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The mandala (or mandara, in Japanese) is a diagrammatic tool used by Buddhists to guide their meditation and prayer. Most mandalas direct the viewer to travel mentally on a prescribed path, stopping to contemplate and address each figure depicted.
In the Taizōkai Mandara, Dainichi is depicted in the center of the red lotus flower surrounded by four other Nyorai— each representing one of the four directions—and four bosatsu. The most famous image of Dainichi is in a temple called Tōdai-ji which is located in the city of Nara.
Mandala, in Hindu and Buddhist Tantrism, a symbolic diagram used in the performance of sacred rites and as an instrument of meditation. The mandala is basically a representation of the universe, a consecrated area that serves as a receptacle for the gods and as a collection point of universal forces.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
The Japanese term “mandara” 曼荼羅 is but an approximate phonetic transliteration of the Sanskrit noun. The paradox of Buddhist mandalas is that this central, personified essence is ultimately essence-less and empty of fixed identity, usually referred to as “empti-ness” (S. śūnyatā).
- Pamela D. Winfield
- 2019
- Mandala in Hinduism
- The Nastika Schools
- Jung & The Mandala
- Conclusion
Whatever else the mandala may represent to an individual, it essentially reflects order – whether of the cosmos, nation, community, or self – but is understood as an almost self-created image of that order. The person who draws the mandala in paint or chalk or creates it with colored sand or yarn or any other material, is thought to be generating t...
Toward the end of the Vedic Period, c. 600 BCE, there was a spiritual and cultural shift in India which encouraged various thinkers to question the Hindu vision. The Vedaswere written, and recited, in Sanskrit by the priests – a language the people could not understand – and so were also interpreted by the clergy for the people. Objections to this ...
Carl Jung was the first to explore this aspect of the mandala in the West and popularized its usage. In his autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he describes his early experience with the mandala c. 1918-1919: The concepts Jung expresses here are, essentially, the same as those presented by the mandalas of the Rig Veda and those of the late...
No matter how seemingly different the varied cultures of the world may be, the mandala appears – in one form or another – in virtually all of them. Jung defines it as “an instrument of contemplation” (Archetypes, 356) and notes the universal spiritual and psychological importance of moving from the outside – the external world – toward the center –...
- Joshua J. Mark
Lumps of dough, rice or ghee inscribed with circular patterns are placed within the mandala and used to represent the offering. When it comes to permanent mandalas that are not architectural in nature, a great many exist in practically all the traditions that make use of mandalas.
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The Mongol rulers were adherents of Tibetan Buddhism, and they were also lavish patrons of luxury arts, including sumptuous woven silk textiles. This is an example of the fanciest type of textile, kesi, in which each colored thread is woven individually to form an image.
