Mandalized Body Map

 

Balawaste wall painting (ca. 7th c.),
Aurel Stein Collection,
National Museum, New Delhi

Arts and Writings

N.J. Allen, “The Indo-European Prehistory of ‘Yoga’,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 2, no. 1 (April 1998), pp. 1-20. PDF.

Rudolf Allers, “Microcosmus: From Anaximandros to Paracelsus,” Traditio, vol. 2 (1944), pp. 319-407.

Zvi Almog, Critical Edition of Moses ibn Tibbon’s ‘Olam Katan with an Essay on the History of Microcosm in Medieval Jewish Philosophy, doctoral dissertation, Dropsie College (Philadelphia 1966).

Alex Berzin, “Explanation of the Meaning and Use of a Mandala” and “The Meaning and Use of a Mandala,” unedited transcripts posted on the internet.  PDF. There is nothing better for communicating in simpler ways the complexities surrounding the use of mandalas in esoteric Buddhism.

Kamaleswar Bhattacharya, “Liṅga-Kośa,” Artibus Asiae, Supplementum, vol. 23 (1966), pp. 6-13. PDF.

Martin Brauen, The Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism, translated from the original German (1992) by Martin Willson, Serindia Publications (London 1997). See especially plate 9 on p. 41 for the body chart.

Yossi Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park 2022).

George P. Conger, “Did India Influence Early Greek Philosophies?” Philosophy East & West, vol. 2, no. 2 (July 1962), pp. 102-128. PDF.

George Perrigo Conger, Theories of Macrocosms and Microcosms in the History of Philosophy, Columbia University Press (New York 1922), p. 134.

Doboom Tulku, The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment, Point Loma (San Diego 1996), p. 58.

Lindsay Lewis Ethridge, The Subtle Body in the Esoteric Buddhist Art of the Himalayas: Practice and Representation, master’s thesis, University of Georgia (2014).

Yitzhak Freedman, “Altar of Words: Text and Ritual in Taittirîya Upanisad 2,” Numen, vol. 59 (2012), pp. 322-343.  PDF.

Frances Garrett & Vincanne Adams, with Jampa Kelsang Yumba and Renchen Dhondup, “The Three Channels in Tibetan Medicine, with a Translation of Tsultrim Gyaltsen’s ‘A Clear Explanation of the Principal Structure and Location of the Circulatory Channels as Illustrated in the Medical Paaintings’,” Traditional South Asian Medicine, vol. 8 (2008), pp. 86-114. PDF.

Barbara Gerke, “Engaging the Subtle Body: Re-Approaching Bla Rituals in the Himalayas,” contained in: Soundings in Tibetan Medicine: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, Brill (Leiden 2007), pp. 193-214.

Barbara Gerke, “On the 'Subtle Body' and 'Circulation' in Tibetan Medicine,” contained in: G. Samuel & J. Johnston, eds., Religion and the Subtle Body, Routledge (London 2013), pp. 83-99.

Philippe Gignoux, “Microcosm and Macrocosm,” entry in Encyclopaedia Iranica. The same author’s other writings on the subject are listed in its bibliography.

Phyllis Granoff, “Cosmographs and Cosmic Jinas,” contained in Franco & Zin, eds., From Turfan to Ajanta (2010) vol. 1, pp. 335-343.

Shaman Hatley, “Mapping the Esoteric Body in the Islamic Yoga of Bengal,” History of Religions, vol. 46, no. 4 (May 2007), pp. 351-368. PDF.

Angela Falco Howard, “The Monumental ‘Cosmological Buddha’ in the Freer Gallery of Art: Chronology and Style,” Ars Orientalis, vol. 14 (1984), pp. 53-73.  PDF

Angela Falco Howard, “Rethinking the Cosmological Buddha," contained in Eli Franco & Monika Zin, eds., From Turfan to Ajanta (2010) vol. 1, pp. 399-412.

After receiving criticisms of her book the author acknowledges that these images have to do with meditation practices.  

