Share Long: > "Take, for example, the ancient Tibetan Buddhist myth, > The Great Stupa..." > The Great Stupa at Sanchi, India, is an example of South Asian edifice architecture.
The ancient stupa at Sanchi shows a parasol emerging from the center of the space enclosed by the harmika fence. This, and the domed architecture of the mound, is repeated with variation in countless thousands of stupas and mounds throughout the ages in all countries from the Swat valley all the way to Java and to Sri Lanka. But in fact, the Patanjali Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge at Fairfield, Iowa, USA, home of the TM-Sidhi program, is a tope! That is to say, the Golden Dome at Fairfield, on the campus of the Maharishi International University (MUM), is sort of like a oriental dagoba that I once visited in Nepal, the like of which is suggested by a morthological similarity to the great Svyanbhunatha Stupa at Patan in the Katmandu Valley. And why? In other words, the Golden Dome at Fairfield, (not to be confused with the Maharishi Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge at Radience, Texas), is a sort of empty mound, surmounted by a kalasa, suppored by the amalaka in which the akasha, symbolizing dimensionless space, and is supported by the linga, surmounting the eight-angled cintamani, or an 8-sided prototypic harmika with a rail surrounding the hypaethral pavilion constituting a veritible 'chaitya garbha pradakshina', with a nice fence around it! The parasol, atop the Buddhist stupa and the MUM Golden Dome, as at Sanci, at Sarnath and at Taxila, (circa 200 B.C.) the earliest evidence of edifice architecture in India, is the canopy of heaven, its pole being the cosmic axis mundi and the dome's surface is the earth. As a 'cosmic egg' image it is preeminent among the aniconic images of the Buddha. In Buddhist mythology the bodhi tree, symbol of MUM, is the original parasol duplicated in the dome and the kalasa on top - the point where the pole of the parasol pierces the canopy corresponds precisely to the point defined by the harmika, where the pole emerges from the summit of the stupa garbha. This is pure Buddhist vastu, except that inside the Golden Dome, at both Fairfied and at Radience, is found HOLLOWNESS, so that the siddhas can have room to enjoy, unobstructed, just like the Buddha when he was 'levitating' over Sravasti. This, you have got to admit, is ingenious - a hollow stupa for flying!
