MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Mount Sumeru
We have already had occasion to mention that Mount Sumeru is the Axial Mountain at the of both the Hindu and the Buddhist conceptions of the Universe. The reader is reminded here that like all Traditional cosmologies these are maps of the entire Universe through all its levels: physical, psychic, and spiritual, and not merely schemes representing the physical world alone, as isolated by modern Western science. Mount Sumeru really represents figuratively the Axis Mundi, at once separating and centrally uniting all the worlds or planes of existence. It is symbolized by an island mountain in the Ocean of the Unmanifested Void, surrounded by eight seas and eight mountain ranges. On its peak stands the abode of Taishakuten (Indra, the Hindu Ruler of the Gods), and on each of its sides one of the Guardian Kings of the Four Directions of Space watches over the Universe. The world's encircling storm is Samsara, the universal flux for, like a cyclone, Becoming sweeps around in its ceaseless change all the existences in the Three Worlds: of Desire, of Form, and of Formlessness, since Nirvana alone lies beyond impermanence.