Eric Huntington, “Buddhist Cosmology in Bhutanese Murals: A Visual Negotiation between Abhidharma and Kålacakra Systems,” pp. 230-256.  PDF, need biblio.

James W. Jones,“Macrocosm to Microcosm: Toward a Systemic Model of Personality,” Journal of Religion and Health, vol. 25, no. 4 (Winter 1986), pp. 278-290.  PDF.

Inka Maukola (=Inka Nokso-Koivisto?), “Creation in Miniature: Varieties of the Microcosm in the Rasā'il Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafā',” pp. 229-256. Have PDF, need biblio details. 

Mary Jo Meadow, “Yogic Chakra Symbols: Mirrors of the Human Mind/Heart,’ Journal of Religion and Health, vol. 32, no. 1 (Spring 1993), pp. 67-78.

Inka Nokso-Koivisto & Saana Svärd, “The Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Mesopotamian and Mediaeval Islamic Contexts,” Studia Orientalia, vol. 114 (2013), pp. 279-307. 

Inka Nokso-Koivisto, Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy in Rasā'il Ikhwān aṣ-Ṣafā' and Certain Related Texts, dissertation, University of Helsinki (Helsinki 2014). PDF.

Inka Nokso-Koivisto, “Summarized Beauty: The Microcosm-Macrocosm Analogy and Islamic Aesthetics,” Studia Orientalia, vol. 111 (2011), pp. 251-269. PDF.

John North, Macrocosm, Microcosm, and Analogy.  Have PDF, need biblio. 

Pippa Salonius, “The Tree of Life in Medieval Iconography,” contained in: Douglas Estes, ed., The Tree of Life, Brill (Leiden 2020),pp. 280-343.

Pippa Salonius and Andrea Worm, The Tree: Symbol, Allegory and Mnemonic Device in Medieval Art and Thought, Brepols (Turnhout 2014).

Geoffrey Samuel, “The Body in Buddhist and Hindu Tantra: Some Notes,” Religion, vol. 19 (1989), pp. 197-210. PDF

Geoffrey Samuel & J. Johnston, eds., Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West, between Mind and Body, Routledge (London 2013)

H.S. Schibli, “Hierocles of Alexandria and the Vehicle of the Soul,” Hermes, vol. 121, no. 1 (1993), pp. 109-117. PDF.

Urszula Szulakowska, “The Tree of Aristotle: Images of the Philosophers’ Stone and Their Transference in Alchemy from the Fifteenth to the Twentieth Century,” Ambix, vol. 33, nos. 2-3 (November 1986), pp. 33-77.

Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, ed., Islamic Philosophy and Occidental Phenomenology on the Perennial Issue of Microcosm and Macrocosm, Springer (Dordrecht 2006).

Alex Wayman, “The Human Body as Microcosm in India, Greek Cosmology, and Sixteenth-Century Europe,” History of Religions, vol. 22, no. 2 (November 1982), pp. 172-190.

Geo Widengren, “Macrocosmos-Microcosmos Speculation in the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa and some Hurufi Texts,” Archivio i filosofia, vol. 48 (1980), pp. 297-312.

Michael Witzel, “Macrocosm, Mesocosm, and Microcosm: The Persistent Nature of ‘Hindu’ Beliefs and Symbolic Forms,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 1, no. 3 (December 1997), pp. 501-539.

Dominik Wujastyk, “Interpreting the Image of the Human Body in Premodern India,” International Journal of Hindu Studies, vol. 13, no. 2 (2009), pp. 189-228. PDF.

I also should have (but haven't) made note of the fact that both Geoffrey Samuel & Ethridge,SubtleBody.pdf (his master's thesis of 2014) have dealt with this chart, largely following the interpretations of the inscriptions given by Amy Heller, although Ethridge believes a different approach could be more fruitful (He's a little bit critical, I guess, thinking he can find more meaning in it than Amy supplies based on interpreting the visual evidence alone. He believes the Tibetan inscriptions lead to misunderstandings...).