Introduction to Omniscient Wisdom – Architecture of the Heart Sutra, the Mandala and the Samye Monastery

Abstract

The three treasures of Buddhism – the Buddha, the Dharma (the essence and method of Buddhist practices) and the Sungha (the practitioners who follow and practise the Buddha’s teachings) are represented here respectively by the Heart Sutra, the Mandala Offering and the Samye Monastery. The Heart Sutra, as the core essence of the meaning of Buddha’s teachings, represents the Buddha himself with his essential wisdom. The Mandala Offering usually conducted and practised at the beginning of many tantric practices stands for the Dharma which means the teachings of the Buddha. The Samye Monastery built in Tibet in 779 CE was the first monastery for teaching and learning of Tibetan Buddhism and symbolizes the Sungha. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, the teacher or guru is the mind and explicator of the Buddha’s teaching and leader of the group of learners or practitioners. Because the meaning of the three treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sungha are embraced by the teacher, he is thus the omniscient master, the master of omniscient wisdom. Dudjom Lingpa explains in the treatise “Buddhahood without Meditation”: intrinsic awareness that is pervasive and extensive is the simultaneous action of both the fundamental nature of the ground of being and the subtly lucid awareness (that embraces both non-conceptual and discriminative wisdom). This wisdom that penetrates anywhere is called the omniscient wisdom. To appreciate omniscient wisdom, the interpenetrating meanings of the Heart Sutra, Mandala Offering and Samye Monastery are discussed in this article.