!t'IIEOLOUICAL POBITION OF THE T ~ T R I CBVIM3HlSTB 1m
' Dharma ' (or Prajfiii) the productive power
and their
union produces Sangha.' This conception of the two counterparts of the ultimate reality has its correspondence in the conceptions of the Garbha-dhlitu and the Vajra-dhqtu of Northern Buddhism in general. The Vajra-dhiitu or the ' thunder-element ' is the immutable nature-it is, in other words, the tathatli element; while the Garbhadhiitu is the ' matrix element ' or the phenomenal world corresponding to the tathiigata-garbha. They are the two parts of the Mandala." Their union is symbolized in Nepal by the flame arising from the lotus or the moon-crescent (the flame symbolizing the male element and the lotus or the moon-crescent symbolizing the female element) or by the flame arising from the kalas'a (jar); in Tibet the union is symbolised by the As'oka branch in the ambrosia vase, and in both Chinese and Nepalese Buddhism by Yin-yang (the female and the male):' There Yoga consists in the mystic union of this immutable element, or we may say, the 'thatness ' of the dharmas with the active element as the material world. It is for this reason that the theory of Yabyum (the male and the female) could find so much prominence in Northern Buddhism, particularly in Nepal and Tibet where almost all the divinities are accompanied by t,heir female counterparts in a state of close union. Getty interprets the Mudrd (the posture, generally of the hands) of Vairocana (the Lord Supreme of the Shingon Sect) as indicative of this mystic union. "As Dhyiini Buddha he has the Dharma-cakra-mudrii, Cf. 'From the union of the essences of Upiiya and Praj6d roceeds the world which is Sangha'. (Piijii Khancja) quoted by kodpson, p. 117. Also ef. The Gods of W o ~ t h e mBuddhism, b y A. Getty, p. 11. Here the Mandala is the circle with Buddha Mahdvairocana in the centre and w&h numberless manifestations of his body, euch as Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and others, gathered round him. See The Gods of Northern Buddhism, by A, Getty.