by Harvey Kraft
Was Sakamuni suggesting that tower-temples be built following his passing?
What was the purpose of a Buddha tower-temple?
Was it to house and honor the sacred physical remains of a Buddha?
Was it a place for disciples to continue a spiritual relationship with a Buddha after his death?
Across the Persian Empire from Egypt to the Indus people practiced a wide variety of funerary customs. The handling of deceased remains was treated with careful consideration, for they believed it would have consequences on afterlife destinations and ancestral relationships.
Zoroaster had adapted the Cappadocian Vulture-shaman rituals for the disposal of "contaminated bodies" by serving them to birds of prey on Towers of Silence. Although Darius I had established Zoroastrian as the empire's state religion, this rite did not engender widespread appeal. Even among the Persian ruling class, many did not entirely conform to the dictums for purification called for in Zoroaster's Vi-Daevadatta, the "Treatise Against Demons" (aka Vendidad). Burial practices in urban areas and among aristocratic Achemenians avoided "sky burials." The bodies of important personages, such as Darius, were sealed in wax and placed in various mausoleum structures or tombs cut into rock.
The diverse cultures across the Persian Empire practiced a variety of long-established, deeply held funerary customs. In the Indus Valley prior to the Vedic era the Harrapa population251 had adopted pyre practices and the burial of cremated remains in earth mounds. With the arrival of the Aryans, those sepulchral methods combined with traditions that originated in the Black, Aegean, and Caspian Sea areas, including Balkan Europe, Anatolia,252 and the Steppes. Initially, the pastoral Arya nomads buried their dead in a tumulus,253 a raised grave covered with a mound of earth and stones. This common form of burial continued even after the custom of disposing a body in a fire became popular among the early Arya during the Scythian descent into Central Asia when the Vedic settlements in the Indus Valley were first established.
The construction of raised reliquary memorials to facilitate the afterlife journey of important personages was a custom as ancient as human civilization. Egyptian, Sumerian, Harrapan, Aryan, and other cultures, built mounds and raised structures to emulate the image of the Cosmic Mountain that connected the human spirit with the divine realm.
The inspiration for the Egyptian mausoleum towers,254 the pyramids, was recorded in the Heliopolis texts. The Creator-God Atum first appeared atop the earth mound (Egy. Benben) that arose from the primordial waters (Egy. Nu). In Atum's Heavenly dimension the mound rose into a Cosmic Mountain that turned into stone. This was the first pyramid, located in Heaven with Atum seated atop it.
The Harappan culture (2500–2000 BCE) of the Indus region also built funerary mounds topped with high towers. Certain of their traditions seem to have survived in the Rig Veda, and were adapted by the Arya when they arrived (1500–1000 BCE) in the region. The Arya tribes regarded the raised mounds or funerary towers (Skt. Stupa) as spots where the sacred axis channel connected Heaven and Earth.
The Egyptians also used the pyramids to transport treasure troves into the afterlife along with the mummified deceased. Similarly, the Vedic Aryans subscribed to the funereal tradition of placing personal items in pitted earthen mounds—these were "treasures" or "relics" associated with the honored deceased. Their reliquary structures were built usually for honoring a sage, sovereign, or a person of some importance or wealth.
The Arya decision to adopt cremation may have developed naturally from their use of ancient fire alters for sacrifices or burnt offerings. Funerary pyres may have gained traction for practical reasons, perhaps because fire: (1) was more efficient than burial for migratory cultures; (2) avoided the defilement of the body by predators (i.e., vultures, maggots, grave robbers); (3) defended against the spread of disease due to decay; and (4) produced smoke for liberating the soul from the mortal realm. Whatever their reasons, the fire altar took on increasing importance, as testified to by the use of sacred geometric dimensions for a pyre's brick facings.
Taking a clear anti-Vedic stand, Zoroastrians believed that the Devil God had a hand in cleverly disguising his influences on cremation customs practiced by Rishi, Brahmins, Jaina, and Buddhists. They imagined that the dark spirits (Per. Daevas) under his control invaded the body upon death. Therefore, they reasoned, a body must be disposed of in a way that prevented demonic contamination. The Zoroastrian approach rejected and abhorred both cremation and burial of "porous" bodies, regarding them as unclean practices that defiled the pure elements God had created when he made the world. Their mummification and excarnation practices were designed to guard the elements of Fire and Earth from coming into direct contact with the corrupting spirits.
