In the deeply intertwined histories of Japan and Buddhism, there exist concepts that may allude to the same feeling or concept despite not necessarily sharing an origin. One such example is that of the Buddhist concepts of Indra’s Net and mandalas, coinciding with the Japanese aesthetic term of yūgen. Although mandala is a specific genre of art, yūgen is a term to describe an aesthetic or feeling, and Indra’s net is a philosophical concept, all three of these terms are connected in the way that they suggest a feeling about the size and nature of the universe, and the way it is perceived.
Indra’s net is depicted as a net of jewels, in which each node reflects each other node. Indra’s net relays the idea that infinity reflects infinity, and suggests concepts like karma in which all things in the universe affect all other things in the universe (Week 3 Lecture 1).
Mandalas, which are usually described as “cosmic maps” or “diagrams of deities and the ritual universe (Sources 155)”, are a part of esoteric Buddhist tradition. Mandala is a Sanskrit phrase that translates directly to “circle,” referring to the central shape of mandalas. A prominent usage of mandalas is the Shingon school’s two mandalas which consists of a Diamond Mandala and a Womb Mandala. The Diamond Mandala depicts the “indestructible potential aspect of the cosmos” and the Womb Mandala demonstrates the “dynamic aspect of the cosmos (Sources 156).” These two mandalas are meant to represent the two different aspects of the universe and of Mahavairocana Buddha: the Womb Realm represents the Dharma body of the Mahavairocana Buddha (Nichiren Library, “Womb Realm)”, and the Diamond Realm represents the wisdom of the Mahavairocana Buddha (Nichiren Library, “Diamond Realm)”.
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There are apparent parallels between these mandalas and the other Buddhist concept of Indra’s net. Although Indra’s net is a concept and the mandalas are physical depictions of ideas, they both demonstrate the Buddhist perspective of the universe. Typically, the Diamond Mandala and the Womb Mandala are hung up together on opposite walls of a room, symbolizing the interconnectedness of these two aspects of the universe. In the same way that the jewels in Indra’s net only carry their meaning when in context of all the other jewels, the two mandalas can only define the entire universe when they are together; when they are apart, they can only depict half of the universe.
Yūgen is a feeling that ties up the universal concepts suggested by Indra’s net and mandalas. yūgen is an aesthetic term that originates in medieval Japan, and it “was used to evoke the profound, remote, and mysterious (Sources 365).” As most of the Japanese aesthetic terms, yūgen refers more to a feeling we can sense rather than anything concrete, and it is difficult to describe in words. Some descriptions of yūgen provided by Sources include “a moment in and out of time… although the gesture is in itself beautiful, it is the gateway to something beyond as well, as the hand points to depths as profound as the viewer is capable of seeing… a symbol not of any one object or conception but of an eternal region, an eternal silence (Sources 365),” and “a suggestive indefiniteness of vague and therefore of spiritual effect (Sources 365).” Though these descriptions are as abstract as the feeling of yūgen itself, they provide us a general understanding of the mysterious and spiritual feeling one has when they feel yūgen.
None of these descriptions explicitly refer to the universe or claim that yūgen provides insight to the universe, but they lend to the same undertones as mandalas and Indra’s net. Though mandalas and Indra’s net give us a visual we can either physically see or imagine, the meaning they hold is beyond what the viewer can see. The meaning behind Indra’s net is not the visual of the jewels reflecting off of each other, but rather what the reflection implies. Similarly, though the mandala is a piece a viewer can look at, the meaning lies deeper than the imagery; viewing the imagery of the diagram of the cosmos can make a viewer feel a spiritual effect beyond that of the visuals. The yūgen is what allows the viewer of either of these concepts to feel the deeper connection to the universe the objects were meant to provide.
