Elements of Buddhist Iconography c4.86

c4.86

Allusion may also be made to one other way in which the Word may be shown as explicitly supported by a lotus; that is when the Word is embodied in a given text, any given sūtra or "alternative formulation," dharma-paryāya. Inasmuch as "he who makes a manuscript of the dharmaparyāya and cherishes it, thereby cherishes the Tathāgata" (SPt., p. 338), it is a perfectly correct iconography which represents Prajñāpāramitā or Mañjusrī supporting the "Lotus of Transcendent Wisdom" upon a lotus, the holding of the stem of this lotus being a formulation equivalent in significance to the support of the pillar of the Dharmacakra by its ground.