In regard to Buddhist funerary practices, Siddhartha Gautama kept allegiance with the original practices of his kin by espousing pyre cremation and raised burial mounds (Skt. Stupa). The Saka believed that fire acted to purify the body. In Buddhism this tradition became the appropriate way for disposing of remains.
As to the issue of how one should continue a relationship with a Buddha after his extinction, Sakamuni's visualization of tower-temple sanctuaries could be understood either as reliquary memorials, places of worship, or, symbolic structures for housing the Dharma-teachings.
But where did the idea come from for the colossal height and grandeur of the Buddha Towers as illustrated in the sutra's Buddha-lands? Images of huge Egyptian pyramids and Mesopotamian ziggurats were more closely akin with monumental architecture than Arya burial mounds. The Buddha's bejeweled, cosmic sacred towers appeared to combine the traditions of the ziggurat tower-temple observatories and the Arya cremation burial-mounds.
The Akkadian name for ziggurats literally meant "watchtower" because the stargazer-priests would climb to the temple tops to make celestial observations and to read the divine messages "written in the sky." Mesopotamian Watchtowers also housed treasured relics, such as idols and their treasuries, including ornaments and sacred tablets. But unlike the pyramids they were not burial grounds.
The ancient tower-temples, whether they were pyramids or ziggurats, had a common tradition. The pre-historic Lion-Sun Fellowship designed them originally to emulate the Cosmic Mountain, the gateway for the Sun guarded by twin shaman-lions. The tremendous importance of the sun in Egyptian mythology was expressed through the Golden Cosmic Egg, Cosmic White Lotus, the Sun Disc, and a mythic heron, Bennu, a self-created, self-renewing animal symbolizing the resurrection of the sun each morning.
The inherited tradition of sun veneration continued in the Esagila Ziggurat in Babylon. During Siddhartha Gautama's days as the Chief Magus, each day at the break of dawn with the Opening of the Gate ceremony, and again at the moment of sunset, Babylon's priests chanted the Hymn to the Sun to facilitate the opening or closing of the sun's gateway through which it entered at dawn or departed at sunset:
Sun God in the midst of Heaven
At thy rising at dawn (or At thy setting at sunset),
May the latch of the glorious heavens
Speak thee peace,
May heavens door gracefully open to thee.255
The Magi Order associated the motion of heavenly bodies with cosmic "music." Based on the principle of harmonic resonance, they believed that the stargates opened and closed in response to celestial sounds. As the morning sun sang its celestial tune, its audio waves opened the great Heavenly Stargate to let its light shine upon the world. At dawn this grand ceremony embodied the astronomical role of the ziggurat, a mirror image of the Cosmic Mountain.
Were Sakamuni Buddha's visions of bejeweled Buddha-land Towers modeled after Babylonian Watchtower-Temples? Why did the Buddha evoke this cosmic model to honor Buddhas throughout the Universe?
Esagila's seven-layer step-pyramid construction represented the "seven heavenly gateways" for the sun, moon, stars (i.e., Venus) and the four cardinal planets. The Buddha described the tower-temples in the farflung Buddha-lands as bearing the "seven jewel" design
ation, an echo of the seven-tier chronographic-astronomical Esagila Watchtower in Babylon. The seven "planet" astronomical framework of the ziggurat appeared also in the Buddha's rendition of the Golden Mountain world-system cosmogony, adapted from the Vedic construct, which also had acquired ties to Egyptian, Sumerian, and Old Babylonian cosmologies.
The Vedic cosmogony described seven luminous mountain ranges, each half as large as its predecessor, encircling Mount Sumeru, the Great Golden Mountain (Pali/Skt. Meru) in the center. Set along a perfectly symmetrical spiral course, the distance between each peak was proportionately twice as far as the prior one. The height of the first outer peak was half that of the Great Golden Mountain, whose summit coincided with the top of the visible world's atmosphere. Each of the minor peaks was exactly one half lower than that of the previous one. These seven peaks represented the orbital tracks for the known planets and celestial bodies. Similar astronomical configurations had been echoed in Babylon's seven stages of the Esagila Ziggurat.
