Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.26

c5.26

The Buddha throne, however, is usually a lotus, or lotus- and lion-throne combined; the Bodhisattvas, and all who are born again in Buddha paradises, are similarly lotus-supported, but on smaller flowers. So the predications of future enlightenment generally include such promises as “shall appear seated in the cup of a lotus on a lion-throne in Paradise” (SPt., p. 419); “there the Leader Amitābha is seated in the lovely glistening cup of a lotus (padmagarbhe),¹²¹ on a lion-throne (siṃhāsane) . . . there the Sons of the Conqueror come into existence (upapāduka) seated in the pure cups of lotuses” (SP., XXIV, 31, 32, cf. Mahā-Sukhāvatī-vyūha, 16, 40 and 41).¹²² In these passages, upapāduka has generally been rendered “miraculously born,” but the direct sense of upapad is simply “to enter into any state,” “to appear,” “come into a given mode of existence”; it is not miraculously but inevitably that a certain degree of enlightenment results in a future birth in a Buddha paradise. On the other hand, upapāduka contrasts with anutpattika, “unoriginated,” applicable to the Dharma as being precisely that which does not come into existence, the Buddha being merely an image, *ākṛti*, of the Dharma, existent in the world, like the *mūrta* Brahman, viz. Brahmā. The primary ontological significance of the lotus is precisely with respect to this existence, *astitva*, *sthāyitā*, *sthiti*, a being “firmly grounded in the possibilities of existence,” commonly called the Waters. *Padmāsana* and *vajrāsana* are equally symbols of that *sthāyitā*: both express visually *sadā sthita*, and *tiṣṭhati*, with respect to the Buddha or any Angel; both differentiate the station of Sambhogakāya from that of the Dharmakāya, which is inaccessible even to the angelic eye.