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Saturday, January 09, 2016

JEWEL COLOURS FROM SUTRAS

As we study sutras, like the Visualization Sutra, we run across references to colours and jewels from which they derive. Below is a quick reference guide to assist your study.
If you look at your copy of the Mandala, you will see the predominance of the orange-gold colours, but the presence of the whole range too.
 
imagine that the beryl ground shines brilliantly, inside and out, and that this ground 
is supported from below by columns that are made of diamond and the seven kinds
of jewels and hung with golden banners. These columns have eight sides and eight 
corners, each side  being adorned with a hundred kinds of jewels. Each jewel emits 
a thousand rays of light, each ray in turn having eighty-four thousand colors. 
As they are reflected on the beryl ground, they look like a thousand kotis of suns, 
so dazzling that it is impossible to see them in detail. 
 
 
Lastly, we include beryl, which has a wide variety of natural colour versions. 
The green one is what we call emerald