IT is neither going nor standing still
Neither static, nor dynamic
Neither substance nor nonsubstance
Neither appearance nor emptiness
The nature of all things, like space
Is without any movement.
One may call IT “space”
But IT is empty of any essence
And as such it transcends definitions
Such as real or unreal
Existent or nonexistent
Or anything else
Thus not the slightest distinction exists
Between space, the mind, and intrinsic reality
Only their designations are different
But they are unreal and false…
Savari—Mahamudra: The Quintessence of Mind and Meditation
As the visualization dissolved-away in Schäfer’s Mind’s Eye, he had the sensation of arising from a deep and icy-blue primordial-pool. At first it felt like he was sitting on the back of something huge and immovable, yet it was somehow rising straight out of the water and it was then that he realized that he was riding on the back of a large Elephant, one that was slowly inching its way towards a blue-velvet shoreline. As its mammoth shape edged ever closer to landfall, it began to kneel as it reverently placed him down and withdrew once more into its ultramarine habitat.
Schäfer, through his continuing altered state of consciousness, is being introduced here to the Realm of Akshobhya. Its color is Icy-Blue, because it cools the heat of anger’s passion [Cold Blue energy transforms anger into Wisdom’s hue]. It is the spacious-fullness that bears the imprimatur of sunyata, and as such is a mirrored reality. The Elephant is the regent that upholds on its back Akshobhya’s regal throne that is immovable (like the indestructible and irresistible vajra) in the face of all dichotomies. Such a creature is often cast in the mold of immovability, yet at the same time there is a graceful fluidity in its motions.
Alone at the water’s edge, Schäfer could not move as he began to discern a new visualization. Hovering above him in shimmering-blue there formed the shape of a Water-Mandala and at its center there emerged the calm-centered face of another stunning Buddha-Goddess:
Such is the Female-Buddha, Mamaki. She is the great Matriarch of the Vajra-family and is the consort of Dhyani-Buddha Akshobhya, whose image silently rests at the top. Mamaki is representative of the Element Water; although fluid, there is also at its depth the quality of immovable resiliency. This is signified by the horizontal-vajra that she holds in her right hand while simultaneously touching the earth, like Akshobhya, representing bhumisparsha, or the earth-touching mudra. Her left hand gently holds the vajra-bell, whose image on its stem always represents the Goddess of Wisdom, or prajñāpāramitā that is the great mystic-spell, the unparalleled spell that allays all evil and suffering…