The Tree of Enlightenment

ough this very brief portrayal of Vajrayana physiology,
you can see how the basic building blocks of psycho-physical
experience, be they viewed from the impure level or from the
purified level, are reflected in the physiological makeup of the
person.
rough achieving the union of opposites within his psychophysical
experience as an individual person, the Vajrayana adept
is able to bring about the transformation of his vision of the
universe as a whole. He is able to do this because his body is a
microcosm of the universe. In Vajrayana cosmology, the features
of the universe as a whole are present within the psycho-physical
experience of each person. Mount Sumeru, the central mountain
of the universe according to Buddhist cosmology, is situated
within the body of the practitioner, just as the sun and moon, the
sacred rivers of India, and pilgrimage places are found within
the body in a microcosmic way.
Not only are these features of the universe situated within
the body but so, too, are the primary features of the transformed
or purified experience. We have already seen that the five celestial
Buddhas are found within the body at the five centers of
psychic energy. In the same way, we find that the experience of
the individual person is in fact none other than the experience
of the celestial or purified universe, so that the body is in fact
the celestial mansion of the divine Buddhas. In Vajrayana psychology,
physiology, and cosmology, therefore, we find the real
meaning of the expression that ‘e body is a temple.’ It is a temple
that contains the celestial Buddhas, who are none other than
the transformed mode of being of the ordinary mode of being of
the psycho-physical components, or aggregates.
279