In the Vedic map, huge valleys filled with fragrant waters between the peaks. These lakes represented space and the notion that the celestial bodies floated on a "liquid space." In At the inception of the Universe liquid space began with the primordial muddy waters (Sum. Nammu; Egy. Nu). The Sumerian and Egyptian cosmogonies were then purified, and made sweet and fragrant with the arrival of luminous divine beings. The gods converted the muddy chaos into fresh liquid space.
The seven concentric golden mountain ranges of the Vedic cosmos emulated the seven tiers of the ziggurats. Both mirrored the sacred harmonic sphere of the seven planets. This configuration symbolized the harmonic resonance of the cosmos with nature and human life, without which life would not be possible.
In Buddhist terms, the seven celestial lights served as a vehicle for identifying life across the Universe. The Buddhas across the Universe were in harmonic alignment with living world-systems. A passage in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra (Skt. Prajna-paramita) said: "At that moment, minute and second, the Great Three-Thousand-fold Universe became composed of the seven precious substances." The presence of the seven jewels beckoned seekers to bathe in the life-sustaining light of celestial blessings.
The image of Buddha Towers in Buddha-lands across the Universe and their associations with the celestial jewels, harmonic alignments, and spiritual communications, made it most unlikely that their primary purpose relied substantially on a Buddha's material remains as the medium for future Buddhist practice.
To understand exactly why Buddhas wanted their "relics" stored in towers, the word "relics" should be understood as "legacies." A Buddha's most important "relics" were his Dharma legacies—the Teachings he would leave behind. Although in the Lotus Sutra, Sakamuni called for his relics to be placed in future tower-temples, he was referring to the One Vehicle Dharma. The Lotus Cosmology came up repeatedly, as the legacy that all Buddhas sought to preserve in their tower-temples for the sake of future generations. From that perspective Sakamuni's intention was clear. Buddhist monuments (Skt. Stupa) were to house the ultimate legacy, the treasure of the completed Dharma. This was why they could not be built until a Buddha elucidated the Lotus Cosmology. He wanted the tower-temples to provide future disciples with a bridge for enlightened transformation.
Although the physical construction of tower-temples would serve as places of worship for future believers, Sakamuni said that they actually existed in the bodies and minds of human beings. A tower-temple, just like a Buddha-land, reflected the Mind's Eye of one who engaged the Buddha, whether it be in a building designed for that purpose or through a vision one might have while sitting alone under a tree in the forest. The tower-temple would appear as a spiritual "edifice" arising in one's mind, and its doors would open to reveal the Truth of the Reality of All Existence. Such an allusion to a "Formless" Buddha Tower proved that the referenced "relics" or "remains" pointed to the Dharma-legacy of Perfect Enlightenment that all Buddhas revealed prior to departing the world, in hopes that future generations would embrace for the sake of evolution.
On a cosmic scale, the tower-temples constituted the light-emitting stargates of the Buddha-stars whose treasuries overflowed with blessings for future generations. By embracing the Dharma living beings would find inside themselves the means for advancing to higher states of being. Innumerable such sacred towers across the Universe testified to and confirmed this purpose. First and foremost, the seven-jeweled tower-temples were the gateways into the treasures of the Buddha-Dharma. Therefore, Sakamuni implied, upon his extinction, seekers would be able to see him in their minds by entering the tower-temple of his Buddha-land through the One Vehicle of the Lotus Cosmology.
TREASURE TOWER
The Lotus Cosmology commenced at Vulture Peak as an awe-struck audience stood breathlessly watching a magnificent, colossal tower (Skt. Stupa) floating in the middle of the sky. The tower resplendent with the seven celestial jewels seemingly sprouted out of the ground, soared into the air, and stationed itself in the center of the azure blue dome. Rainbow-painted streams of light flared from its surface.
The tower in the sky had arisen from the east like the dawning sun. Its ascension came to a stop as it positioned itself directly above the heads of the Buddha's disciples. Parked in the sky the structure stood more than a thousand miles in height.
