Philosophy
Mandala meaning
Mandala is a Sanskrit word for circle. In Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions it names a circular diagram of a universe or a divine realm, usually with a centre, a square palace and four gates, used as a support for ritual and meditation. In modern use it also means any circular, symmetrical design.
Mandala means circle in Sanskrit. In the religious traditions of India and the Himalaya, it is a circular diagram that pictures a whole world, with a centre and an ordered space around it, used in ritual and meditation.
The word is also used much more loosely today for any round, symmetrical pattern, from a colouring book to a tattoo.
Where does the word mandala come from?
The ordinary meaning is a circle, a disc or a round group. It is old: the Rig Veda, the oldest Sanskrit hymn collection, is arranged in ten books that are each called a mandala.
From that plain sense the word came to mean an ordered sphere, a circle of influence, and in ritual a marked-out space in which the divine is invited to be present.
What does a mandala show?
A classic mandala is a map seen from above. At the centre sits a deity or a symbol. Around it is a square palace with four gates, one at each cardinal direction, and around that, rings of lotus petals, flames or protective figures. The whole is held inside an outer circle.
The person using it moves, in imagination, from the outer edge toward the centre. The lotus, which rises clean from muddy water, appears again and again in the rings.
How do Hindu traditions use mandalas?
In Hindu tantric ritual, a mandala or a yantra is drawn on the ground or on cloth, and deities are invited into it during worship. The Sri Yantra, a figure of interlocking triangles, is the best known. Temple architecture also follows a mandala plan, the vastu purusha mandala, laid out as a grid.
The chakras of the subtle body are pictured in the same visual language, as circles of lotus petals with a syllable at the centre.
How do Buddhist traditions use mandalas?
Mandalas are central to Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan and Mongolia. A practitioner may visualise the whole mandala in detail, with a deity at its heart, as a form of meditation. Large initiations such as the Kalachakra use elaborate mandalas.
Tibetan monks are known for sand mandalas, built grain by grain over days and then swept away. Japanese Shingon Buddhism, brought from China by Kukai in the early ninth century, uses a pair of painted mandalas, the Womb Realm and the Diamond Realm. Figures such as Avalokiteshvara, whose mantra is om mani padme hum, often have their own place in the circle.
Do Jains use mandalas?
Yes. Jain art includes diagrams of the universe, with the continent of Jambudvipa as a great circle at the centre of the world. Another common image is the samavasarana, the round assembly hall in which a Tirthankara is said to teach, with every kind of being gathered in rings to listen.
What does mandala mean in modern use?
In the twentieth century the psychologist Carl Jung drew mandalas and wrote about them as images of wholeness. Since then the word has spread into art classes, colouring books and design. These uses are modern, and they keep the shape while leaving most of the ritual meaning behind.
How does a mandala show up in a modern yoga class?
Sometimes as a picture on the wall or a pattern on a mat. Sometimes as a mandala flow, a vinyasa sequence that turns you to face each side of the room. And sometimes as a seated meditation on a simple circle, a way of giving the eyes one steady shape to rest on.
The ritual use of mandalas grew up in tantra, the traditions of ritual, mantra and meditation, and the hand gestures that go with them are described on the page about mudras, the seals of yoga.
Questions
Why do monks destroy sand mandalas?
Tibetan Buddhist monks spend days laying coloured sand into a detailed mandala and then sweep it away in a closing ceremony. The dismantling is part of the practice. It expresses impermanence, the Buddhist teaching that everything made will come apart, and the sand is often poured into flowing water.
What is the difference between a mandala and a yantra?
Both are diagrams used in tantric practice. A mandala is usually a pictured realm, often with figures of deities in a palace. A yantra is a more abstract geometric figure of triangles, circles and lotus petals, such as the Sri Yantra, that stands for a deity or a power.
What is a mandala flow class?
It is a vinyasa class in which the sequence turns you around the mat, so you face each of the four sides in turn, as if tracing a circle. The name borrows the image of the mandala. It is a modern teaching style, not a practice from the classical texts.