 In addition to the two mandalic embodiments of the hosshin, Kūkai (in Sokushinjōbutsugi, ch.4) classifies mandalas in general into four types, depicting the different ways whereby the Dharma is manifest: 1. The “great mandala” (Skrt: mahā-mandala; Jpn: daimandara) symbolizes the cosmic Buddha in its physical extension along with all the stages of being, including the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities that are depicted in perfect anthropormophic form surrounding Dainichi at the center and painted in different colors to represent different material elements. 2. The “samaya mandala” (Skrt: samaya-mandala; Jpn: sanmaya mandara) pictures the Buddha-cum-universe through a variety of articles or signs, symbolizing the omnipresencing of Dainichi’s intention (Skrt: samaya; Jpn: sanmaya). They include swords, gems, lotus, vajra, etc., as each signifying a specific improvisation of a skillful mean to enlighten the unenlightened. This also represents the unity-in-diversity of all thing-events as forms of Dainichi’s body. 3. The “Dharma mandala” (Skrt: Dharma-mandala; Jpn: hō mandara) pictures the universe as the sphere of Dainichi’s continuous communication of truth (Dharma), as depicted in the arrangement of mantric seed syllables. And 4. The “karma mandala” (Skrt: karma-mandala; Jpn: katsuma mandara) was originally a three-dimensional mandala in sculpted form – including the physical layout of the temple compound at Mt. Kōya – but which more often became a painted one instead. Showing the activities (karma) of buddhas and bodhisattvas implied in the other three, this mandala depicts the fact that every change in any form within the cosmos is an act of the hosshin and conversely that every act of the hosshin is an occurrence of things and events in the cosmos. The four then depict four different aspects of truth: body (the five material elements), mind (intention, compassion, the sixth element), speech (communication), and action (all movements). Through meditation upon them one comes to view everything as a mandala, the cosmos as a mandalic unfolding of the Dharma. Ultimately the mandala depicts not only the cosmos or the Dharma as object but also one’s own interior self in meditation as one interiorizes it or as one visualizes it within.