But the Lotus Sutra did not directly describe the shape of the tower.
Was this a purposeful omission? Was its shape so familiar to all observers that it did not require description? Could it have been indescribable? Or, was it a mystery asking to be solved?
The Lotus Sutra did provide a few clues that shed light on what it looked like.
The exterior of the tower was wrapped with "thousands of railings," a feature to be found only on ziggurats. Railings were constructed along the outer ramps and stairs of ziggurats to assist people attending ceremonies in walking up its inclined ramps to the top level. Another clue supporting the possibility of a ziggurat was the apparent temple atop the tower.
Pyramids were topped with a pointed capstone, but Sumerian ziggurats were capped with penthouse temples each serving as the royal seat for a god. Such temples had large metal doors. Similarly, at its upper strata the tower in the sky had giant doors that opened into its Temple revealing a sacred throne room.
Given that its soaring altitude measured twice the distance of its base, in three-dimensional space it appeared to have formed an isosceles pyramid on top of a square base. The angles of incline from the four corners of the base were 76 degrees. The shape of such a steep skyscraper ziggurat would make an ideal watchtower observatory.256
Its 2:1 base to height proportion echoed Babylonian algebraic formulas for a harmonic prism. In sacred geometry, the square root of two generated from a perfect square base produced a never-ending number, a symbol of the Universe's ability to manifest endless numbers of expressions. In mathematical terms, the area of the tower was a paradox of perfect symmetry without fixed numbers.
Some ziggurat watchtowers, like the Etemenanki of Esagila, contained secret chambers perhaps to house various kinds of gods or relics. Similarly, inside the sky-bound Tower of the Lotus Sutra were thousands of rooms. This number was a mythic reference to the Great Three- Thousand-fold Universe implying that the tower encased the Universe. This counterintuitive scale testified to the tower's location within the Perfectly Endowed Reality where relativity did not apply, allowing large things to be encompassed in smaller things.
As the Great Three-Thousand-fold Universe represented the universal spectrum of conditions that living beings may draw from in a single moment, the tower's inner rooms represented the "body" of conditional Existence containing all the possible states-of-being257 mortals might experience. The "room at the top" of the temple defined the "head" of Existence, its crowning condition, the Mind of the Buddha.
Evoking a holiday atmosphere the tower's exterior was festooned for celebration decorated with numerous streamers, jeweled garlands, wind chimes, banners, an
d canopies made of the seven-jewels. Music filled the air and fragrances of cinnamon leaf and sandalwood incense emitted from all four sides of the tower. Its appearance conveyed a spiritual declaration calling for the uplifting of human beings to a bright future of higher consciousness. It also echoed a holiday festival in Babylon.
From the very moment the audience had become aware of the lofty colossus glistening above they had been relocated. Suddenly Mount Vulture Peak and all those present to witness the Buddha's vision were in a realm beyond the confines of Relativity—inside the Buddha's Enlightened Mind. The entire assembly had been transported into the Perfectly Endowed Reality of the Lotus Cosmology without feeling the slightest movement.
They could not believe their eyes. Stationed in the center of the soft tranquil sky, the radiant tower stood weightless, defying the compelling perception that it was made of solid matter. And they could not believe their ears. Thundering from within the hovering mega structure they heard the sound of a majestic voice addressing the Buddha with this greeting:
"Well done, World-honored Sakamuni! Well done. The insights you have shared so far and the revelations you will offer next do justice to the One Vehicle of Buddhahood, which all Buddhas everywhere have used, now use, and will always use for enlightening the Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas. Please expound the Lotus Cosmology for the sake of this audience."
Who was that speaking from inside the tower?
The radiant Sakamuni sitting in perfect bliss gazing upon the wonderful tower explained that it housed a grand presence deserving of the highest possible honor. The voice heard from within belonged to Bountiful Treasures, an extinct Buddha who lived countless eons earlier in a Buddha-land called Flawless Diamond. In that far away world, long, long ago, when Bountiful Treasures Buddha (Skt. Prabhutaratna) neared the end of his lifetime, like other Buddhas, he also completed his mission by delivering his followers into the Lotus Cosmology.
