Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

wisdoms and the five elements, for instance, all have
positions of the fingers which correspond with them.
Thus the meaning of the mudras has good connection
with the philosophy of sunyata and the functions of
Buddhahood.
Then Mr Chen gave a simile about the body in the
three yanas. He said:
The purification of Hinayana is like the health of the
body, a foundation for its existence. The sublimation
process in the Mahayana is like the center of the body,
the heart from which the blood circulates. The
Vajrayana is like the various functions of the body out
to which the blood flows. Function in the fingers
reaches its utmost extremity. Just as it is no good having
a body which functions only at one point, so in
Vajrayana the function of salvation must be exercised at
all points, for this function is Buddhahood. Thus mudra
is so powerful.
Now what of mantra? Why is it so powerful? In
ordinary speech every word has its meaning, so in the
mystic alphabet (arapacana) of forty Sanskrit letters (see
Appendix III, B, 3), every one of these possesses some
correspondence to sunyata meaning. Even though this
alphabet is Brahmanical in its origin, the Buddha has
given each sound a special meaning connected with
sunyata and therefore each has a specific function.
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