layer containing the outermost Ocean, in which float the Continents and their satellites. The skin of the onion is a wall of iron enclosing the one universe.

The skin of the onion is a wall of iron enclosing the one universe.

Beyond one such universe there lies another, and so on to infinity.! Each universe, like a great cosmic egg, is enclosed within the iron-wall shell, which shuts in the light of the sun and moon and stars, the iron-wall shell being symbolical of the perpetual darkness separating one universe from another. All universes alike are under the domination of natural law, with which karma is commonly made synonymous; for, in the Buddhist view, there is no scientific necessity to affirm or to deny the existence of a supreme God-Creator, the Karmic Law furnishing a complete explanation of all phenomena and being of itself demonstrable.

Each universe, like our own, rests upon ‘a warp and woof’ of blue air (i.e. ether), symbolized by crossed dorjes (such as are depicted by the emblem on the cover of our book). Upon

1 Could we take the /@maic conception of a universe to be that of a worldsystem, and of a plurality of universes to be that of a plurality of worldsystems forming a universe, we should then be able better to correlate the cosmography of Northern Buddhism (and of Brahmanism, from which it appears to have originated) with the cosmography of Western Science.

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this rests ‘the body of the waters’ of the outer Ocean. Each Ocean symbolizes a stratum of air (or ether), and each of the intervening mountains a stratum of congealed air (or ether), that is to say, material substance; or, from a more occult view-point, the Oceans are the Subtle and the Mountains the Gross, the one alternating with the other as Opposites.

Like the Seven Days of the Mosaic version of Creation, the numerical dimensions which the /amas assign to our universe are more often to be taken as suggestive or symbolical than literal. Mt. Meru, they say, towers 80,000 miles above the Central Enchanted Ocean and extends below the surface of the waters the same distance, the Central Ocean itself being also 80,000 miles deep and 80,000 miles wide. The succeeding girdle of Golden Mountains is just half that number of miles in height and width and depth, and the next Ocean, correspondingly, 40,000 miles deep and 40,coo miles wide. The consecutive circles of alternating pairs composed of Golden Mountains and an Enchanted Ocean gradually diminish as to width, depth, and height, being respectively 20,000, 10,000, 5,0CO, 2,500, 1,250, and 625 miles. This brings us to the Continents in the Outer Ocean of Space.

Of these Continents, the four chief ones—as described in the Second Book of our Bardo Thodol—are situated in the Four Directions. On either side of each of these Four Continents are smaller or satellite Continents, thus making the total number of Continents twelve, which, again, is a symbolical number, like the number seven of the cosmographical arrangement.

On either side of each of these Four Continents are smaller or satellite Continents, thus making the total number of Continents twelve, which, again, is a symbolical number, like the number seven of the cosmographical arrangement.

The Eastern Continent is called in Tibetan Lii-pah (Lushpags), or ‘Vast Body’ (Skt. Viradt-deha). Its symbolical shape is like that of a crescent moon; and, accordingly, the colour white is assigned to it, and crescentic faces are ascribed to its inhabitants, who are said to be tranquil-minded and virtuous. Its diameter is given as being 9,000 miles.

The Southern Continent is our Planet Earth, called Jambuling (Skt. Fambudvipa), probably an onomatopoeic word— as the translator held—descriptive of the fruit of a jambu-tree falling into water, dmg itself meaning ‘place’, or ‘region’.

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The name _Jambuling would thus mean the region or continent wherein jambu-fruit fall into the water. Its symbolic shape is like that of the shoulder-blade of a sheep, that is subtriangular, or rather pear-shaped, to which the faces of its inhabitants conform. Blue is the colour assigned to it. Riches and plenty abound in it, along with both good and evil. It is said to be the smallest of the Four Continents, being but 7,000 miles in diameter,

The Western Continent is called Balongchéd (Ba-glangspyod), literally meaning cow+ox+ action (Skt. Godhana, or ‘Wealth of Oxen’). In shape it is like the sun, and red of colour. Its inhabitants, whose faces are round like the sun, are believed to be very powerful and to be addicted to eating cattle, as the literal meaning of its name itself may suggest. Its diameter measures 8,000 miles.

The Northern Continent is Daminyan, or Graminyan (Sgvami-snyan), equivalent to the Sanskrit U¢tara Kuru, meaning ‘Northern Kuru [Race]’. It is of square shape and green colour. Its inhabitants have corresponding faces, square like those of horses. Trees supply all their sustenance and wants, and the Kuru, on dying, haunt the trees as tree-spirits. This is the largest of the Continents, being 10,coo miles in diameter.

Each satellite Continent resembles the Continent to which it is attached, and is one-half its size. The left Satellite of our world (/ambuling), called Ngadyabling, is, for example, the world of the Rakshasas, to which Padma Sambhava, the Great Guru of Lamaism, is believed to have gone to teach the Rakshasas goodness and salvation, and to be there now as their king.’

Underlying this /amazc cosmology there is, as research will show, an elaborate symbolism. Take, for instance, the description of Mt. Meru as given by Dr. Waddell: ‘Its eastern face is of silver, the south of jasper, the west of ruby, and the north of gold’*—which illustrates a use of ancient symbols very similar to that in the Revelation of John. The complete rational explanation of all the symbolism connected with