Inside the Patanjali Golden Dome
Fairfield, Iowa, July 28, 2003

The Golden Dome is a hollow tope void. The Patanjali Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge at Fairfield, Iowa, USA, home of the TM-Sidhi program, is a truncated, modified dodecahedron, based on a Buckminister Fuller (a TMer who invented the geodesic dome) theory of structural tensegrity, but not really.

In other words, the Golden Dome at Fairfield, (not to be confused with the Maharishi Golden Dome of Pure Knowledge at Radience, Texas, home of the Superadiance program), is a sort of hollow tope, surmounted by a kalasa, supported by the amalaka in which the akasha, symbolizing dimensionless space, is supported by the linga, surmounting the eight-angled cintamani vajra, an 8-sided prototypic harmika with a rail surrounding the hypaethral pavilion constituting a veritible chaitya-garbha pradakshina with a nice fence around it!

That is to say, the Golden Dome at Fairfield, on the campus of the Maharishi International University (MUM), is sort of like a oriental dagoba that I once visited in Nepal, the like of which is suggested by a morthological similarity to the great Svyanbhunatha Stupa at Patan in the Katmandu Valley. And why?

The ancient stupa at Sanci shows a parasol emerging from the center of the space enclosed by the harmika fence. This and the domed architecture of the mound is repeated with variation in countless thousands of stupas and topes throughout the ages in all countries from the Swat valley all the way to Java and to Sri Lanka.

The parasol, atop the Buddhist stupa, as at Sanci, at Sarnath and at Taxila, (circa 200 B.C.) the earliest evidence of edifice architecture in India, is the canopy of heaven, its pole being the cosmic axis mundi and the dome's surface is the earth. As a cosmic egg image it is preeminent among the aniconic images of the Buddha.

In Buddhist mythology the bodhi tree, symbol of MUM, is the original parasol duplicated in the dome and the kalasa on top - the point where the pole of the parasol pierces the canopy corresponds precisely to the point defined by the harmika, where the pole emerges from the summit of the stupa garbha. This is pure Buddhist vastu, except that inside the Golden Dome, at both Fairfied and at Radience, is found hollowness, so that the yogic flyers can have room to enjoy, unobstructed. This, you have got to admit, is ingenious - a hollow stupa!

Insider note:

The south door to the Golden Dome at Fairfield is closed and the practicing siddhas are routed around the building to the north entrance. This, in itself, constitutes a half-pradakshina, except that, unwittingly, the half-pint circumambulation is counter-clockwise, constituting a shamanistic Tibetan Bon practice, and the abject negation of Chos, as taught in the land of Po by Guru Shenrab. This disjunctive and unbalanced approach, needless to say, is one of the major problems with the MUM Administration. The obvious solution, short of using mirrors and deflectors, and possibly the only solution, is to move the entire university, lock stock and barrel down to Austin, and leave the buildings all behind, for some other fanatical cult group. Then, we can build an entire campus from scratch using pure Buddhist vastu principles! It's just obvious.

Analogia:
http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/analogia.htm

Titles of interest:

Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection
by Bill Wassman, Joe Cummings, Robert A. F. Thurman
Lonely Planet Books, November 2001

Buddhist Stupas in Asia: The Shape of Perfection by Bill Wassman (Photographer), et al, offers a sweeping and broad overview of the epitome of Asian Buddhist architecture. The photographs are good and the succinct commentary is informative enough. This is not a book for hardcore history buffs though, as the very short accompanying analysis would not suffice; nevertheless, in most cases the photographs more than compensate by offering quality glimpses of a divine form of architecture. One drawback: some of the photographs are too small for the subject to be really appreciated (some are as small as approx. 3cm x 3cm!).

All in all: an enjoyable mind-trip through the very essence of Buddhist architecture.

Buddhist Stupas in Asia
Usually available from Amazon in 24 hours:
http://tinyurl.com/36o2m

Stupa Information Page:
http://www.stupa.org.nz/
http://www.stupa.org.nz/stupa/intro.htm

Odiyan Cintamani Temple:
http://www.odiyan.org/

Notes:

a. The triple parasol on the stupa at Sanci.
b. The Tree and the Parasol associated with it at Borobudar, Java.
c. The Saddharma-pundarika-sutra.
d. Lalita Vistara.
e. The Symbolism of the Stupa by Adrian Snodgrass
f. The Psycho-cosmic Symbolism of the Buddhist Stupa by Lama Anagarika Govinda

Exhibts:
a. Live webcam of the Golden Dome at Fairfield.
http://goldendome.org/
b. Photo of Kalasa installation.
http://goldendome.org/kalash.htm
c. Statement by Bevan Morris, President of MIU.