Mandala 41

Mandala 41

I guess I should explain something to you. I started creating my mandala series as a way to offer art to both myself as well as my customers a visual "centering point" that could be used for meditation. Along the way, some of my mandala (symmetrically shaped, square designs) pieces strayed away from the typical kaleidoscopic shapes more traditionally associated with this form of art. I am not trying to suggest these non symmetrical designs are Mandalas, but only offer a way for me to categorize these square pieces.

A more precise definition of a Mandala is as follows. (from Wikipedia)

Mandala (Sanskrit maṇḍala "essence" + "having" or "containing", also translates as "circle-circumference" or "completion", both derived from the Tibetan term dkyil khor) is a concentric diagram having spiritual and ritual significance in both Buddhism and Hinduism. The term is of Hindu origin and appears in the Rig Veda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other Indian religions, particularly Buddhism. In the Tibetan branch of Vajrayana Buddhism, mandalas have been developed into sandpainting. They are also a key part of anuttarayoga tantra meditation practices.

In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of aspirants and adepts; as a spiritual teaching tool; for establishing a sacred space; and as an aid to meditation and trance induction. According to David Fontana, its symbolic nature can help one "to access progressively deeper levels of the unconscious, ultimately assisting the meditator to experience a mystical sense of oneness with the ultimate unity from which the cosmos in all its manifold forms arises." The psychoanalyst Carl Jung saw the mandala as "a representation of the unconscious self," and believed his paintings of mandalas enabled him to identify emotional disorders and work towards wholeness in personality.

In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any plan, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the Universe from the human perspective.