Magical Mystery

Three years ago I watched a local Buddhist monk inscribe numbers onto small copper sheets to be installed under ceramic lions on gate posts.  I described this in a blog-essay at the time (see www.kendobson.asia/blog/guardians).  I knew the overall purpose of the process was investing the lions with protective power.  It is the same as with tattoos.

What fascinated me was the special order in which the monk inscribed the numbers onto the plate.  I thought it might be some form of “magic square” such as the Chinese discovered centuries ago.  A nine digit magic square in the form of a tic-tac-toe # is like this:
 
                                                                 4   9   2
                                                                 3   5   7
                                                                 8   1   6
 
Each of the lines and diagonals equals 15.  Legends say that this pattern first appeared on the back of a turtle seen by a Chinese king, who used it to end a deadly threat.
But the monk’s inscription was not a magic square.  His figures were like this:
 
                                                                 1   4   7
                                                                 6   9   2
                                                                 3   8   5
 
He explained that the chanting as he inscribed the numbers was a Buddhist stanza in honor of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.  It is, presumably, the same chant as is used in every Buddhist service.
 
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambudahassa.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambudahassa.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammasambudahassa.
 
We worship the Blessed One, the Self-enlightened One, Supreme Lord Buddha.
We worship the Blessed One, the Self-enlightened One, Supreme Lord Buddha.
We worship the Blessed One, the Self-enlightened One, Supreme Lord Buddha.
 
That is followed by the three refuges, “I take refuge in the Lord Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha:
 
Put-tang                   saranang kaj-saa-me
Tham-mang            saranang kaj-saa-me
Sang-kang             saranang kaj-saa-me

Tu-ti-yam-bi              put-tang               saranang kaj-saa-me
Tu-ti-yam-bi              tham-mang            saranang kaj-saa-me
Tu-ti-yam-bi              sang-kang             saranang kaj-saa-me
Ta-ti-yam-bi              put-tang               saranang kaj-saa-me
Ta-ti-yam-bi              tham-mang            saranang kaj-saa-me
Ta-ti-yam-bi              sang-kang             saranang kaj-saa-me
 
 
Still, I was intrigued by the sequence in which the numbers were inscribed.  After months of considering this I realized that this was not a square but a circle.  The order of inscription was “1, skip two places going clockwise, 2, skip two, 3, skip two, 4, etc.”  9 went into the center.  It was Buddhist, after all.  It was the pattern for the wheel of the law. (See the wheel, above).

But now I have discovered its antecedent in Jain religion, as are many of the esoteric forms of Buddhism.  A longer discourse on these yantra diagrams is here: https://www.yoginiashram.com/yantra-harnessing-the-power-of-mystical-geometry/

Yantras can be rendered in flat designs as is the blue and white example and the painted yantra above.  They can also be executed as tattoos.  (The pictures of tattooing by a famous monk tattooist in Nakhon Pathom province, above, are from a Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing ).  Yantras can be two or three dimensional geometric patterns, but also represent the spirit of animals.  Tigers, elephants and snakes are particularly popular.

Yantras, we are told, are lifeless unless they are inscribed while a mantra is being chanted.  The reason for this is, “Mantras, the Sanskrit syllables inscribed on yantras, are essentially ‘thought forms’ representing divinities or cosmic powers, which exert their influence by means of sound-vibrations.”  I have been told that the holy Om is the most potent.  Yantras can also be produced as mandalas.  Mandalas tend to be much more colorful and elaborate, and therefore their creation is much more complicated.  The most famous mandalas are Tibetan, including sand-mandalas.  Above is a picture of the Chenrezig Sand Mandala created and exhibited at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on the occasion of the visit of the 14th Dalai Lama on 21 May 2008.
 
Synthesis:  The relationship of mathematical numbers, especially mysterious patterns, to cosmic and physical reality has been a subject of intense speculation for centuries.  Occasionally whole mystical, religious or philosophical schools have arisen around these theories and mysteries.  The Pythagorean School was one of the largest and most sophisticated.  European alchemists were another, as were Jains in India.   In fact, every religion and civilization from Aztecs to Zoroastrians has expressed interest in the relationship of numbers (in the broad sense) to physical and cosmic reality.  Usually it is numbers or harmonics that bridge the chasm between the mundane and the transcendental.  Perhaps mandalas reside in our collective unconscious as Jung discovered, to be remembered and revised -- such as the street design a week ago in Alton, Illinois at the Mississippi Earthtones conservation festival (picture by my son Andrew Dobson).  Meanwhile, some religions, Christianity being one of the main ones of these, go through periods of protest against investing physical symbols with mystical power of any sort.  That, however, shall be the topic of another essay.