The outermost circle of this mandala represents the eight charnel grounds, which symbolize the eight feelings and mental activities that bind people to samsara and therefore need to be destroyed.
Next is a ring of fire, depicted here as a stylized scrollwork. Fire in Tantrism means knowledge. Without knowledge (prajna) there is no possibility of arriving at supreme understanding. Here, fire also means that believers who enter the mandala are purified, as it were, and at their passage through the purging fire, their ego and all their illusions will burn away.
Following it is a circle of lotus petals, a symbol of auspiciousness.
Then follows a narrow circle which shows interconnected vajras. The vajra signifies the indestructible adamantine nature of pure consciousness and it is the strongest symbol of the state of enlightenment that can be revealed in a mandala.
Next is a wide circular region wherein float various sacred syllables and mantras.
Finally, at the center of two intertwined triangles framed by a halo of blazing flames, is enshrined the dynamic image of Vajravarahi. She belongs to the type of Buddhist female deities known as dakinis (skywalkers) or yoginis (spiritual athletes). These female archetype goddesses symbolically illustrate the Buddhist insight that enlightenment is beyond all sexual identity.
In the piled up hair of the goddess appears the head of a sow. Indeed Vajravarahi's name literally translates to 'diamond sow.' The pig or sow is a Buddhist symbol of ignorance and its presence in Vajravarahi's hair is like a trophy. She has severed the head of the pig of ignorance and chopped off the false notions of mcp's that enlightenment is the sole preserve of the male of the species.
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