Elements of Buddhist Iconography c5.9

c5.9

The location of the Buddha-seat at the navel of the World-wheel is emphasized again in the *Buddhacarita*, XIII, 68: "This is the navel of the earth-plain (*nābhir vasudhā-tala*); it is possessed of transcendent entirety (*parama-kṛtsna*⁹⁷); no other place on earth but this is the realm of At-one-ment or Consummation (*samādhi*), the situation of the Goal (*hita*)." By the same token, this "unmoving site" (*acalaṭṭhāna*) has been occupied by all previous Buddhas (J., I, 71), by every Bodhisattva "on the day of his Great Awakening" (*abhisambujjhana*, J., I, 74, cf. *Buddhacarita*, XIII, 67).