A mandala (Sanskrit for “circle”) is an ancient symbol that carries special meaning.
Mandalas have been used since ancient times by people all around the world. They appear as circular stone gathering places, like Stonehenge, and as symbols of connectedness, like Celtic knots. They have religious meaning, like the rose windows in cathedrals; and are used in healing rituals, as in Native American medicine wheels. They are created during celebrations, like Hindu rangoli, and in Buddhist visual prayers (illustrated here).
Tibetan monks spend many days building intricate mandalas with colored sand to symbolize the path to enlightenment. When the mandala is completed, it is destroyed. The sand is swept away and returned to the earth to acknowledge the impermanence of life.
A circle has no beginning and no end. It evokes a sense of wholeness, of comfort and completion. Circles represent the sun and the moon and the universe, and the cycles of time. They represent us as we gather together.
Sand art mandalas made by Tibetan monks show the pathway of the human mind to enlightenment. After many hours of construction, the mandalas are swept away to symbolize the impermanence of life.
Carl Jung, the founder of analytic psychology, found himself drawing circles to relax. The practice reminded him of the sacred circles he had encountered around the world, and he felt that by making mandalas he was connecting not only to history but to all humankind. He said:
I sketched every morning in a notebook a small circular drawing, a mandala, which seemed to correspond to my inner situation at the time… Only gradually did I discover what the mandala really is: … the Self, the wholeness of the personality, which if all goes well, is harmonious.
Mandalas arise from the compelling human need to know our own inner reality, to align this knowing with our body’s wisdom, and to awaken in ourselves a sense of being in harmony with the universe.
By making personal mandalas we honor our history and traditions through a common ancestral language.
